The war of the words : examples

1. flying through the news

No war, no search, just plain old news...

<article>
<title>Dresden Hit Again By Big Raiders

<subtitle>
Konev's Forces Smashing on In Red Offensive

<source>
William L. Ryan, Associated Press War Editor
The Evening Independant - Feb 15, 1945

<body>
More than 1,500 U.S. planes smashed at Germany again today, sweeping as far east Cottbus, clogged Germain rail and road center ony 12 miles from a sector in which the Russians are operating, and the German home radio said the Allied formations were on the way in this unparalleled air scourging of the Nazi homeland.

Dresden was smashed again in the path of Ivan S. Konev's great push, as his First Ukrainian army was reported by a German military spokesman to have stormed acrosss the Neis Se river, reaching military highways on both sides of Forst, 65 miles from Berlin.

The new assaults by 1,100 heavies and 450 fighters brought to 11,000 thus far the number of planes which have linked the east and east battlefronts under a blanket of explosives. New Allied formations were reported by the Germans sweeping in from Holland, and over Austria from Italy [...]

2. zigzagging between columns

Each article will be layed-out on a column of its own.

<article>
<title>The Fox In the Orchard

<source>
Time Magazine
June 26, 1944

<image src=http://farm4.static.flickr.com.nyud.net/3015/2701401668_80a344ddd5.jpg?v=0>
<legend>Credits: Passe par tout's photostream at flickr.com

<body>
Enough dust swirled over the tank-churned roads of Normandy to remind ex-Desert Fox Erwin Rommel of Africa. But there the resemblance ended. There was no room among the copses, apple orchards, and hedge-crossed fields of Calvados for the great sweeps of "land battleships" that Rommel had used in the wastes of Libya [...]

<article>
<title>Dresden Hit Again By Big Raiders

<subtitle>
Konev's Forces Smashing on In Red Offensive

<source>
William L. Ryan, Associated Press War Editor
The Evening Independant - Feb 15, 1945

3. searching

It's possible to define terms to be searched. Each term must be associated with a group number. There is a total of 8 available groups, with their own unique color, as following:

<term group=5>Allied
<term group=5>U.S.
<term group=5>Russian

<term group=2>Germany
<term group=2>German
<term group=2>Germain
<term group=2>Nazi

<article>
<title>Dresden Hit Again By Big Raiders

<subtitle>
Konev's Forces Smashing on In Red Offensive

<source>
William L. Ryan, Associated Press War Editor
The Evening Independant - Feb 15, 1945

4. declaring war

Once terms are defined, it's only a matter of planning missile attacks between them.

<term group=5>Allied
<term group=5>U.S.
<term group=5>Russian

<term group=2>Germany
<term group=2>German
<term group=2>Germain
<term group=2>Nazi

<article>
<title>Dresden Hit Again By Big Raiders

<subtitle>
Konev's Forces Smashing on In Red Offensive

<source>
William L. Ryan, Associated Press War Editor
The Evening Independant - Feb 15, 1945

5. cheating if necessary

If victory is not on the expected side, it's possible to affect the curse of history by tweaking the hits-per-char attribute. By default, the hits-per-char value for each term is 5. So for instance, it would take 35 missile hits (5 multiplied by 7) to destroy the term Germany, unless the hits-per-char is changed to 2 (in this case, destruction would occur after 14 hits only...)

<term group=5>Allied
<term group=5>U.S.
<term group=5>Russian

<term group=2 hits-per-char=2>Germany
<term group=2 hits-per-char=2>German
<term group=2 hits-per-char=2>Germain
<term group=2 hits-per-char=2>Nazi

<article>
<title>Dresden Hit Again By Big Raiders

<subtitle>
Konev's Forces Smashing on In Red Offensive

<source>
William L. Ryan, Associated Press War Editor
The Evening Independant - Feb 15, 1945

6. inspecting the battlefield from every possible angle

If a camera tag is encountered, the simulation will switch to a mode of 3d manipulation. Control will be as following:

• left mouse-button + dragging: camera orientation
• right mouse-button + dragging: camera zoom
• left mouse-button + dragging + SPACE: motion
• double-click: teleportation to the target point
• double-click + CTRL: teleportation and zoom-in

<term group=2>Americans
<term group=2>American
<term group=2>U.S.
<term group=2>British
<term group=2>Canadian
<term group=2>Allies
<term group=3>Montgomery
<term group=3>Bradley
<term group=3>Eisenhower

<term group=5>Germans
<term group=5>German
<term group=7>Nazi
<term group=7>Rommel
<term group=7>Rundstedt

<article>
<title>The Fox In the Orchard

<subtitle>Enough dust swirled over the tank-churned roads of Normandy to remind ex-Desert Fox Erwin Rommel of Africa. But there the resemblance ended. There was no room among the copses, apple orchards, and hedge-crossed fields of Calvados for the great sweeps of "land battleships" that Rommel had used in the wastes of Libya

<source>
Time Magazine
June 26, 1944

<body>
Perhaps Rommel was restrained by the Fabian hand of Field Marshal Gerd von Rundstedt. Perhaps he was not a great and daring general, after all. In any case, he frittered away a lot of his armor and more of his chances in local, uncoordinated counterattacks which merely harassed methodical General Sir Bernard L. Montgomery. Rommel got nowhere. The Allies made good progress, were fighting a winning battle.

<heading>The Job for Monty

Montgomery's task—a holdover from the first week's uncompleted assignment—was to use the British and Canadian forces on his left flank as a parry to ward off. Rommel's jabs, while he used Lieut. General Omar N. Bradley's U.S. army in a right swing against Cherbourg. Simultaneously, Montgomery had to win the "Battle of the Build-up." He had to bring in, over the beaches and through emergency landing facilities on the Bay of the Seine, enough men and material to make sure that he could stop the major counterblow by Rommel if & when it came.

<heading>Germans' Guess

In this division of duties, the more spectacular role went to U.S. VII Corps troops, battling toward Cherbourg. Infantrymen of the 4th Division smashed into Montebourg, and the Germans decided this was the main drive, in a straight line for Cherbourg.

Meanwhile, Bradley brought in the 9th Division, teamed it with the 82nd Airborne Division, another battle-tried outfit which had made the first landings in the Cotentin. While the Nazis battered their heads and their armor around Montebourg, the 9th and 82nd struck west.

<heading>Passing Through

Battle-weary but still pushing on, the 82nd made a daring crossing of the Douve River. By nightfall Thursday, its general had his command post at a turreted chateau overlooking St.-Sauveur-le-Vicomte. In the morning, the general personally reconnoitered the frail, sagging bridge leading into the crumbling, burning village, decided it would do. The 82nd marched in.

To the north, the 9th Division had taken Néhou. Veterans of Bizerte and Sicily, the men o f the 9th were now fresh from England, itching for more fight.

They got their chance; the 82nd was too spent to exploit its breakthrough. So while one regiment of the 9th pushed west from Néhou, through St.-Jacques, another regiment passed the tired 82nd, pushed through St.-Sauveur in a parallel thrust. The enemy's 77th Division put up a bitter rear-guard fight, was savagely cut up and broken; those who could, escaped —but the wrong way, to the north.

By 10 p.m. Saturday, the first patrols passed Hill 89 (291 feet) on their way to the west-coast road between Barneville and Portbail. The peninsula was crossed.

The 9th had gained twelve and a half miles in two days—the fastest advance of the campaign. At a crossroads near Barneville stood five German MPs waiting to direct traffic. The traffic that came was American.

Captured, the MPs conceded they were "probably the most surprised men in the entire German Army of Occupation."

The Nazis' reaction was small-scale and local, but swift and bitter. Infantry and tanks of the 77th, ordered to withdraw-when it was too late, tried to fight their way through the 9th's roadblock. The U.S. commander honored them with a "serenade": every gun within range opened up at maximum rate of fire. The carnage chilled even the victors' marrow. But the enemy's attempted sortie failed.

<heading>Sealed for Destruction

The 9th had done the job: Cherbourg was sealed off. Around it the Germans had most of three divisions and some Marines. How long could they hold out? The U.S. troops turned north, began to fight out the answer. This week they were within eight miles of their goal, shelling it.

Although the Allied move to envelop, capture and develop Cherbourg as a port was plainly behind schedule, the campaign was running smoothly, overcoming great handicaps. Said Bradley: "The Germans have lost their last chance to drive us into the sea."

Farther south was the other half of Bradley's army, the V Corps. Its 2nd Division and 101st Airborne Division took, lost and retook Carentan, lying amid flooded lowlands at the juncture of the two original U.S. beachheads—a naturally vulnerable point. Around the bend in the Bay of the Seine, other U.S. troops fought their way southward.

<heading>The Fox and the Book

The ist Division had the difficult task of maintaining a solid front with the British army on its flank. By the textbook, this was the most logical place for Rommel's strongest counterblow. Rommel followed the book.

Into a quadrangle bounded by Balleroy, Tilly-sur-Seulles, Villers-Bocage and Caumont (see map), both the Allied armies and the enemy threw infantry-tank combat teams. The British got into Tilly, got thrown out, tried to get in again. The cost, in men and vehicles, was becoming too steep.

Abruptly, the British brigadier withdrew his striking force. He telephoned the U.S. commander on his right, asked him please to clear a road which had been assigned to U.S. troops. The American obliged. The British armor charged down the road, flanked Tilly. The Germans, stymied, had to pull out.

<heading>Wrong Guess Again

British and Canadian troops on the easternmost sector of the bridgehead met the stubbornest German resistance. Caen held out.

Rommel had stopped the invaders in this area primarily because he (or Rundstedt) had guessed wrong again. They obviously thought that the Allies' first big objective would be not Cherbourg but Le Havre.

But Rommel could not drive the British back. Reason: he could not bring up sufficient reserves to stage a major counteroffensive. Air power had chewed up his roads and blasted his bridges too thoroughly for fast movement.

Defying the unseasonable onshore wind which on two days neared gale force, transports and landing craft filled the Bay of the Seine. Montgomery methodically built up fire power for a "Monty barrage," which was expected to announce his drive inland.

Whether he could begin it before Cherbourg was taken, or would have to wait for a big port to serve him, was another one for Rundstedt and Rommel to figure out. Yet another still to be answered: was the Normandy assault the big Allied effort—or was Eisenhower, a foxy strategist himself, planning another in the Calais area, or on the Bay of Biscay, or on the Mediterranean?

<article>
<title>Post-Mortem on the Ardennes

<subtitle>Americans have always been sure they are the very best people in the world and own all the very best things. Last week, in a long, angry post-mortem on Rundstedt's breakthrough, the New York Times' military expert, Hanson Baldwin, gave a stiff jolt to this national pride.

<source>
Time Magazine
January 15, 1945

<legend>Credits: blaskov's photostream at flickr.com

<body>
For one thing (said Baldwin), the Ardennes battles demonstrated the superiority of the German tanks. The new Hunting Panther and Royal Tiger tanks "are better all-around tanks than anything the Allies now have in the field. . . . With their new 88-mm. guns, very heavy frontal armor and wide tracks, they have more armor, more hitting power and are better mud-goers. . . ."

Baldwin, who has made this general charge before, recognized that apologists have said that the U.S. prefers lighter, nimbler tanks. His answer: "But the Germans have demonstrated time and again the maneuverability of 45-to 72-ton tanks, and bridges and rivers have been no obstacle to them. . . . Other apologists have said that tactically we don't believe in fighting tanks with tanks. To which the only possible answer is an expletive."

<heading>Surprise for Americans

U.S. tanks armed with 75-mm. guns are too light to stop German armor, said Baldwin, "unless they get in close-range lucky side shots. Even the bazooka no longer holds its former terror for some of the German monsters." Heavier 76-mm. and 105-mm. guns are effective "but only at relatively close range." The German 88-mm. "is as good as or better" than the U.S. 90-mm. high-velocity piece (now mounted in the U.S. M36 tank destroyer).

"This condition is a well-known one along the fighting fronts. Americans at home, who take it for granted their sons are fighting with the best equipment in the world, are surprised at the German qualitative superiority." But not only with tanks and guns, said Baldwin, have the Germans beaten us on and to the battlefield. They have shown us the way with rockets, robot bombs, jet-propelled planes.

<heading>Time to Investigate

Baldwin thought he knew where the blame lay: with the War Department, hamstrung by "conservatism and traditionalism. . . . There is no lack of American inventive genius, no lack of engineering skill, no lack of devotion and energy [among designers and technicians], but there is a superfluity of red tape [among brass hats]; there is overorganization and there is lack of clear, directive vision [with the War Department]."

Baldwin thought it high time Congress began to find out why all this should be. "For only by getting the facts ... no matter how punishing to our conceit—can we rid ourselves of the national habit of boastful self-deceit."

And a very useful feature in case you found the perfect point of view and you'd like to preserve it: pressing ENTER will dump the current camera parameters in the console-log (press F12 or F13 to bring it...)

The war of the words : examples

1. flying through the news

2. zigzagging between columns

3. searching

4. declaring war

5. cheating if necessary

6. inspecting the battlefield from every possible angle

interaction

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