Amphibious warfare is combined sea and land fighting. It is the landing of troops on a coast held by the enemy. The navy, the army and the air force work together as a team in amphibious warfare.
The greatest amphibious operation of all time took place in World War II. This was the Allied invasion of the coast of Normandy in France, which was held by Germany. On June 6, 1944, the great amphibious battle began. There were four thousand ships in the Allied invasion fleet. More than two million sailors, soldiers and airmen took part in the invasion. A few hours after the landing began, there were 176,000 soldiers on the Normandy beaches along a sixtymile front. Amphibious warfare goes back to ancient times.
The early Greeks and the Romans both made landings on the coasts of their enemies. A British army was brought across the Atlantic Ocean in ships during the Revolutionary War. This army landed on Long Island and crossed the East River and captured New- York City. In the Civil War, Northern soldiers were landed from ships on the coast of Virginia. This campaign was unsuccessful, but the Northern soldiers escaped because the Northern navy had control of the sea off the Virginia coast. Control of the sea is absolutely necessary if an amphibious battle is even to be thought of. An amphibious landing is not possible if the navy defending a coast is stronger than the navy attempting to land soldiers on the coast.
The French under Napoleon, and the Germans under Hitler, would have liked to invade England. To do this they would have had to send their soldiers across the English Channel in boats and ships. Neither Napoleon nor Hitler dared to do this, for one very good reason. The British Navy controlled the English Channel
Spiders In The Garden
Watching for their prey in the centre of a radiating geometrical snare, we often find the garden spiders. The beauty of their vertical orb-webs and the large size of these strikingly marked creatures always attract our attention during summer strolls.
Jack & Jill The Vulture Twins
Probably this story of Jack and Jill, the Vulture Twins, would never have been written, if Betsy, Farmer Parsons' old brindle cow, had not refused to come up from the woods one night. But she wouldn't come, so Farmer Parsons had to go down after her.
At Home With Mr. Burroughs
Youth still peered out at me in spite of his crowning thatch of silvery hair when I first met John Burroughs in 1904. As we walked together on our way to his rustic little house in the woods called "Slab-sides,"
