Last June, I posted a write-up discussing the Barbed Wire Bowl, a football game between German prisoners of war shortly after World War II. For this piece, I figured I take a look at football in the other theater of the war.
This was the Atom Bowl.
On August 9, 1945, Nagasaki became the second city ever to be hit by an atomic bomb. We obviously know the ramifications of the American bombings and the debates that rage on today, so letβs quickly shift gears into football!
#Angelo Bertelli and Bill Osmanski
In the months since the bombing and Japan's surrender to begin Allied occupation of the country, American troops found themselves stationed in the destroyed city. Among those troops were the Second Marine Division, particularly the likes of Second Lieutenant Angelo Bertelli and Navy Lieutenant Bill Osmanski.^[1]
Before joining the war, Bertelli was a star at Notre Dame; despite being a single-wing running back when he enrolled, he later became a deadly T formation quarterback. In 1943, he led the Fighting Irish to a 6β0 record before his season was cut short by the Marine Corps activating him into service.^[2] Even without their quarterback, Notre Dame went on to win the national championship, while Bertelli easily won the Heisman Trophy with a nearly-500-vote advantage over runner-up Bob Odell of Penn. Bertelli received word of his award win while at boot camp at Parris Island.^[3]
Eventually, Bertelli was sent into combat, seeing action at Guam and the infamous Battle of Iwo Jima. In the latter, while working as a liaison officer with the 21st Marine Regiment, he was nearly killed when a mortal shell exploded approximately 15 feet away from where he was standing.^[4] Four of his comrades weren't as lucky as they were caught in the blast, with a doctor in particular suffering serious injuries. Although the doctor ultimately survived, Bertelli expressed his dismay with the media only focusing on his near-miss with no attention on the doctor.^[5]
"To this day, I think about the doctor and his family and wonder how they felt at the time he was almost killed," Bertelli noted. "There was never a mention of it, except that Angelo Bertelli was just missed."^[5]
He would earn a Bronze Star and Purple Heart during his service.^[3]
Speaking of T formation, "Bullet" Bill Osmanski was busy thrilling the nation in the early 1940s as the Chicago Bears' star fullback in said offense. As
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The Iran Crisis was clearly the opening salvo of the Cold War, and it was clearly won by the United States, one of the only clear wins the USA got in the Cold War.
The reason being that the Soviets did not yet have nuclear weapons and were forced to withdraw their troops from South Azerbaijan.
Thereafter Stalin signed an agreement with Iran for oil, only to lose that deal too as the shah refused to sign a further oil pact with Stalin after he had occupied Iranian territory in S. Azerbaijan.
So the USSR really lost this Crisis twice.
You would think that historians, who are mainly American or NATO linked, would like to gloat about this.
Yet often the story of the Cold War skips straight to the more dramatic European standoff. This kind of seems paradoxical as US history is full of playing up minor victories
History teachers, please donβt skip from 1945 straight to 48, spend a little time in good old 1946 in South Azerbaijan/Iran
albania
argentina
bolivia
brazil
bulgaria
cambodia
chile
costa rica
dominican republic
greece
grenada
guatemala
guyana
haiti
iceland
indonesia
iran
israel
italy
jamaica
japan
laos
lebanon
malaysia
malta
mauritius
nepal
nicaragua
panama
peru
philippines
romania
russia
san marino
slovakia
somalia
sri lanka
thailand
ukraine
united kingdom
uruguay
former countries:
west germany
south vietnam
czechoslovakia
former yugoslavia
