FROM THE CLASSROOM TO THE BATTLEFIELD

By Captain David C. Poyer ’71, USNR (Ret.)

From time to time, military cadets have left their desks to fight on the battlefield. This happened once at the U.S. Naval Academy.

The annals of history offer few more tragic instances than those where young people were thrown into wars. We remember the images of children carrying antitank weapons in the Volkssturm in 1945. Children are recruited or abducted into militias today in Rwanda, Ghana and other African states, though it isn’t a purely African issue.¹

Also sad are those instances where cadets—the seed corn of a nation’s military—have been ordered into combat as a group, as a last resort. (We will not consider those cases, more common, where senior cadets were graduated early and integrated directly into active forces as junior officers.) Since they’re usually barely-trained teenagers, it’s hard to see them as effective combatants. Sometimes, though, their heroism has turned a battle, or at least affected it.

In this piece, we’ll look at 10 instances—some in detail, and others only in passing—where cadets were thrown into battle, and how it turned out. The U.S. Naval Academy offers an instance of one of them.

Though almost all early armies had provisions for training young men to not just fight, but lead in battle—the Spartan agôgê system, the Roman cohort, the Zulu impi—the earliest organized military academies appeared in the 1700s in Europe. Militaries in general were becoming more professional, and specialized education had become essential, especially for artillery and engineer officers. ² Denmark (1701), Russia (1731), Britain (1741) and France (1748) were early adopters. West Point (1802), Mexico (1822) and the Naval Academy (1845) were relatively late to the game.

The first time one of these formally organized classes was committed to battle may have been in France during the Napoleonic Wars. But it’s hard to document specifics, since the aristocratic academies were disestablished by the Revolution and their records largely destroyed or lost.

The first well-documented, and in some quarters the most famous, involvement of cadets in battle occurred in 1847, when the young republic of Mexico was invaded by a dangerous and aggressive neighbor from the north. By September the Yankees were besieging Mexico City at the same time negotiations (and bribery) were under way.³ Mexican forces held the 200-foot-elevation of Chapultepec Castle, former palace of the Spanish viceroy, which was now the Mexican Military Academy. General Winfield Scott, with more than 7,000 men, faced General Santa Anna, with about twice that number, but the castle proper was held by only 880 Mexican troops, including about 200 of the cadets, aged 13 to 19.

Scott began shelling the castle on 12 September and ordered an attack the next day. On 13 September, more than 2,000 U.S. Army and Marine personnel stormed the castle. Marine tradition has it that the blood stripe on the dress trousers, and the phrase “from the halls of Montezuma,” date from this battle.

After about 90 minutes, Chapultepec fell, and the Mexican commander ordered a retreat. But “At the end of the battle five cadets—Juan Escutia (who reportedly leapt to his death wrapped in the Flag of Mexico), Agustin Melgar, Francisco Marquez, Fernando Montes de Oca and Vicente Suárez; plus faculty member Lieutenant of Engineers Juan de la Barrera; all refused to retreat and died in a final stand as the ‘young heroes’ of Academy legend. An unknown proportion of the other cadets became casualties or prisoners during the earlier stages of the battle.”^4,5 Every 13 September, a ceremony is held at a monument commemorating their sacrifice, with the Corps of Cadets of what is now the Heroic Military Academy of Mexico in attendance.

Battle of New Market

The American Civil War saw several instances of officer trainees, cadets and midshipmen, being committed to combat. The most celebrated, of course, are the cadets of the Virginia Military Institute (VMI), but they weren’t the only ones. Before Sumter, 11 of the nation’s 12 private or state military colleges were south of the Mason-Dixon line. During the war, five of them—VMI, the South Carolina Military Academy, the Georgia Military Institute, the University of Alabama and the Florida Military Institute—saw their cadets engaged in active hostilities. ⁶ 

The VMI students are famous for fighting at the battle of New Market. This has been retold in numerous books as one of the most cherished myths of the Lost Cause. Briefly, by 1864, the Confederacy had been split in half at Vicksburg and the blockade was sealing her off from outside assistance. In the Shenandoah Valley, more than 10,000 Union troops under General Franz Sigel were marching south. If they took Staunton and Lynchburg, they would deprive the Confederacy of food, fodder and rail connections. In this crisis, Major General John C. Breckinridge sent a terse message to Francis Smith, superintendent of VMI.

It read, “Sigel is moving up the Valley—was at Strasburg last night. I cannot tell you whether this is his destination. I would be glad to have your assistance at once with the cadets and the section of artillery. Bring all the forage and rations you can.”⁷

Smith turned out the Corps, and nearly 250 infantry and a two-gun cadet field artillery section marched north to meet the Yankees.

On a stormy 15 May, Sigel’s advance guard ran into Breckenridge’s near New Market, VA. “Twice Sigel ordered charges that fell apart from lack of coordination, causing the general to lapse ineffectually into his native German. Despite the lack of progress, the Union fire savaged the Confederate regiments sufficiently to open a gap in the center of their line north of the Bushongs’ orchard. With no other reserves available, Breckinridge reluctantly ordered the VMI cadets into line, saying, ‘Put the boys in, and may God forgive me for the order.’

“The four companies of cadets divided around the Bushong house and regrouped along a fence at the edge of the field some 200 yards from the Union line. When a cavalry assault ordered by Sigel was repulsed, Breckinridge sensed the moment had come for the climactic charge, and ordered his entire line forward. As the cadets moved through the muddy, ruined wheat, many had the shoes sucked from their feet, giving the ground the legendary name the ‘Field of Lost Shoes.’ The Confederate charge drove Sigel’s army back across Smith Creek and captured several cannons that could not be removed in time.

One of the guns was taken by the cadets, giving them the ultimate infantryman’s prize in their baptism of fire.

“As disorganization and low ammunition slowed the Confederate attack, a Union artillery battery commanded by Captain Henry du Pont arrived in time to cover the Union retreat with effective fire. Breckinridge called a halt and sent the cadets to the rear, declaring, ‘Well done, Virginians. Well done, men.’”⁸

Ten of the cadets were killed or died of their wounds, while another 50 were wounded but recovered.

The Corps commemorates the battle each year with a formation around the New Market Monument, which holds the remains of six of the fallen. The names of the 10 are called out, and cadets answer for them with the words “Died on the field of honor.”⁹

Midshipmen in the Civil War

During the Civil War the U.S. Naval Academy moved to Newport, RI, in 1861, aboard Constitution, while the U.S. Army took over the Yard in Annapolis.¹⁰ Shortly afterward, all the remaining first class and nearly all the second and third classes were ordered to active service with the fleet, along with many of the officer faculty.¹¹ After some initial confusion, classes resumed on 13 May. Classroom study stayed aboard Constitution; gunnery practice was held there and in Fort Adams, which the midshipmen now manned against any Confederate raiders; and afternoon parades were held within the fort. ¹²

Unfortunately, the student body kept shrinking; by 11 May, only 76 fourth classmen remained, with a rump faculty.¹³ These too might have gone to sea had not the commandant cautioned Senator James W. Grimes of Iowa and the Naval Committee that it would “virtually destroy the school” and “undo the work of years.”¹⁴

Apparently, there was no summer break that first year.

The remaining plebes were kept drilling, studying, and on guard aboard Constitution and at Fort Adams. But a huge (for those days) new class of 200 midshipmen was en route,¹⁵ and Blake rented the Atlantic House, a four-story pillared brick and wood hotel, for their quarters. The “upper” Class of 1864 arrived in September, and the large new fourth class, also to be express-graduated in 1864, got their berths aboard Constitution.¹⁶ The frigate Santee was attached as a second school-ship, and Blake arranged for the use of Goat Island as well.¹⁷ From here on, the Academy routine resumed, though incoming classes continued to be larger than had been usual in antebellum days.

During the war, the midshipmens’ summer cruises were often through wartime seas. In 1862, they rendezvoused with the South Atlantic Blockading Squadron at Port Royal aboard John Adams, then patrolled Long Island Sound against enemy intruders.¹⁸ 

The cruise of 1863 took Macedonian to the coast of Spain, where Rear Admiral Stephen Luce, USN, Class of 1847, converted her into a sort of Q-ship to try to lure the raiders Florida or Alabama into an attack. Operating in the Atlantic and West Indies over the next eight months, Florida captured 22 prizes, striking terror in the United States’ merchant marine and frustrating the U.S. Navy’s efforts to catch her.”¹⁹ Some of Macedonian’s midshipmen did, however, run into some of their now-CSN classmates during liberty in Paris, but the accompanying officers discouraged fraternizing with the enemy.²⁰

Meanwhile, the sloop-of-war Marion, also crewed by the midshipmen, left New York in search of the privateer Tacony.²¹ Tacony was the latest prize taken by Charles “Savez” Read, Class of 1860.²² Read’s depredations just off the main Union base at Norfolk had triggered a panic in insurance markets. Secretary of the Navy Gideon Welles responded. Dozens of Union men-of-war sortied after the “pirate,” from Boston, New York, Philadelphia and Hampton Roads.²³ Boston underwriters put a price of $10,000 on Read’s head.²⁴ Eventually more than 40 chase vessels were out searching for him.²⁵ The Academy’s practice ships were hastily armed and sent out after him,²⁶ and the yacht America, also manned by midshipmen, searched for him off the Chesapeake Capes.²⁷

The summer 1864 cruise saw the Academy squadron sortie once more in search of Florida. But although there were several false alarms, the midshipmen never actually fell in with a warship of the Confederate Navy.

Their former classmates to the southward, however, were having a much hotter time of it.

In 1861, 59 midshipmen went south to join the Confederate Navy.²⁸ On 15 May 1862, following discussions in the Confederate Congress, CSS Patrick Henry was designated as the Confederate States Naval Academy.²⁹

Patrick Henry was converted to a school ship and moored at Drewry’s Bluff, a hairpin turn on the serpentine James River where heavy batteries, stakes and mines guarded against Union efforts to reach Richmond. Lieutenant William H. Parker, Class of 1848, was assigned to lead the school.³⁰ Parker had seen action at Roanoke Island, Hampton Roads and Charleston.³¹ Part of the training regimen was operational by April 1862, though formal classes did not start until October 1863. The curriculum was modeled on that of the U.S. Naval Academy.³²

“A more realistic war college had perhaps never existed. There were few of the midshipmen, if any, who did not receive their baptism of fire several times while assigned to the academy.”³³ Their classes were often interrupted when midshipmen were called out to man the artillery batteries on the bluff. In February 1864, 10 midshipmen were detached to join a raiding party in North Carolina. They succeeded in boarding and capturing Underwriter, a Federal gunboat, and set it on fire. Five men were killed in the raid, including Midshipman Palmer Saunders, who “had his head cloven to his shoulders by a cutlass in the hands of a big sailor.”³⁴

As Federal forces advanced in 1865, the midshipmen and their school ship were withdrawn upriver to Richmond. There, in the waning days of the Rebellion, 10 were assigned to scuttle Patrick Henry, while their superintendent and other midshipmen were entrusted with a mission that became the subject of legend from that day to this.

When the government fled Richmond, Davis entrusted Parker and his midshipmen with guarding the Confederate gold. Removed from the panicking city by train, the trove included at least half a million dollars in gold from Richmond banks, jewelry³⁵ and about another half million in bullion from the Treasury (which was left unguarded on the loading platform until the midshipmen arrived).³⁶ Marching with a wagon train between 2 April and 2 May 1865, they guarded the treasure on its way south, first to Washington, Georgia, then to Abbeville, SC.³⁷ “Not a single package of the sizeable fortune in gold and silver entrusted to the corps of midshipmen was broken while in their charge.”³⁸ After distributing $40 to each midshipman, Parker turned the treasure over to Confederate cavalry, whence it subsequently vanished from sight.

The remaining midshipmen were disbanded, given 10 days’ rations and granted “leave” to go home.³⁹ Perhaps they fought in an ignoble cause, but it’s hard to deny their story constitutes a significant sidebar to the combat experience of American midshipmen.

Russian Civil War

The next notable mobilization of cadets occurred during the Russian Civil War. During the October Revolution (1917) and later the Russian Civil War (1918-23), Imperial Russian cadets (often called Junkers, “Young Sirs,” from the German) were volunteered/impressed into the fighting. Their most famous action was probably the so-called “Junker Mutiny” of October 1917.

Following the “10 days that shook the world” and the takeover of Petrograd by the communists, the Socialist Revolutionaries (SRs) and the cadets of the military schools in Petrograd formed the Committee for the Salvation of Motherland and Revolution (or Committee of Safety for Fatherland and Revolution, in other sources).⁴⁰ They planned to capture the phone exchange, the Peter and Paul fortress, the Bolshevik headquarters and Lenin and the other leaders. Cadets from the School of Engineers stole armored cars and stormed the phone exchange. They cut off power to the Smolny and began to disarm the revolutionaries. Other cadets took over their school and arrested commissars.

Unfortunately, the army garrison had gone over to the communist side, and refused to support the rebellion, which collapsed after a day. The cadets either fled or were arrested.⁴¹

Since the Imperial academies had been open primarily to the nobility, most of the cadets who escaped capture and execution fought under the flag of the anti-Bolshevik “White” movement, under generals Kolchak, Denikin, Yudenich and Kutepov.⁴² The Civil War was largely over with Wrangel’s defeat in 1920, and those young counterrevolutionaries who survived left Russia.⁴³ “Only eight of Russia’s 301 cadet corps were able to make their way to Crimea, then a stronghold of the anti-Bolshevik White Army under the command of General Pyotr Wrangel. Those boys who did not make it were executed by the Bolsheviks. The Whites abandoned Crimea in 1920, and the eight cadet corps sailed with other refugees to Yugoslavia.”⁴⁴

Later relocated to Paris, the exiled cadets maintained their cohesion for generations. The Russian Cadet Corps Abroad made a triumphant return to Russia after the downfall of the USSR.⁴⁵

World War II

The Second World War saw several instances of cadets and midshipmen going into battle. The Battle of Saumur, for example, witnessed the participation of officer cadets from the French Cavalry School and the Saint-Maixent infantry school.

In June 1940, the Germans had already defeated the French army strategically. The battles of the Somme and the Aisne had rapidly been lost. With the enemy heading for the Seine, General Maxime Weygand ordered the rivers in between barriered against them.⁴⁶ Accordingly, the first-year cadets of the French Cavalry School at Saumur established a blocking position along the Loire River. On 17 June, the new head of government, Philippe Petain, issued a cease fire order. But when the Wehrmacht’s First Cavalry Division advanced to cross the river, the students, led by Superintendant Colonel Charles Michon, decided to resist, even though the armistice had been signed … a decision that some see as the first act of the French Resistance.

“776 reserve officer trainees (558 from the cavalry and 218 auxiliaries) known as ‘the cadets’ were split into 28 brigades of between 25 and 30 men. As weapons they had sub-machine guns, machine guns, 81mm mortars, 25mm canons, rifles and carbines, etc. These small brigades formed the motorised squadrons of Captains de Saint-Blanquat, Foltz and Marzolf and lieutenant de Saint-Germain's foot squadron, with 22 lieutenants and sub-lieutenants in command of the trainees. The 5th and 6th auxiliary companies (lieutenants Roimarmier and Doremus) consisted of eight brigades. In addition, Captain de Montclos’ group consisted of 80 men.

“Colonel Michon was assisted by 18 officers … the 1st Franc motorised cavalry group (Captain de Neuchèze) had five H39 tanks, four Panhard automatic machine guns and several motorcycles. 260 cavalrymen from the 19th dragoons made up Squadron leader Hacquard’s group of four platoons. Also present were a reconnaissance battalion (Groupe de Reconnaissance de Division d’Infanterie or G.R.D.I.) of 200 men (Captain Gobbé), a detachment of 150 North African tirailleurs (Sub-lieutenant Parot), a group of three squadrons (captain de Cadignan) and around 350 men armed with anti-tank weapons. 120 sapper engineers were placed in defence of the bridges, whilst about sixty of Lieutenant Chanson’s artillerymen from the Fontainebleau training school arrived on the 20th of June with five well worn 75mm canons. On the same day reinforcements came in a battalion of reserve trainee officers from the Saint-Maixent infantry school commanded by captain Bleuse, a total of 568 cadets and 28 officers.”⁴⁷

The French blew the bridges across the Loire, but the Germans attacked on the 19th. A German officer demanded the cadets surrender, but they shot him. Flak 88s pounded the town while the cadets and Algerians fought back. Meanwhile, more Germans arrived. Michon ordered the islands in the river held, while the invaders tried to fight their way across. The French held for a day amid violent fighting, but on the 20th the Germans took the islands and moved forward.⁴⁸

“Unsure of the German positions, Lieutenant de Buffévent left the island of Offard in a rowing boat to carry out a patrol with a few soldiers. Taken under fire by the enemy, he was killed along with a cadet called Raveton. To the east, units came across the river in force in several boats, advancing despite the losses inflicted upon them by the Panhard automatic machine gun, of Neuchèze’s group.”⁴⁹

Elsewhere, Saint-Maixent’s cadets charged with bayonets, supported by Lieutenant Pitiot’s tank platoon. This counterattack failed under heavy German fire and the tanks were destroyed or damaged. The town still held out, in heavy fighting, but the flood of Boches continued, surrounding the town in a pincer movement.

The Germans entered Saumur on 21 June. In the aftermath, the German commander praised the students’ resistance in his after action report, and was the first to call them “the cadets of Saumur.” He released the 218 student survivors, instead of interning them, as happened to much of the French Army.⁵⁰ Three hundred ninety-two cadets including 338 from the Saumur school were individually cited and awarded the Croix de Guerre.⁵¹

Greek Resistance

About a year later, on the morning of 20 May 1941, what was up to then the largest airborne assault in history began with the takeoff of 13 German parachute battalions from Attica for the flight across the Icarian Sea to Crete. Britain owned that island, but a successful invasion would enable Berlin to prevent Allied air attack on the refineries to the north and eject the British from the eastern Mediterranean. In 70 gliders, and wave after wave of nearly 500 troop-carriers, the German elite Fallshirmjagers descended on Maleme and Chania, Heraklion and Rethymno. The British and Greek forces, informed by Ultra when and where the landings would take place, took a heavy toll of the invaders at first. But over the next day, slow British reaction and heavy German reinforcement turned the tide.⁵²

Among the Greek forces evacuated from the mainland after the fall of Athens were the “Evelpides” (cadets) of the Hellenic Army Academy.⁵³ Three hundred of them and about 800 EVA cadets were integrated into a scratch formation of volunteers, militia and police.⁵⁴ The resulting 8th Greek Regiment fought fiercely at Maleme despite being poorly armed, charging the Germans with bayonets when their ammunition was exhausted. Meanwhile, at Rethymnion, the cadets of the Royal Gendarmerie Academy were helping the Australians hold the line.⁵⁵ Though gradually driven back, the 8th continued to fight. In fact, they were essential in making possible one of those fighting retreats the British seemed to specialize in early in WWII.

“The retreat of the Allied forces was defended by the 8th Greek Regiment in and around the village of Alikianos. It was composed of young Cretan recruits, gendarmes and cadets. They were poorly equipped and only 850 strong but they made up for the lack of equipment in spirit. Along with the Tenth New Zealand Infantry Brigade, they decisively repulsed the German ‘Engineer Battalion.’ During the next few days, they held out against repeated attacks by the 85th and 100th Mountain

Regiments. For seven days, they held Alikianos and protected the Allied line of retreat. The 8th Greek Regiment is credited with making the evacuation of Western Crete possible.”⁵⁶

Following their successful invasion, the Germans occupied the western half of Crete, the Italians the east. The heights at Kolumbari overlooking the Maleme airfield and the beach were tunneled out. Underground ammo dumps, bunkers, observation posts and tunnels were built, and Coastal Artillery Unit 834 emplaced four captured Schneider guns. ⁵⁷ The Germans remained in occupation until May 1945.⁵⁸ Today two monuments in Crete commemorate the bravery of these cadets.

The Germans, too, sent students into battle during the Second World War. The most tragic may have been the 500 naval cadets, all in their teens, sent to sea aboard the battleship Bismarck on a training cruise. They were all lost with her when she was sent to the bottom in May 1941.⁵⁹ Late in the war, of course, German Kadettenschulen (cadet schools) were emptied and their students drafted. One SS school, the SS-Junkerschule Bad Tölz, was formed into the 38th SS Division Nibelungen, which saw action against the Americans in Bavaria, the Alps and the Danube region, before the surrender.⁶⁰           

Ukraine

One last episode should convince us that expecting midshipmen to defend their country isn’t just ancient history.

Andriy Hladun came from Uzhgorod, a small town in Ukraine in the past decade. He was attending the Admiral Nakhimov Naval Academy in Crimea when “strange people dressed in strange uniforms were driving around in the streets of the city. The people were saying that Crimea would soon join Russia. Then some hot shots—generals and admirals—came to our academy.” The invaders also sent prime food to the cadets, hoping to tempt them to join the Russian military. About half assented. The rest remained loyal to Ukraine, and drilled and made formation separately.⁶¹

As tensions mounted, and a Russian takeover of Crimea seemed imminent, the cadets manned the perimeter of their academy. Then, one night, swimmers appeared, probably from the nearby base of the Russian Black Sea Fleet. Hladun writes, “We didn’t give up, we manned all our positions. But, we weren’t allowed to shoot. So we threw stones. Several divers swam up, but we I (sic) didn’t know whether they were Russian or not.

We just pelted them with stones, and forced them to swim away.” The cadets eventually were evacuated to Odessa, where they joined the Odessa National Maritime Academy to complete their studies before commissioning.⁶²

Reviewing these snippets of history, a few conclusions become evident. First is that, over the centuries, time and again cadets have been called to defend their flags and their countries, most especially when their campuses were threatened. Second, that their sacrifices were often in vain. Far too often, their commitment to battle was a gesture not just of desperation, but of despair. Teenagers were hurled and hurried into the final battles of already-decided wars, with inadequate training and second-class weapons (though often with admirable leadership from their teachers). In some cases, they won eternal renown. But in too many instances, they were immolated in the service of causes that had already been overwhelmed.

Either way, the best and most dedicated seed-corn was lost for the postwar regeneration of their armed forces and their societies.

But whatever the outcome of their battles, their heroism deserves the same kind of commemoration that Los Niños Héroes are given every 13 September. For, as President Harry Truman said when he laid a wreath at their Mexico City memorial in 1947, “Brave men don’t belong to any one country.

I respect bravery wherever I see it.”⁶³

^[1]Achvarina, Vera and Reich, Simon (2010) “No Place to Hide: Refugees, Displaced Persons, and Child Soldier Recruits.” In Gates, Scott and Reich, Simon (eds) Child Soldiers in the Age of Fractured States. University of Pittsburgh Press, Pittsburgh, 2010, p. 56.

2 Ion and Neilson, eds.  Elite Military Formations in War and Peace.  Praeger, Westport, Pg. 20.

3 Henderson, Timothy.  A Glorious Defeat: Mexico and Its War with the United States.  Farrar, Strauss, New York, 2007, Pg. 169.

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6 Conrad, James Lee.  The Young Lions: Confederate Cadets at War.  Stackpole, 1997.  Pg. vii.

7 “Put the Boys In: The Battle of New Market.”  Shenandoah Valley Battlefields, June 11, 2015.  Accessed 3 Dec 2019.

8 “New Market Ceremony History” VMI Archives online, accessed Dec 3, 2019.

9 “New Market Ceremony History”

10 Poyer, David.  Error! Main Document Only.“By the Waters of Babylon,” Shipmate, March-April 2011.

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16 Bolander, Pg. 40

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21 Benjamin, Pg. 247-8.

22 Poyer, David,

23 Jones, Virgil Carrington.  The Civil War at Sea, Vol. 1.  Holt, Rinehart, and Winston, New York, 1960.  pps. 114-166.

24 Jones, pg. 119.

25 Miller, Edward. Civil War Sea Battles. Combined Books, Pennsylvania, 1995. Pg. 173.

26 Weems, Bob. Charles Read: Confederate Buccaneer.  Heritage Books, Jackson, 1982. pg. 113

27 Smith, Myron J. Civil War Biographies from the Western Waters.  McFarland, 2015.Pg. 77.

28 Conrad, James.  Rebel Reefers.  Pg. 6.

29 Herndon, G. Melvin. “The Confederate States Naval Academy.” The Virginia Magazine of History and Biography, vol. 69, no. 3, 1961, pp. 300–323. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/4246762.  Pg. 303.

30 Herndon, Pg. 304.

31 Coski, John.  Capital Navy.  Savas Woodbury, California, 1996.  Pg. 129. Herndon, Pg. 305-6.

32 Herndon, Pg. 305-6.

33 Herndon, Pg. 308.

34 ORN II, 2, pg. 744, quoted in Coski.

35 History.com, “Chasing the Myth of Confederate Gold.”  Accessed 4 Dec 2019.

36 Furgurson, Ernest.  Ashes of Glory: Richmond at War, Vintage, New York, 1997.  Pg. 323.

37 Coski, Pps. 223-4.

38 Herndon, pg.314.

39 Coski, pg. 224.

40 Serge, Victor.  Year One of the Russian Revolution.  Haymarket books, 2017.  Pg. 97.

41 Wikipedia, “Junker Mutiny,” accessed 4 Dec 2019.

42 “The USSR from 1917 to 1931,” Encyclopedia Britannica, 15^th Edition, University of Chicago, Volume 28, Pg. 999.

43 Britannica, Pg. 999.

44 Varoli, John.  “Cadets Remain Faithful to Tsarist Idea,” Radio Free Europe, Sept. 9, 1998.

45 Varoli, op. cit.

46 Letter from Jean Zimmerman, wounded in the battle, dated 25 June 1984.  Author’s translation.

47 “Les Combats de la Loire Juin 1940,” Chemins de Memoire, accessed 3 Dec 2019.

48 “Les Combats”

49 “Les Combats”

50 “The Sacrifice of the Saumur Cadets,” WWII Forum, accessed 3 Dec 2019.

51 “Les Combats,” op. cit.

52 Beever, pps. 104 et al.

53 Military Systems of Greece and Turkey, US Government Printing Office, Washington, DC, 1897.  Pg. 11.

54 Sholes, Christopher, et al.  Air War for Yugoslavia Greece and Crete 1940-41.  Grub Street Publishing, 2008.  Pg. 340.

55 G. Kiriakopoulos, The Nazi Occupation of Crete, 1941-1945. Greenwood Publishing Group, 1995.  Pg. 10.

56 Chrysopoulos, Philip. “Battle of Crete: How Cretans Took On the Largest Axis Airborne Operation of WWII.”  May 20, 2019.  Greekreporter.com, accessed 2 Dec 2019.

57 Kosmodis, Pierre.  “The abandoned WW2 German gun emplacements of Kolymbari, Crete.”  WW2 Wrecks.com, accessed 2 Dec 2019.

58 Beevor, Anthony.  Crete: The Battle and the Resistance.  John Murray, London, 1991.  Pg. 349.

59 Haskew, Michael.  Encyclopedia of Elite Forces in the Second World War. Pen & Sword Military, 2007, pg. 108.  Also see Life Magazine, June 9, 1941.  Pg.53.

61 ^“Cadet Hladun: Ukrainians are fighting for their country and families; Russians aren’t fighting for anything or anyone,” EuroMaidan Press, Radio Liberty, 2016/03/28 .

62 Wikipedia, “Nakhimov Naval Academy, Sevastopol,” accessed 2 Dec 2019.

63 McCullough, David.  Truman.  Simon and Schuster, 2003.  Pg. 646.