Parachute Engineers in Combat, Ortona 1943: A German Perspective

In late 1943, Allied forces were fighting their way up the Italian peninsula. It was tough going. Broken terrain hindered the advance and well-armed, well-led German defenders fought for nearly every river corssing, hill, and village. On 6 December, Canadian troops, operating on the far right of the Allied line, began to cross the Moro River on the Adriatic coast, battling north through a series of small towns, farms, and ravines. First Canadian Infantry Division under Major-General Chris Vokes, pushing up the coastal highway, met bitter resistance at “The Gully,” a natural feature just north of the Moro. After being driven from this objective, German troops of the 76th Panzer Corps, including two elite parachute battalions, prepared to defend the ancient coastal town of Ortona, whose stout buildings provided scores of excellent defensive positions. The Canadians attacked nevertheless and spent the Christmas season in a bloody house-to-house struggle against determined opposition. By 27 December, with German troops retreating northward, the Canadians had prevailed, though at heavy cost. The Loyal Edmonton Regiment suffered 172 casualties at Ortona, the Seaforth Highlanders 103. Other units’ losses in and around the town, including those of the 12th Armoured Regiment Three Rivers Regiment, brought total Canadian casualties during the battle to 350. While there are numerous Canadian accounts of the battle of Ortona, there are few accounts in English of the fighting from the German perspective. Recently the Canadian War Museum acquired a copy of the following memoir through the good offices of Alex MacQuarrie of HSN Linguistic Services, Ottawa. The narrative, translated by Mr. MacQuarrie, is written by Parachute Combat Engineer Carl Bayerlein (Service No. L25475), 3rd Platoon, 3rd Company, 1st Parachute Combat Engineer Battalion, 1 Parachute Infantry Division. It covers the period of 10–27 December 1943 and consists of two parts: a day-by-day diary account, and a somewhat longer summary, based on the diary entries, but compiled in the early 1990s. The edited version that follows is drawn from the summary account

Brauer Theory for Profinite Groups

Brauer Theory for a finite group can be viewed as a method for comparing the representations of the group in characteristic 0 with those in prime characteristic. Here we generalize much of the machinery of Brauer theory to the setting of profinite groups. By regarding Grothendieck groups as functors we describe corresponding Grothendieck groups for profinite groups, and generalize the decomposition map, regarded as a natural transformation. We discuss characters and Brauer characters for profinite groups. We give a functorial description of the block theory of a profinite group. We finish with a method for computing the Cartan matrix of a finite group $G$ given the Cartan matrix for a quotient of $G$ by a normal $p$-subgroup.Comment: 16 page

Improving the Reproductive Health of Married and Unmarried Youth in India

Provides insights and lessons learned from a ten-year multi-partner research program to improve youth reproductive and sexual health in India. Includes recommendations to strengthen community and government efforts

Reintegrating living and working spaces : a hybrid development for Roxbury Crossing

Thesis (M. Arch.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Architecture, 1997.Vita.Includes bibliographical references (p. 67-69).Viable communities are those which are in balance -- residential, commercial, institutional, and industrial interests work together to provide for each other. In an urban neighborhood, these elements can be brought closer together. This was the traditional pattern at the turn of the century. In many cities today, however, the opposite is often true. Commutes from home to work and home to shopping are commonplace. As a result, areas become mostly daytime or nighttime as businesses and industry are condensed away from residential neighborhoods. I propose to reintegrate these disparate sectors into an urban community which re-establishes a balance among those interests and provides opportunities for the local citizens. A hybrid industrial facility can be the community focus and benefactor in a symbiotic relationship. The community of Roxbury Crossing / Mission Hill is investigated to analyze opportunities, access needs, and develop an urban scheme to encourage the mixing of homes with workplaces to provide a sustainable infrastructure for the community. At the architectural scale, the building addresses concerns for creating a sustainable building. Issues of transportation, adaptability, durability, and climate are investigated and explored in the form. A brewery, the traditional industry from this neighborhood's history, is proposed as a model for the prototype client.by Christian MacQuarrie Klein.M.Arch

Cooling a Mechanical Resonator with a Nitrogen-Vacancy Center Ensemble Using a Room Temperature Excited State Spin-Strain Interaction

We propose a protocol to dissipatively cool a room temperature mechanical resonator using a nitrogen-vacancy (NV) center ensemble. The spin ensemble is coupled to the resonator through its orbitally-averaged excited state, which has a spin-strain interaction that has not been previously characterized. We experimentally demonstrate that the spin-strain coupling in the excited state is $13.5\pm0.5$ times stronger than the ground state spin-strain coupling. We then theoretically show that this interaction combined with a high-density spin ensemble enables the cooling of a mechanical resonator from room temperature to a fraction of its thermal phonon occupancy.Comment: Main text is 11 pages in preprint formatting, with 4 figures. Also included is 17 pages of supporting information including 7 supporting figure

Chemistry on the inside: green chemistry in mesoporous materials

An overview of the rapidly expanding area of tailored mesoporous solids is presented. The synthesis of a wide range of the materials is covered, both inorganically and organically modified. Their applications, in particular those relating to green chemistry, are also highlighted. Finally, potential future directions for these materials are discussed