http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=3845856


U.S.'s 'Iron Hammer' Code Name 1st Used by Nazis
Tue November 18, 2003 01:18 PM ET

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. military's code name for a crackdown on
resistance in Iraq was also used by the Nazis for an aborted operation
to damage the Soviet power grid during World War II.

"Operation Iron Hammer" this week launched the 1st Armored Division's
3rd Brigade into the roughest parts of Baghdad to ferret out the
attackers who have killed scores of U.S. troops since Iraqi leader
Saddam Hussein was ousted in April.

A Pentagon official said the name was chosen because of the "Old
Ironsides" nickname of the 1st Armored Division. He was unaware of any
connection to any Nazi operation.

"Eisenhammer," the German for "iron hammer," was a Luftwaffe code name
for a plan to destroy Soviet generating plants in the Moscow and Gorky
areas in 1943, according to Universal Lexikon on the www.infobitte.de
Web site.

A researcher at Britain's Imperial War Museum confirmed the existence of
Eisenhammer.

The Nazi's long-range bombing operation was repeatedly postponed and was
finally scrapped after an allied air assault destroyed many of the
German planes on the ground in 1945, shortly before the defeat of Germany.

After it declared war on terrorism, U.S. officials changed the code name
for its impending attack on Afghanistan to Operation Enduring Freedom.

The original name, Operation Infinite Justice, was jettisoned amid fears
that the Muslim world, already leery of U.S. intentions, would object on
the basis of Koranic teachings that only God can provide infinite justice.



Claudia D. Dikinis
http://starcats.com
Political & Personal Astrology for a New Millennium