WASHINGTON – 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 Two.
"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.
