On 20-Apr-06, at 9:42 AM, Miller, Andrew S. wrote:

What was the pad on the front of that famous message?

As I recall, the message read: "Turkey trots to water. Where is Task Force 34? The whole world wonders". Nimitz was simply asking about the status of Task Force 34 which had been planned to be detached to protect the landing force if necessary. Halsey had instead kept the force with him when the opportunity to destroy Japanese aircraft carriers had presented itself, with the war-long understanding that their destruction had always been the U.S. Navy's top priority. That last little phrase implied a rebuke that wasn't actually in Nimitz's simple request for info.

It does demonstrate nicely how seemingly innocuous things can completely change world events (and I'm sure that there is some similar story about the effects on freight car design, but I haven't yet heard it!).

Ian Cranstone
Osgoode, Ontario, Canada
lamontc@...
http://freightcars.nakina.net
http://siberians.nakina.net