Monthly Archives: August 2018
The End of the Okinawa Fighting
Okinawa
Hari-kari to end Okinawa
‘The Fall of Japan” by William Craig, excerpt submitted by Rosalinda Morgan who can be found at https://subliblog.wordpress.com/
On the evening of the twenty-first of June, Generals Ushijima and Cho sat down to a sumptuous meal in their home under Hill 89. Overhead the Americans walked on top of the escarpment, where Japanese soldiers continued to resist them by fighting for every rock and tree.
The generals ate quietly. As their aids offered toasts, the two leaders drank to each other with dregs of whiskey preserved for this moment. A full moon shone on the white coral ledges of Hill 89 as a final tribute rang through the cave: “Long live the Emperor.”
At 4:00 A.M. on the morning of the twenty-second, Ushijima, cooling himself with a bamboo fan, walked with Cho between lines of crying subordinates to the mouth of the cave. There Cho turned to his superior and said, “I will lead the way.” The two generals emerged into the moonlight. They were followed by several staff officers.
Outside the entrance a quilt had been laid on top of a mattress. Loud firing sounded on all sides as American infantrymen, no more than fifty feet away, sensed movement. Ushijima proceeded to sit down and pray. Cho did the same.
Ignoring the guns and grenades, Ushijima bowed low toward the ground. His adjutant handed him a knife. The general held it briefly in front of his body, then ripped it across his abdomen. Immediately his adjutant raised a jeweled sword and brought it down across his neck. Ushijima’s head toppled onto the quilt and blood spattered the onlookers. Within seconds, General Cho died the same way.
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Okinawa, The Flag is raised
By 30 June, even the mopping up was completed’
The battle of Okinawa had ended. Over 12,000 Americans and more than 100,000 Japanese were dead and there were 7,401 military prisoners. The American flag flew only 350 miles from Japan.
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Clearing the post of Naha, 19 June 1945
During the Okinawa campaign, a very strange “armed truce” occurred on a nearby island. The commander of the small Japanese garrison asked to have time to consult with Tokyo about continuing his pointless holdout. He later met several American emissaries on his beach and informed them that he was forbidden to surrender – but he would not fire on parties visiting the island for recreational purposes – on the condition that they did not molest his people. Quite an improvement on the “old Pacific War”.
Click on images to enlarge.
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Military Humor – 
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Farewell Salutes –
Alan I. Armour – Chicago, IL; US Army, Korean War, Lt., battalion cmdr. 187th RCT “Rakkasans”
Raymond Bonang – Boothbay Harbor, ME; US Army Air Corps, WWII, PTO, 880th Airborne Engineers
John Broderick – Pittsbourgh, PA; US Army, 756th Field Artillery Battalion, MSgt.
William Fouty Sr. – Tukwila, WA; USMC, WWII, PTO
G.M. ‘Jim’ Greene – Conway, AR; US Army, WWII, PTO, 7th Cavalry
John McGinnis – NY; US Army, Vietnam, 173rd Airborne Brigade
Chalmers Murray – Ft. Lauderdale, FL; US Army, WWII
Percy Overman Jr. – Newport News, VA; Merchant Marine, aviator
Howard Wildrick – Highland, NY; USMC
Thomas ‘Vic’ Varnedoe – Nashville, TN; US Army, Sgt., 2nd Infantry Division
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Okinawa – June 1945
Last picture ever taken of Lt.Gen. Buckner, the day before he died
By 10 June, the Marines had captured Yuza Hill. The 10th US Army suffered severe casualties before they and the USMC advanced to Kunishi Ridge, the western anchor of the Japanese defense; a massive fortress.
Gen. Buckner had been sending messages to Gen. Ushijima, urging him to surrender. So, when over a dozen Japanese wearing white hats appeared, the Marines assumed they were surrendering and they ceased operations. Shortly after the enemy soldiers ran, a mortar barrage began.
By morning, the Americans had a foothold on the ridge, but reinforcements were cut down when they tried to advance. Nine tanks were used to deliver 54 fresh men and supplies, but returned with 22 wounded. As the battle for Kunishi raged on, the tanks opened a road to continue supplying the Americans.
Okinawa
By 16 June, the US 96th Div. opened a road for the tanks to continue delivering supplies, as air drops were falling into enemy hands. Only one day later, Kunishi Ridge was considered a “mopping up” operation.
The Marines were sent to Mezado and Kuwango ridges where the enemy fire though intense, was short-lived. Meanwhile, the Army moved down the Pacific side of the island encountering the enemy at Yaeju Dake-Yuza Dake Escarpment. Naval gunfire and artillery smothered the enemy as the 10th Army proceeded hill by hill toward the tip of Okinawa, up Hill 89, Ushijima’s headquarters near Mabuni.
18th June – the 8th Marines moved into the line contribute their fresh, full strength to the slow drive. Army Gen. Buckner decided to leave the outpost he was at and found himself on a hill which afforded him a view of what was actually going on up at the front. He paused to watch for a few moments.
Oroku Peninsula where Japanese base force made their last stand
By this time, the Japanese artillery had been reduced to next to nothing, no shells had fallen in that area all morning. However, by some devious quirk of fate, a lone gun somewhere in the shrinking ranks of the enemy let go a few rounds. The first one felled the general, but no one else near him was injured. He died before they could evacuate him.
Gen. Geiger took over the command and followed what his late chief would have done. This was the first instance of a Marine officer commanding an Army unit of that size, though in WWI, MGen. Lejeune had commanded the Army’s Second Division in several operations.
Ambulance jeep, Okinawa
Although Allied land forces were entirely composed of U.S. units, the British Pacific Fleet (BPF; known to the U.S. Navy as Task Force 57) provided about a quarter of Allied naval air power (450 planes). It comprised many ships, including 50 warships of which 17 were aircraft carriers, but while the British armored flight decks meant that fewer planes could be carried in a single aircraft carrier, they were more resistant to kamikaze strikes. Although all the aircraft carriers were provided by the UK, the carrier group was a combined Commonwealth fleet with British, Canadian Australian and New Zealand ships and personnel. Their mission was to neutralize Japanese airfields in the Sakishima Islands and provide air cover against Japanese kamikaze attacks.
Click on images to enlarge.
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Current News –
Information on the upcoming events of the Bataan Legacy Historical Society….
http://bataanlegacy.org/future-events.html
Information contributed by Nasuko
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Military Humor – 
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Farewell Salutes –
Robert J. Andrews – Colorado Springs, CO; US Air Force, Korea & Vietnam, Lt.Colonel (Ret. 31 y.)
Rosetta Brobst – Laceyville, PA; WWII, US Army, nurse
Athol Currin – Wanganui, NZ; RSA # 816777, J Force 22nd Batt/42 Squadron
Robert Dole – Pearl City, IL; US Army, WWII, ETO, 665th Ordnance Co.
Dennis Garbis – Falls Church, VA; Vietnam, Lt.Colonel (Ret. 20 y.), Bronze Star
John McCain – Alexandria, VA; US Navy, Vietnam, pilot, USS Forrestal, POW / US Senator
Miriam Olsen – Eugene, OR; US Army, WWII, nurse
Ronald Setniker – Biwabik, MN; US Army, Vietnam, 101st Airborne Division
James Tisdale – Goshen, AR; US Army Air Corps, WWII, PTO, 11th Airborne Division, Bronze Star
John Waite – Clarkston, WA; US Navy, WWII, PTO
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June 1945 for the Navy
USS Langley, June 1945
After sending Sherman’s US Navy Task Force 38.3 to Leyte for a rest period, Halsey ordered RAdm. Radford’s Task Force 38.4orce northward on June 2 to strike the airfields on Kyushu, the southernmost Japanese main island. Halsey and McCain remained off Okinawa. When Radford returned on the afternoon of June 3, Halsey sent Task Group 38.1 southeast to rendezvous with Rear Admiral Donald B. Beary’s Service Squadron 6. Ships and search planes reported a tropical storm moving up from the south.
The Missouri and Shangri-La headed southeast with Radford’s group, and Halsey ordered the amphibious command ship Ancon to monitor the storm. On the evening of June 4, Task Group 38.4 joined Clark’s force and Beary’s fueling squadron, and they all headed E-SE. At this time, radar operators aboard the Ancon sighted a typhoon, but the ship’s report did not reach Halsey until 1 the next morning.
USS Pittsburgh, Typhoon Connie, 1945
Course changes were made, and there was much feverish plotting aboard the Missouri and other ships through the night and into June 5. Halsey did not want his fleet scattered as before, and he hoped to find better weather so that his flattops could fend off kamikaze attacks. But the barometer was falling, and the howling typhoon closed in. While Radford’s group steamed through fairly calm seas 15 miles to the north, Task Group 38.1 was sucked into a maelstrom of high winds and mountainous waves. Clark ordered his ships to stop their engines and heave to.
Beary’s fueling group, meanwhile, struggled against 75-foot waves and wind gusts up to 127 knots as it passed through the eye of the typhoon. His 48 ships were “riding very heavily,” he reported, yet only four—two jeep carriers, a tanker, and a destroyer escort—received serious damage. Clark’s group passed through the eye half an hour after Beary’s, and almost all of his 33 ships suffered some damage, but none were sunk. The cruiser, Pittsburgh had 110 feet of her bow section torn off, and Clark’s four carriers—the San Jacinto, Hornet, Bennington, and Belleau Wood—were battered. Clark and Beary lost six men killed or swept overboard and four seriously injured, 76 planes were lost.
USS Hornet, June 1945
The other TF-38 ships damaged in the typhoon included the battleships Missouri, Massachusetts, Indiana, and Alabama; the escort carriers Windham Bay, Salamaua, Bougainville, and Attu; the cruisers Baltimore, Quincy, Detroit, San Juan, Duluth, and Atlanta; 11 destroyers; three destroyer escorts; two oilers, and an ammunition ship.
Halsey was aware he would have to face another court of inquiry and took the offensive. In an angry message to Admiral Nimitz, he complained that early-warning messages were garbled, that weather estimates conflicted, and that coding regulations critically delayed the Ancon’s message. The Third Fleet, meanwhile, soon went back into action. On June 6, 1945, Clark’s and Radford’s groups again provided air support off Okinawa, and Radford’s carriers resumed strikes against Kyushu on the 8th. U.S. troops gained the upper hand on Okinawa, the kamikaze attacks tapered off, and TF-38 retired to Leyte Gulf on June 13 after 92 wearying days at sea.
USS Bennington, June 1945
Admirals Halsey, McCain, Clark, and Beary were ordered to appear before a court of inquiry aboard the aging battleship USS New Mexico anchored in San Pedro Bay, a Leyte Gulf inlet. Presided over again by the harsh Admiral Hoover, the tribunal convened on June 15 and deliberated for eight days. Blame was placed squarely on Halsey and McCain, with the court concluding that the main cause of the Third Fleet’s damage was Halsey’s “extremely ill advised” change of course from 110 to 300 degrees at 1:34 am on June 5. McCain, Clark, and Beary were indicted because “they continued on courses and at speeds which eventually led their task groups into dangerous weather, although their better judgment dictated a course of action which would have taken them fairly clear of the typhoon path.”
Hoover recommended the reassignment of Halsey and McCain, and Navy Secretary James V. Forrestal was reportedly ready to retire Halsey. When the court’s finding reached the Navy Department, Admiral King agreed that the two officers had been inept and, with the weather data available to them, should have avoided the typhoon. But Halsey was a national hero, and King had no wish to humiliate him. It would tarnish the Navy’s triumph in the Pacific. King decided to take no action, and Forrestal agreed.
Admirals Halsey & McCain, March 1945
McCain, however, received no such consideration. Nimitz had long doubted his competence, and it was decided that it was time for him to go. He was ordered by the Navy Department on July 15 to hand over command of Task Force 38 to Admiral John H. Towers and, after a furlough, become deputy head of the Veterans Administration. But McCain, worn out and emaciated, died of a heart attack on the day after he returned to his Coronado, California, home on 6 September 1945.
Halsey, meanwhile, sailed back to America and was greeted in San Francisco and Los Angeles by blaring bands, sirens, whistles, and cheering thousands. His reputation had been tarnished, yet he emerged from the war as a fighting admiral revered by the men who served under him.
Click on images to enlarge.
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Naval Humor – 
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Farewell Salutes –
Donald Anthon – Baton Rouge, LA; US Coast Guard, WWII, PTO, LT., Academy Graduate
Dean Bailey – Mobridge, SD; US Navy, WWII, PTO, USS Gardiner’s Bay
John Casey – Phoneix, AZ; US Navy, WWII, corpsman
Robert Danzig – Albany, NY; US Navy, Korea
Edward Finley III – New Orleans, LA US Navy, Top Gun pilot
Ed Jost – Glencoe, IL; USMC, WWII, Sgt., machine-gunner
Gordon Olson – Seymour, CT; USMC, WWII
Thomas Suddarth – Concord, MO; US Navy, WWII, USS Honolulu & Klaskanine
Warren Venable – Memphis, TN; US Navy, aerial photographer
Eugene W. Wicker – Coweta, OK; US Navy, WWII, Seaman 1st Class, radioman, USS Oklahoma, KIA
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Salute to the Home Front Women of WWII
“Rosie to the Rescue”, Norman Rockwell
In 1943, several major magazines agreed to salute the women war workers of America on their September covers. The Post gave the assignment to Rockwell, who’d already created an iconic tribute to women defense workers with Rosie the Riveter.
For this new cover, he wanted to acknowledge the wide range of jobs that 15 million women had taken up as men went off to war. The result was Rosie to the Rescue, which showed a woman bearing the symbols and tools of several trades hurrying off to her next job. The Post editors claimed 31 different occupations were represented on this cover. Some were jobs traditionally associated with women: cleaning, farming, nursing, and clerical work. Others, indicated by tools such as an electric cable and a monkey wrench, referred to industrial occupations that women were starting to enter in great number.
The cover not only acknowledges women war workers, it also recalls occupations of the 1940s that once employed thousands. Post readers of the day would have instantly recognized the bus-driver’s ticket punch, a taxi-driver’s change dispenser, a milkman’s bottle rack, a switchboard operator’s headset, and the blue cap of a train conductor. The railroad industry was also represented by the railroad section hand’s lantern, the locomotive engineer’s oil can, and that round object swinging on a shoulder strap — a clock used by night watchwomen in railway yards.
Here is what the Post editors had to say about this image in the “Keeping Posted” section of our September 4, 1943 issue:
At least thirty-one wartime occupations for women are suggested by Norman Rockwell’s remarkable Labor Day Post cover. Perhaps you can think of more. The thirty-one we counted, suggested by articles the young lady is carrying or wearing, are: boardinghouse manager and housekeeper (keys on ring); chambermaid, cleaner and household worker (dust pan and brush, mop); service superintendent (time clock); switchboard operator and telephone operator (earphone and mouthpiece); grocery-store woman and milk-truck driver (milk bottles); electrician for repair and maintenance of household appliances and furnishings (electric wire); plumber and garage mechanic (monkey wrench, small wrenches); seamstress (big scissors); typewriter-repair woman, stenographer, typist, editor and reporter (typewriter); baggage clerk (baggage checks); bus driver (puncher); conductor on railroad, trolley, bus (conductor’s cap); filling-station attendant and taxi driver (change holder); oiler on railroad (oil can); section hand (red lantern); bookkeeper (pencil over ear); farm worker (hoe and potato fork); truck farmer (watering can); teacher (schoolbooks and ruler); public health, hospital or industrial nurse (Nurses’ Aide cap). —“Keeping Posted: The Rockwell Cover,” September 4, 1943.
When the war began, quickie marriages became the norm, as teenagers married their sweethearts before their men went overseas. As the men fought abroad, women on the Home Front worked in defense plants and volunteered for war-related organizations, in addition to managing their households. In New Orleans, as the demand for public transportation grew, women even became streetcar “conductorettes” for the first time. When men left, women “became proficient cooks and housekeepers, managed the finances, learned to fix the car, worked in a defense plant, and wrote letters to their soldier husbands that were consistently upbeat.” (Stephen Ambrose, D-Day, 488) Rosie the Riveter helped assure that the Allies would have the war materials they needed to defeat the Axis.
The National WWII Museum recognizes the contribution that women played in the success of the Allied victory in World War II and explores that contribution in depth in its newest permanent exhibit, The Arsenal of Democracy: The Herman and George Brown Salute to the Home Front.
Let’s hear about those Victory Gardens and other ways your mothers and grandmothers joined in!!
Click on images to enlarge.
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Home Front Humor –
WHAT THE HECK DID WE DO EVERY EVENING BEFORE THIS WAR?
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Farewell Salutes –
Ruth Apple – North Dorset, VT; Civilian, WWII, ‘Rosie’, aircraft
Angelina “Betty” Cicatelli – Throop, PA; WWII, Civilian, ‘Rosie’
Angnes Clagg – Ona, WV; WWII, Civilian, ‘Rosie’, weapons
Thelma Cook (104) – Pikeville, NC; WWII, Civilian ‘Rosie’, welder & parachute seamstress
Jacquelin Johns – Ft. Lauderdale, FL; WWII, Civilian, Office of Strategic Service
Lois Lenz – Chicagi, IL; WWII, Red Cross nurse’s aide / US Army, Signal Corps
Wand Elliot Matson – Quad Cities, IA, WWII ‘Rosie’, Grumman Hellcats
Mariemma Nelson – Indianapolis, IN; WWII, Civilian ‘Rosie’
Louise Steinberger – Vallejo, CA; WWII, Civilian ‘Rosie’, shipyard welder
Harriet ‘Jean’ Waltuck – Jordon, NY; US Navy, nurse
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78th National Airborne Day
“Airborne All The Way”
Author Unknown
These men with silver wings
Troopers from the sky above
In whom devotion springs
What spirit so unites them?
In brotherhood they say
Their answer loud and clear.
“Airborne All the Way.”
These are the men of danger
As in open door they stand
With static line above them
And ripcord in their hand.
While earthbound they are falling
A silent prayer they say
“Lord be with us forever,
Airborne All the Way.”
Saint Mike
One day they’ll make their final jump
Saint Mike will tap them out
The good Lord will be waiting
He knows what they’re about
And answering in unison
He’ll hear the troopers say
“We’re glad to be aboard, Sir,
Airborne All the Way!”
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Airborne Humor – 
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Farewell Salutes –
John Barber – Toledo, OH; US Army, Vietnam, Captain, 101st Airborne Division
Billy Enzor – Ft. Lauderdale, FL; US Army, 187th RCT
Warren Evans – Clarksville, TN; US Army Korea & Vietnam, Colonel, 187th RCT, 2 bronze Stars
Edward Fallon Jr. – Boston, MA; US Army, Korea, 101st Airborne Division, pathfinder
Francis ‘Red’ Grandy – Russell, NY; US Army Air Corps, WWII / Star & Stripes photographer
Henry Kalb Jr. – Atlanta, GA; US Army Air Corps, WWII, PTO, 11th Airborne Division
Larry Noll – Sheldon, WA; US Army, 82nd Airborne Division
Anothony Patti – Bronx, NY; US Army, 82nd Airborne Division, medic
William Shank – Harrisburg, VA; US Army Air Corps, WWII, ETO, 1st Lt., 338th Fighter Squadron/8th Air Force, Purple Heart, KIA
Reymund Transfiguracion – Waikoloa, HI; US Army, Afghanistan, 3/1st Special Forces Group, Sgt. 1st Class, KIA
Charles Watson – Vero Beach, FL; US Army, Artillery/11th Airborne Division
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SHOUT OUT !!!
Personal Note – I know I promised a post for the women on the home front for today, but the calendar has changed my schedule. That post will appear Monday, 20 August 2018.
Thank you.
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Salute to the Women in Uniform
American women played important roles during World War II, both at home and in uniform. Not only did they give their sons, husbands, fathers, and brothers to the war effort, they gave their time, energy, and some even gave their lives.
The utilization of women in an organization such as the Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps (WAAC) offered a “golden opportunity” to solve manpower shortages. So recognizable was the opportunity that Chief of Staff General George C. Marshall himself told the War Department in November 1941, “I want a women’s corps right away, and I don’t want any excuses!” Urgent wartime demands necessitated the use of all able, willing citizens, regardless of gender. In recruiting women, the Army assured them that they would be doing “unusual and exciting work” and that their service “in making available technically trained men for combat service will be of great value in winning the war.”
Congresswoman Edith Nourse Rogers (R-MA) introduced a bill to establish the WAAC on 28 May 1941. She cited two rationales for such an organization: to ease the shortage of able-bodied men and “to answer an undeniable demand from American women that they be permitted to serve their country, together with the men of America, to protect and defend their cherished freedoms and democratic principles and ideals.” WAAC/WAC veterans later recalled this strong desire to be of service. Mary Robinson, for example, said, “I just thought it was the sensible thing to do. The British had done it in two wars.”
The 77th Congress eventually did establish the WAAC with Public Law (PL) 77-554 on 14 May 1942, after much heated debate.
Nearly 350,000 American women served in uniform, both at home and abroad, volunteering for the newly formed Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps (WAACs, later renamed the Women’s Army Corps), the Navy Women’s Reserve (WAVES), the Marine Corps Women’s Reserve, the Coast Guard Women’s Reserve (SPARS), the Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASPS), the Army Nurses Corps, and the Navy Nurse Corps. General Eisenhower felt that he could not win the war without the aid of the women in uniform. “The contribution of the women of America, whether on the farm or in the factory or in uniform, to D-Day was a sine qua non of the invasion effort.”
Women in uniform took office and clerical jobs in the armed forces in order to free men to fight. They also drove trucks, repaired airplanes, worked as laboratory technicians, rigged parachutes, served as radio operators, analyzed photographs, flew military aircraft across the country, test-flew newly repaired planes, and even trained anti-aircraft artillery gunners by acting as flying targets. Some women served near the front lines in the Army Nurse Corps, where 16 were killed as a result of direct enemy fire. Sixty-eight American service women were captured as POWs in the Philippines. More than 1,600 nurses were decorated for bravery under fire and meritorious service, and 565 WACs in the Pacific Theater won combat decorations. Nurses were in Normandy on D-plus-four.
At the war’s end, even though a majority of women surveyed reported wanted to keep their jobs, many were forced out by men returning home and by the downturn in demand for war materials. Women veterans encountered roadblocks when they tried to take advantage of benefit programs for veterans, like the G.I. Bill. The nation that needed their help in a time of crisis, it seems, was not yet ready for the greater social equality that would slowly come in the decades to follow.
Women today still proudly wear a uniform, as demonstrated by our very own fellow blogger, Cindy Bruchman, seen here after she graduated boot camp!!
Cindy Bruchman, US Navy
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Current – 14 August – National Code Talkers Day
Code talkers’ Monument
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Military Humor – 
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Farewell Salutes –
Jessie Adams (100) – Riverdale, UT; US Army WAC, WWII, PTO, nurse
Vera Bernard – Ridgewood, CAN; RC Womens Army, WWII
London Monument to the Women of WWII
Linda Dietsche – Elmira, NY; US Army, Vietnam, Captain (Ret. 20 y.), nurse
Valerie Ferguson – Waikato, NZ; QSM WAAC # 809924, WWII, Northern Signals, 9th Regiment
Eileen “Kelly” Finch – Brighton, IL; US Navy, SeaBee
Barbara Graham – Philadelphia, PA; US Navy, Korea, nurse
Patricia Hamlin – Seattle, WA; US Navy WAVE, WWII, machinist
Lottie Manley – Hughesville, PA; US Coast Guard
Winifred Pickering – Lebanon, ME; US Navy, WWII
Judy Terry – Brookhaven, MS; US Army, nurse
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June – 11th Airborne (continued)
11th Airborne w/ 81mm mortar on Luzon
The 11th Airborne battled the Shabu Forces on a 75 mile hike in 120 degree heat to connect up with the Connolly Task Force. The combined goal was to prevent the enemy from escaping into the Cagayan Valley and out to sea. Lt. Col. Burgess met Gen. Beightler, on 26 June, and received a rather snide remark about how his men had saved the 11th A/B. Burgess became quite red-faced and replied that he was under orders to save the 37th Division. Gen. Swift, standing off to one side, laughed and said, “Well, you SOUND like one of Swing’s boys.”
Lipa Airfield, Luzon
The Gypsy Task Force marched away to the 37th’s Headquarters to request C-47s to transport the unit back to Lipa. Burgess was denied and told to counter-march to Aparri and have the trucks take them south to Manila. That would mean they would still need to march another 55 miles from Manila to Lipa. Instead, the men bribed the C-47 pilots with Japanese swords, guns and various other paraphernalia in exchange for a flight back. (Necessity is the mother of invention.)
Bold headlines exploded in the Australian newspapers: U.S. Paratroopers Land In Northern Luzon – “After the 11th A/B Division made their air-borne landing near Aparri on June 23rd., using their gliders for the first time, carrying howitzers, jeeps and mobile equipment. Each trooper jumped with 100 pounds of gear strapped to his body.”
In the 26 June 1945 issue of The Army News – “On Saturday, from 600 feet into paddy fields, the 11th Airborne dropped near the port of Aparri in a surprise move against the Japanese forces in northern Luzon. They used their gliders for the first time in the southwest Pacific…”
3 July, General Swing made an official note stating that he had implored the higher echelon of the Sixth Army two months previous with a plan to drop the entire 11th Airborne Division onto northern Luzon back when Gen. Krueger’s men were having so much trouble with the Japanese in Balete Pass. He expressed his frustration that his own plan to attack Aparri had gone unheeded. The Japanese had been given the opportunity to withdraw just enough to unite with reinforcements.
According to the US Government’s booklet on Luzon,
On 30 June 1945 Krueger’s Sixth Army was relieved by the Eighth Army, whose task was to mop up scattered Japanese positions. [There we go with that “moping up” terminology again.]
Technically, the battle for Luzon was still not over when Japan surrendered on 15 August 1945. On the northern part of the island Shobu Group remained the center of attention for the better part of three U.S. Army divisions. Altogether, almost 115,000 Japanese remained at large on Luzon and on some of the southern islands.
Click on images to enlarge.
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Current News –
The remains of 2 Civil War soldiers will be buried at Arlington National Cemetery…
AND….
WWII firearms and swords were found under a Tokyo elementary school….
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Military Humor – 
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Farewell Salutes –
Robert Bochek – Milwaukee, WI; US Army Air Corps, WWII
Daniel Cremin – Sydney, AUS; RA Air Force, WWII, ETO, KIA
Joseph Garron – Brooklyn, NY; USMC
Terrell J. Fuller – Toccoa, GA; US Army, Korea, Cpl., D/1/38/2nd Infantry Division, KIA
John Kain – GloucesterCity, PA; US Army, 11th Airborne Division
William A, Larkins – Pittsburgh, PA; US Army, Korea, Sgt., A/503 Field Artillery/2nd Infantry Division, KIA
John Magnon – New Orleans, LA; US Navy, WWII
Robert L. Martin – IA & IL; US Army Air Corps, WWII, ETO, Tuskegee pilot
Edward Ranslow – Melville, MA; US Army, 11th Airborne Division
Francis Sapp – Weston, FL; US Army
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June – 187th/11th Airborne Division
Jump at Aparri, Luzon
With his thoughts still focused on his R&R in Australia, Everett “Smitty” Smith landed back at Lipa City, P.I. only to discover that a mission was scheduled. The last remaining organized Japanese group, the Shabu Forces, were hold up in the northeast corner of Luzon and General Swing had organized the Gypsy Task Force to take them out. On his orders, the unit would include “all Camp MacKall veterans.”
This unique unit would include men from the 187th Infantry, the 511th, the 457th Parachute Field Artillery Battalion, a platoon from the 127th Engineers and two platoons from B Company. Despite Gen. Krueger’s disapproval, Lt. Col. Henry Burgess, now 26 years old, would be the commanding officer. (Smitty was at the ancient age of 30, one of the oldest paratroopers besides one other soldier and a few of the officers.) Col. Lahti (31) would be CO for the reserve unit.
Task Force Gypsy, Aparri, Luzon
Col. John Lackey, CO of the 317th Troop Carrier Group, with very little notice, began loading 54 C-47s and 13 C-46s at 0430 hours, 23 June 1945. His plane was the first to leave Lipa airstrip and the constant rumbling of the planes soon became “Vs” in the open skies. Within the transports, every man appeared as a clone to the next. Individuality was lost among the uniforms, bundled parachutes and rucksacks filled to capacity with ammunition, first-aid, water and C-rations.
C-47 Skytrain “Gooney Bird”
Each man stood and checked the chute of the man beside him when the “Gooney Birds” lurched at 0900 hours; the smoke flares from the forward Pathfinders were spotted and green lights flashed for the paratroopers. The stick of men hooked up to the static lines and proceeded to jump into vertical development. With mandatory, disciplined silence, the traditional battle cry, “Geronimo,” is only heard within the imaginative faculty of 1,030 men. All these diverse personalities would react separately to the same experience.
Task Force Gypsy
Each man, for his own reasons, volunteered for the perilous duty that might end his life. Each man went through various stages of development and arrived at the same destination. Each man had been chosen for their good health, general toughness and honor. A jump into combat is reality in its most crystalline form.
As the ground races up to meet the troopers, they see the tall, thick fields of the sharp kunai grass, flooded rice paddies, caribou ruts and bomb craters – all would prove dangerous. The Task Force would lose 7%, two men killed and 70 wounded as they landed in 25 mph winds. The battle-hardened paratroopers collected their flame throwers, howitzers and rifles from the gliders and reassembled with “Espirit de Corps.”
Click on images to enlarge.
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Current News – Tomorrow, 7 August 2018 is Purple Heart Day
Over 1.8 million awarded to date.
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Military Humor –
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Farewell Salutes –
Hugh Adams – Portland, OR; US Army Air Corps, WWII
Trevor Anstey – Chesterfield, ENG; RAF, WWII
Angel Flight
Gary Bohanick – Virginia Beach, VA; US Army, Vietnam, 101st Airborne Division
Michael Gagliardi – Boca Raton, FL; US Army, 127th Engineers/11th Airborne Division
Freeman Hepburn – brn: Bahamas/Port St. Lucie, FL; US Army
Richard B. “Rick” Long Sr. – Seven Lakes, NC; US Army, Lt. Colonel (Ret.)
Samuel McAllister – Mt. Vernon, NY; US Army, 75th Ranger Regiment, Sgt. Major, (2) Bronze Stars, KIA
Christopher Nelms – Oklahoma City, OK; US Army (28 y.), Delta Force, Sgt. Major, (2) Silver Stars, KIA
Billy Sapp – Reno, NV; USMC, WWII, PTO, 1st Marine Division
Kenneth Walser – Mesa, AZ; US Army Air Corps, WWII & Korea, B-26 pilot
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May > June for Smitty and the 11th Airborne
117th Engineer Battalion, Luzon
The 11th Airborne continued their patrols, mopping up details and training at Lipa, Luzon, P.I. General Swing had another jump school built that created 1,000 newly qualified paratroopers out of their latest replacements.
The new glider school concentrated on the “snatch pickup” method, whereby a CG-4A Glider on the ground with a towrope and a C-47 with a hook. As the plane goes overhead at an altitude of 15 feet, it snatches up the glider and brings it to 120 mph in a matter of a few seconds. (The noise from the plane, shock and whiplash must have been overwhelming.)
With May drawing to a close and the Japanese Army being pushed to the northeast, the 11th Airborne knew something was brewing, but then Smitty got a surprise.
Brisbane 1945
8 June 1945, Cpl. Everett Smith found himself and four others from the division on leave in Australia and Smitty was determined to have a good time! Those that went to Brisbane on the same orders for TDY were:
Lt. Col. Francis W. Regnier MC HQ 11th A/B Div.
Major George K. Oliver INF HQ 11th A/B Div.
T Sgt. Manuel C. DeBeon Jr. 187th Glider Infantry
Tec 4 Beverly A. Ferreira HQ 11th A/B Div.
The orders were signed by Major E.W. Wyman Jr., Adjutant General of Luzon
Townsville, Queensland, WWII
My father never told me very much about his R&R and probably for a good reason. (For one, my mother was always around listening.) He did say that when he first arrived in Australia, he wanted a haircut and a shave. While the barber was working on him, he remarked that the pores in Smitty’s nose appeared enlarged. My father answered, “You spend five months in the jungles of New Guinea and see what your nose looks like.” Dad said after that, his money was no good. Everyone in the barbershop made such a fuss over him that he never got a word in edgewise. They were so extremely grateful to anyone who served in New Guinea. Smitty did always tell me he wished he could make a trip back there; he thought Australia and her people were great, but sadly, he never did.
Perhaps this young lady, Joan, was the reason Smitty wouldn’t talk about his time on leave.
“Happy Landing, Joan”
In another part of the war….
The Sixth Australian Division attacked and occupied Wewak, New Guinea. This is relevant because it housed the headquarters of the Japanese Eighteenth Army. A major boon for the PTO (Pacific Theater of Operations).
23 May, at least 65 square miles of Tokyo had been incinerated by bombs and napalm. Later, the same action was taken over Yokohama, Osaka and Kobe. This left over 100 square miles of the principle Japanese cities devastated and one-third of the country’s construction destroyed. Japan’s factories were demolished.
Click on images to enlarge.
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Current News – U.S. Coast Guard – 228 years old this 4 August 2018
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Military Humor –
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Farewell Salutes –
Charles Burnett – Lexington, KY; US Army, 11th Airborne Division
Duane Caitlin – Waverly, NY; US Coast Guard
Walter Geer – New Oxford, PA; US Army Air Corps, WWII, PTO, 11th Airborne Division
Thomas Horn – Broad Channel, NY; US Navy, WWII
Alfred Johnson Jr. – Washington D.C.; US Coast Guard, WWII
Roy Meyer – Tucson, AZ; US Army Air Corps, WWII, 449th Bombardment Group, B-24 waist-gunner
Edward Patapanian – Boston, MA; US Coast Guard, WWII
Brady Spillane – Great Falls, MT; US Army, 82 Airborne Division
William Thomure – Columbus, OH; US Coast Guard, WWII
James Watt – Whangamata, NZ; RNZ Army # 811867, WWII, PTO, 22nd/9th Brigade
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Pacific Paratrooper 