Archive for the ‘Military’ Category
This Week in American Military History
From the King’s Proclamation to Richie’s MiG (from W. Thomas Smith, Jr.’s series at Human Events):
Aug. 23, 1775: Less than two months after the Second Continental Congress issues its “Declaration on the Causes and Necessity of Taking Up Arms [against the British]” in which the Congress resolves “to die free men rather than live as slaves,” King George III issues his own proclamation declaring the American colonies to be in a state of rebellion.
The king adds, “not only all our Officers, civil and military, are obliged to exert their utmost endeavours to suppress such rebellion, and to bring the traitors to justice, but that all our subjects of this Realm, and the dominions thereunto belonging, are bound by law to be aiding and assisting in the suppression of such rebellion, and to disclose and make known all traitorous conspiracies and attempts against us, our crown and dignity.”
Aug. 23, 1864: Union Naval forces under the command of Adm. David Glasgow Farragut – best known for purportedly uttering the command, “Damn the torpedoes! Full speed ahead!” – take Fort Morgan, effectively ending the near-month-long battle of Mobile Bay.
Aug. 24, 1814: British forces under the command of Maj. Gen. Robert Ross close-with and defeat a mixed American force of Continental Army regulars, Marines, sailors, and militia under overall command of U.S. Army Brig. Gen. William Henry Winder in the battle of Bladensburg, Maryland on the road to Washington, D.C. during the war of 1812.
The disastrous defeat of the Continentals at Bladensburg will enable the British to march on, sack, and burn the nation’s capitol within a few hours. But according to legend, the British are so impressed by the indomitable stand of the American Marines and sailors – who “broke two British regiments” during the fighting – that the commandant’s house and the Marine barracks will be spared the torch when Washington is burned.
In: Military History
Ahoy Raiders!
On August 17, 1942 the Marine Raiders struck Makin Island in the Gilberts. This photo is taken nearly two years later at Bougainville.
January 1944: These U.S. Marine Raiders, with the reputation of being skillful jungle fighters, pose in front of a Japanese stronghold they conquered at Cape Totkina, Bougainville. (AP Photo)
In: Images, Military History · Tagged with: Marine Raiders, US Marine Corps, World War II
This Week in American Military History
Through flak and over the destruction created by preceding waves of bombers, these 15th Air Force B-24s leave Ploesti, Rumania, after one of the long series of attacks against the No. 1 oil target in Europe. (U.S. Air Force photo)
From W. Thomas Smith, Jr.’s series at Human Events
Aug. 1, 1943: Operation Tidal Wave — also known as the Raid on Ploesti — commences: 177 U.S. Army Air Forces B-24 Liberators flying 1,000-plus miles from their bases in Libya, attack the heavily defended Ploesti oil fields in Rumania.
The raid is flown against waves of counterattacking enemy planes, heavy antiaircraft fire, and at treetop level above the target area. Many of the B-24 crews are forced to fly through thick black smoke over targets just-attacked by their comrades ahead of them, and they are caught in the bursts and shock waves of delayed-action bombs.
Damage will be heavy on the oilfields said “to be supplying 60 percent of Germany’s crude oil requirements,” according to the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force. But USAAF casualties will also be high: “Of 177 planes and 1,726 men who took off on the mission, 54 planes and 532 men failed to return.”
Five Medals of Honor will be awarded for the daring raid. Recipients include: Col. Leon W. Johnson, Col. John R. Kane, Lt. Col. Addison E. Baker (posthumous), Maj. John L. Jerstad (posthumous), and 2nd Lt. Lloyd H. Hughes (posthumous).
Aug. 1, 1955: The famous U-2 high-altitude reconnaissance aircraft (yes, the same type of aircraft piloted by CIA pilot Francis Gary Powers when he was shot down over the Soviet Union by a surface-to-air missile in 1960) makes its first-ever flight above Groom Lake (Area 51), Nevada.
Aug. 3, 1958: USS Nautilus — the world’s first nuclear-powered submarine and the U.S. Navy’s sixth so-named vessel — becomes the first “ship” to cross the North Pole. The submarine’s simple transmission is, “Nautilus 90 North.”
Aug. 4, 1790: Congress approves Treasury Secretary Alexander Hamilton’s proposal to “build ten cutters to protect the new nation’s revenue,” establishing the Revenue Cutter Service – first of the predecessor services of the modern Coast Guard. Thus today will become the officially recognized birthday of the U.S. Coast Guard.
In: Military History
Third Reich photos in color
A friend just sent me a link to over 50 color photos of the Third Reich. Although there aren’t any captions, the photos are absolutely incredible and I was amazed at the sizes of the crowds the Nazis could muster. (HT Casey)
In: Military History · Tagged with: World War II
Following in the footsteps of Rogers’ Raiders
This month, Lt. Col. Tom Mullikin traveled to Europe to understand the experiences of his father Charlie Mullikin, a veteran of World War II.
The elder Mullikin landed at Normandy, and fought his way across Europe as a member of a special reconnaissance unit of the 407th Infantry Regiment. His outfit was led by 1st Lt. Roy “Buck” Rogers, and the stellar unit would earn them the nickname “Rogers’ Raiders” (not to be confused with Rogers’ Rangers, the American unit that achieved fame during the French and Indian War).
Mullikin shares a story of his father’s unit from February 1945 :
At exactly 0300 Buck Roger’s Night Raiders of the 407th Infantry pushed out into darkness, out into the narrow torrential Roer (River). … A German machine gun opened up not 50 yards away … Two long minutes later … the boats hit the Roer’s east bank. …With clocklike precision dark figures fanned out around the ominous machine gun. …One man returned the fire. Another grasped his grenade. A good throw. A dull thud. A scream. Silence.
One group… swung toward the railroad bounded by a dense minefield … The rest of the patrol slugged south mopping up one nest after another. At H-hour—30 minutes later—the first assault wave of the 407th Infantry crossed without a hitch. Their bridgehead, the first across the Roer, was established.
When the 30 minutes of intense action had ended, the Raiders had destroyed five machine gun nests along with six other automatic weapon positions, killed 15 and captured eight of the enemy … all without losing a single American.
Walking the beaches – and SCUBA diving among the wrecks as Mullikin did – would be a wonderful experience, but I can imagine that splashing through the same surf your father did when landing at Normandy 66 years earlier would be absolutely incredible.
More information on the operation is available here.
In: Military History · Tagged with: World War II
From the Marquis’ Commission to an F-86 Kill
This Week in American Military History (originally published at Human Events):
By W. Thomas Smith, Jr.
Capture of Fort Riviere, Haiti, 1915, by Donna J. Neary; illustrations of three Medal of Honor recipients: (left to right) Sergeant Ross Iams, Major Smedley Butler, and Private Samuel Gross (USMC art collection).
July 25, 1866: David Glasgow Farragut – best known for purportedly uttering the command, “Damn the torpedoes! Full speed ahead!,” or the more likely command, “Damn the torpedoes! “Four bells. Captain [Percival] Drayton, go ahead! [Lt. Commander James] Jouett, full speed!” during the 1864 Battle of Mobile Bay, Alabama – is appointed to the rank of admiral (the first such rank in U.S. Naval history).
This same day, future American Pres. Ulysses S. Grant becomes the first “full [four star] general” in the history of the U.S. Army.
July 26, 1947: The National Security Act of 1947 – the law reorganizing the post-World War II national defense/intelligence structure of the United States – is passed.
The Act establishes the U.S. Department of Defense, which brings together the Departments of the Army, Navy (including the Marine Corps), the newly established Air Force (born of the World War II-era Army Air Forces), and it makes “official” the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
The Act also establishes the National Security Council (the highest-ranking executive council – composed of the U.S. president, vice president, secretaries of Defense and State, and others – responsible for advising the president on matters related to the integration of domestic, foreign, and military policies affecting national security) and the Central Intelligence Agency (born of a series of predecessor foreign intelligence-gathering/clandestine-operations organizations including the World War II-era Office of Strategic Services).
The Act, which will become effective Sept. 18, is considered to be the most sweeping reorganization of the American defense structure since the establishment of the Department of the Navy in 1798.
Curahee: a miraculous recovery
On May 7, 2008, an IED exploded beneath a humvee in Afghanistan, killing three and seriously wounding Army 1st Lt. Brian Brennan of Howell, NJ and Specialist Ryan Price of California. Lt. Brennan suffered cardiac arrest, multiple fractures, the loss of both his legs, and a serious traumatic brain injury that placed him in a coma.
The story of his recovery is nothing short of miraculous. Watch the video.
Mr. Brennan’s foundation is here.
In: Military · Tagged with: Afghanistan
Tarawa
Taking the slim protection that a blasted tree affords, this Marine picks-off the Japs in a pill box. A Jap in a pill box must be shot through the small opening he uses to sight through, but that didn't bother this Marine on Tarawa. November 1943. (Marine Corps)
“A million men cannot take Tarawa in 100 years.”
- Rear Admiral Keiji Shibasaki, Imperial Marine Japanese commander in charge of the defense of Tarawa
It took about 4,000 Marines and Sailors three days.
In: Images, Military History · Tagged with: US Marine Corps, World War II
History’s Wings
SAN DIEGO (June 5, 2010) An F6F Hellcat flies alongside an F/A-18C Hornet assigned to the Rough Raiders of Strike Fighter Squadron (VFA) 125 during a Battle of Midway Commemoration ceremony aboard the USS Midway (CV 41) Museum. The Battle of Midway was the turning point of the War in the Pacific. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class John Philip Wagner Jr./Released)
In: Images, Military · Tagged with: US Navy
Radioman during Korean War
Source: TheWarPage.com
In: Images, Military History · Tagged with: Korean War
