Archive for the ‘Military History’ Category
Dec. 23 in US Military History
1783: Three months after the signing of the Treaty of Paris, ending the Revolutionary War, Gen. George Washington resigns his commission as commander-in-chief of the Continental Army.
1941: Japanese troops conduct a second landing on Wake Island, supported by carrier-launched airstrikes. After 12 hours of intense fighting, the Marine garrison surrenders. Wake’s capture came at a high cost to Japanese forces, however, losing nearly 900 men, two destroyers, two patrol boats, a submarine, and over 20 aircraft at the cost of 12 planes and 50 Marines and sailors.
The Japanese sub I-21 sinks the oil tanker Montebello off the coast of Cayucos, Calif.
Meanwhile, labor and industry leaders agree that there will not be any strikes or lockouts during World War II.
1944: Elements of the 5th Panzer Army bypass the 101st Airborne surrounded at Bastogne, Belgium. A break in the weather allows Allied fighter-bombers to conduct 900 sorties, conducting devastating attacks against German supply depots and allowing aerial resupply of the 101st
1948: Former Japanese premier Hideki Tojo is hanged after the International Military Tribunal for the Far East found him guilty of war crimes. Tojo was responsible for the Pearl Harbor attack. Also hanged are Gen. Iwane Matsui, responsible for the Rape of Nanking, Gen. Heitaro Kimura, responsible for the brutal treatment of Allied prisoners of war, and four others. Overall, around 5,000 Japanese are found guilty of war crimes, and 900 are executed.
1950: Gen. Walton H. Walker, commander of the Eighth Army is killed in a jeep accident. Lt. Gen. Matthew B. Ridgway, who would turn the tide of the Korean War, is his successor. In April, Ridgway will replace Gen. Douglas MacArthur as Supreme US and UN Commander in Korea.
1951: A prisoner exchange request is denied by the North Koreans. UN command lists 65,363 troops as captured in the first nine months of combat.
1961: Cuban dictator Fidel Castro announces that he will release the 1,113 prisoners from the failed Bay of Pigs invasion in exchange for $62 million in food and medical supplies. One year later, Castro will begin releasing prisoners.
1968: After 11 long months of brutal captivity, North Korea releases the crew of the USS Pueblo. The communists claimed that the intelligence-gathering ship was in North Korean waters while the US maintains that the ship was in international waters. One prisoner died in captivity, and the ship remains in North Korea as a museum.
1970: The World Trade Center is complete. The twin 110-story buildings were – at the time – the tallest buildings in the world, with the North Tower reaching an impressive 1,368 feet.
1974: The B-1 Lancer bomber makes its first flight.
2004: Marines neutralize the last pockets of resistance in Fallujah, Iraq. The Second Battle of Fallujah was the bloodiest battle of the war and the deadliest since the Vietnam War with 107 killed and 613 wounded.
In: Military History
Battle of the Bulge
American infantrymen from the 290th Regiment crouch in the snowy woods near Amonines, Belgium, January 1945.
In: Images, Military History · Tagged with: Battle of the Bulge, World War II
Dec. 22 in US Military History
1775: The Continental Congress creates the Continental Navy. Esek Hopkins, Esq. is named commander-in-chief of the fleet, four captains are commissioned, as well as five first lieutenants (including future hero John Paul Jones), five second lieutenants, and three third lieutenants.
1864: Following his “March to the Sea” and just before his “March through the Carolinas,” Union Army Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman presents the captured city of Savannah (Ga.) to Pres. Lincoln as a “Christmas gift.”
The wire from Sherman to Lincoln reads; “I beg to present you, as a Christmas gift, the city of Savannah, with 150 heavy guns and plenty of ammunition, and also about 25,000 bales of cotton.”
1941: British Prime Minister Winston Churchill arrives in Washington, D.C. for the Arcadia Conference, the first summit between Churchill and Franklin D. Roosevelt to discuss military strategy.
1944: Having surrounded the 101st Airborne at Bastogne, Belgium, German General Heinrich Freiherr von Lüttwitz issues a surrender ultimatum to Gen. Anthony C. McAuliffe, the acting commander for the 101st. Clement’s one-word response: “NUTS!”
Despite being heavily outnumbered, the 101st was able to hold out until the 4th Armored Division relieved them on Dec. 26th.
Meanwhile, German commanders, including the Chief of the General Staff, recommend ending the Rundstedt Offensive (Battle of the Bulge) due to a lack of significant progress.
1950: Air Force F-86 Sabres shoot down six communist MiG-15 fighters without losing a single jet in the biggest dogfight of the Korean War.
Medal of Honor: 67 years ago near Kalterherberg, Germany, Tech. Sgt. Peter J. Dalessondro saved his unit from being completely routed by multiple overwhelming attacks.
Adapted (and abridged) in part from “This Week in US Military History” by W. Thomas Smith Jr. at Human Events.
In: Military History
Dec. 21 in US Military History
1861: President Abraham Lincoln signs a bill authorizing the creation of an award for sailors and Marines who “distinguish themselves by their gallantry and other seamanlike qualities during the present war.” The Medal of Honor is born.
1866: In the biggest defeat on the Great Plains until Little Big Horn, Crazy Horse leads 79 soldiers and two civilians into a deadly ambush at Fort Kearny in present-day Wyoming. The 81 Americans are wiped out by approximately 2,000 Indians.
1943: The submarine USS Grayback sinks its fourth Japanese ship in three days.
1944: German troops from the 5th Panzer Army surround the 101st Airborne at Bastogne, Belgium.
1945: Nearly one month after a vehicle accident that paralyzed him, Gen. George S. Patton dies of a pulmonary embolism in a military hospital in Heidelberg, Germany.
1950: Airmen from the Fifth Air Force conduct “Operation Kiddy Car,” the evacuation of nearly 1,000 Korean War orphans to the island of Cheju-do to escape approaching communist forces.
1968: Frank Borman (Col. USAF, ret.), James Lovell (Capt. USN, ret.), and William Anders (Maj. Gen. USAF, ret.) blast off aboard Apollo 8, becoming the first humans to leave Earth’s orbit and on Christmas Eve, would become the first to orbit the moon.
Medal of Honor: 67 years ago in Belgium, Private Francis S. “Frank” Currey kills one tank, disables three others, and forces a German unit to retreat after inflicting heavy casualties with a bazooka, automatic rifle, a halftrack, and anti-tank grenades.
In: Military History
Dec. 20 in US Military History
1803: The Louisiana Purchase is completed, doubling the size of the United States. France sells 828,000 square miles of territory west of the Mississippi River for less than three cents an acre.
1860: Delegates meeting in Charleston, S.C. unanimously adopt the ordinance to dissolve ties with the United States. South Carolina becomes the first state to secede from the Union.
1862: Confederate forces under Gen. Earl Van Dorn attack the supply depot for Union General Ulysses S. Grant’s troops, derailing Grant’s plan to capture Vicksburg, Miss.
1941: The 1st American Volunteer Group, better known as the “Flying Tigers,” enters combat with the Japanese over China.
1989: 27,000 US troops, supported by 300 aircraft, invade Panama to protect American lives and overthrow dictator Manuel Noriega.
1992: US Marines and Belgian paratroopers secure the Somalian port city of Kismaayo in the first combined amphibious assault since the Vietnam War.
Medal of Honor: 68 years ago over the North Sea, Tech. Sgt. Forrest L. “Woody” Vosler‘s B-17 was damaged and forced to leave the formation after a bombing raid on Bremen, Germany. Despite his wounds, Vosler left his station to man the machinegun when the tailgunner was wounded. Vosler was blinded by shrapnel, and had to repair the radio by touch in order to send a distress signal as the damaged plane was about to ditch in the North Sea.
In: Military History
Elvis and a bazooka
Specialist Elvis Presley firing a bazooka
This day in 1957, Elvis Presley received his draft notice to serve in the United States Army. On March 24, 1958, Elvis Presley is sworn in as a private. He attended basic and advanced training at Fort Hood, Texas and later serve in Europe in the 3d Armored Division. He ultimately reached the rank of sergeant before completing his two years of active duty service. Elvis was a jeep driver and reconnaissance scout, although he could also drive, load, and fire the M-48 Patton tank.
In: Images, Military History
Dec. 19 in US Military History
1777: Gen. George Washington’s Continental Army establishes its winter camp at Valley Forge.
1862: Confederate cavalry under Brig. Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest dismantle railroad tracks north and south of Jackson, Tenn., disrupting Union supplies.
1941: Adolf Hitler replaces Field Marshall Walther von Brauchitsch as commander-in-chief of Germany’s armed forces.
1972: Apollo 17 astronauts Eugene A. Cernan (Capt., USN ret.), Ronald E. Evans (Capt., USN ret.), and civilian Harrison H. Schmitt splash down in the South Pacific after spending a record 75 hours on the Moon’s surface. Cernan is the last human to set foot on the moon.
2000: The UN Security Council voted to impose sanctions on the Taliban in Afghanistan, directing them to close terrorist training camps and to hand over Osama bin Laden, who was suspected in attacks against United States embassies.
2001: Fires that had been burning for over three months under the rubble of the World Trade Center are finally declared to be extinguished.
2003: Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi halts his nuclear, biological, and chemical weapons programs after secret negotiations with the United States and Britain.
Medal of Honor: 67 years ago, Tech Sgt. Robert E. Gerstung braved eight hours of intense tank, artillery, and mortar fire. He crossed the killzone to retrieve more ammunition, and later, another weapon when his malfunctioned. When the order was given to withdraw, Gerstung provided the only covering fire for the unit.
In: Military History
Dec. 15 in US Military History
1791: The Bill of Rights, the first ten amendments to the Constitution of the United States, become law.
1862: Union Army Maj. Gen. Ambrose E. Burnside ends his disastrous series of frontal attacks against Gen. Robert E. Lee’s well-entrenched Confederate forces along Marye’s Heights during the Battle of Fredericksburg. It is during the battle that Lee – emotionally moved by the valor of the Federal Army, which, despite terrible losses, attacks his impregnable position time-and-again – says, “It is well that war is so terrible, lest we grow too fond of it.”
1864: Gen. John Bell Hood’s Confederate Army of Tennessee is routed in the Battle of Nashville by a Union army under command of Gen. George Thomas. After the battle, Hood’s once formidable army would no longer be an effective fighting force.
1944: A plane carrying Maj. Glenn Miller, leader of the world-famous “Glenn Miller Orchestra” prior to World War II, disappears in bad weather over the English Channel. Miller volunteered for service and led the Army Air Force Band from 1942 until his disappearance.
Meanwhile, the US Seventh Army enters Germany.
1945: Gen. Douglas MacArthur orders the end of Shintoism as the state religion of Japan, which viewed Emperor Hirohito as a divine authority.
1948: The Navy and State Department sign a memorandum establishing the Marine Security Guard program for US embassies across the world.
1950: F-86 Sabres make their combat debut in Korea. Meanwhile, UN forces withdraw south of the 38th Parallel.
1964: The AC-47, the Air Force’s first gunship, makes its combat debut in Vietnam.
1965: US bombers conduct their first major attack against North Vietnamese industrial targets, destroying a power plant north of Haiphong that supplied 15 percent of the country’s electricity.
Meanwhile, Walter M. Schirra (USN) and Thomas P. Stafford (USAF) blast off aboard Gemini VI. The crew test rendezvous procedures in space with Gemini VII, which had already been in space for several days.
1969: President Richard Nixon announces that 50,000 additional US troops will be withdrawn from Vietnam.
Medal of Honor: 44 years ago, Private Allen J. Lynch crossed a kill zone multiple times and killed numerous enemies in order to rescue three wounded comrades.
Adapted (and abridged) in part from “This Week in US Military History” by W. Thomas Smith Jr. at Human Events.
In: Military History
Dec. 13 in US Military History
1636: The Massachusetts General Court in Salem orders the creation of a militia, requiring all able-bodied men between the ages of 16 and 60 join, to defend the colony if necessary. Three regiments are created: the North Regiment – today’s 181st and 182nd Infantry Regiments; the East Regiment – today’s 101st Engineer Battalion; and the South Regiment – today’s 101st Field Artillery Regiment. The National Guard is born.
1918: The US Army of Occupation crosses the Rhine and enters Germany.
1951: Air Force pilot George A. Davis Jr. shoots down four MiG-15 jets, the largest one-day total during the Korean War. Davis was the war’s first double ace (10 kills) of the war, shooting down a total of 14 Chinese, Korean, and Soviet jets (adding to seven Japanese planes shot down during World War II), but he would later become the only ace to be killed during the conflict. He was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor.
1966: US bombers attacked Hanoi, North Vietnam for the first time.
1974: The North Vietnamese Army attacks Phuoc Long Province, just north of Saigon in a “test” attack. South Vietnamese resistance is ineffective and the United States does nothing. In coming weeks, North Vietnamese forces will capture Saigon and South Vietnam will surrender unconditionally.
2003: Soldiers from the Fourth Infantry Division and special operators from Task Force 121 capture deposed Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein in a “spider hole” near his hometown of Tikrit.
In: Military History
Dec. 12 in US Military History
1753: 21-year-old Virginia adjutant George Washington delivers an ultimatum for French forces to abandon Fort Le Boeuf (present-day Waterford, Penn.) as they were trespassing on British territory.
Christopher Gist, Washington’s guide, would save the future president’s life twice during the trip.
1770: The British soldiers responsible for the Boston Massacre are acquitted. Future president John Adams is their lawyer.
1937: The gunship USS Panay and three Standard Oil tankers are sunk by Japanese as they evacuate US citizens from Nanking following the Japanese invasion during the Second Sino-Japanese War.
1953: Maj. (future Maj. Gen.) Chuck Yeager pilots the Bell X-1A to Mach 2.44 (1648 mph), setting a speed record that still stands today (straight-wing aircraft on level flight). The flight almost costs Yeager his life.
1985: Arrow Air Flight 1285, returning soldiers of the 101st Airborne to Fort Campbell following a peacekeeping mission in Egypt, crashes after takeoff, killing 248 soldiers.
1992: Marine Corps Cobra helicopter gunships destroy a Somali armed vehicle, marking the first combat action of Operation Restore Hope.
Medal of Honor: 70 years ago during the defense of Wake Island, Marine Capt. Henry T. Elrod shot down enemy planes, sunk a ship, and commanded Marines on the ground as they defended against the Japanese invasion.
In: Military History
