Archive for the ‘Military’ Category
Soldier kills tiger in Vietnam
A long range reconnaissance patrol soldier poses with a tiger killed in Vietnam (source: Militaryphotos.net)
In: Images, Military History
Dec. 5 in US Military History
1781: Commanding 1,600 British troops, American Traitor – now a British brigadier general – Benedict Arnold captures and burns Richmond, Va.
1855: A landing party from the USS Plymouth skirmishes with Chinese forces near Canton during the Taiping Rebellion.
1861: The civilian merchant vessel Star of the West departs New York for Fort Sumter with supplies and 250 troops. South Carolina had seceded from the Union and the base was surrounded by Confederate forces and in need of supplies. Upon arriving in Charleston Harbor four days later, shore batteries attacked the vessel, forcing it to turn around. The standoff would continue until April, when the first shots of the Civil War were fired at Fort Sumter.
1875: Cdr. Edward Lull (USN) leads an expedition to locate the best route for the Panama Canal.
1904: Marines arrive in Korea to defend the U.S. legation assembly at Seoul.
1945: Japanese pilots receive their first order to become kamikaze suicide attackers. At Okinawa alone, 1,465 kamikaze pilots destroy at least 30 U.S. warships and kill 5,000 Americans.
1967: U.S. and South Vietnamese Marines conduct a joint amphibious assault of the Mekong Delta. The goal of Operation Deckhouse V is to capture Viet Cong prisoners from the Thanh Phu Secret Zone, and it is the first time U.S. troops operate in the delta.
Medal of Honor: 42 years ago, SSgt. Franklin D. Miller was leading a long range patrol of Special Forces soldiers and Montagnards in Laos when a booby trap wounded several members. Eventually, the entire patrol was wounded – including Miller, who was shot in the chest. The last man able to fight, Miller held off repeated enemy assaults against their position, despite being vastly outnumbered.
Miller would serve over six years in Southeast Asia. When asked by Pres. Richard Nixon at his award ceremony where he wanted to be assigned next, Miller answered “Vietnam.”
In: Military History
Christmas lights in Afghanistan
CAMP BASTION, Afghanistan -- Members of the 26th and the 46th Expeditionary Rescue squadrons scramble for a personnel mission at Camp Bastion, Afghanistan, Dec. 29, 2011. From notification, the units have 15 minutes to be airborne and must have the patient to Camp Bastion's Role 3 in one hour. (U.S. Air Force photo by Staff Sgt. David Carbajal)
In: Images, Military
Jan. 4 in US Military History
1847: The U.S. Government Ordnance Department orders 1,000 revolvers designed by Samuel. Colt and Texas Ranger Capt. Samuel H. Walker. Historians would later say that Colt’s invention altered the course of human history.
1910: The USS Michigan (BB-27), the first US dreadnought battleship, is commissioned.
1943: The USS Helena (CL-50), operating off the coast of Munda Island, shoots down a Japanese Type 99 Val bomber, marking the first kill using Variable Timing (proximity-fused) anti-aircraft shells.
1944: U.S. Army Air Force bombers begin dropping weapons and supplies to resistance fighters in Europe during Operation Carpetbagger.
1989: Two F-14 Tomcats from the carrier USS John F. Kennedy shoot down two Libyan MiG-23 Flogger aircraft in the Gulf of Sidra.
In: Military History
Dec. 29 in US Military History
1778: British troops capture Savannah, Ga.
1812: The USS Constitution defeats the British frigate HMS Java in a three-hour battle off the coast of Brazil.
1862: Plans to capture Vicksburg, Tenn., the last remaining Confederate stronghold on the Mississippi River, are thwarted when Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman’s frontal assault fails against entrenched Confederate forces in the Battle of Chickasaw Bluffs.
1890: 7th Cavalry troops surround a Sioux encampment at Wounded Knee Creek (present-day South Dakota), attempting to disarm the Indians under Chief Big Foot. The soldiers attack when a shot is fired (it is not known who fired) and massacre over 150 Sioux, including many women and children. The Massacre at Wounded Knee is the last major engagement in the Plains Wars.
1943: The submarine USS Silversides (SS-236) sinks three Japanese cargo ships and damages a fourth off the Palau Islands.
In: Military History
Anniversary of the fall of Wake
Wrecked Grumman F4F-3 "Wildcat" fighters of Marine Fighting Squadron 211 (VMF-211), photographed by by the Wake airstrip sometime after the Japanese captured the island on 23 December 1941. The plane in the foreground, "211-F-11" was flown by Captain Henry T. Elrod during the 11 December attacks that sank the Japanese destroyer Kisaragi. Damaged beyond repair at that time, "211-F-11" was subsequently used as a source of parts to keep other planes operational. (National Archives photo)
70 years ago, Japanese troops overwhelmed the heavily outnumbered Marine garrison on Wake Island, which lays about 2,000 miles west of Pearl Harbor. The defenders had valiantly held out since the first attack on Dec. 8 and inflicted heavy casualties on the Japanese.
Leatherneck magazine’s article on the Battle of Wake is a great read.
Note: the plane pictured above belonged to Capt. Henry T. Elrod, who was awarded the Medal of Honor for his actions in the defense of Wake Island. His citation can be read here.
In: Media, Military History
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 · Tagged with: W. Thomas Smith Jr.
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
