Posted on 08/31/2017 7:41:32 AM PDT by fugazi
1864: Two armies under the command of Maj. Gen. William T. Sherman engage Confederate Gen. John Bell Hood's vastly outnumbered Army of Tennessee just south of Atlanta. Despite brilliant fighting and generalship in the Battle of Jonesborough, the Confederates destroy a trainload of military supplies to prevent its capture by the Union and withdraw to Atlanta.
1916: Near Guillemont, France, a German artillery shell scores a direct hit on 2nd Lt. Henry A. "Harry" Butters, instantly killing the popular Royal Field Artillery officer. Butters, an American citizen that joined the British Army at the outbreak of World War I, was so reknowned that Winston Churchill (then a battalion commander with the Royal Scots Fusiliers) met with him and would write of Butters after his death. Butters' gravestone simply read "An American Citizen" - as he requested - and every soldier that could be spared attended his funeral.
1940: President Franklin Roosevelt federalizes 60,000 National Guard soldiers.
1942: After a squadron of eight Japanese destroyers finally manages to squeeze through Guadalcanal's defensive ring and disembarks 1,000 Japanese troops the night before, the arriving force stages an attack on Henderson Field. Meanwhile, the Marine Corps' elite 1st Marine Raider Battalion and 1st Parachute Battalion arrive from Tulagi.
While four Marine Corps parachute operations are planned during the war, the highly trained Paramarines are never used for their intended purpose and will only be used in conventional roles. The Paramarines and Raiders - considered to be among America's first special operations units - will both be disbanded by war's end.
1943: The Navy commissions the destroyer escort USS Harmon - the first warship to be named after an African-American. While serving aboard the USS San Francisco (CA-36) during the
(Excerpt) Read more at victoryinstitute.net ...
Navy Scouts and Raider Detachments served in both the European and Far East theatres during the war. They were actually the original “special forces”.
Then there’s the Navy’s Underwater Demolition Teams - the predecessors of today’s SEALs.
Claude King – The Burning Of Atlanta Lyrics
Back in 1864
On a cold November’s morn
The burning of Atlanta
Was a sad and a dreary one
For Sherman came a marching
With a hundred thousand men
And through the smoke
Through the flames
Over the cannon’s roar
[Chorus:]
You could hear them rebels call
We ain’t scared of y’all
We don’t care what the Yankees say
The South’s gonna rise again
We’re tough as nails
And you better turn tails
And head back where they’ve been
They took our beans
And a fat back pony
We’ve still got our Confederate money
We don’t care what the Yankees say
The South’s gonna rise again
“Darby’s Rangers” also a lesser known unit, although Hollyweird did produce a good flik on it many years ago..........
Gunny G
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My uncle Howard was in the First Marine division on Guadalcanal. Don’t know if he was a paramarine or not. He was 18 when he entered the service. It was hell. The Japs and the mosquitoes and the lack of quinine made it pretty much unbearable. The replacement drug for malaria caused some of the men to go stir crazy during battle. That happened to my uncle. He continued to serve throughout the war. When he was 25 he committed suicide. I pray for him every day.
May God have mercy on his soul. We have no idea of the sufferings those brave men endured.
Thank you.
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