MARINES WIN FOOTHOLD IN NAHA; INFANTRY GAINS IN EAST OKINAWA (5/18/45)

Microfilm-New York Times archives, Monterey Public Library | 5/18/45 | Warren Moscow, W.H. Lawrence, George Horne, Clinton Green, Alvin S. McCoy, Lindsay Parrott, more

[Homer_J_Simpson]

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[Homer_J_Simpson]

Free Republic University, Department of History presents World War II Plus 70 Years: Seminar and Discussion Forum
First session: September 1, 2009. Last date to add: September 2, 2015.
Reading assignment: New York Times articles and the occasional radio broadcast delivered daily to students on the 70th anniversary of original publication date. (Previously posted articles can be found by searching on keyword “realtime” Or view Homer’s posting history .)
To add this class to or drop it from your schedule notify Admissions and Records (Attn: Homer_J_Simpson) by freepmail. Those on the Realtime +/- 70 Years ping list are automatically enrolled. Also visit our general discussion thread.

[Homer_J_Simpson]

Selections from West Point Atlas for the Second World War
Southern Okinawa: Naha-Shuri-Yonabaru, 1945 – Tenth Army Operations, 10 May-30 June 1945
Okinawa, Ryukyus Islands, 1945: Japanese Thirty Second Army Defensive Dispositions, 1 April 1945
Luzon, P.I., 1941: Final Operations on Luzon, 3 February-20 July 1945
Southeast Asia, 1941: Final Allied Offensives in the Southwest Pacific Area 19 February-1 July 1945
China, 1941: Operation Ichigo, 1945 and Final Operations in the War
Southern Asia, 1941: Third Burma Campaign-Allied Victory, April-May 1945

[Homer_J_Simpson]

The Nimitz Graybook

[Homer_J_Simpson]

Continued from May 13.

Winston S. Churchill, Triumph and Tragedy

[Homer_J_Simpson]

77th Makes a Coup (Moscow) – 2
200 Japanese Die at a Celebration (Lawrence) – 3
War News Summarized – 3
Carrier Wrecked by Bombs, Gets Home Despite Big Loss (Horne) – 4
Franklin Captain Urges 500 Awards (Green) – 5-6
Smashed Carrier Saved by Bravery – 6-7
Toll on Franklin Laid to Own Bombs (by Alvin McCoy, first-time contributor) – 7-8
31st Division Nears Big Mindanao Field (Parrott) – 9
Japanese Report Sea Fight in Strait – 10
Nazis’ Arch-Killer Captured by Yanks – 10
British Sentence 12 Germans to Die (by James MacDonald) – 10-11
Pacific Supply Miracle (by Hanson W. Baldwin) – 12
The Texts of the Day’s Communiques on Fighting in Various Zones – 13-14

[Homer_J_Simpson]

http://www.etherit.co.uk/month/4/18.htm

May 18th, 1945 (FRIDAY)

ÉIRE: Dublin: De Valera announced a $12 million food and clothing aid programme for Europe.

UNITED KINGDOM:
HMC MTB 736 and MTB 746 paid off.

Repair ship HMS Portland Bill launched.

GERMANY: Flensburg: Dönitz issues an order of the day to the Wehrmacht in which he attempts to exonerate himself by expressing horror at the concentration camps and distancing the military from Nazi atrocities.

Bremen: Lt. George Gosse (1912-65), RANVR, for the third time in ten days worked underwater to defuse a mine with a new, highly unpredictable type of mechanism. (George Cross)

ITALY: 44 Fascists are reported to have been murdered in Milan. (180 pp 238,239)
JAPAN: The USAAF’s Twentieth Air Force flies Mission 177: During the night of 18/19 May, 30 B-29 Superfortresses mine Shimonoseki Strait and Tsuruga Harbor in Japan.

The 6th Marine Division is involved in heavy fighting at Sugar Loaf Hill in Okinawa.

Off Okinawa:

- The destroyer USS Longshaw (DD-559), en route to her patrol area, runs aground on a coral reef just south of Naha airfield. While a tug was taking Longshaw in tow, Japanese shore batteries opened up and her bow was completely blown off by a hit in the forward magazine. The “Abandon Ship” order was given but 86 of her crew, including the captain, died. The wreck was destroyed by gunfire and torpedoes from U.S. ships.

- Two kamikazes make a coordinated attack on the high-speed transport USS Sims (APD-50, ex DE-154). Both aircraft are hit by AA fire and crash into the water on her port side with a violent explosions that lifts and shakes the entire ship resulting in serious oil leaks and considerable damage to machinery and equipment. The crew repairs the damage and continues patrolling.

- Tank landing ship USS LST-808 is damaged by an aerial torpedo.

- The U.S. freighter SS Cornelius Vanderbilt is bombed and set afire.

The ship is carrying gasoline and explosives but the crew and 108 stevedores on board put out the fire.

MARIANAS ISLANDS: The advance air echelon of the 509th Composite Group arrives at North Field, Tinian Island, Mariana Islands. The 509th is scheduled to deliver atomic bomb attacks on Japan; its Commanding Officer is Colonel Paul W Tibbets Jr, a pilot with a distinguished record in the 97th Bombardment Group (Heavy) in Europe and North Africa.

U.S.A.:
Escort carrier USS Point Cruz launched.

Minesweeper USS Towhee commissioned.

[Hebrews 11:6]

Thanks for including that remarkable story, of which I was ignorant, of the Franklin. I don't suppose a carrier could endure much greater damage and stay afloat. The officers and crew couldn't possibly have done more for each other, the Navy, and their country.

[alfa6]

FYI

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Franklin_%28CV-13%29

Regards

alfa6 ;>}

[Hebrews 11:6]

Thanks

[Jacquerie]

When the last time the slimes printed a similar, uplifting story of American bravery? Never mind.

Franklin's survival illustrated the USN’s emphasis on fire fighting systems and training. That she lost a quarter of her crew in a battle inferno sixty miles off the Jap coast and survived is amazing.

[21twelve]

Thought you might be interested in the WWII plus 70 years. We are making gains on Okinawa.

[Homer_J_Simpson]

Thanks for including that remarkable story, of which I was ignorant, of the Franklin.

I find this project to be of benefit to the ignorant. Every day, without fail, I post something of which I was previously ignorant. If not before I posted it then before I came across it on the microfilm. The trials of the Franklin is one of several examples of this from today's post

[colorado tanker]

Skorzeny was captured today.

He was tried for war crimes and specifically for supervising the unit that donned U.S. uniforms and created havoc in the Battle of the Bulge. His defense was that it was legal in the law of war so long as it is done before commencing hostilities. The court acquitted when there was testimony that British SOE agents donned German uniforms when operating behind enemy lines.

The man was an unreconstructed Nazi to the end, living mostly in Franco's Spain and Argentina.

Here's a fact I learned: after a coup in Egypt Skorzeny and some other Nazis gave volunteers in Egypt commando training. One of the young volunteers was Yasser Arafat.

[Hebrews 11:6]

Just think, Homer: if you ever need it, and who wouldn't, you're no longer ignorant of how to cure, permanently, Chinese Rot.

More seriously, and to your point, WW2 contained innumerable remarkable stories, for both the soldiers and sailors and also the citizenry. You have done a wonderful job--you're still doing it, actually--of bringing some of the more well-known such stories to our attention. You and I had previous-generation relatives directly involved, but we are aging and two decades from now few will have a personal stake in these stories. The lessons from that conflict are still vibrant for us, though, and you have my deep personal appreciation for fanning these flames, and lighting those new to us, into fresh remembrance.

[PAR35]

Although there was an active warrant for his arrest in West Germany at the time, he couldn’t get the surgery he needed in Spain, so he went back to Germany for medical treatment and recovery. Everyone looked the other way.

He’s also the guy that took control at OKW after the failed July coup, stopped the drumhead executions (that may have been part of a coverup), and basically ran the war until reliable senior officers could be brought in.

[PAR35]

Not sure if that story dealt with it (my eyes aren’t sharp enough to read all of the clippings) but the Franklin was sent to an east coast shipyard so it wouldn’t tie up space on the west coast that could be used for ships which could be repaired and sent back to the front.