Posted on 04/01/2016 6:35:45 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
It’s hard to believe the resolve the United States once showed in defeating enemies. One wonders if in a 24/7 news cycle of “living room wars” whether this nation could have ever mounted the sustained effort it took to join the Allies in stopping Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan.
Americans today would find such will to win at any cost difficult to comprehend.
Perhaps with Easter just passed, it is fitting to remember Easter of 1945 when the invasion of Okinawa, the last battle of World War II and the largest sea-air-land operation in history, began. It would also be the bloodiest campaign of the Pacific and a grim foretaste of what to expect in the planned invasion of Japan itself.
On Easter Sunday, April 1, 1945 the landing crafts carrying the first wave of the U.S. Marines and Army G.I.s chugged towards the beaches of the island of Okinawa, just 350 miles south of mainland Japan....
(Excerpt) Read more at theblaze.com ...
My Dad was in the Pacific but he was in the Phillipines and New Guinea. Plenty of Japs to go around.
My Dad was in the China-Burma-India Theater of War.
God bless them all.
Here. Dad was a Cox’n on a landing craft. I still have a memento from a Japanese field hospital.
A perspective on war casualties;
* In 1945, we suffered some 6o,000+ casualties over an 82 day slog on Okinawa.
* On June 1,1916, Great Britain launched an offensive at the Somme in France. On the first day, Germany inflicted 63,000+ casualties on Britain and that offensive lasted 5 months!
A perspective on war casualties;
* In 1945, we suffered some 6o,000+ casualties over an 82 day slog on Okinawa.
* On June 1,1916, Great Britain launched an offensive at the Somme in France. On the first day, Germany inflicted 63,000+ casualties on Britain and that offensive lasted 5 months!
Sadly pretty soon the only things they'll teach about WWII will be: 1. The Soviets defeated the Nazis all by themselves. 2. We were evil for Dresden and dropping the Atom Bomb. 3. How evil we were for interning the Japanese citizens.
The man power required for Okinawa was about the size of our current active duty army.
My Dad was on a minesweeper in the Pacific. The only story he ever told me about those days was that he switched from smoking Lucky Strikes to Camels because Camels tasted better standing at the bow of a minesweeper underway.
When I was on the USS ENTERPRISE, at least two were always out of commission.
Yes a generation of heroes.
I don’t think 2nd div has insinuated anything, he has sais 2nd div army
On the topic of the OP and your post - anyone who thinks we were in the wrong (clueless Liberals, typically) for dropping the atom bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki is simply clueless about what had happened at Okinawa. The fact of the matter is that to any rational person familiar with Okinawa, and familiar with what a conventional invasion of the core Japanese home islands would have meant, we saved Japanese lives, let alone American ones, by dropping the bombs.
But too few understand the history of Okinawa.
My grandfather was there, he was in the Navy on one of their ships. He passed away some years ago, but use to tell me stories of what it was like back then. I actuslly did a report on him for an interview a veteran assignment in 5th grade.
My uncle “Leon” was standing tall with him that day. Who knows, maybe they were friends. Semper Fi.
I think we are getting near that now
“We would not have committed to total victory after Pearl Harbor”
We would have sent special forces to arrest Fuchida and put him on trial in a civilian court in California, with special care to allow him to continue Shinto worship in custody.
Kamikazes today are hypersonic wave-skimming ballistic missiles like the Chinese Dong-Feng. Nasty stuff.
A CWIS burst is a continuous 20 seconds in duration burst?
Dad was on the Wadsworth. The following Battle Stars (7) were earned by the USS Wadsworth (DD516) in the time of her service:
1 Star/Treasury-Bougainville Operation: Occupation and defense of Cape Torokina. 1,8, 9, 13 November 1943.
1 Star/Consolidation of Solomon Islands: 28 December 1943, 1 February 1944.
1 Star/Bismark Archipelago Operation: Green Island 15-19 February 1944.
Anti-shipping sweeps and bombardment of Rabaul & New Ireland 24 of February - 1 March 1944.
1 Star/Marianas Operation: Capture and Occupation of Saipan, 14 of June to 8 July 1944.
Capture and Occupation of Guam: 12 July-9 August 1944.
1 Star/Iwo Jima Operation: Assault and Occupation of Iwo Jima 19 of February-16 March 1945.
1 Star/Okinawa Gunto Operation: Assault and occupation of Okinawa Gunto on 1 April-24 June 1945.
1 Star/Third fleet operation against Japan: 26 July-7 August of 1945.
Presidential Unit Citation: 17 April-24 June 1945 for Okinawa.
“On the morning of 24 June Wadsworth, relieved of radar picket duty, Wadsworth put her fighter-director team ashore. Since her first arrival off Okinawa, she had sounded general quarters 203 times, detected and reported the approach of hundreds of enemy aircraft, and successfully fought off all that attacked her. Her exploits during that time earned the USS Wadsworth the Presidential Unit Citation.”
Navy Occupation Service Medal (Asia) 2 September-17 November of 1945.
Dad never spoke of his service until his final months. Even then it was only between him and I.
My father served on a minesweeper in the Pacific for 44 months. They lived on Islands complete with hooch maids.
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