Posted on 08/07/2017 4:20:44 PM PDT by Bull Snipe
USMC Major General Vandergrift landed his 11,000 Marines of the 1st Marine Division on the island of Guadalcanal. The next 6 months would show the world the mettle of the fighting men of our Marine Corp.
I guess I’d be called a racist if I mentioned the USMC fought the Japs and beat them, the best they had at the time.
I recall reading a book by a Japanese pilot. He mentioned hearing that U.S. Marines had landed on a certain island and were fighting like demons.
“Maline you die. Maline you die tonight. Fluck Babe Luth” those were some of the verbal taunts used by the Japanese against the Marines.
The Chief of US Naval Operations, Admiral Ernest J. King, gaffed off the handshake agreement between Roosevelt and Churchill, which so much as surrendered Australia and even Hawaii to the Japs, in order to defeat the Axis powers first.
He took the US Navy and Marine Corps to war with what they had against the best navy in the world.
Very, very, very brave men. We owe them eternal gratitude.
Uhhh, Japan was one of those Axis powers.
would show the world the mettle of the fighting men
...ONCE AGAIN show the world
The series Pacific told the story pretty well. It was hell on earth.
just damn.
Am sure that is what the Japanese soldiers of the Ichiki Regt. said at Tenaru River. Word are cheap, actions count.
My oops.
In 1942 my Dad was 16, waiting until he was 17 so he could (and di) enlist in the USMC to go avenge those who attacked us at Pearl Harbor.
More men were like that, back then. These days finding a male that enlisted after 9/11/2001 is really hard.
The only such person I know, is my niece...who did 12 years in the Air Force.
IMO, the best book ever written on the battle. I first read it fifty years ago, and can still recall some of the passages.
Challenge For The Pacific: the Bloody Six-month Battle Of Guadalcanal
by Robert Leckie
https://www.amazon.com/Challenge-Pacific-Bloody-Six-month-Guadalcanal/dp/0306809117
Then the US Navy cut an ran with his heavy equipment, most of his artillery shells and food.
And the Marines learned how tough and disciplined the Japs were, too. The often fought to the last man.
Which end of the Rome/Berlin Axis was it?
“This Berlin-Rome vertical line is not an obstacle but rather an axis around which can revolve all those European states with a will to collaboration and peace.” Benito Mussolini, 1936
`A Helmet For My Pillow’ is good.
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