I don’t know who made the picture below. But he understands what you’re saying.
Posted on 06/04/2024 9:44:43 AM PDT by Tell It Right
80 Years Ago Today
June 4, 1944: The U.S. Fifth Army Liberated Rome. Two days later,
June 6, 1944: The Normandy D-Day invasion by the Allies begins, including the United State. One week later,
June 13, 1944: The "Pacific D-Day", Battle of Saipan, begins. This is the naval bombardment, followed by invasion on June 15, involving 535 ships with 127,000 troops.
All 3 were major military engagements in which the U.S. was a major participant in (especially the Battle of Saipan). All were going on at practically the same time, and different parts of the world. All three were victories.
80 years later the Army’s floating pier sinks...........
You’re right.
And very wisely, we supplied the USSR with what they needed to take the brunt of the casualties in Europe.
“80 years later the Army’s floating pier sinks...........”
Yes. But!!! The builders were more Diverse than any other US armed forces engineers than ever in history!
June 4, 1944
“Royal Air Force meteorologist Group Captain James Stagg recommended that Overlord be postponed one day from June 5 to the 6th because of bad weather. Dwight D. Eisenhower followed his advice and postponed D-Day by 24 hours.”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/June_1944
They were the 1st unit to enter Rome and still have the Chicago Sun article where they interviewed my dad's crew as the (lead car) and first Americans to enter Rome.
At 19 years old, across North Africa and into Anzio.
19-year old's today? Living in mom and dad's basement playing video games.
Had Clark obeyed orders, the war in Italy might have ended several months earlier.
For more than a week before the capture of Rome, the and the right (west) flank of the German Tenth Army, withdrawing slowly toward the Caesar Line, were exposed and threatened with a trap which the German commanders feared would be closed, but which was not. The greatest irony was that if the VI Corps main effort had continued on the Valmontone axis on 26 May and the days following, Clark could undoubtedly have reached Rome more quickly than he was able to do by the route northwest from Cisterna. The VI Corps also could have cut Highway 6 and put far greater pressure on the Tenth Army than it did.Ironically, too, when the Fifth Army finally broke through the last of the Fourteenth Army's defenses, it accomplished this by a surprise night infiltration along the eastern side of the Alban Hills between the hills and Valmontone. When this breach had been widened, Clark again wheeled his forces northwest toward Rome and away from the withdrawing Tenth Army. Though the British Eighth Army in the advance up the Liri Valley failed to keep heavy pressure against the main body of the Tenth Army, the Fifth Army still might have closed the trap had Clark struck toward Tivoli and then eastward along the lateral highway toward the Adriatic coast.
Say what you want about FDR. But in less than four years he and his allies defeated both Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan.
Contrast that with George W. Bush. Bush could not (or would not) crush radical Islam when he had the chance. After 9/11 we needed another FDR. We sure didn’t get one.
And likely totally ignorant of what great grandpa did in Europe or pacific. Not taught anymore it seems.
I don’t know who made the picture below. But he understands what you’re saying.
I would see Dan on my walks and we'd usually talk baseball. We also had chats about what NY was like in the old days. He was from NYC’s Hell's Kitchen and I once worked in the city.
One day out of the clear blue on June 7th, Dan asked me “Do you know where I was 60 years ago today, kid?? (I was then 55 and he called me kid!). It was D plus 1 and I came ashore in Normandy! We were on a troop ship off the coast of Ireland for days, going in circles waiting to go to Normandy. The whole boat was as sick as dogs!”
I treasure my chats with Dan about old NY and his time in our WW2 military. Sadly, he only lived a few years more but, oh what a gentleman and man he was!
80 years ago today my 25 year old father was getting his first look at France.
How the Japanese could look out on Saipan and see the power that the US was projecting across thousands of miles of ocean…at the same time they were doing the same in Europe…and not think the whole thing was going to end badly for them.
People use the word “awesome” to describe a good meal these days. The events you describe is the true definition of “awesome.” The logistical power of the US in WWII is just amazing.
There were plenty of 19 year olds riding tanks into Iraq and swooping into Afghanistan.
I would be careful not to lump them all in with the idiots at Columbia. The country has a lot of good young people. You just don’t hear about them because they are out doing the right things with their lives.
In addition, the US had the benefit of highly capable military leaders who were up to the task of training, deploying, and leading massive forces into combat. And as remote as the example of Rome is, the US approach to WW II was similar to that of Rome in reliance on numerical, technological, and tactical superiority. Both Rome and the US also preferred to win victories though brute force instead of more elegant but riskier strategies.
Who knows, but if Rome is our measure, the US may still have centuries to run as the world's dominant power.
Thanks. IMHO, WW1 defined the U.S. as the world's largest power, including economic power. For instance, pre-WW1 the London Stock Exchange was the world's largest stock exchange. Since WW1 it's been the New York Stock Exchange.
But these events in June 1944 defined the U.S. as an upper tier super power that other countries couldn't think about competing with.
I wonder if your father ever watched the movie ANZIO...
The author apparently forgot that the most decisive battle fought in the Pacific War began 80 years ago today...Midway.
4 Nip carriers sunk....
80 years later, the “Bridge to Nowhere” in Gaza sank..
Pathetic what we have become...
Roger that.
I just don't think the warrior-type percentages are what they used to be.
Not sure the US could field the type of military we had in the 40s, (or even the 60s).
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