Posted on 11/08/2018 4:32:50 AM PST by Old Teufel Hunden
On Nov. 22, 1943, Marine 1st Lt. Alexander "Sandy" Bonnyman Jr. led a desperate assault to take a massive, sand-covered bunker holding scores of Japanese troops who had Marines pinned on the northern shore of Betio in the central Pacific atoll of Tarawa.
Bonnyman planned the assault, and his team of 21 engineers and riflemen -- dubbed "Forlorn Hope" due to the hopelessness of their mission -- charged the bunker and killed a machine gunner perched on top with satchel charge demo devices and flamethrowers. On the summit, they dropped explosive charges down the ventilator openings and sprayed inside the bunker with flaming diesel fuel.
More than 100 Japanese troops were flushed from the blockhouse and immediately killed. About 150 died inside the bunker.
Bonnyman, then 33, made a heroic last stand as he was mortally wounded. His remains were buried on the island and lost to time. He was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor in 1947 by President Harry Truman.
Captivated by search efforts for remains missing on the island by the History Flight nonprofit, Bonnyman's grandson, journalist and author Clay Bonnyman Evans, first visited Betio in 2010. It was the start of a long journey to find his grandfather's remains and uncover the man behind the medal.
(Excerpt) Read more at military.com ...
One of the groups that semi-successfully broke out of the Truckee Lake Donner Party camp called themselves the “Forlorn Hope”. It seems that ordinary folk were somewhat better educated than we are today.
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