Posted on 04/02/2020 5:50:42 AM PDT by tired&retired
The Attack on Pearl Harbor Webinar Part One
With educators from The National WWII Museum and the Pearl Harbor Aviation Museum
Thursday, April 2 1:00 p.m. (CST)
We invite students and families to learn how the "Day of Infamy" changed the lives of Americans as student reporters explore important historical sites all around Oahu. Participate in a live Q&A with The National WWII Museum and Pearl Harbor Aviation Museum educators.
Part Two of this webinar series will take place tomorrow, Friday, April 3, at 1:00 p.m. (CST).
The 30th Infantry Division’s Heroic Stand at Mortain, August 1944 Peleliu to Okinawa, Robert C. Lyman’s Legacy of Valor
http://support.nationalww2museum.org/site/R?i=4gol_zvJKSTmvjbINm6vCA
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ORAL HISTORY: George Roberts
George Roberts, a radio operator in the B-17 "Cavalier" talks about life expectancy in the 8th Air Force and the second Schweinfurt Raid, better known as "Black Thursday.”
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ORAL HISTORY: George Roberts
George Roberts, a radio operator in the B-17 “Cavalier” talks about life expectancy in the 8th Air Force and the second Schweinfurt Raid, better known as “Black Thursday.”
Thanks. This should interest the brothers.
On March 17, 2020, President Donald J. Trump announced that the US Army will be awarding the Presidential Unit Citation to the 30th Infantry Division, in recognition of its heroic stand at the Battle of Mortain, France, August 7-12, 1944.
According to the announcement, “This action rightfully recognizes our veterans who triumphed against incredible odds, as well as those who died during a critical battle that helped ensure the Allied victory in Europe.”
The 30th Division’s distinguished combat record stretches back to World War I, when it was formed as an Army National Guard unit drawn from Tennessee, Georgia, and the Carolinas, and informally dubbed the “Old Hickory” Division. It helped to break Germany’s Hindenburg Line in September-October 1918. The 30th Division returned to Europe during World War II under the command of Major General Leland Hobbs, landing on Normandy’s Omaha Beach on June 11, 1944, and proceeding to the base of the Cotentin Peninsula, where it was deployed in the vicinity of St. Lô.
The division subsequently played an important role in Operation Cobra, which commenced on July 25 and led to the American breakout from Normandy.
The USS Texas, oldest surviving dreadnought battleship and flagship of the Lone Star State.
USS Texas - 104 years old and still going
While Gordon Prange’s “At Dawn We Slept” is probably a better overall read, the most insightful book on the unpreparedness at Pearl is by Maj. Henry Clausen, “Pearl Harbor: Final Judgment.”
Here are some of the amazing, previously unknown details he and co author Bruce Lee (yes) reveal:
*Gen. Walter Short, who arrived at Pearl around July of 1941, changed the order of the “Alert Codes.” I’m doing this from memory, so I may have them reversed, but essentially if 3=”high” and 1=”low,” he reversed them.
He. Didn’t. Tell. Washington!
On Dec. 1, after the Japanese quasi-war message arrived, the War Dept asked Short if Pearl was on “Level 3” (again, from my recollection, high) and he said yes. But he had not told the War Dept he reversed the codes and the War Dept thought he was on the highest alert, when he was on the lowest.
*The main thing to come from the book is that in the FIVE Congressional hearings on Pearl from 1942-45, NO ONE could mention or allude to MAGIC and the fact we were reading a lot of the Japanese codes. Therefore NO witness could answer anything of any substance truthfully . . . or that witness was not read into MAGIC.
Clausen was charged by Marshall himself to get to the bottom of the Pearl investigations. He read Clausen into MAGIC. Moreover, he supplied Clausen with an unprecedented set of several MAGIC documents in a pouch on Clausen’s chest. This was as I recall Spring 1945, so the war in both theaters was still going on. There was a chance Clausen might be shot down or captured. If so, the pouch had an incendiary device & Clausen was to blow himself and the pouch up in such an eventuality.
The MAGIC docs allowed Clausen to immediately show to those he interviewed that he was indeed read into MAGIC and they could answer truthfully.
*He found that the “changing of the guard” nightly occurred at 12:00 midnight at Pearl, in which the Army and Navy took over the radio transmitters. They “lost” the East Wind, Rain message temporarily in the transition. This is one more reason for its delay in reaching DC.
Much more stuff. Overwhelming review of the screwups.
Thank you for sharing.
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