Posted on 07/15/2020 7:23:52 AM PDT by rintintin
In 1942, the Japanese were bearing down on the Philippines, where Gen. Douglas MacArthur was based. To help him escape, the Navy relief on a small but heavily armed class of ships:
Video: https://youtu.be/0xm0CSY4WJ4
(Excerpt) Read more at youtu.be ...
What WORD connects MacArthur's escape to South Cornwall in the 1790s?
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.The word is "BOOTLEGGER"!
Cornwall in the 1790s to mid-1800s was an area where the traditional employment had been devastated by London's restrictions against Revolutionary & Napoleonic France, yet import duties on common, needed items reached 100% or more. From this grew a massive smuggling culture, bringing in high value goods from France and the Channel Islands. Due to the Government Forces watching from ship and shore, many an ingenious trick was employed to get goods from the beach to inland locations. A BOOTLEGGER was someone hearing common sea-boots (short waders) and baggy pants and thus able to stuff items within but able to walk & run!
Now move the clock to prohibition U.S. East Coast. A thirsty America made a fine target for a new generation of BOOTLEGGERS as Cuba to Canada had booze readily available if you can get by the pesky US Customs and US Coast Guard. The battles here grew a transportation need for a powerful boat able to hold a good cargo but also travel long distances over rough waters like Halifax NS down to northern US costal states. Similarly routes from the Bahamas to the Southeast States. By the end of Prohibition in 1932, there were some very good boats and more than a few captured and used for counter-measures.
While there is no DIRECT Connection, the PT Boat technology was a known one and used by other nations like the German E-Boats and others. There is a lots of denial about any crossing of technology but is it honest? I have my doubts. Oh, and the famous skipper of PT-109? His fine Dad, a Democrat Party Irish stalwart, was known to have had his hand deep into this import business!
My cousin (may he rest in peace) was a gunner on PT and Crash Boats. He told me that Japanese destroyers could run down the PT boats unless they jettisoned the torpedoes.
Wrong! Go back and read what the commanders who were there wrote in their memoirs.
And getting MacArthur out of Corregidor required all the remaining aviation fuel which is what they burned.
If you knew the actual history, you would have posted that.
The Japanese attack force was delayed ~6 hours due to bad weather on Formosa.
US fighters had been up all morning patrolling for them. Finally, they had to return to Clark to about midday to refuel. The Japanese just happened to show up as the refuelling was in progress.
A few fighters had already been refuelled and managed to take off. The gods of war just happened to favor Japan that day.
By reading, listening to and watching accounts of men who were actually there rather than leftist smear pieces written long after the fact and citing chains of other leftist smear pieces..
The reason no one has heard of her is because she is staunchly pro-American and staunchly pro-MacArthur.
On December 8, 1941, as the Pacific War reached the Philippines, Yay Panlilio, a Filipina-Irish American, faced a question with no easy answer: How could she contribute to the war?In this 1950 memoir, The Crucible: An Autobiography by Colonel Yay, Filipina American Guerrilla, Panlilio narrates her experience as a journalist, triple agent, leader in the Philippine resistance against the Japanese, and lover of the guerrilla general Marcos V. Augustin. From the war-torn streets of Japanese-occupied Manila, to battlegrounds in the countryside, and the rural farmlands of central California, Panlilio blends wry commentary, rigorous journalistic detail, and popular romance.
Weaving together appearances by Douglas MacArthur and Carlos Romulo with dangerous espionage networks, this work provides an insightful perspective on the war. The Crucible invites readers to see new intersections in Filipina/o, Asian American, and American literature studies, and Denise Cruz's introduction imparts key biographical, historical, and cultural contexts to that purpose.
You mean the skipper whose nautical equivalent of a Ferarri was surprised and run over on a clear night by an enemy minivan? The skipper whose dad was a "former" gangster?
Here is the link to Col Yay PAnlilio's book The Crucible: An Autobiography by Colonel Yay, Filipina American Guerrilla
https://www.amazon.com/Crucible-Autobiography-Filipina-American-Guerrilla/dp/0813546826
Thanks!
Suboptimal but capable.
Could he afford to waste fuel and spare parts on recon in force missions when he might be cut off from resupply for the duration of the war?
Yes. At the crack of dawn U.S. fighters took to the sky patrolling for the expected Japanese attack force. The sun rose but no sign of the Japanese.
By midday, with no sign of the Japanese and unaware that the Japanese planes were grounded on Formosa ~6 hours due to bad weather, the U.S. fighters running low on fuel had to return to base for refueling.
The American's bad luck is while on the ground being refueled, that just happened to be when the much delayed Japanese attack force arrived.
The gods of war just happened to favor Japan that day.
Thanks Smithsonian. Wait, what's this?
Regarding a request for information about the Japs catching all our planes on Luzon Island on the ground and whether or not it was MacArthur’s fault. Historian William Bartsch has written two very well researched volumes about the USAAF in the defense of the Philippine Islands. In them he presents what fso301 and yarddog have stated, that the B-17’s had taken off after dawn and flew over Luzon to keep them from being hit on the ground. Then, in compliance with Murphy’s Law, the Japanese attack, 6 hours late because of fog on Formosa, they B-17s and many of the fighters were caught on the ground refueling.
The two volumes are:
1) December 8, 1941: MacArthur’s Pearl Harbor. Pub 2012 (Williams-Ford Texas A&M University Military History Series)
2) Doomed at the Start: American Pursuit Pilots in the Philippines, 1941-1942. Pub 1995, (Williams-Ford Texas A&M University Military History Series)
If you are recommended in the history of the air war in the Philippine Islands in 1941-42, I highly recommend these two histories. Bartsch also wrote a 3d volume covering the USAAF pilots who fought in defense of Java, Every Day a Nightmare: American Pursuit Pilots in the Defense of Java, 1941-1942. Pub 2010, (Williams-Ford Texas A&M University Military History Series)
Yep!
Correction: The skipper whose dad was a "former" gangster and documented Hitler supporter?
Dugout Doug MacArthur lies ashaking on the Rock
Safe from all the bombers and from any sudden shock
Dugout Doug is eating of the best food on Bataan
And his troops go starving on.
Dugout Doug’s not timid, he’s just cautious, not afraid
He’s protecting carefully the stars that Franklin made
Four-star generals are rare as good food on Bataan
And his troops go starving on.
Dugout Doug is ready in his Kris Craft for the flee
Over bounding billows and the wildly raging sea
For the Japs are pounding on the gates of Old Bataan
And his troops go starving on...
First printed appearance of that tune was stateside during the early stages of the 1944 presidential campaign.
Absolutely loved the old shipyard repair foreman, sitting there with the ‘03A3 Springfield across his lap, “waiting for the Japs”... smoking his pipe and ready to go down swinging.
American through and through.
McArthurs legacy is overrated.
Agreed. I never saw the allure of dugout doug, while Patton never fled from fights, captured more land, liberated more people and loss less men and killed more of the enemy, than Dougs island hopping, yet guess who get the higher rank and gets fired for being in subordinate to the commander in chief?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.
