|
 are acknowledged, affirmed and commemorated.
|
Posted on 12/23/2002 12:10:46 AM PST by SAMWolf
|
are acknowledged, affirmed and commemorated.
|
| Our Mission: The FReeper Foxhole is dedicated to Veterans of our Nation's military forces and to others who are affected in their relationships with Veterans. We hope to provide an ongoing source of information about issues and problems that are specific to Veterans and resources that are available to Veterans and their families. In the FReeper Foxhole, Veterans or their family members should feel free to address their specific circumstances or whatever issues concern them in an atmosphere of peace, understanding, brotherhood and support.
|
|
|
|
The Battle for Wake Island As of 6 December 1941, the defensive status of Wake was far from ideal. Intended primarily as a patrol-plane base for Catalina clippers, the island had no scouting aircraft yet, and only the most primitive facilities for any type of aircraft operations. Its squadron of 12 Grumman Wildcat aircrafts, VMF-211, was learning on the job how to operate wholly new aircraft which had no armor and on which the bomb racks did not match the local supply of bombs. On the entire atoll, there were 449 marines of all ranks, detachment of the 1st Defense Battalion, therefore equipped and trained for combat. The ground defenses, embodying the complete artillery of a defense battalion (5-inch seacoast batteries and 3-inch antiaircraft guns), had by dint of unceasing 12-hour working days been emplaced, and some protective sandbagging and camouflage accomplished. To man all these weapons, 43 officers and 939 enlisted were required, but only 15 officers and 373 enlisted were available. Furthermore, there were 1,200 unarmed civilian contract employees on the island.  Word of war came around 7am on 8 December 1941. At 11am, several planes drop through the clouds : this was japanese Air Attack Force of 34 Nell bombers, based at Roi, 720 miles to the south. The fortuitous rain squall masked the enemy let-down and approach, but the complete lack of any type of early warning was a matter which pointed squarely at Wake's most critical shortage: the want of radar. The results of the Japanese attack were devastating. Using 100-pound bombs and 20 mm cannon, the air strike destroyed seven F4F fighters on ground. The island's main aviation gas tank took a direct hit, exploded and set everything ablaze, including the squadron's tentage, tools and spare parts. VMF-211 suffered nearly 60-percent casualties and there were 84 dead or dying on Wake. Across the Pacific it was a similar story : in Pearl Harbor, Guam, Philippines, North China. In his first message after the Pearl Harbor disaster, President Roosevelt had warned the American people to be prepared for word of the fall of Wake. With the core of the fleet on the bottom of the seas, there could be little question, for the time being, of a sustained and aggressive fleet defense. Wake would stand or fall largely by its own strength.  By next morning, the Japanese bombers returned, methodical almost to a fault : the hour, altitude and pattern did not vary. The air combat patrol (or what was left of it) flanked them, opened fire and sent one bomber careening down in flames. The antiaircraft batteries opened up : five bombers were belching smoke, one burst into flames and exploded. Over the next two days, they would shoot down at least two more planes and score damaging hits on numerous others that disappeared over the horizon in a trail of smoke. The second raid hit hard the camp and the naval air station. They destroyed the hospital, the Navy's radio station, and the civilian and naval barracks, killing 55 civilians and four Marines. The aerial raids had been directed at the airstrip and the various supporting establishments. But, as events would shortly prove, the three days' bombing, while inflicting considerable damage on Wake, had been insufficient. Admiral Inouye, commanding the Imperial Japanese Fourth Fleet, was charged by current war plans with capture of Wake, but, more important, that of Guam, Makin and Tarawa. By dark on 10 December, Guam had fallen. Earlier that same day, Makin and Tarawa had surrendered. Wake alone remained : conduct of this last operation was delegated to Rear Admiral Kajioka. His naval force comprised one flagship light cruiser, the Yubari, two other light cruisers (Tatsuta and Tenryu), six destroyers (Mutsuki, Kisaragi, Yayoi, Mochizuki, Oite, and Hayate), two destroyer-transports, two transports, and two submarines. The plan was to have 150 men land on Wilkes Island, and 300 men on the south side of Wake Island to capture the airfield, covered by the guns of the naval force. If those numbers proved insufficient, supporting destroyers were to provide men to augment the landing force. At 3am, on 11 December, lookouts reported ships in sight. At 5am, Kajioka's ships began their final run. Because of the unfavorable weather and heavy seas, boating progressed slowly and unsatisfactorily, with some landing craft being overturned. Soon after, the boats opened fire at area targets along the south shore of Wake. The coastal guns, however, remained silent and hidden behind a brush camouflage. At 6am, as the boats were closer, the Marines commenced firing. Although they had unavoidably revealed their location, the ships' counterfire proved woefully inaccurate.  A battery sent two shells into Yubari at the waterline and two more shells caught her slightly aft. Badly hurt, Yubari retired over the horizon. Another battery fired and caused a violent explosion in the destroyer Hayate : she broke in two and sank. The Oite was next and took a direct hit : she threw up a smoke screen and limped away. Then, the gunners shifted fire to the Japanese transports Kongo Maru and Konryu Maru : one shell hit the leading transport, causing both to flee. Next they turned their efforts to a cruiser off the west end of the island : she took one shell in the stern and retreated out of range. The destroyer Yayoi take a shell in the stern and be set afire. Then went a smoke screen, and the ships made their escape. Kajioka ordered a withdrawal : plans for a landing were forgotten and damage control on burning and smoking ships became priority. The fleet had no air cover and the remaining Wildcats found it little more than an hour's sail from Wake : the destroyer Kisaragi, suffering from an earlier hit, just blew up, and another destroyer suffered heavy damage. The defeat was total : two ships were lost, seven were damaged, and probably about 500 japanese died while four Marines were wounded in action.
|
The Central Pacific's Gilbert Islands were strategically important to the Allies in World War II. Tarawa, and atoll in those islands, was the scene of a major amphibious assault and on of the proudest testaments to valor in U.S. Marine Corps history.
Japan's Rear Admiral Shibasaki Meichi was quoted as saying before the assault that it would take the American forces "a million men and a hundred years" to capture the atoll. The Japanese had backed up this boast with an elite force of almost 5,000 men and heavily fortified the island of Betio in the southwestern corner of the atoll. Since capturing the islands three days after the attack on Pearl Harbor, the Japanese had spent two years positioning coastal defense guns, antiaircraft guns, anti-boat guns, light and heavy machine guns, and an airstrip they could use to strike at allied troops stationed in the area. The atoll was strategically vital to both sides, and the stage was set for one of the bloodiest battles in the Pacific.
The Allies were faced with serious problems in capturing Tarawa. The big coastal guns would keep the Navy guns either under constant fire or at bay, and the Japanese had used sunken ships and other pieces of metal to create obstacles which blocked the avenues of approach from the sea. The approaching craft would have to slow down to maneuver, putting them in prearranged ambush sites where they would be subject to deadly, concentrated fire from fortified positions. The next line of obstacles included a double apron of barbed wire, log barriers, and concrete obstacles which surrounded the island. After breaching these defenses, the Marines would still be faced with the beach itself, where the Japanese had fortified heavy machine guns which created a series of interlocking fields of fire in addition to antipersonnel mines and anti-vehicle mines in the fringing reefs where the boats would have to land. With the added benefit of antiaircraft guns and planes of their own, the defenders were well prepared for any assault.
The Allies had to take Tarawa, however, and on November 19, 1943 the assault began. Faced with the near-impossible odds and hounded from all sides, the Marines made it to the beach; by the last day of battle the Japanese had been forced into the east end of the the three-mile long island. They had prepared a series of fortified positions to fall back on in their retreat, and had defended each one almost to the last man. Those three miles may be some of the longest in Marine Corps history, as they slowly advanced at a terrible price. Organized resistance on Tarawa ceased by 1:30 PM on the third day.
The Battle of Tarawa took 76 hours and cost the lives of 1,020 Marines. The list of Americans wounded was listed as high as 2,296. The cost was much higher for the Japanese defenders- of the 4,386 elite troops on Betio, only 146 were left alive.
Four Marines received the Medal of Honor for their heroism, three of them posthumously. The fourth, Colonel David M. Shoup, Commanding Officer of the 2nd Marines and Betio Island Assault forces, later became the Commandant of the Marine Corps.
USS Tarawa (CV-40) was one of the Navy's potent new 27,000 ton aircraft carriers and sister of the Essex, Shangri-La, and Princeton. The first Navy ship so named, Tarawa was built at the Norfolk Navy Yard in Portsmouth, Virginia, and launched in the Elizabeth River on May 12, 1945. In a speech delivered at the launching of the Tarawa, Marine Corps General Holland Smith, who commanded the Marines during the furious 76 hour fighting on the atoll, said ,"It is eminently fitting that this great ship should be named for an operation which marked a turning point of the war in the Pacific and began a new era of amphibious warfare."
The Marines who went ashore on November 20, 1943, carried a battle flag which was later presented to the new carrier. The flag, under which 1,020 Marines and Sailors died, was hauled down in a special ceremony on February 13, 1944, by a handpicked colorguard of men who had taken part in the assault.
Tarawa boasted improvements in design and equipment that set her apart from the other ships in her class. The vessel was 856 feet in overall length, had 100 feet in beam and a draft of 24 feet. Fully loaded, she displaced more than 34,000 tons and was able to achieve a top speed of more than 30 knots. With a crew compliment of approximately 2,500 men, Tarawa carried 80 planes and was equipped to launch and land the first Naval-developed jet-propelled aircraft.
Heavily armed, Tarawa sported twin and single mount five-inch guns, quadruple 40mm and twin 20mm antiaircraft weapons. Profiting from the lessons learned in the Pacific carrier war, the ship also had improved facilities to stow bombs and rockets.
|
|
I will share this information with my sisters. We always thought of Daddy as being invincible. He was a man who loved life, loved America and loved his family.
I hope he had someone to talk to about his war experiences. Reading the details of the battle for Tarawa took my breath away.
Misty covered a lot of this but there's some more info at this link.
Today's classic warship, USS Hopkins (DD-249)
Clemson class destroyer
Displacement. 1,190
Lenght. 314'5"
Beam. 31'8"
Draft. 9'3"
Speed. 35 k.
Complement. 101
Armament. 4 4", 1 3", 12 21" tt.
The USS Hopkins (DD-249) was launched 26 June 1920 by the New York Shipbuilding Corp., Camden, N.J.; sponsored by Miss Sarah Babbitt, a descendant of Esek Hopkins; and commissioned 21 March 1921 at Philadelphia, Lt. Comdr. C. A. Bailey commanding.
After shakedown Hopkins arrived at Newport, R.I., 31 May for battle practice training during the summer. In November, she was assigned to Destroyer Squadron 15 for tactical training with the Atlantic Fleet along the East Coast.
Hopkins sailed from Hampton Roads 2 October 1922, and reached Constantinople 22 October for duty in Turkish waters. She protected American interests and cooperated with the Relief Mission in the Near East, ranging to Beirut, Jaffa, and Smyrna. She departed Constantinople 18 May 1923 for New York, arriving 12 June. For the next 7 years Hopkins operated out of New England ports in the summer, Charleston in the winter, and the Caribbean Sea in the spring. During the spring of 1930, Hopkins participated in force battle practice with aircraft, attesting to the growing importance of naval aviation.
On 3 February 1932 Hopkins was one of the two naval ships rendering medical aid to earthquake victims at Santiago, Cuba. She departed 5 February to join the Pacific Fleet at San Diego. She had escort duty for President Roosevelt's cruise to Canada in July 1936, then resumed training along the Western Seaboard.
Hopkins returned to Norfolk in April 1939, and performed Neutrality Patrol from September 1939 until sailing for San Diego 17 May, thence to Pearl Harbor. She converted to a high-speed minesweeper (DMS-13) in the Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard.
When the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, Hopkins was at Johnston Island for war maneuvers, but immediately headed back to Hawaii. She continued patrol of the Hawaiian Sea Frontier, with a short break for overhaul in the States, until late summer 1942, when she joined the invasion fleet bound for Guadalcanal. As America's first offensive effort of the Pacific war began 7 August, Hopkins swept the transport area and covered the landings on Tulagi. In a heavy enemy air attack 9 August, she shot down two enemy planes. During the following months, Hopkins escorted transports, swept mines, and carried badly-needed supplies to Guadalcanal.
Hopkins served as flagship for Adm. R. K. "Kelly" Turner as the Russell Islands were invaded 21 February 1943 During the action, she downed her third enemy plane. Remaining in the southwest Pacific, she joined in the initial invasion of Rice Anchorage, New Georgia, 4 July, and of Bougainville 1 November. Convoy escort antisubmarine patrol, and sweeping duties kept the fourstacker busy until the Solomons were secured.
As the Navy moved farther across the Pacific in the long island-hopping campaign, Hopkins arrived off Saipan 13 June 1944 to sweep the invasion approaches. She provided Screen and fire support for the amphibious landings of 15 June 1944. She picked up 62 prisoners from sunken Japanese ships as well as rescuing a downed fighter pilot and a seaplane crew. A brief rest at Eniwetok was followed by a role in the capture of Guam. Hopkins reached that important Marianas island 14 July to participate in the preinvasion sweeping and bombardment. She also gave fire support to the landings 16 July.
Following overhaul at Pearl Harbor, Hopkins arrived in Leyte Gulf 27 December 1944 to prepare for the Lingayen landings. The minesweepers sailed 2 January 1945 to sweep Lingayen Gulf under unceasing attack from Japanese dive bombers and kamikazes. When her sister ship Palmer was hit and sank in 13 minutes the morning of 7 January, Hopkins rescued 94 survivors.
Hopkins departed the Philippines 15 January 1945 for a brief rest at Eniwetok, then swept the transport areas and channels off Iwo Jima to prepare for invasion 19 February 1945. She remained on patrol off Iwo Jima, emerging from heavy air and shore fire unscathed. Departing Iwo Jima 6 March, Hopkins next headed into battle off Okinawa, the "last stepping stone to Japan." While fighting off the constant raids and suicide attacks "Lucky 13" shot down several Japanese planes. On 1 May 1945 she was struck a glancing blow by a flaming kamikaze just before it plunged into the sea.
On 7 June 1945 Hopkins steamed for overhaul at Leyte, Philippine Islands where she remained until cessation of hostilities. Hopkins then rendezvoused with units of the Third Fleet headed for Tokyo Bay. After two days of sweeping the entrances to Tokyo Bay, Hopkins anchored in sight of Mount Fujiyama 30 August 1945. The Japanese may have given up, but the elements had not. Hopkins had to ride out two typhoons with winds raging to 125 knots before her departure from Tokyo Bay 10 October 1945 for the Eastern Seaboard of the United States.
Hopkins arrived in Norfolk 28 November and decommissioned there 21 December 1945. She was sold for scrapping 8 November 1946 to Heglo Sales Corp., Hillsdale, N.J.
Hopkins was awarded two Navy Unit Commendations for heroism off Guadalcanal and in Lingayen Gulf. She also received 10 battle stars for service in World War II.
USS Hopkins was named in honor of Commodore Esek Hopkins (1718-1802), the first Commander in Chief of the Continental Navy.
Very good record for a DD.
LOL bump!
| Be sure and Click the Pics J
|
Another heroic stand by my sea-service bretheren which is in the annals of history.
God Bless the United States Marine Corps!
You're welcome. I'm glad you like it and I'm always happy to help if I can
Admitedly, I became a bit "Ticked" recently and honestly so, in my opinion
But
This is Christmas and I am a Christian
Is This not the season of forgiveness...
Merry Christmas
God Bless
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.
