Long Live Conservatism! Long Live Liberty! (2nd qtr '09 FReepathon thread IX)

It's been said that conservatism has different meanings for different people. It may not be textbook, but without a whole lot of navel gazing, here's what it means to me and what Free Republic is all about:

In a word, Freedom! In two words, Preserving Freedom. In a handful of words as stated by our Founding Fathers, to secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our posterity!

America was founded on the proposition that all men are created equal by God and that our unalienable rights to Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness are granted directly by God and that no man, no government, no power on earth has the legitimate authority to deprive us of same or to redefine them out of existence. All down through history, tyrants of every stripe have tried to do so. All eventually fail. Man was created by God to be free, and so shall he be!

Today, our American heritage, our traditional American way of life, our American freedom itself is under constant attack. The enemies of freedom are daily eroding away our rights, forcing their repugnant evil ways onto our society and our children and trampling our constitution. Abortionism, homosexualism, extremist environmentalism, militant feminism, socialism, Marxism, government enforced atheism, paganism, perversion, cowardice, overreaching abusive government intrusion, etc, are all antithetical to conservatism and antithetical to continued freedom.

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We empower our government to perform certain defined tasks, such as defending our rights, defending our borders, defending our nation, establishing courts, establishing certain standards for trade among nations and states, etc., but we do not empower them to run our lives, seize our property, indoctrinate our children, poison our society, trample our constitution, stomp out our religious freedom, tax us out of house and home, force themselves upon us or otherwise have their way with us. King George learned the hard way that you DO NOT TREAD ON US!!

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Operation Persecution April 22, 1944
from This Day in History

Americans launch Operation Persecution in the Pacific
On this day in 1944, Allied forces land in the Hollandia area of New Guinea. The Japanese occupiers, only 15,000 in number, many of whom were on administrative duty, fight for more than three months against ludicrous odds at great cost: When the battle for the northern coast of New Guinea was finally won by the Allies, 12,811 Japanese were dead, compared with 527 Americans.This Day in History

Hollandia:

A town on the northern coast of New Guinea on Humboldt Bay. During World War II Hollandia was a major Japanese air base, and was taken by a brilliantly executed American amphibious operation 22 April 1944. The success of the operation had much to do with securing New Guinea and was a major step toward the eventual invasion of the Philippines. History.Navy.mil

RABAUL, WEWAK AND HOLLANDIA ATTACKED

During January and through most of February, General Street's Thirteenth and the U. S. Naval Air Forces, based in the Solomons, concentrated on the job of knocking out Rabaul as a major air threat. Just before end of February -- after having lost nearly 900 aircraft in defense of the base - the Japanese withdrew their remaining air strength from Rabaul.

In consequence, Japanese ground forces on New Britain were forced to abandon virtually all of the islands; the shipping lanes, which had served as lifelines to the doomed Japanese garrisons in the Bismarcks and the Solomons, ceased to exist.

Here, as in the Central Pacific, the Army-Navy strategy of bypassing Japanese-held islands has proved lucrative.

Simultaneously with the effort of the Thirteenth against Rabaul, the Fifth Air Force was knocking out Wewak as a major enemy base. At Wewak, too, after land and sea communications were out cut and airplanes destroyed in combat or on the ground, the base became so untenable that the remaining air strength was withdrawn.

This left Hollandia as the only major enemy air base in all of eastern and northeastern New Guinea and paved the way for our over-land advance up the coast of that vast island. Such withdrawals had a very decided effect upon the operational value of the Japanese air force.

At each base bypassed or abandoned the Japanese left behind their best combat and maintenance crews and squadron and group staffs - these they have never been able to replace.

In 4 days of concentrated attack the Fifth Air Force put Hollandia out of the running. The entire enemy force, of approximately 400 aircraft, was destroyed -- mainly on the ground. About 2 weeks later, an American amphibious operation captured Hollandia, sustaining negligible losses.

From Hollandia, and from a captured enemy airfield on nearby Wakde Island, the Fifth Air Force then turned its attack on the island of Biak, Noemfoor, and Owi in the Geelvink Bay area of Dutch New Guinea. Again enemy air was neutralized, and our amphibious forces moved in with light casualties.

When we began the concerted attacks against Rabaul and Wewak, the Japanese started feverishly to build air bases on the Halmahera Islands, southeast of Mindanao. Most of these fields were nearly completed by the time of our amphibious operations against Noemfoor and Biak; they based nearly 250 enemy aircraft in the Halmaheras. But this air power could not be used to contest our landings because it had to be conserved for the air defense of Mindanao and the Visayas.

As soon as our aviation engineers had made our fields on Biak, Noemfoor, and Owi, operational, the Fifth Air Force went after the enemy air strength on the Halmaheras, on Ceram, Boeroe, and on the Vogelkop peninsula of Dutch New Guinea. The Japanese then had between 400 and 500 aircraft deployed in these areas. Within a week, the enemy withdrew the remnants of this force to Ceram, Boeroe, and to Mindanao. When we sought to neutralize Ceram and Boeroe, the enemy made a more determined stand, but in another month those two islands, as well as northeast Celebes, were eliminated as sources of Japanese air power.

This report was prepared by the Army Air Forces and is dated Feb. 27, 1945.

National Museum Air Force Fact Sheet

U.S. Army in World War II
The Approach to the Philippines
Robert Ross Smith

Chapter Two
Planning and Preparation for the Hollandia-Aitape Operation

The first step in the Southwest Pacific Area's drive to the Philippines--the seizure of the Hollandia region of Dutch New Guinea--could have far-reaching consequences. (Map I) Anchorages at Hollandia were known to be capable of basing many of the largest combat vessels, cargo ships, and troop transports.

Inland plains in the area were thought to provide almost unlimited potentialities for airdrome development. Aircraft operating from fields at Hollandia could dominate most Japanese airdromes in western New Guinea and nearer islands of the Indies, could fly reconnaissance and bombing missions against the western Carolines, including the Palaus, and could provide support for subsequent landing operations along the north coast of New Guinea.

Small naval vessels, such as motor torpedo boats (PT's), operating from Hollandia area bases, could interdict Japanese barge traffic for miles both east and west of that region. Finally, the Hollandia region was capable of development into a major supply base and staging1 area for the support of subsequent Allied operations farther to the west.

General Headquarters, Southwest Pacific Area, and its subordinate commands were to have no easy task in planning the advance to Hollandia; but by March 1944 these headquarters had accumulated two years' experience with the complex air, sea, and ground operations that characterized the war in the Pacific.

Indeed, the planning for Hollandia provides an excellent case study for most amphibious undertakings in the Southwest Pacific. For this reason a detailed discussion of the work undertaken by the various theater commands, the problems they faced, and the means by which these problems were solved is included here. The planning for subsequent operations within the Southwest Pacific is treated in less detail with emphasis placed principally on the differences from the Hollandia planning.

Solving the many problems faced by the Southwest Pacific commands in planning the advance to Hollandia was made more difficult by the interrelationship of many of those problems. A direct move to Hollandia from eastern New Guinea, bypassing Wewak and Hansa Bay, could not be undertaken unless carrier-based air support were made available from the Pacific Fleet.

It was also possible that a more powerful enemy force might be encountered at Hollandia than had been met during any previous landing operation in the Pacific theaters. This meant that a larger Allied force than had ever before been assembled for any single amphibious operation in the Pacific would have to be sent against Hollandia.

The size of this force would complicate logistic planning and preparations and would necessitate the use of more assault shipping than was available within the Southwest Pacific Area. Finally, the advance was to be made into terrain about which many important details were unavailable and unobtainable. Thus, all interested commands of the Southwest Pacific Area were to have a thoroughgoing test of their training or past experience... Continues here: The Approach to the Philippines

Amphibious Assault at Hollandia
April 22, 1944 - April 27, 1944
Location: North coast of New Guinea
United States Army, United States Navy, United States Coast Guard

Personnel:

General MacArthur
Admiral Chester Nimitz
Rear Admiral Daniel E. Barbey
Lieutenant General Robert E.L. Eichelberger

Soldiers setting up camp after the successful assault.

Allied forces pushed westward against Japanese defenses. This amphibious assault called "perfectly planned and smoothly executed" by historian Samuel Eliot Morrison, caught the Japanese by surprise. The large airfield was a major prize that bolstered operations in the region enabling bombers to reach the Philippines.

Rear Admiral Daniel E. Barbey, known in the fleet as "Uncle Dan, the Amphibious Man," commanded the naval assault and transport forces, and Lieutenant General Robert E.L. Eichelberger, Commander Ground Forces Southwest Pacific, the assault troops.

The area later served as MacArthur's headquarters and was a huge staging area for the invasion of the Philippines. Over twenty U.S. bases were established and half a million US personnel moved through the area.

Even to this day the hulks of US tanks can be seen in the vicinity of Tanahmerah Bay.

World War II Valor in the Pacific National Monument

Australian General Sir Thomas Blamey with Lieutenant General Robert L. Eichelberger, leader of the U.S. ground troops in New Guinea, standing in front of a captured Japanese pillbox during the fight for Papua.

Lieutenant General Robert L. Eichelberger Commander 8th US Army

Spot on! Well said!

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