[Homer_J_Simpson]

Free Republic University, Department of History presents World War II Plus 70 Years: Seminar and Discussion Forum
First session: September 1, 2009. Last date to add: September 2, 2015.
Reading assignment: New York Times articles and the occasional radio broadcast delivered daily to students on the 70th anniversary of original publication date. (Previously posted articles can be found by searching on keyword “realtime” Or view Homer’s posting history .)
To add this class to or drop it from your schedule notify Admissions and Records (Attn: Homer_J_Simpson) by freepmail. Those on the Realtime +/- 70 Years ping list are automatically enrolled. Course description, prerequisites and tuition information is available at the bottom of Homer’s profile. Also visit our general discussion thread.

[Homer_J_Simpson]

Selections from West Point Atlas for the Second World War
Battle for Northern Entrance to Ormoc Valley, 16 November-14 December 1944 (from 32d Infantry Division website)
The Philippine Islands: Leyte Island and the Visayas, 1944 – Sixth Army Operations on Leyte and Samar, 17 October-30 December 1944
Northwestern Europe, 1944: 6th and 12th Army Group Operations, 8 November-15 December 1944
Northwestern Europe, 1944: 21st Army Group Operations, 15 September-15 December 1944
Eastern Europe, 1941: Russian Balkan and Baltic Campaigns – Operations, 19 August-31 December 1944
Northern Italy 1944: Allied Advance to Gothic Line, 5 June-25 August and Gains 29 August-31 December
China, 1941: Operation Ichigo, April-December 1944 and Situation 31 December
China-Burma, 1941: Third Burma Campaign – Slim’s Offensive, June 1944-March 1945

[Lazamataz]

Where’s Deep In The Heurtgen Forest when you need him?

[PeterPrinciple]

Pack mules care ammunition to front.

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Just recently my brother mentioned an obituary of a vet. This guys worked with mules and did some amazing training of the mules for some tricks. Caught the attention of a general and assigned to entertain the troops. Was able to bring the mule back to the US because of the general and made a living many years from that mule.

additional info here:

http://olive-drab.com/od_army-horses-mules_ww2.php

In Sicily and Italy, horses were used to overcome terrain that stymied mechanized units. On the drive to Palermo, 3d Inf. Div. captured hundreds of horses and mules. Gen. Truscott pressed them into service on his drive to Messina and they added enough value to be shipped to Italy when the fighting moved there. Truscott believed that more horses and mules in Sicily would have enabled him to capture more of the German force that ended up in Italy. Other commanders commented during the Italian campaign that horses would have helped and were superior to mechanized means in difficult, constricted terrain. However, when fighting bogged down at the Anzio beachhead, Truscott’s horse troop was disbanded.

After D-Day, horses to equip the 10th Mountain Division in Italy were procured from the mainland of France and mules for the same unit from the United States. They proved essential in the rugged Appenine mountains, north of Rome. From the beginning of the Sicily/Italy animal program until VE-day, approximately 15,000 animals were received and processed from local sources, Sardinia and Corsica, North Africa and the British Middle East. Quartermaster Remount Service in Italy issued 11,000 horses and mules to using forces. QM also had to supply food for the animals since local forage was insufficient.

When Allied forces captured the Po Valley in the north of Italy, tens of thousands of riding and draft horses were discovered running free, abandoned by the retreating Germans. They included some of the best German and Austrian stock, along with the best of the Italian breed, which had been procured as the Germans rolled back from Reggio and Salerno to the Po River.
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A peak in demand for military horses in the U.S. occurred in 1943. The Coast Guard asked for 3,000 horses to be used by its beach patrols

[PeterPrinciple]

PT-BOASTS SHUT OFF JAPANESE ON LEYTE

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...... It was after dawn when we finished our mission, when a couple of Lightnings picked us up and escorted home to Leyte Gulf......................

I thought that was interesting.

[Jim Noble]

Where is DITHF when we need him? Probably hiding out with Quidam.

Let me say, because I have never posted to one of these threads, how great they are and how much I appreciate being able to read them.