June 6, 1944: Remembering D-Day And The Courageous Allied Forces
[guest post by Dana]
I’ve been spending some of today listening to original D-Day radio broadcasts provided by the National D-Day Memorial. They are rather indescribable as they take listeners back to another time and place, where courage and bravery were clearly defined, and an enemy even more so. The reports also drive home how inadequate any tribute really is when fully considering the immense bravery of the allied forces who determinedly stormed the beaches of Normandy, France. How could any effort to commemorate or pay tribute do justice to such raw courage and sacrifice? As soldiers readied to liberate Europe from Hitler’s Germany, General Dwight D. Eisenhower delivered his order of the day :
Soldiers, Sailors, and Airmen of the Allied Expeditionary Force:
You are about to embark upon the Great Crusade, toward which we have striven these many months.
The eyes of the world are upon you. The hopes and prayers of liberty-loving people everywhere march with you.
In company with our brave Allies and brothers-in-arms on other Fronts you will bring about the destruction of the German war machine, the elimination of Nazi tyranny over oppressed peoples of Europe, and security for ourselves in a free world.
Your task will not be an easy one. Your enemy is well trained, well equipped, and battle-hardened. He will fight savagely.
But this is the year 1944. Much has happened since the Nazi triumphs of 1940-41. The United Nations have inflicted upon the Germans great defeats, in open battle, man-to-man. Our air offensive has seriously reduced their strength in the air and their capacity to wage war on the ground. Our Home Fronts have given us an overwhelming superiority in weapons and munitions of war, and placed at our disposal great reserves of trained fighting men. The tide has turned. The free men of the world are marching together to victory.
I have full confidence in your courage, devotion to duty, and skill in battle. We will accept nothing less than full victory.
Good Luck! And let us all beseech the blessing of Almighty God upon this great and noble undertaking.
The History Channel has a wonderful clip of the allies landing on the beaches at Normandy:
The National D-Day Memorial website notes the immense difficulty faced by the soldiers who were determined to breach the stronghold in Europe by following the simple yet harrowing instructions to “jump, swim, run, and crawl to the cliffs”:
It is hard to conceive the epic scope of this decisive battle that foreshadowed the end of Hitlers dream of Nazi domination. Overlord was the largest air, land, and sea operation undertaken before or since June 6, 1944. The landing included over 5,000 ships, 11,000 airplanes, and over 150,000 service men. After years of meticulous planning and seemingly endless training, for the Allied Forces, it all came down to this: The boat ramp goes down, then jump, swim, run, and crawl to the cliffs. Many of the first young men (most not yet 20 years old) entered the surf carrying eighty pounds of equipment. They faced over 200 yards of beach before reaching the first natural feature offering any protection. Blanketed by small-arms fire and bracketed by artillery, they found themselves in hell. When it was over, the Allied Forces had suffered nearly 10,000 casualties; more than 4,000 were dead. Yet somehow, due to planning and preparation, and due to the valor, fidelity, and sacrifice of the Allied Forces, Fortress Europe had been breached.
I’ll leave you with Ronald Reagan’s powerful “Boys of Pointe du Hoc” speech from 1984 when he commemorated the 40th anniversary of the Normandy invasion. It was a magnificent speech made before 62 survivors of the 2nd Ranger Battalion, and paid eloquent tribute, respect and recognition to those brave soldiers who climbed the cliffs that day.
(Cross-posted at The Jury Talks Back.)
–Dana
Reagan’s speech is one of timeless elegance and grace. Although only some decades ago, it feels as if we have been propelled into an entirely different America in 2017. Painting with a broad brush, an America where courage and bravery are often unrecognized by far too many. And a time where in our polarized nation, climbing the cliffs in the name of freedom would not resonate with this divided America. We have lost something precious. Something that we should have held onto with all our might.
Dana (023079) — 6/6/2017 @ 3:26 pmThank you Dana, wise words. If only…
crazy (d3b449) — 6/6/2017 @ 3:43 pmDana, Dana, Dana. How do you befoul a timely reminder of D-Day? With a Deaver-staged Reagan, who was far from Point du Hoc on June 6, 1944.
The BEST remains Walter with Ike in Normandy, 1964. It’s an hour and worth every minute of time to watch.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R_dj2aba1hE&t=44s
“I like Ike.” – Eisenhower presidential camapagn slogan
DCSCA (797bc0) — 6/6/2017 @ 3:47 pmDCSCA,
I will be the first to admit that I am the very last person who should be posting any sort of remembrance of D-Day because, after all, who am I? Certainly no one brave and courageous, rather, in spite of what I’d like to believe, far too chicken to give my life for freedom. But with that, I have made a genuine effort at expressing the enormity of this day, and what happened that day by those mightier than most. As such, I don’t care who staged what and when. Reagan’s speech is magnificent. It’s poetic, it’s devastating, and it encapsulates the spirit of sacrifices made on all of our behalf.
And this is what matters.
Dana (023079) — 6/6/2017 @ 4:30 pm@4. Disagree. What matters is it was completely staged. Reagan was an actor and spent D-Day in Culver City.
Cronkite w/Eisenhower nails it.
DCSCA (797bc0) — 6/6/2017 @ 4:34 pm@4- PS- no offense meant, of course, but if you have the time, watch the CBS piece. It really is good and Eisenhower there in the first person puts it all in perspective and Cronkite was at his best.
DCSCA (797bc0) — 6/6/2017 @ 4:36 pmWhere was Cronkite on D-Day?
AZ Bob (f7a491) — 6/6/2017 @ 4:42 pm@7- =yawn= War correspondent Cronkite? See Chapter 5 of his memoirs. Representing the Allied press in the air covering a weather-aborted bombing run over Omaha Beach.
DCSCA (797bc0) — 6/6/2017 @ 4:57 pmJust listened to the radio broadcasts. Awesome. Thank you, Dana.
mg (31009b) — 6/6/2017 @ 5:00 pmI haven’t heard Reagan’s speech for years. I think it is the best D-Day commemoration ever. He was a great speaker and really let his audience feel his pride in America and our fighting men. Thanks for the refresher Dana.
Rev.Hoagie® (630eca) — 6/6/2017 @ 5:07 pmPretty sure Reagan was not at the 70th anniversary of D-Day. If only…
Kevin M (25bbee) — 6/6/2017 @ 5:12 pm@11. Only pretty sure? I’m certain.
Dana- Kevin’s right. Points for pointing out the typo. His act was at the 40th. Long dead and buried by the 70th.
‘I’ll leave you with Ronald Reagan’s powerful “Boys of Pointe du Hoc” speech from 1984 when he commemorated the 70th anniversary of the Normandy invasion.’
Should read 40th.
‘Oops.’ – Former Texas governor Rick Perry, GOP debate gaff, 2012
DCSCA (797bc0) — 6/6/2017 @ 5:19 pmWell, thanks for making my quiet correction into a loud one, Captain Extra-Obvious.
Kevin M (25bbee) — 6/6/2017 @ 5:26 pmHoagie, I have trouble listening to that speech, it’s so good. That and the one to the evangelicals.
Kevin M (25bbee) — 6/6/2017 @ 5:28 pm@13– You’re welcome! Always helps to highlight mistakes when it comes to anything Reagan.
DCSCA (797bc0) — 6/6/2017 @ 5:33 pmI think most people would climb the cliffs for freedom. It it seems otherwise, perhaps it is because most people doubt the leaders who would ask them to climb those cliffs…and doubt that freedom would be gained by climbing the cliffs. But they don’t doubt that freedom is a thing worth climbing cliffs for.
kishnevi (3734a9) — 6/6/2017 @ 5:34 pmhttps://borepatch.blogspot.com/2017/06/73-years-ago-they-were-airborne.html
kishnevi (3734a9) — 6/6/2017 @ 5:34 pm@16- If you watch that CBS piece w/Ike and Cronkite from ’64, you’ll discover that part of the plan was less of a concern to Eisenhower than the mess unfolding on Omaha. It’s really quite good listening to Ike’s first person perspective there on sight in Normandy.
DCSCA (797bc0) — 6/6/2017 @ 5:49 pm@4- Reagan’s speech is magnificent.
Except it wasn’t his. FTR, credit Peggy Noonan. She wrote it, not Ronnie.
DCSCA (797bc0) — 6/6/2017 @ 6:01 pmJust as JFK’s weren’t his, but Ted Sorenson’s.
Colonel Haiku (2601c0) — 6/6/2017 @ 6:09 pmWith a Deaver-staged Reagan, who was far from Point du Hoc on June 6, 1944.
You are mildly annoying most of the time but this goes beyond tolerance.
Reagan was a member of the Army Reserve all the=rough the 1930s. Thats where he learned to ride. When war was obviously coming, he applied for active duty and failed the physical.
Where and when did you serve, dickworth ?
Mike K (f469ea) — 6/6/2017 @ 6:09 pmRegular readers will know I can’t miss a chance to brag a little on my late father and his WW2 Navy service. I remember talking with him about the Normandy D-Day landings — it was not long after he’d seen “Saving Private Ryan,” which he liked a great deal and described as frighteningly accurate.
On this date in 1944, my dad was the junior-most ensign on the USS Zeilin (APA-3), a “fast attack transport” (meaning an armed troopship that could land troops amphibiously, no docks required). The Zeilin was in Eniwetok in the Marshall Islands, embarking Marines from the 1st Marine Provisional Division for to the invasion of Guam a few weeks later.
At that stage of the war, the Navy was comparatively short landing craft in the Pacific, since they’d been used in the European theater for amphibious invasions of North Africa, Sicily, Anzio, etc., even before D-Day at Normandy. And although he acknowledged to me its strategic soundness, my dad said that the Pacific Navy was always slightly chapped about the whole “Hitler first” strategy and their resultant place in line behind the European theater.
But the sailors in the Pacific — especially those like my dad, who were anticipating making an amphibious assault very much like those made at Normandy on the other side of the world — were definitely paying attention to the news there, and took heart from it as they approached their own crucible under fire.
Thank you for this post, Dana. These men should not be forgotten.
Beldar (fa637a) — 6/6/2017 @ 6:11 pmIke’s draft note for in case the attack failed is an interesting bit of history, too.
Jerryskids (3308c1) — 6/6/2017 @ 6:18 pmWhere and when did you serve, dickworth ?
Mike K (f469ea) — 6/6/2017 @ 6:09 pm
ASPCA served at Atascadero State Hospital.
Colonel Haiku (2601c0) — 6/6/2017 @ 6:22 pm@20- =yawn= Haiki! Gesundheit.
In fact, many, many were- start w/t inaugural. And BTW, Ted has been properly credited in history.
DCSCA (797bc0) — 6/6/2017 @ 6:28 pmDear Five Letter Acronym, it was a great speech, and you trying to piddle over Reagan’s shoes will not change that.
BTW, tomorrow is the 50th anniversary of the reunification of Jerusalem (on the secular calendar: the official celebration was two weeks ago, when the anniversary fell on the Jewish calendar). The Liberty incident took place the next day, June 8.
kishnevi (3734a9) — 6/6/2017 @ 6:32 pmThere were lots of Hollywood types that evaded service. John Wayne and Ward Bond and Reagan were not among them.
The political left delights in accusing them of hypocrisy because they did not serve.
Wayne had a serious football injury.
Bond had been in a severe auto accident. It is often said that John Ford tormented Bond with stunts because he knew how bad his leg was.
Robert Taylor came home from the war to find his career gone. Clark Gable and Jimmy Stewart had “good” wars although Gable really did little.
Mike K (f469ea) — 6/6/2017 @ 6:33 pm@23- Indeed. The personal responsibility he demonstrated only grows over time.
@21. I’m sorry, Mikey, WW2 ended 72 years ago and I missed it but my late uncle was shot in the azz in Normandy– the telegram from the War Department is framed in the living room. But thanks for playing.
DCSCA (797bc0) — 6/6/2017 @ 6:34 pm25… “Kennedy believed his inaugural address should “set a tone for the era about to begin,” an era in which he imagined foreign policy and global issues—not least the specter of nuclear annihilation—would be his chief concern. But while Sorensen may have been the only person who could reliably give voice to Kennedy’s ideas, the coming speech was too historic to entrust to merely one man. On Dec. 23, 1960, less than a month before Kennedy would stand on the East Portico of the Capitol to take the oath of office, Sorensen sent a block telegram to 10 men, soliciting “specific themes” and “language to articulate these themes whether it takes one page or ten pages.”
Although Sorensen was without question the chief architect of Kennedy’s inaugural, the final draft contained contributions or borrowings from, among others, the Old Testament, the New Testament, Lincoln, Kennedy rival and two-time Democratic presidential nominee Adlai Stevenson, Harvard economist John Kenneth Galbraith, historian Arthur Schlesinger Jr., and, we believe, Kennedy himself.”
http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/history/2013/11/john_f_kennedy_s_inaugural_address_who_wrote_jfk_s_speech.html
Colonel Haiku (2601c0) — 6/6/2017 @ 6:39 pmTypical of the horsestuff from ASPCA.
Colonel Haiku (2601c0) — 6/6/2017 @ 6:40 pmWell he broke that pledge he had made in the campaign just shortvofvthree months later. Hence kruschev moved on Berlin and operation anadyr, thecsame piece meal exertions typified our early ventures in indochina
narciso (d1f714) — 6/6/2017 @ 6:43 pm@29- Haiku! Gesundheit.
You prove my point. JFK had the final word. “Ask not…”
So desperate.
‘Let the word go forth…’
DCSCA (797bc0) — 6/6/2017 @ 6:45 pm@26- Hardly a piddle. He just had zero relevance to it. It was a grand delivery– as to be expected from an actor on location.
Again, watch Ike and Walter. They put Reagan to proper shame.
DCSCA (797bc0) — 6/6/2017 @ 6:48 pmCan’t imagine the left’s reaction if these type of men are ever needed again.
God bless them for their courage and their sacrifice.
NJRob (9bca63) — 6/6/2017 @ 6:56 pmThe way they warble on about lurch, you know he served in vietnam?
Mire significant was what he did state side,
narciso (d1f714) — 6/6/2017 @ 7:10 pmOf course this evened the odds
http://www.history.com/news/fooling-hitler-the-elaborate-ruse-behind-d-day
narciso (d1f714) — 6/6/2017 @ 7:35 pmThanks for the post. Great speech by Reagan, and I still remember visiting the spot where he gave it. (I’ll ignore the man peeing on your post as he is not worth my time.) Visiting Normandy was a surprisingly moving experience and I’ll never forget it. I thought about it today before reading this post and I appreciate the excellent work and the reminders.
Patterico (115b1f) — 6/6/2017 @ 7:40 pmYou keep believing, ASPCA, although the entire article explains how many hands were in that one and how Sorenson wrote nearly all of JFK’s speeches. LOL.
Colonel Haiku (2601c0) — 6/6/2017 @ 7:40 pmI recall the longest day was rather sparing in their depiction of Omaha beach, whereas private Ryan was probably Unnecessarily graphic.
narciso (d1f714) — 6/6/2017 @ 7:44 pmRealistically graphic, narciso.
Rev.Hoagie® (630eca) — 6/6/2017 @ 7:48 pmI suppose so, but the firmer made the point without the gore, and the latter suggested a certain ambivalence about the whole engagement.
narciso (d1f714) — 6/6/2017 @ 7:54 pmRe; #41. I did not get “ambivalence” out of it but that’s just me. It was realistic.
Rev.Hoagie® (630eca) — 6/6/2017 @ 8:03 pm@ narciso (#31), re JFK: Eisenhower reportedly worried that JFK was a callow youth. He was actually overestimating JFK, who was a very rich, pampered fool.
I was born in 1957 and have no memory of Ike as POTUS (although I remember him from public appearances after he left office). My most vivid memory as a small child was the Kennedy assassination. With the rest of the people of my home state, I was intensely aware of the people who blamed Texas for “killing Kennedy.” And throughout the rest of my childhood, like the rest of us, I was surrounded 24/7/365 with the Camelot Myth and Kennedy-the-Martyr.
It really wasn’t until I was in my late teens or early twenties that I started questioning all that. The more I questioned, the more reasons I found to disagree with the legend, and the more contempt I developed for the people who created and peddled that crap. The whole story of the Missiles of October, for example, is spun as Kennedy saving the world from ruin, when (as you point out, going back to the Vienna Summit) the exact opposite was true, since Kennedy’s naivete had encouraged the Soviets to believe (correctly as it turned out) that John F. Kennedy could be pushed around in the first place.
I’ll bet Trump still thinks JFK was a good president, though. They share an unfortunate number of qualities.
Beldar (fa637a) — 6/6/2017 @ 8:14 pmWe came this this close , had the blockade collapsed Kennedy would have been forced to launch aurstikes probably a paratroop drop against soviet soldiers with tactical nuclear weapons. Brendan dubois how it might gone down aboyf a decade ago.
narciso (d1f714) — 6/6/2017 @ 8:22 pmThe UT Longhorn Alumni Band has been invited as the United States’ official military-band representative to perform at the 75th Anniversary of D-Day, scheduled for 2019. I hope to go.
Beldar (fa637a) — 6/6/2017 @ 8:25 pm@38 Haiku! Gesundheit!
You’d do well to read JFK’s handwritten drafts– then bone up on Ted Sorensen. Never heard of a ‘Sorenson.’ =sheesh=
_____
@39- LD followed the overall storylines as chronicled in CR’s book; SPR is fiction built around real events.
DCSCA (797bc0) — 6/6/2017 @ 8:26 pm@45. That should be a fine experience. Let’s hope you don’t have to pass through Russian customs first to get there.
DCSCA (797bc0) — 6/6/2017 @ 8:28 pmRobert harris’s fatherland suggested east might have hapornrd of nirmabfy had failed.
narciso (d1f714) — 6/6/2017 @ 8:32 pmRead up, ASPCA… Sorensen says he did what he could to bolster the myth of Spamelot, including downplaying JFK’s dependency on Sorensen’s literary skills. It’s undisputed, don’t play kohn with readers here.
I’ve been watching the first few episodes of “The Man in the High Castle” somewhat based on a short story from Philip K. Dick of an America which lost WWII, with the West ruled by Japan and the east by the Germans. Thank God it’s a fantasy.
My thoughts are with 4 of my uncles, 3 who served in the Pacific and 1 in Europe.
Colonel Haiku (b6b19d) — 6/6/2017 @ 8:51 pmThanks for this post Dana. What those brave men sacrificed, for us, should always be remembered. Their enduring and surmounting terror like that is both humbling and astonishing.
Tillman (a95660) — 6/6/2017 @ 8:56 pmIn 20 years from now an invasion of Europe would require transport at a 2X emotional support animal per soldier ratio.
steveg (e8c34d) — 6/6/2017 @ 9:13 pmThat Reagan speech brings tears to my eye.
Truly a window into an America lost that has been replaced by vile filth like DCSCA.
And Normandy rocks. Visited for the 51st Anniversary. Quite moving.
Blah (44eaa0) — 6/6/2017 @ 9:22 pmSounds awesome!
Dana, great post as usual.
Dustin (ba94b2) — 6/6/2017 @ 9:22 pm@49- Haiku! Gesundheit!
Peruse JFK’s longhand drafts, Colonel. But tip of the cap to your clan–( ah, but on who’s side?) Okay- cheap shot on me. Truce. Mine are w/my uncle. Would never talk about it– we always thought it was because he was embarrassed he got shot in the azz. Then after he passed, discovered in his papers while convalescing he’d managed to knock up a nurse, she had the kid and gave it up for adoption ‘over there.’ Oh those frisky old folks.
Fantasy is good. Reality, as she knows today, can bite badly.
Peace. Have a good night.
DCSCA (797bc0) — 6/6/2017 @ 9:29 pm@52- =yawn= Blah, blah, blah. 3X5 card man Reagan had nothing to do w/Normandy. Many of us have been there. It’s moving. Quiet. Tidy. Almost too manicured. Our visit included passing by the Normandy coast and seeing the approach to the shoreline the troops saw… that image of the beach in the mist, the smell of the salt air mixed with the engine exhaust from the boat…the bluffs and the grey sky stays with me more than the starkness of the cemetery. That gut feel of knowing you saw what so many of them last saw in their lives has stayed with me for decades. Only one other place has elicited a similar feeling- Gettysburg.
DCSCA (797bc0) — 6/6/2017 @ 9:42 pmOne story of D-Day bears repeating: The Battle of Brecourt Manor.
Lt. Richard Winters (later Major) led a group of 12 paratroopers of the 101st. taking out an artillery battery of four, 105mm cannons manned by about 50 soldiers. The guns were about 100 yards apart and connected by a trench. As is taught at West Point to this day, the best tactic is to approach from the flank so to avoid the strength of the opposition.
The fact that the German guns and support troops were in a trench played to the attackers advantage.
Easy Co., later the focus of Band of Brothers, was able to move down the trench taking on the enemy one group at a time. The Germans at the far end of the trench may have seen and heard the battle and shot at their own troops. There is a nice map inside this link showing the placement of the guns in the trench.
Taking this battery out early in the invasion saved many lives of the soldiers landing at Utah Beach because this guns were lined up with a spotter to hit one of the causeways off the beach.
Lynn “Buck” Compton was one of those soldiers in Easy Co. He later became Chief Deputy District Attorney of Los Angeles County and prosecuted Sirhan Sirhan for the murder of Robert F. Kennedy. Gov. Ronald Reagan appointed Compton to the post of justice of the Court of Appeal.
AZ Bob (f7a491) — 6/6/2017 @ 9:49 pm@#56. History rhymes. RFK died at Sirhan’s hand 49 years ago today- June 6, 1968.
DCSCA (797bc0) — 6/6/2017 @ 9:57 pmTwo momentous events in the Pacific tend to get overshadowed because they also took place in the month of June.
The Battle of Midway, 04-07 June 1942.
This is the 75th anniversary. Of course, for those who do remember, 04 June was the big day when American carrier aviation took out all four decks of the Kido Butai or Mobile Striking Force. It should have been six decks, the same force that attacked Pearl Harbor. Had the Japanese understood how valuable it was they never would have separated the Shokaku and Zuikaku and sent them to cover the invasion that Japan had planned to conduct on New Guinea but at that point in the war their arrogance clouded the IJN’s ability to remember the principle of concentration of force.
At the Battle of the Coral Sea the Shokaku was badly damaged and the Zuikaku’s airwing was massacred. Since the IJN aviation’s system of organization was extremely rigid (although admittedly at that point in the war it wasn’t clear that was a handicap) there was no way to put together a pick-up team and get the Zuikaku to Midway. So the Kido Butai went to sea with only four carriers. That made the difference.
On the night of 04-05 June while Yamamoto was still refusing to acknowledge the reality of what it meant to lose all four of his fleet carriers he ordered the heavy cruisers of CRUDIV 7 to close on Midway at high speed and shell he island. When he regained his senses he realized there was no way to salvage the battle so he ordered them to retreat. They didn’t get the message until after 0200 local time. That meant there was no way from them to get out from under the umbrella of American air power before dawn. Still, the farther from the island they were the better for them so they raced away at high speed.
I forget what time it was when they spotted the American submarine. The Japanese ships started maneuvering. Not wildly, but still the Mogami struck the side of the Mikuma. The force of the collision crumpled the delicate bow of the Mogami 30 or 40 feet and seriously threatened her watertight integrity. It also reduced her speed to below 10 knots. Not good when you’re still to close to the unsinkable aircraft carrier that was Midway island ans well as the actual aircraft carriers Enterprise and Hornet (Yorktown was out of the fight, and her war was over although that wasn’t clear yet).
Mikuma was more lightly damaged but she had a huge gash in her hull and was leaking a highly visible trail of oil.
The admiral detached two destroyers to escort the wounded cruisers and the rest of CRUDIV 7 departed poste haste.
Sure enough aircraft from Midway found the two cruisers on 05 June. Marine SB2U Vindicators. They attacked and wounded the two cripples but failed to sink them.
The engineers had somehow managed to give the Mogami 14 knots of what turned out to be lifesaving speed. The damage control officer was unusually competent for a Japanese damage control officer (if you think that’s a slam the Japanese simply valued offense over all other considerations) and had managed to shore up the bow section and had obtained and received permission to jettison the oxygen-fueled Long Lance torpedoes.
The damage control officer in the more lightly damaged Mikuma decided he didn’t need to take that drastic step. Japanese navy men loved their giant-killing super torpedoes, and jettisoning them had to have been a difficult and emotional experience for the damage control officer and Captain of the Mogami.
On 06 June the A-team of the USS Enterprise (the Hornet not so much; I don’t no how the CO of the that ship and the Airwing commander weren’t relieved and Spruance refused to endorse their self=serving and in my opinion deceptive after action report) found the cripples.
Remarkably it was the lightly damaged Mikuma that was turned into a blazing hulk. She was hit in the forecastle, just in front of the bridge (the CO had unfortunately for him chosen that moment to stick his head out to see what was going on and got a facefull of shrapnel for his trouble; he never regained consciousness and died a few days later) and most critically amidships setting of several of the torpedoes. The secondary explosions blew a hole in the hull and the ship was done.
Mogami was hit aft and the bomb lit off fires below. To contain the blaze the damage control officer made the cruel but necessary decision to seal the water tight hatches, dooming dozens of men but saving his ship. The Mogami somehow managed to make her escape and return to Japan.
BTW, this is why the USN didn’t put torpedoes on our cruisers. Well, not exactly this but close; cruisers were supposed to get into gun battles with heavy enemy ships. The risk to the ship should a cruiser take a big shell to the torpedo mounts was just too great a hazard to be worth the gamble.
The morning of 07 June when the gallant Yorktown, her battle flag still flying and her crew aboard the escorting destroyers and rescue tug Vireo looking on, succumbed to her battle damage and sank at approx. 0500 marks the end of the battle.
The other was the Battle of Saipan, which began on their D-day of 15 June 1944. Although to be fair even at the time it was mostly ignored due to everyone’s fascination with the invasion of Europe.
Frankly, though, Saipan was the more impressive operation. It wasn’t just a short hop across the channel, with air support from Britain. The ships departed Hawaii the day before the invasion of Normandy kicked off. The ships had to travel just a hair under four thousand miles and sustain and support three infantry divisions (two Marine, one Army) entirely on their own with no hope of outside assistance during a nearly month long battle. If memory serves the total US ground force was something lie 71k (versus 32k defenders). In addition to the ground forces the surface ships had to be refueled, rearmed, and victualed, while the escorting carriers also needed aviation fuel, aviation ordnance, and spare parts. And then there were the wounded who had to be evacuated, usually first to destroyers operating close inshore where the could by patched up, then sent further out to hospital ships which would have had to be constantly resupplied with medical supplies including plasma (which could be stored) and whole blood (which couldn’t be stored and had to be supplied by the crews of the ships). I am of course oversimplifying thing because chrissakes it’s just a comment on a blog but when you think about it, if you think about it, the logisticians did an amazing job.
The situation on the ground was also entirely different from anything US ground forces had encountered so far. This was not some remote tropical island. It was large, mountainous, and the first island they fought for that had a large civilian population. The Japanese as usual fought fanatically; Admiral Nagumo who had led the Kido Butai during the Pearl Harbor attack was in overall command of the defense of Japanese-held islands in the Marianas took his own life when Japanese forces were forced into a small pocket on the northern tip of Saipan. But the Japanese were taken completely by surprise because they expected an thrust further to the south and frankly I don’t believe they could imagine that anyone could pull off a successful invasion of such a large, well defended island FOUR F***ING THOUSAND MILES from the nearest source of support and resupply.
The tie in with Operation Overlord is, obviously, the Japanese had to see that they had already lost the war. It was axiomatic as far as the Japanese military was concerned that if Saipan fell then Japan had fallen. Their outer defenses had been broken. The road to Japan was wide open. And little did they know it yet but they were within range of USAAF strategic bombers.
And they of course knew what was going on in Europe; they had people in Berlin. So here they were fighting an enemy that could conduct two stupendous amphibious invasions on opposite sides of the globe simultaneously.
What the h3ll were they thinking, continuing the war?
Steve57 (0b1dac) — 6/6/2017 @ 10:00 pm@55 DCSCA
I’ve been to Gettysburg too but I can’t remember what outfit President Lincoln served in that qualified him to give a speech about it.
Pinandpuller (ad237f) — 6/6/2017 @ 11:00 pmLincoln served in the Illinois militia during the short “Black Hawk War.” He never saw combat.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abraham_Lincoln_in_the_Black_Hawk_War
Kevin M (25bbee) — 6/7/2017 @ 12:36 amBut he served.
Kevin M (25bbee) — 6/7/2017 @ 12:36 am@59. Graves registration; dedicated a cemetery filled on his watch– not Fillmore’s.
“Son, they’re all my helicopters.” – LBJ
DCSCA (797bc0) — 6/7/2017 @ 2:55 amthat was a great read, Steve57, thank you.
mg (31009b) — 6/7/2017 @ 3:14 amBernardo barker who graduate from my alma maters extension campus was a bomber pilot shot down over Germany, and,served as a pow for a time, we know his later exploits.
narciso (8d0fef) — 6/7/2017 @ 4:37 am42.Re; #41. I did not get “ambivalence” out of it but that’s just me. It was realistic
Not just you.
The American military has a unique tendency: the better the general, the more he actually hated war.
kishnevi (0de685) — 6/7/2017 @ 7:28 amLike Beldar, my dad served in the Pacific. Unlike Beldar’s dad, my father had to wait until he turned 17 in February 1944 and after boot camp and radioman school didn’t get into the war until shortlyBy before it ended.
By the way, Beldar, Zeilin kinda sorta participated in the Saipan operation. She was actually assigned to the invasion of Guam, originally scheduled for 18 June. It was an ambitious schedule and it kept getting pushed back. First by the Great Marianas Turkey Shoot when Spruance finally decided that the risk of leaving the beachhead uncovered was outweighed by the gain of going after Ozawa’s carriers. Then by the sustained resistance of the Japanese on Saipan. While most of the transports returned to Eniwetok atoll to await additional transports carrying reinforcements from Hawaii, Zeilin remained off Saipan with her Marines as a floating reserve. When it became apparent they weren’t needed, Zeilin too returned to Eniwetok and rendezvoused with the Guam force. Zeilin participated in the invasion of Guam beginning 02 July and offloaded Marines and supplies for four days before heading to Pearl, then to San Francisco Bay for a three month overhaul period in the yards.
Yeah, I had to look that up.
Steve57 (0b1dac) — 6/7/2017 @ 8:14 am