World War Two shoulder insignia of the Marine Raiders.
The Marine Corps 1st Raider Battalion landed at Taivu, behind Japanese lines, on Guadalcanal and destroyed the Japanese base camp that was being used to prepare for a large-scale offensive. The Marines were aware of the Japanese landings at that point. The raid disrupted the Japanese effort and revealed intelligence on the size of the Japanese forces, some 5,200 troops, committed to Taivu Point.
At Efogi, Papua, Japanese efforts prevent Australian counterattacks and result in a nighttime Australian withdrawal from their positions.
Today in World War II History—September 8, 1942: Joint British-American directive is issued consigning night bombing of Nazi-occupied Europe to the RAF and daylight bombing to the US Eighth Air Force.
From Sarah Sundin's blog.
I wasn't aware that this was part of a directive, but had thought it simply reflected the tactical thought of the two different air forces. At any rate, it did so reflect them.
The RAF, based on its early experiences in the war, simply felt that daytime raids were too costly, and frankly from their prospective they definitely were. Their turning to the night, however, meant that they sacrificed accuracy for safety. The U.S. Army, in contrast, was extremely confident in the precision of its bombing and hoped for accuracy, thereby making it willing to take large losses. In contrast, however, it could afford them, and it somewhat compensated for the risk to its crews by limiting the number of missions they would fly until they were rotated home. Nonetheless, early on, few crews made it to that number.
The result was that Germany was bombed night and day, although not very accurately by either air force.
Perhaps ironically, also on this day, a nighttime RAF raid on Frankfurt dropped most of its bombs in the countryside outside the city, and as far away as Russelsheim some fifteen miles distant.
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