Showing posts with label Hawaii. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Hawaii. Show all posts

Wednesday, January 8, 2025

Monday, January 8, 1945. Two Medals of Honor.

T/Sgt Russell E. Dunham performed the actions that resulted in his winning the Medal of Honor.

For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at risk of life above and beyond the call of duty. At about 1430 hours on 8 January 1945, during an attack on Hill 616, near Kayserberg, France, T/Sgt. Dunham single-handedly assaulted 3 enemy machine guns. Wearing a white robe made of a mattress cover, carrying 12 carbine magazines and with a dozen hand grenades snagged in his belt, suspenders, and buttonholes, T/Sgt. Dunham advanced in the attack up a snow-covered hill under fire from 2 machine guns and supporting riflemen. His platoon 35 yards behind him, T/Sgt. Dunham crawled 75 yards under heavy direct fire toward the timbered emplacement shielding the left machine gun. As he jumped to his feet 10 yards from the gun and charged forward, machine gun fire tore through his camouflage robe and a rifle bullet seared a 10-inch gash across his back sending him spinning 15 yards down hill into the snow. When the indomitable sergeant sprang to his feet to renew his 1-man assault, a German egg grenade landed beside him. He kicked it aside, and as it exploded 5 yards away, shot and killed the German machine gunner and assistant gunner. His carbine empty, he jumped into the emplacement and hauled out the third member of the gun crew by the collar. Although his back wound was causing him excruciating pain and blood was seeping through his white coat, T/Sgt. Dunham proceeded 50 yards through a storm of automatic and rifle fire to attack the second machine gun. Twenty-five yards from the emplacement he hurled 2 grenades, destroying the gun and its crew; then fired down into the supporting foxholes with his carbine dispatching and dispersing the enemy riflemen. Although his coat was so thoroughly blood-soaked that he was a conspicuous target against the white landscape, T/Sgt. Dunham again advanced ahead of his platoon in an assault on enemy positions farther up the hill. Coming under machinegun fire from 65 yards to his front, while rifle grenades exploded 10 yards from his position, he hit the ground and crawled forward. At 15 yards range, he jumped to his feet, staggered a few paces toward the timbered machinegun emplacement and killed the crew with hand grenades. An enemy rifleman fired at pointblank range, but missed him. After killing the rifleman, T/Sgt. Dunham drove others from their foxholes with grenades and carbine fire. Killing 9 Germans—wounding 7 and capturing 2—firing about 175 rounds of carbine ammunition, and expending 11 grenades, T/Sgt. Dunham, despite a painful wound, spearheaded a spectacular and successful diversionary attack.

And also, Day G. Turner performed the actions tat caused him to be awarded the Medal of Honor.

He commanded a 9-man squad with the mission of holding a critical flank position. When overwhelming numbers of the enemy attacked under cover of withering artillery, mortar, and rocket fire, he withdrew his squad into a nearby house, determined to defend it to the last man. The enemy attacked again and again and were repulsed with heavy losses. Supported by direct tank fire, they finally gained entrance, but the intrepid sergeant refused to surrender although 5 of his men were wounded and 1 was killed. He boldly flung a can of flaming oil at the first wave of attackers, dispersing them, and fought doggedly from room to room, closing with the enemy in fierce hand-to-hand encounters. He hurled handgrenade for handgrenade, bayoneted 2 fanatical Germans who rushed a doorway he was defending and fought on with the enemy's weapons when his own ammunition was expended. The savage fight raged for 4 hours, and finally, when only 3 men of the defending squad were left unwounded, the enemy surrendered. Twenty-five prisoners were taken, 11 enemy dead and a great number of wounded were counted. Sgt. Turner's valiant stand will live on as a constant inspiration to his comrades. His heroic, inspiring leadership, his determination and courageous devotion to duty exemplify the highest tradition of the military service.

Turner was killed in action a month later. 

He survived the war and died at age 89, in 2009.

"Cpl. Charles S. McNulty, 2075 Beaver Ave., Cedar Rapids, Iowa, stops for a moment of prayer before joining his division near Houmont, Belgium. 8 January, 1945. 17th Airborne ".  McNulty appears to have been wounded, given the bandage on his right arm.  He's carrying a M1A1 carbine which was designed for paratroopers, and issued only to them.

An interesting "look what I got" photo from Belgium, January 8, 1945.  Note that one of the young women is carrying something in a Dutch Oven.

" First contingent of WAVES for duty at Pearl Harbor, Territory of Hawaii. WAVES sing “Home Sweet Home,” 8 January 1945."

Parliamentary elections in Egypt were won by a political coalition headed by Ahmad Mahir Pasha.

Last edition:

Sunday, January 7, 1945. Retreat from the Ardennes and Hope.

Wednesday, December 18, 2024

Friday, December 18, 1874. Congress received King Kalakaua.

A joint session of the U.S. Congress received King Kalakaua, the first joint congressional session to receive a foreign head of state.

Last edition:

Tuesday, December 8, 1874. The James Gang robs a train.

Monday, September 9, 2024

Tuesday, September 9, 1924. Waiting in the rain.

The League of Nations began drafting a plan to take over the supervision of German disarmament.

The Hanapēpē Massacre occurred on Kaua'i when a dispute broke out between police were called to a dispute at a labor striked and arrived with arrest warrants sparking resistance.  Sixteen Filipino laborers and four policemen were killed.

The US, UK Japan and Italy deployed troops in Shanghai as it appeared that a Chinese civil war was imminent.

President Coolidge, after waiting for four hours in the rain, met the aviators circumnavigating the world at Boling Field.


Last edition:

Monday, September 8, 1924. Landing at Long Island. Beauties in Casper. Gunning down the mistress in Texas.

Thursday, August 8, 2024

Sunday, August 8, 1824. The Humehume Rebellion.


Humehume, son of King Kaumualiʻi, of the islands of Kauaʻi and Niʻihau and a mother who was a commoner, lead a rebellion on Kauaʻi against the Kingdom of Hawaii to reestablish its independence.

Humehume had been taken to the United States as a boy, austensibly to obtain an education, but also potentially to place him away from being a rival to the throne to the sons of the king's royal wife.   He served in the War of 1812 as a Marine.

The rebellion failed and he was exiled to Honolulu, where he died of influenza in 1826.

Last edition:

Friday, August 6, 1824. Battle of Junin

Saturday, May 18, 2024

Wednesday, May 15, 2024

Monday, May 15, 1944. Deportation of the Hungarian Jews.

With Germany in control of the country, the SS began deporting Hungary's Jews, mostly to Auschwitz.

German lines in Italy began to collapse.

 Pilots hold a briefing on their assignments before taking to the air on their respective missions. Sessa area, Italy. 15 May, 1944.

French Vice-Admiral Edmond Derrien was sentenced to life in prison for turning over elements of the French Fleet to the Germans after the Allied landing in North Africa.

Pvt. Frank G. Schubert moves through an area with full field equipment during training in Helston, Cornwall.

Disembarking MP's, Slapton Sands, England. 15 May 1944.

A terrible training accident happened off of Hawaii.

On May 15, 1944, a line of LST's (amphibious ships) were headed from Mā`alaea Bay back to Pearl Harbor, filled with men and material destined for the invasion of Saipan. These particular ships had been modified to carry other landing craft, 120-foot long LCT's, on their decks. In the middle of the night the rough seas in the channel caused the large ships to roll to the point that the fastenings attaching the LCTs to the decks carried away.

LCT-984 slid from the deck and struck the water with engine room doors open and bow ramp down. The vessel quickly became waterlogged and semi-submerged. On board LST-71 men of the 8th Marine Division were sleeping on the deck and inside their LCT. When LCT-988 fell into the ocean, the next ship in the convoy, LST-29, accidentally rammed the landing craft, causing her to immediately capsize. Eldon Ballinger (Marine Corps League newsletter, n.d.) relates part of the story:

The division was assigned 22 LST's and in the well decks were Amphtracs. We pulled practice landings at Maalaea Bay on Maui and also a mock invasion of Kahoolawe Island...Around 2330 the sea began to get rough and within a two hour period the sea became very turbulent with high waves. The flat bottomed LST rocked back and forth so violently that the straps broke on the stacks of ammunition, falling on the sleeping men. Then the steel cables snapped, releasing the LCT, ripping the large skid beams loose, and the waves washed everything off the deck of the LST's starboard side. The LCT hit the water right-side up, except the ramp was down. I remember a crewman and I were trying to start the engine so that the ramp could be raised. It was then that the trailing LST hit us broadside, flipping the LCT completely upside down. The LCT sank within minutes with those that were still alive going down with the ship.

LCT-999 was also swept into the ocean, but fortunately was later recovered and towed to Pearl Harbor. In all the series of LCT accidents resulted in some 19 men dead or missing (the exact number is not clear).

The U-731 was sunk in the Atlantic by the Allies.

Russian Orthodox Church Patriarch Sergius of Moscow died at age 77.


Lincoln Borglum, who finished his father's work at Mount Rushmore, stepped down as Mount Rushmore National Memorial's first superintendent.

Orson Welles went on the government payroll, at $1.00 per year, as a consultant to the government.

Last prior edition:

Saturday, April 13, 2024

Thursday, April 13, 1944. Soviet advances in Crimea.

The Red Army took Feodosia, Evpatoriya and Simferopol in Crimea.  The Axis forces of the 17th Army fell back on Sevastopol.

Australian troops took Bogodjim on New Guinea.

The U.S. Army Air Force and RAF raided numerous coast batteries in Normandy.

Operation Overlord had effectively already begun.

Martial law was lifted in Hawaii.

In April 1944, Vogue covered fashions in Texas, Florida and California.





It's worth noting that all of these dresses were fairly plain, reflecting the wartime view on the same.

The last model (must have been teenage girl's clothing there) doesn't look very comfortable with the pony.

Last prior edition:

Sunday, February 25, 2024

Some Gave All: Punchbowl, National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific, O'ahu, Hawaii

Some Gave All: Punchbowl, National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacif...

Punchbowl, National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific, O'ahu, Hawaii

Perhaps the most beautiful, and in someways the most somber, National Cemetery, this is the "Punchbowl" on O'ahu, Hawaii.  


Created after World War Two as a final resting place for the thousands of US servicemen who had died in the Pacific, it was established in 1949 and contains the remains of over 61,000 US servicemen who lost their lives in World War Two, the Korean War, and the Vietnam War.