Showing posts with label Imperial Japanese Army. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Imperial Japanese Army. Show all posts

Wednesday, March 26, 2025

Monday, March 26, 1945. Last action at Iwo Jima.

The Battle of Iwo Jima officially ended in a U.S. victory following a final Japanese suicide attack.  Japanese commander Tadamichi Kuribayashi is believed to have died on or around this date, probably killed in action.  Some Japanese holdouts would fight on beyond this date.


The Battle for Cebu City began in the Philippines.

The USS Halligan was irreparably damaged by a mine off of Okinawa.

The U-399 was sunk off of Land's End by the HMS Duckworth.

Last edition:

Sunday, March 25, 1945. Crossing the Rhine.

Friday, March 21, 2025

Wednesday, March 21, 1945. Ohka.

The first attempted use of the the Yokosuka MXYZ Ohka suicide jet failed when the flight of Betty bombers carrying them towards their target, the US fleet off of Okinawa, was intercepted and all the bombers shot down.

The Battle of West Henan–North Hubei (豫西鄂北會戰) between the Chinese National Revolutionary Army and Imperial Japanese Army began.

The RAF hit Gestapo headquarters in Copenhagen, which also resulted in 125 civilian deaths.

The Royal Air Force hit Venice harbor from the air.

Last edition:

Tuesday, March 20, 1945. Hitler's last appearance in public.

Monday, March 10, 2025

Saturday, March 10, 1945. The execution of Gen. Émile Lemonnier.

Gen. Émile Lemonnier of the French Army was executed by the Japanese for, as a captive, refusing to sign an instrument of surrender to the Japanese in Indochina.  He was 51 years of age.

The last few years of his life must have been one of unrelenting mental torment.

The cowardly weasel ordering his execution, Captain Kayakawa was himself executed after the war..

I know some will excuse the latter's actions based on culture, but he was a weasel.

It was day two of the firebombing of Tokyo.

It's extremely difficult not to be morally troubled by this action.  There are military justifications of it, but by and large, it was a monstrous attack upon a civilian population right down to the infant level.  It survives as a reminder that even in World War Two, in which the Allies held hte moral high ground, not all Allied actions were morally licit.

In our own day, in which we have a President who stands by as rockets rain down on a civilian population, and in which that same President sat a war out due to shin splints, it rains buckets of blood on our own  heads.

The Australians landed at Wide Bay, Papua New Guinea.

Smiling Albert Field Marshal Kesselring arrivee from Italy to take command of the German armies in the west.

The Germans withdrew from from the pocket west of the Rhine between Wesel and Xanten in the face of British and Canadian pressure.

The German offensive around Lake Balatron began to encounter heavy Rad Army resistance..

The U-275 struck a mine and was sunk off of East Sussex.  The U-681 was sunk off of the Isles of Scilly by a U.S Navy B-24.

FDR involved Spanish representatives with their hands out no American aid will be forthcoming so long as the Franco dictatorship continued.

Good for FDR.

Today, King Donny would probably be giving warm smooches to Francoist delegates.

Last edition:

Friday, March 9, 1945. Firebombing Japan (Operation Meetinghouse). Japanese end French rule in Indochina (Operation Bright Moon)

Friday, January 24, 2025

Wednesday, January 24, 1945. Himmler given a field command.

German POW, January 23, 1945.  His cap badge indicates he was in the Luftwaffe.

Hitler appointed Heinrich Himmler as commander of the newly created Army Group Vistula.  This was rightfully resented by the German military.

The Battle of Poznań began for Polish city.

The French 1st Army took crossing over the River Ill in Alsace.  The  British 2nd Army entered Heinsberg.

"Lt. Col. V. L. Johnson, G-3 Officer, 25th Division, and Maj. Gen. C. L. Mullins, Jr., CG, 25th Division, share a foxhole in San Manuel, Luzon, P.I., with a GI of the 161st Infantry Regiment. 24 January, 1945."

The US took Calapan on Mindoro and Cabanatuan on Luzon.

The US 14th Air Force abandoned Suichuan airfield in China due to Japanese advances.  Operation Ichi-Go, the Japanese ground offensive in China, was going spectacularly well at the same time the United States was destroying the Japanese in the Pacific and getting ever closer to Japan itself, giving this a surreal quality.  Additing to it, British operations in Burma were going very well.

The Shigure was sunk by the USS Blackfin in the  Gulf of Siam.

Today In Wyoming's History: January 24:1945  The Legislature rejects a junior college plan.

One thing that's nice about doing these posts is that you learn how prior legislatures were short sighted. This is just such an example, most likely.

They would approve a community college plan within a couple of years.

This year the legislature is going to pass a bill, probably, allowing people who homeschool to not report to their school district.  By and large, those homeschooling around here do it so their children don't learn something, rather than insure that they learn.

Last edition:

Tuesday, January 23, 1945. St. Vith taken by the Allies.

Saturday, December 14, 2024

Japanese Artillery. National Museum of Military Vehicles.


Japanese weapons receive much less attention that those of other armies, in part because their ground weapons tended to be obsolescent or odd.  Artillery is no exception.


A lot of Japanese weapons tended to reflect an earlier era, sometimes only slightly so, and sometimes greatly, than that of the 1940s.  Japan tended to adopt a weapon, of a copy of a good Western design, and stick with it for a long time, savor for naval and air weapons, where they were advancing all the time.  In terms of artillery, much of it was light and antiquated.


It's notable here that of the Japanese guns depicted, most still retain wagon wheel type wheels.





Last edition:

Friday, December 6, 2024

Wednesday, December 6, 1944. Japanese paratroopers on Leyte.

The Japanese conducted an airborne landing on Leyte, combined with a ground infantry offensive.

The UK began to return displaced British to their homes, save for areas subject to V-weapon attacks.

Germany began stripping the Netherlands of locomotives and sending them to Germany. They were electric trains.

The RAF conducted strafing runs on communist positions in Greece.

The U-297 was sunk by the RAF.  The HMS Bullen was sunk by the U-775

Heinkel He 162 Volksjäger had its first flight.

Heinkel HE 162, National Museum of Military Vehicles, Dubois Wyoming.

A very late war German fighter, only 120 were made.

Stalin met with General de Gaulle in Moscow.

Last edition:

Tuesday, December 5, 1944. The Royal Navy in the Greek Civil War.

Monday, December 2, 2024

Saturday, December 2, 1944. Advances in Europe, the Army Navy Game, Eiji Sawamura(沢村栄治).

The 7th Army reached the Rhine.  The 3d Army reached Saarlautern.  The 9th Army took Leiffarth and Roerdorf.

Army won the Army Navy Game.  The crowed of 66,659 included 30,000 members of the general public who were admitted on the condition of living within 8.3 miles of the game in Baltimore and buying a $25.00 war bond.

Twenty Seven year old professional Japanese baseball player Eiji Sawamura(沢村栄治)was killed when a troopship he was on was sunk on this day in 1944.  He'd been drafted into the Japanese Army in 1939, but released each season to play baseball.

Last edition:

Wednesday, November 29, 1944. Prisoner Exchange.

Monday, November 25, 2024

Saturday, November 25, 1944. Heavy resistance on Leyte, V2 attack in London.

Two V-2 rockets hit London, resulting in 174 deaths in a rocketry terror attack.

Much like what the Russians are doing to Ukraine now.

Destroyed German Panthers in France, November 25, 1944.  Contrary to the common myth, armor attrition in World War Two was horrific, just like it is today.

Japanese defenses arrested US progress on Leyte.  Japanese resistance had been consistently very stiff.

The British crossed the Cosina River in Italy.

Soldiers of a reconstituted Dutch Army training, November 25, 1944. They're armed with US M1917 Enfield rifles, and wearing US M1 helmets.  Their uniforms suggest obsolescent patterns of the US Army.

Kenesaw Mountain Landis died at age 78.  He was the first Commissioner of Baseball, having been appointed to that position in 1920, and still occupied it at the time of his death.

Last edition:

Today in World War II History—November 24, 1939 & 1944 (Friday November 24, 1944). Terrace Mutiny,

Sunday, November 10, 2024

Friday, November 10, 1944. The Explosion of the Mount Hood.

The USS Mount Hood, an ammunition ship, exploded at Seeadler Harbor at Manus Island in Papua New Guinea, killing all on board and damaging 22 other ships.

Imperial Japanese forces took U.S. airfields in China as part of Operation Ichi-Go.  The Japanese were gaining ground in China.

The Germans rounded up over 50,000 Dutch me in Rotterdam as slave labor, and effectively as hostages.

"Sgt. Sam S. McNealy, Morgantown, N.C., stands watch by his machine gun during the first snowfall of the year in this sector of the western front. 1st Army, Monschau, Germany. 10 November, 1944."

Last edition:

Thursday, November 9, 1944. Sorge meets his end.

Today in World War II History—November 10, 1939 & 1944

Today in World War II History—November 10, 1939 & 1944: 80 Years Ago—Nov. 10, 1944: Japanese take US Fourteenth Air Force air bases at Kweilin and Liuchow in their drive through southern China.

Saturday, November 9, 2024

Thursday, November 9, 1944. Sorge meets his end.

The Japanese hanged Soviet master spy Richard Sorge, one of the most effective, if perhaps ignored, spies of all time.

Sorge's passport in Japan, noting his cover as a journalist.


The 3d Army crossed the Moselle near Metz.

The 8th Army captured Forli.

The Japanese landed 2,000 reinforcements on Leyte.

Last edition:

Wednesday, November 8, 1944. Mystery of explosions resolved. Canadians prevail on the Scheldt.