Showing posts with label United States Marine Corps. Show all posts
Showing posts with label United States Marine Corps. Show all posts

Friday, June 13, 2025

Wednesday, June 13, 1945. Taking the Oruku Peninsula.

The Australian 9th Infantry Division captured Brunei.

Okinawa, June 13, 1945.

Japanese resistance on Okinawa's Oruku peninsula came to an end.  Marines took 169 Japanese POWs and found 200 dead, a surprising figure given Japanese unwillingness to surrender.

Admiral Minoru Ōta, age 54, killed himself on Okinawa.

U.S. Army ordnance experts claimed that German plans to attack the United States with rockets, Projekt Amerika, might have been realized by November 1945.

The German design, a development of the V-2 but significantly different, actually would have required a pilot, as existing guidance systems were regarded as inadequate.

Last edition:

Tuesday, June 12, 1945. The suicide of the Japanese Marines.

Thursday, June 12, 2025

Tuesday, June 12, 1945. The suicide of the Japanese Marines.

Today in World War II History—June 12, 1940 & 1945: 80 Years Ago—June 12, 1945: US Marines make push for final pocket of Japanese forces on Okinawa; hundreds of Japanese Marines commit suicide.

Sarah Sundin's blog.

On Okinawa, US troops took the Yaeju Dake escarpment.

Allied forces occupied Trieste.

Dwight D. Eisenhower received the Freedom of the City of London and the Order of Merit.  In receiving them, he stated:

Humility must always be the portion of any man who receives acclaim earned in blood of his followers and sacrifices of his friends.

The Visayan Islands, including Samar, Negros, Panay, Leyte, Cebu, and Bohol, between Luzon and Mindanao, were secured by American forces. 

Penn Station, June 12, 1945.

Niecey Brown, a 74-year-old Black woman, died from injuries after an off-duty white police officer forcibly entered her house and beat her with a bottle in Selma, Alabama.

Last edition:

Monday, June 11, 1945. King gets another term. . . but it's a minority government.

    Monday, June 9, 2025

    Saturday, June 9, 1945. Parade.

    Yugoslavia agreed to evacuate Trieste so that claims to who should administer it could be resolved.

    Ultimately the city would go to Italy.

    Japanese Prime Minister Kantarō Suzuki told the Diet that Japan would "fight to the last."

    "One rifleman reloads, and another fires in the 96th Infantry Division's advance to capture Big Apple Hill, scene of intense fighting on Okinawa 9 June, 1945.  96th Infantry Division."  The firing soldier is carrying a M1911 handgun and appears to be carrying a Japanese one in a shoulder holster as well.  The other solder is carrying a combat knife on his belt.

    Marines surrounded Japanese forces on Okinawa's Oroku peninsula.

    The 37th Infantry Division captured Bagabag on Luzon. The  24th Infantry Division took Mandog on Mindanao

    A victory parade was held in Los Angeles for George S. Patton and James Doolittle.

    Last edition:

    Friday, June 8, 1945. Battle of Porton Plantation

    Wednesday, June 4, 2025

    Monday, June 4, 1945. Marines land on the Oroku Peninsula on Okinawa.

    Today in World War II History—June 4, 1940 & 1945: 80 Years Ago—June 4, 1945: US Marines land behind Japanese lines on Oroku Peninsula on Okinawa.

    US Office of Civilian Defense is inactivated.
    From Sarah Sundin's excellent blog.

    The Progressive Conservative Party took control in Ontario's election and would retain power for the next 40 years.



    Churchill made a gaff in an election broadcast by claiming that the  Labour Party, if elected, would cause the creation of "some form of Gestapo".

    Paul Ferdonet, the "Radio Traitor" of Stuttgart, was arrested by French troops in Bavaria.

    Last edition:

    Saturday, May 31, 2025

    Thursday, May 31, 1900. Marching into Beijing.

    337 Western troops from the US, Italy, Japan and Russia arrived in Beijing. The entry was not opposed, but not welcome.

    The governing body of the Free Church of Scotland voted 592 to 29, to unite with the United Presbyterian Church of Scotland creating the United Free Church of Scotland.

    Last edition:

    Sunday, May 27, 1900. The Vietnamese Martyrs.

    Friday, May 30, 2025

    Wednesday, May 30, 1945. Czech reprisals.

    The forced expulsion of ethnic Germans from Brno began.

    The French Army took control of the parliament building in Damascus while French aircraft bombed other parts of the city.

    On Okinawa US forces reached Shuri and the southeast edge of Naha.

    Last edition:

    Tuesday, May 29, 1945. Hitting Yokohama.

    Thursday, May 29, 2025

    US Marine achieves feat not done since 1959 during USMC Marksmanship Championship Competition

    US Marine achieves feat not done since 1959 during USMC Marksmanship Championship Competition: MARINE CORPS BASE QUANTICO, Va. – U.S. Marines from across the Corps competed in the annual U.S. Marine Corps Marksmanship Championship Competition on MCB Quantico, April 10-18.

    Tuesday, May 20, 2025

    Sunday, May 20, 1945. Contracting in China.

    Chocolate Drop Hill on Okinawa was taken by U.S. troops.  The final fighting was in interconnected tunnels.

    The 1st Marine Division captured Wana Ridge on Okinawa.  Marines also conducted mopping up operations on Horseshoe and Half Moon using flamethrowers, resulting in a desperate Japanese counterattack that ends with 200 Japanese troops killed.

    The US took Malaybalay on Mindanao.

    The Japanese Army evacuated Hochih, China as the Imperial Japanese General Staff decided to deploy forces closer to the Japanese Home Islands.

    The Japanese had secured enormous territorial gains in China with a just completed offensive, and yet there was a massive amount of China left, the same problem the Japanese had been faced with since 1932 when they first began to fight in the country.  In many ways, for the Japanese, World War Two was principally about China, and now it was faced with the reality that being tied down there was contributing enormously to its losing in the war.

    The Soviets appointed Soviet authorities appointed Dr. Arthur Werner as the Oberbergermeister of the Berlin.  The appointment would be shortly confirmed by the Western Allies.

    He was not a Communist and had not been a Nazi. An engineer, he had lost his teaching position in 1942.

    Last edition:

    Saturday, May 19, 1945. Landing in Syria and Lebanon.

    Thursday, May 15, 2025

    Thursday, May 15, 1975. The Raid on Koh Tang.


    A Marine Corps raid on Koh Tang island took back the Mayaguez, which they found deserted, while a Navy air raid destroyed the now Khmer Rouge run Cambodian navy.  

    Eighteen Marines were killed in combat and an additional 23 in a helicopter crash in the raid.  Khmer forces were much larger than anticipated and resistance heavy.  The helicopter passengers were not fully accounted for when the withdrawal occurred and it was later determined that three of the Marines (Joseph N. Hargrove, Gary L. Hall, and Danny G. Marshall) a shall) and two Navy medics (Bernard Guase and Ronald Manning) may have been alive when they were left behind on the island.

    Sailing under a white flag, a Cambodian vessel brought thirty Americans to the destroyer USS Wilson.

    It is really this date, and not the one that was declared several days earlier, that should be regarded as the end of the Vietnam War Era, as this was really the last combat in the US's involvement in the Indochinese War, of which the Vietnam War was part.  It interesting came to an end somewhat in the way in which it had started in earnest, with Marines being deployed over a ship, as they would be because of the Gulf of Tonkin incident.

    Last edition:

    Wednesday, May 14, 1975. Hmong evacuation.

    Tuesday, April 29, 2025

    Tuesday, April 29, 1975. The start of Operation Frequent Wind.


    The order was given to carry out Operation Frequent Wind, the evacuation of Americans and some South Vietnamese from the country.

    Marine Corps Security Guards Corporal Charles McMahon and Lance Corporal Darwin L. Judge became the last American servicemen to be killed in Vietnam.  They were killed by North Vietnamese artillery fire.

    Their bodies were left behind and the North Vietnamese buried them in a Saigon cemetery.  The bodies were returned to the US on February 22, 1976.

    Last edition:

    Saturday, April 12, 2025

    Saturday, April 12, 1975. Eagle Pull.

    US ambassador John Gunther Dean stepping off Marine Corps helicopter in Thailand.

    Operation Eagle Pull took place with the US closure of its Cambodian embassy and the insertion of 180 Marines into Phnom Penh to start the evacuation of US civilians.  Approximately 300 people were evacuated, of which 82 were Americans.

    Deputy Prime Minister Sisowath Sirik Matak refused to leave, stating in a letter to the American Ambassador, "I cannot, alas, leave in such a cowardly fashion....I have only committed this mistake of believing in you, the Americans."

    The ARVN deployed aircraft against NVA units at Xuan Loc, with the South Vietnamese air force flying up to 120 sorties per day.

    Six Catholic civilians are killed in a Ulster Volunteer Force gun and grenade attack on Strand Bar in Belfast, North Ireland

    Josephine Baker died at age 68.

    Last edition:

    Friday, April 11, 1975. The looming end for Cambodia and the NVA takes the Spratlys.

    Friday, April 11, 2025

    Friday, April 11, 1975. The looming end for Cambodia and the NVA takes the Spratlys.

    North Vietnam took control of the Spratly Islands, which had been controlled by the Republic of Vietnam. The landing forces consisted of NVA special forces, but the islands were lightly defended. Interestingly, Communist Vietnam today still recognizes a South Vietnamese defense of the islands against China, which are also claimed by China, as heroic.

    While portrayed in Vietnamese propaganda as a great victory, the operation was only a success due to the extreme distress that South Vietnam was then in, and the fact that the U.S. Navy didn't intervene. Additionally, and importantly, the islands had no strategic value to the ongoing offensive, but with South Vietnam collapsing, the North Vietnamese no doubt correctly guessed that if they did not take the islands, China would.

    I should note that this is somewhat confusing, as there are numerous small islands in the chain, and not all of them are occupied by the Vietnamese.


    Some tourism of the islands takes place today.

    A White House conversation took place regarding Operation Eagle Pull.

    President: I would like to be brought up to date on where we are and what we are going to do. We will restrict ourselves to Cambodia. I am optimistic and I think we will make it.

    Schlesinger: “Eagle Pull” will commence at 0900 local. They will be on the ground one hour and 20 minutes total. It will be completed by 11:30 p.m. our time if all goes well.

    There’ll be 33 helicopters, including three for search and rescue. The first twelve will hold 346 Marines.

    President: Will Long Boret go?

    Kissinger: “Eagle Pull” will collapse the Government. Even if Long Boret doesn’t, enough of his people will go that it will collapse.

    President: Do we know if there will be much fighting? There will be a crowd gathering, but there is a better than 50% chance of getting out without fighting.

    Brown: There will be air cover but it will only return fire if fire is directed on the evacuation and only to protect the evacuation. The helicopters will come in a stream from the Carrier Ubon and peel off from hold points. We can do it all in one lift unless there are too many Khmer.

    Schlesinger: We must do it all in one lift.

    Brown: The Khmer have quite a lift capability of their own.

    Kissinger: Do the Khmer think it is over or is this an American decision?

    Brown: It is a U.S. decision. Our intelligence thinks tomorrow will be the last day, but probably it would come on the 13th, an auspicious time.

    President: There will be air cover?

    Buchen: Yes. They will be under positive control all the time and under FAC.

    President: By what authority is this being done?

    Schlesinger: The rescue operation is to protect American lives, any fire is to protect American lives and Khmer evacuation is incidental to the American evacuation.

    Buchen: Yes. The Khmer evacuation is incidental.

    Marsh: We would use the same force anyway, wouldn’t we?

    Schlesinger: If we had gotten it down to 50 Americans, we would have used a much smaller force and got them out in 10 minutes.

    Kissinger: I think we should say we are stretching the law so we don’t run counter to the President’s request of last night.2

    Rumsfeld: Don’t use “incidental”—because there are five times as many Khmers and it will be seen as a subterfuge.

    Schlesinger: The original list contained 50 Khmer. That has swollen to 1,100. It is there we might be vulnerable.

    President: I would think there would be a crowd gathered.

    Schlesinger: We can use Red Cross agents. And they have C130’s.

    Buchen: Why do we take them out then?

    Schlesinger: Ask State.

    Kissinger: It was assumed that the airfield would be unusable. We didn’t want to pull the plug by talking to them about evacuation.

    [The statements to be read and given to Congress were reviewed.]

    President: There is no connection between this and the Vietnam evacuation. There is no connection at all. This is a unique situation.

    Brown: Unless we give orders, the Marine Commander may load up with Khmer and leave the Marines, thus necessitating a second flight.

    President: I agree. The Commander should be told that all Americans must be aboard the last chopper.

     The ARVN put up still resistance at Xuan Loc.

    April 11, 1975: The J.P. Parisé Game

    A unique flight:

    11 April 1975

    Last edition:

    Thursday, April 10, 1975. A request, and a denial, for aid.

    Tuesday, April 1, 2025

    Sunday, April 1, 1945. Operation Iceberg.


    US troops, ultimately to include members of the Marine Corps and the U.S. Army, landed on Okinawa in Operation Iceberg.  The initial landing of 50,000 men saw little resistance.

    The Red Army took Sopron, Hungaria.

    The Battle of Kassel began between the U.S. Army's 80th Division and German defenders.

    British commandos began Operation Roast in an effort to push the Germans across the Po and out of Italy.


    Hitler moved his headquarters to the Führerbunker..

    The hospital ship Awa Maru was sunk in a case of mistaken identity by the USS Queenfish leading to the loss of 2003 of its 2004 passengers and crew.

    And this wild communications item was introduced.

    Visie-Talkie, 1945

    Last edition:

    Saturday, March 31, 1945. Liberated.