Veteran's Day

-

November 20, 1943.  17 aircraft carriers, 12 battleships, 8 heavy cruisers, 4 light cruisers and 66 destroyers bombard Tarawa atoll for 3 hours.  At the lifting of the fire, the Marines are sent in.  Expecting 5 feet of water over the coral, the Higgens boats grounded in 3 feet of water.  A New Zealand expert was ignored when he told them of the neap tides and exactly what would happen.  The island had 500 pillboxes and most had survived.  When Tarawa was secured on the 23rd, all but 1 Japanese officer and 16 men were taken alive.  The Second Marine Division lost over 900 dead, with a total of 3166 casualties out of 12,000 men, 25 %.  Other than the Japs, our leaders were the worst enemy out there.  The Marine Commander, Holland Smith, blamed the Navy, but Smith was a paranoid and a liar who ruined Army-Corps relations for decades.  But the Navy did fuck up, and badly.  The bombardment should have gone on for three days, and the planning staff responsible for the neap tide thing punished.  After Smith relieved a competent and experienced Army general on Saipan, essentially for cowardliness, he never commanded again*.  Tarawa turned out to have been ripe for just letting the Japanese starve.  All our men were killed for very little in gain.  
And I have never done a thing to help my country.


Ebb Tide, Kerr Eby

  There are photos aplenty but this seems to get the message across as I want it seen.
 
* Holland Smith was in charge of the land forces at Iwo Jima, but it was a paper designation and he did not run the battle.  While Smith had the authority to relieve any officer he felt less than adequate, he insulted the Army and Ralph Smith, who was a good if not spectacular commander.  In addition, the Army's 27th Division was given the middle of the battlefield with a Marine division on each side of them.  This guaranteed problems and slow movement.  27th Division was a national guard formation, they had nothing like the training and experienced officers and NCO's the Corps had.  Holland Smith wrote a memoir after the war, Coral And Brass, and it was so replete with outright lies and distortions his fellow generals tried to get him to not publish it.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Two Angel Forms Were Seen To Glide

-
Image
’Twas on a lofty vase’s side, Where China’s gayest art had dyed The azure flowers that blow; Demurest of the tabby kind, The pensive Selima, reclined, Gazed on the lake below. Her conscious tail her joy declared; The fair round face, the snowy beard, The velvet of her paws, Her coat, that with the tortoise vies, Her ears of jet, and emerald eyes, She saw; and purred applause. Still had she gazed; but ’midst the tide Two angel forms were seen to glide, The genii of the stream; Their scaly armour’s Tyrian hue Through richest purple to the view Betrayed a golden gleam. The hapless nymph with wonder saw; A whisker first and then a claw, With many an ardent wish, She stretched in vain to reach the prize. What female heart can gold despise? What cat’s averse to fish? Presumptuous maid! with looks intent Again she stretch’d, again she bent, Nor knew the gulf between. (Malignant Fate sat by, and smiled) The slippery verge her feet beguiled, She tumbled headlong in. Eigh
Read more

Where In The World Is Billy D Bunny?

-
Image
''The plight of Davis Paul'' ''Dam you to Hades Billy! why are you setting fire to my Wardrobe with your Cigarette!!?''...you would hear on occasion some kind of verbal anger often from Davis - shouting out in abstract Frustration, 'just because Billy Thought Davis Pauls Clothes were lame'' oh yeah, Billy D was the Dude.........Davis put up with so much crap and nonsense from the rebellious Layabout - come would be antisocial super hero, ''the enabler''...Davis Paul was literally at the end of his tether..all those worrisome late nights... Davis would often shout at Billy, during one of Billy's Trash rampages, ''Aunt may never has this problem ever with peter parker !'' and then the rest of the time, Davis Paul wondering where Billy was? and what was Billy D up too? then after hours and hour of worrying,  Billy would just rock up - staggering through the Front door, Gladiator outfit on, covered
Read more

Two Sides Of The Same Coin

-
Image
 It was a lovely day in November.  At least Tom thought it was November, the air was crisp and cool and it felt Novemberish.  There were no calenders here, while he had a clock he rarely looked at it.  He never had to be anywhere at any particular time in any event, when he had to be somewhere he always showed up on time, if that's the word for it.  Anyway, it was a nice Fall day. Tom stood on his porch that surrounded the small field stone house, he could see and smell the smoke from his neighbor's fires, someone was cooking fish and the big cat was salivating.  Since he had had his coffee he wasn't hungry, but the fish really smelled enticing.  Odd, he thought, I haven't had meat since I got here.  When did I get here?  he thought to himself, I don't remember.  Maybe someplace in town sold meat, although he had never seen such a shop.  It didn't matter, what with the bread and potatoes and butter and honey he was never hungry.  Tom lit a cigarette
Read more