Veterans...Get the hell in here now!

BarnBuster

BarnBuster

Virtually Unknown Member
Today in Military History:

1643367782433.png 1643369126393.png​

The Coast Guard Cutter Blackthorn sank Jan. 28, 1980, after colliding with a tanker near the Sunshine Skyway Bridge. Only 27 of the 50-member crew survived. According to written reports, the accident was the Coast Guard’s worst peacetime disaster.

The Blackthorn was a 180-foot buoy tender home ported in Galveston, Texas from 1976 to 1980. Its primary mission was to set and repair aids to navigation on navigable waterways along the Texas and Louisiana coast.

The vessel had just completed an extensive overhaul in a shipyard in Tampa. About 7:20 p.m., Jan. 28, 1980, as the Blackthorn was departing Tampa Bay to return to Galveston, it collided with the 605-foot oil tanker Capricorn, near the Sunshine Skyway Bridge. Reports say both vessels were maneuvering to allow a passenger ship to pass through the channel. Mixed signals results in the two vessels colliding head-on.

During the collision, the cutter became entangled in Capricorn’s seven-ton anchor. The anchor imbedded in the cutter’s hull, ripped open the port side, and as the 990-foot anchor chain became taut, the Capricorn pulled the Blackthorn through the water causing it to capsize. The Blackthorn sank in less than five minutes in 40-feet of water.

A marine board of investigation found evidence of violation of various navigation laws on the parts of the master and pilot of the Capricorn. There were similar findings on the part of the commanding officer and officer of the deck of the Blackthorn. Primary responsibility for the collision was placed on the Blackthorn's captain, Lt. Commander Sepel, as he had made an inexperienced junior officer (Ensign Ryan) officer of the deck and allowed him to navigate the ship through an unfamiliar waterway with heavy traffic.

Consequently, the Coast Guard developed new training requirements and made changes to navigational aids in and around Tampa Bay. In addition, the Coast Guard established the Command and Operations School at the Coast Guard Academy in New London, Conn. The school offers courses to prepare command-level officers and senior enlisted members for command duty afloat. Commanding officers are now required to formally assess risks such as transiting an unfamiliar port at night, are given full discretion, and encouraged to say no if they feel the risks involved are unnecessary.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++​
Seaman Apprentice William "Billy" Flores was originally from Carlsbad, New Mexico and attended Western Hills High School in Fort Worth, Texas. In 2000 he was posthumously awarded the Coast Guard Medal, the service's highest award for heroism in peacetime. SA Flores, who had been out of boot camp just one year, opened the life jacket locker as Blackthorn capsized, securing its hatch open with his belt, and made sure that his shipmates were able to access and use the life jackets. His actions saved a number of lives during the accident. His heroic role was initially overlooked by the two official reports by the Coast Guard and the NTSB, but was later given the recognition he deserved. His family was presented with the Medal on 28 January 2000, the 20th anniversary of the tragedy. Seaman Apprentice Flores died aboard Blackthorn. In October 2010, it was announced that the third new Sentinel-class fast response cutter, a 154-foot patrol boat, would be named for Flores.

NTSB collision summary BLACKTHORN CAPRICORN safety recommendations
Marine Casualty Report - Blackthorn Capricorn - DOT Coast Guard
 
BarnBuster

BarnBuster

Virtually Unknown Member
Today In Military History:
1643541331255.jpeg​

In Londonderry, Northern Ireland on January 30, 1972, 13 unarmed civil rights demonstrators are shot dead by British Army paratroopers in an event that becomes known as “Bloody Sunday.” The protesters, all Northern Catholics, were marching in protest of the British policy of internment of suspected Irish nationalists. British authorities had ordered the march banned, and sent troops to confront the demonstrators when it went ahead. The soldiers fired indiscriminately into the crowd of protesters, killing 13 and wounding 17.

The killings brought worldwide attention to the crisis in Northern Ireland and sparked protests all across Ireland. In Dublin, the capital of independent Ireland, outraged Irish citizens lit the British embassy aflame on February 2.

The crisis in Northern Ireland escalated in 1969 when British troops were sent to the British possession to suppress nationalist activity by the Irish Republican Army (IRA) and to quell religious violence between Protestants and Catholics.

In April 1972, the British government released a report exonerating British troops from any illegal actions during the Londonderry protest. Irish indignation over Britain’s Northern Ireland policies grew, and Britain increased its military presence in the North while removing any vestige of Northern self-rule. On July 21, 1972, the IRA exploded 20 bombs simultaneously in Belfast, killing British military personnel and a number of civilians. Britain responded by instituting a new court system composed of trial without jury for terrorism suspects and conviction rates topped over 90 percent.

The IRA officially disarmed in September 2005, finally fulfilling the terms of the historic 1998 Good Friday peace agreement. It was hoped that the disarmament would bring with it an end to decades of politically motivated bloodshed in the region.

The incident remained a source of controversy for decades, with competing accounts of the events. In June 2010 the Saville Report, the final pronouncement of a government inquiry initiated by British Prime Minister Tony Blair in 1998, concluded that none of the victims had posed any threat to the soldiers and that their shooting was without justification.

www.nytimes.com

50 Years On, Bloody Sunday’s Wounds Are Still Felt (Published 2022)

A half-century after the killings in Northern Ireland, symbols of division and hostility still hold their potency.
www.nytimes.com www.nytimes.com
www.bbc.com

Bloody Sunday: What happened on Sunday 30 January 1972?

Thirteen people were shot dead and several others injured during a civil rights demonstration in 1972.
www.bbc.com www.bbc.com
 
BarnBuster

BarnBuster

Virtually Unknown Member
Today in Military History:

1580378985622.png

"On January 30, 1945, during World War II, United States Army Rangers, Alamo Scouts, and Filipino guerrillas liberated more than 500 Allies prisoners from the Japanese POW camp near Cabanatuan City, in the Philippines.

After the fall of the Philippines and Bataan in the early day of World War II, Cabanatuan was the largest POW camp in the country. At its peak, it held over 5000 prisoners but by the time of the raid, also known as the “Great Raid”, it held just a bit more than 500. The prisoners had survived the Bataan Death March, brutal conditions in the camp as well as disease and malnutrition.

General Douglas MacArthur authorized the rescue attempt when it was feared that the Japanese were planning on murdering the prisoners before the US forces would liberate them. The Japanese had already done so at the Puerto Princesa Prison Camp on the island of Palawan. They herded 150 prisoners into an air raid shelter where they were doused with gasoline and burned alive.

The Plan:
The initial plan set up by LTC Henry Mucci, commander of the 6th Ranger Bn. had two teams of Alamo Scouts, 14 in all and they would set up a reconnaissance and surveillance detachment on the camp.

Mucci had 120 Rangers from Company C and Company F. They had to march 30 miles behind the Japanese lines to reach the camp undetected to do the assault. The plan was to set up around the camp, put fire on the Japanese guards, eliminating them, rescue the prisoners and get them all back to friendly lines.

The assault was to be led by Captain Robert Prince with 90 Rangers. The support element of 30 Rangers was led by Lt. John Murphy.

The Rangers were bolstered with 200 Filipino guerrillas under the command of CPT Juan Pajota who would serve as guides and support the assault. Pajota’s men set up a roadblock on a bridge spanning the Cabu River to stop Japanese reinforcements from reaching the camp.

The Rangers would have to crawl across open terrain where the Japanese had cleared, to cut down on prisoner escape attempts. To distract the guards, an Army Air Corps P-61 Black Widow buzzed the camp, performing aerobatics and backfiring his engine in an attempt to allow Prince’s men to get in position. During this time, Filipino guerrillas cut the telephone lines to Cabanatuan where the other Japanese forces were.

The Assault:
At 1940 hours Murphy’s men put devastating fire on the Japanese positions and within 15 seconds had neutralized every guard tower and pillbox. One Ranger blew the lock of the gate with a .45 pistol.

The Rangers at the main gate shifted fire in the Japanese guard barracks and the officer’s quarters. Bazooka teams targeted a shed that was thought to have tanks but Japanese soldiers attempting to flee in two trucks were targeted and destroyed.

Prince’s Rangers rushed the compound where the prisoners, fearing that the raid was a Japanese ruse to lure them out to be killed, hid from their American rescuers. But eventually, the prisoners, led by the Rangers made their way to the main gate. Many had to be carried due to their weakened condition.

A Japanese mortar fired three rounds injuring several Rangers and Filipino guerrillas, mortally wounding Ranger Bn. surgeon CPT James Fisher. Murphy’s men from Company F quickly killed the soldier on the mortar.

At the sound of the attack on the camp, CPT Pajota’s guerrillas fired on the Japanese forces from across the river, detonating explosives on the bridge that didn’t destroy it, but blew a hole large enough where tanks or other vehicles couldn’t cross. One guerrilla destroyed four Japanese tanks with a bazooka, having just been trained on its use by the Rangers earlier.

A Japanese flanking force trying the cross the river behind Pajota’s guerrillas was spotted and annihilated.

Prince’s men cleared the camp and he fired a red star cluster to indicate that the last men had left the camp. The Rangers carried and led the POWs to the Pampanga River, where a caravan of 26 carabao carts waited to transport them to Plateros, driven by local villagers organized by CPT Pajota.

Once all of the carts and Rangers had crossed the river, Prince fired a second red star cluster to signal Pajota’s men to withdraw. Mucci radioed the Sixth Army HQs that the mission was a success and that they had all of the POWs safely out of the camp.

The Americans reached their lines at Talavera on January 31, the amount of carts had swelled from 26 to 102 as many of the prisoners found it increasingly difficult to walk. The raid freed 489 POWs and 33 civilians.

General MacArthur wrote about the raid stating, “No incident of the campaign in the Pacific has given me such satisfaction as the release of the POWs at Cabanatuan. The mission was brilliantly successful.” Mucci and Prince were awarded the Distinguished Service Cross for their actions. All the other officers and several Rangers received Silver Stars. The rest of the force received Bronze Stars. The fourteen Alamo Scouts received Presidential Unit Citations.

The raid was one of the most successful POW rescue attempts in US military history and serves as a beacon with what would be the joint special operations of today. The Rangers have a history rich in tradition. The raid at Cabanatuan is among their finest moments."

arsof-history.org

Rescue at Cabanatuan

The fate of the Americans left behind in the Philippines weighed heavily on the senior leaders who escaped.
arsof-history.org arsof-history.org
warfarehistorynetwork.com

Great Raid on Cabanatuan

American and Filipino soldiers and irregulars mounted a daring rescue of 500 U.S. prisoners in a raid on Cabanatuan during World War II.
warfarehistorynetwork.com warfarehistorynetwork.com
sofrep.com

The Rangers Raid Cabanatuan: A Classic Joint Special Operation

The raid on Cabanatuan was a classic example of a joint special operations mission that was incredibly planned and executed.
sofrep.com sofrep.com
 
BarnBuster

BarnBuster

Virtually Unknown Member
Remains being repatriated to USA by Graves Registration Service in France after WWI. The remains of 46,000 soldiers were returned to the States at their families’ request, while another 30,000—roughly 40 percent of the total—were laid to rest in military cemeteries in Europe.
verdun1916.eu

The construction of American cemeteries and repatriation of American soldiers after the First World War. - Ontdek het vergeten verleden van de Eerste Wereldoorlog

Approximately 116,000 American soldiers died in WWI; another 204,002 were wounded. The debate over what to do with America’s fallen soldiers began during the war …
verdun1916.eu
 
Last edited:
BarnBuster

BarnBuster

Virtually Unknown Member
Today in Military History:

1612266996969.png

1943, February 02, the last German troops in the Soviet city of Stalingrad surrender to the Red Army, ending one of the pivotal battles of World War II.

On June 22, 1941, despite the terms of the Nazi-Soviet Pact of 1939, Nazi Germany launched a massive invasion against the USSR. Aided by its greatly superior air force, the German army raced across the Russian plains, inflicting terrible casualties on the Red Army and the Soviet population. With the assistance of troops from their Axis allies, the Germans conquered vast territory, and by mid-October the great Russian cities of Leningrad and Moscow were under siege. However, the Soviets held on, and the coming of winter forced a pause to the German offensive.

For the 1942 summer offensive, Adolf Hitler ordered the Sixth Army, under General Friedrich von Paulus, to take Stalingrad in the south, an industrial center and obstacle to Nazi control of the precious Caucasian oil wells. In August, the German Sixth Army made advances across the Volga River while the German Fourth Air Fleet reduced Stalingrad to a burning rubble, killing over 40,000 civilians. In early September, General Paulus ordered the first offensives into Stalingrad, estimating that it would take his army about 10 days to capture the city. Thus began one of the most horrific battles of World War II and arguably the most important because it was the turning point in the war between Germany and the USSR.

In their attempt to take Stalingrad, the German Sixth Army faced a bitter Red Army under General Vasily Zhukov employing the ruined city to their advantage, transforming destroyed buildings and rubble into natural defensive fortifications. In a method of fighting the Germans began to call the Rattenkrieg, or “Rat’s War,” the opposing forces broke into squads eight or 10 strong and fought each other for every house and yard of territory. The battle saw rapid advances in street-fighting technology, such as a German machine gun that shot around corners and a light Russian plane that glided silently over German positions at night, dropping lethal bombs without warning. However, both sides lacked necessary food, water, or medical supplies, and tens of thousands perished every week.

Soviet leader Joseph Stalin was determined to liberate the city named after him, and in November he ordered massive reinforcements to the area. On November 19, General Zhukov launched a great Soviet counteroffensive out of the rubble of Stalingrad. German command underestimated the scale of the counterattack, and the Sixth Army was quickly overwhelmed by the offensive, which involved 500,000 Soviet troops, 900 tanks, and 1,400 aircraft. Within three days, the entire German force of more than 200,000 men was encircled.

Italian and Romanian troops at Stalingrad surrendered, but the Germans hung on, receiving limited supplies by air and waiting for reinforcements. Hitler ordered Von Paulus to remain in place and promoted him to field marshal, as no Nazi field marshal had ever surrendered. Starvation and the bitter Russian winter took as many lives as the merciless Soviet troops, and on January 21, 1943, the last of the airports held by the Germans fell to the Soviets, completely cutting the Germans off from supplies. On January 31 Paulus disobeyed Hitler and agreed to give himself up. Twenty-two generals surrendered with him, and on February 2 the last of 91,000 frozen starving men (all that was left of the Sixth and Fourth armies) surrendered to the Soviets. The Soviets recovered 250,000 German and Romanian corpses in and around Stalingrad, and total Axis casualties (Germans, Romanians, Italians, and Hungarians) are believed to have been more than 800,000 dead, wounded, missing, or captured. Of the 91,000 men who surrendered, only some 5,000–6,000 ever returned to their homelands (the last of them a full decade after the end of the war in 1945); the rest died in Soviet prison and labour camps. On the Soviet side, official Russian military historians estimate that there were 1,100,000 Red Army dead, wounded, missing, or captured in the campaign to defend the city. An estimated 40,000 civilians died as well. Besides being a turning point in the war, Stalingrad was also revealing of the discipline and determination of both the German Wehrmacht and the Soviet Red Army. The Soviets first defended Stalingrad against a fierce German onslaught. So great were Soviet losses that at times, the life expectancy of a newly arrived soldier was less than a day, and the life expectancy of a Soviet officer was three days. For the heroism of the Soviet defenders of Stalingrad, the city was awarded the title Hero City in 1945

The Battle of Stalingrad turned the tide in the war between Germany and the Soviet Union. General Zhukov, who had played such an important role in the victory, later led the Soviet drive on Berlin. On May 1, 1945, he personally accepted the German surrender of Berlin. Von Paulus, meanwhile, agitated against Adolf Hitler among the German prisoners of war in the Soviet Union and in 1946 provided testimony at the International Military Tribunal at Nuremberg. After his release by the Soviets in 1953, he settled in East Germany.

The Battle of Stalingrad

Encyclopedia of Jewish and Israeli history, politics and culture, with biographies, statistics, articles and documents on topics from anti-Semitism to Zionism.
www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org
www.britannica.com

Battle of Stalingrad | History, Summary, Location, Deaths, & Facts

Battle of Stalingrad, successful Soviet defense of the city of Stalingrad that was a turning point in favor of the Allies in World War II. Russians consider it to be one of the greatest battles of their Great Patriotic War, and most historians consider it to be the greatest battle of the entire...
www.britannica.com www.britannica.com
 
BarnBuster

BarnBuster

Virtually Unknown Member
www.cnn.com

Biden signs bill awarding Congressional Gold Medal to WWII's 'Ghost Army' | CNN Politics

President Joe Biden on Tuesday signed a bill into law that awards the Congressional Gold Medal to a top-secret US Army unit that used deceptive tactics like inflatable tanks, fake radio transmissions and sound effects to fool enemy forces during World War II.
www.cnn.com www.cnn.com

www.ghostarmylegacyproject.org

| The Ghost Army Legacy Project | WWII Deception Unit

The 23rd headquarters Special Troops and the 3133rd Signal Service Company , World War II Deception units awarded a Congressional Gold Medal, inflatable tanks, soune effects, illusion, battlefield trickery
www.ghostarmylegacyproject.org www.ghostarmylegacyproject.org
www.congress.gov

Text - S.1404 - 117th Congress (2021-2022): Ghost Army Congressional Gold Medal Act

Text for S.1404 - 117th Congress (2021-2022): Ghost Army Congressional Gold Medal Act
www.congress.gov
 
BarnBuster

BarnBuster

Virtually Unknown Member
1643819903490.png
Sailors from the Pearl Harbor Honor Guard transport a casket during an internment ceremony for Navy Petty Officer 1st Class James McDonald at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific, Honolulu, Jan. 19, 2022. McDonald was one of 429 sailors and Marines assigned to the USS Oklahoma who lost their lives during the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. Photo By: Army Sgt. Mitchell Ryan

1643820009317.png
Air Force Senior Master Sgt. Erika Carruth hugs her daughter at Hector International Airport, N.D., Jan. 20, 2022, after returning from six-month deployment to southwest Asia. Photo By: David Lipp, Air Force​
 
BarnBuster

BarnBuster

Virtually Unknown Member
Today in Military History:​

1581160065859.png

On February 8, 1943, Japanese troops evacuate Guadalcanal, leaving the island in Allied possession after a prolonged campaign. The American victory paved the way for other Allied wins in the Solomon Islands.

Guadalcanal is the largest of the Solomons, a group of 992 islands and atolls, 347 of which are inhabited, in the South Pacific Ocean. The Solomons, which are located northeast of Australia and have 87 indigenous languages, were discovered in 1568 by the Spanish navigator Alvaro de Mendana de Neyra (1541-95). In 1893, the British annexed Guadalcanal, along with the other central and southern Solomons. The Germans took control of the northern Solomons in 1885, but transferred these islands, except for Bougainville and Buka (which eventually went to the Australians) to the British in 1900.

The Japanese invaded the Solomons in 1942 during World War II and began building a strategic airfield on Guadalcanal. On August 7 of that year, U.S. Marines landed on the island, signaling the Allies’ first major offensive against Japanese-held positions in the Pacific. The Japanese responded quickly with sea and air attacks. A series of bloody battles ensued in the debilitating tropical heat as Marines sparred with Japanese troops on land, while in the waters surrounding Guadalcanal, the U.S. Navy fought six major engagements with the Japanese between August 24 and November 30. In mid-November 1942, the five Sullivan brothers from Waterloo, Iowa, died together when the Japanese sank their ship, the USS Juneau.

Both sides suffered heavy losses of men, warships and planes in the battle for Guadalcanal. An estimated 1,600 U.S. troops were killed, over 4,000 were wounded and several thousand more died from disease. The Japanese lost 24,000 soldiers. On December 31, 1942, Emperor Hirohito told Japanese troops they could withdraw from the area; the Americans secured Guadalcanal about five weeks later.

The Solomons gained their independence from Britain in 1978. In the late 1990s, fighting broke out between rival ethnic groups on Guadalcanal and continued until an Australian-led international peacekeeping mission restored order in 2003. Today, with a population of over half a million people, the Solomons are known as a scuba diver and fisherman’s paradise.

Guadalcanal The First Offensive
US Fights Back The Battle of Guadalcanal
 
BarnBuster

BarnBuster

Virtually Unknown Member
Cerberus (AKA Dita IRL), was "retired" from his active role on Seal Team due to PTSD a real problem facing MWD's. On the show he now plays the role of Jason's pet at home on the couch. Dita and Pepper (Cerberus' replacement on the series and Dita's sister) are both K9's, owned, trained and living with Justin Melnick a LE K9 officer.

1644342748477.png 1644342804449.png
At home with Baby Melnick
​

Login • Instagram

Welcome back to Instagram. Sign in to check out what your friends, family & interests have been capturing & sharing around the world.
www.instagram.com www.instagram.com
 
BarnBuster

BarnBuster

Virtually Unknown Member
Today in Military History:
1644754536317.png​

During World War II, Allied bombing raids on February 13–15, 1945, almost completely destroyed the German city of Dresden. The raids became a symbol of the “terror bombing” campaign against Germany, which was one of the most controversial Allied actions of the war.

Throughout the war, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill had called for increased British air raids against the population centres of Germany in order to swamp German authorities and services, particularly transportation, with hordes of refugees. As the Allied forces closed in on the Third Reich in 1945, such targets became more feasible because of the air superiority and improved navigation techniques of the Anglo-American bomber force.

Before World War II, Dresden was called “Florence on the Elbe” and was considered one of the world’s most beautiful cities because of its architecture and art treasures. Having never previously been attacked in the war, the city offered increased value for terror bombing against an inexperienced population. On the night of February 13, the British Bomber Command hit Dresden with an 800-bomber air raid, dropping some 2,700 tons of bombs, including large numbers of incendiaries. Aided by weather conditions, a firestorm developed, incinerating tens of thousands of people. The U.S. Eighth Air Force followed the next day with another 400 tons of bombs and carried out yet another raid by 210 bombers on February 15. It is thought that some 25,000–35,000 civilians died in Dresden in the air attacks, though some estimates are as high as 250,000, given the influx of undocumented refugees that had fled to Dresden from the Eastern Front. Most of the victims were women, children, and the elderly.

After the war, German and Soviet authorities considered leveling the Dresden ruins to make way for new construction. But local leaders forced a compromise for rebuilding part of the city centre and placing the modern construction outside—in effect, encircling old Dresden with a newer city. After reunification in 1990, Germany undertook the extensive reconstruction of the inner city as a moral and political objective, unveiling new works at various stages with much fanfare in an effort still ongoing in the 21st century. Dresden has returned to much of its former grandeur as a centre for art and culture.

The bombing of Dresden was a historic benchmark that demonstrated the power of strategic bombing. Critics say that the military value of the bombing did not justify Dresden’s near destruction and that the city could have been spared, like Rome, Paris, and Kyōto. Given the high number of civilian casualties and the relatively few strategic targets, some even called the bombing of Dresden a war crime, though both the British and the American militaries defended the bombing as necessary.

www.nationalww2museum.org

Apocalypse in Dresden, February 1945 | The National WWII Museum | New Orleans

What happened in Dresden in February 1945 was apocalyptic.
www.nationalww2museum.org www.nationalww2museum.org

Why Dresden was Bombed A Review of the Reasons and Reactions
Bombings of Dresden
 
BarnBuster

BarnBuster

Virtually Unknown Member
1644755566439.png​

The earliest military action to be awarded a Medal of Honor is performed by Colonel Bernard J.D. Irwin, an assistant army surgeon serving in the first major U.S.-Apache conflict on February 13, 1861. Near Apache Pass, in southeastern Arizona, Irwin, an Irish-born doctor, volunteered to go to the rescue of Second Lieutenant George N. Bascom, who was trapped with 60 men of the U.S. Seventh Infantry by the Chiricahua Apaches.

Irwin and 14 men, initially without horses, began the 100-mile trek to Bascom’s forces riding on mules. After fighting and capturing Apaches along the way and recovering stolen horses and cattle, they reached Bascom’s forces on February 14 and proved instrumental in breaking the siege.

The first U.S.-Apache conflict had begun several days before, when Cochise, the Chiricahua Apache chief, kidnapped three white men to exchange for his brother and two nephews held by the U.S. Army on false charges of stealing cattle and kidnapping a child. When the exchange was refused, Cochise killed the white men, and the army responded by killing his relatives, setting off the first of the Apache wars.

Although Irwin’s bravery in this conflict was the earliest Medal of Honor action, the award itself was not created until 1862, and it was not until January 21, 1894, that Irwin received the nation’s highest military honor.

defaeroreport.com

‘The Fighting Doctor’ Unwittingly Earns the First-Ever Congressional Medal of Honor - Defense & Aerospace Report

In February 1861, U.S. Army Assistant Surgeon Bernard J.D. Irwin defied long distance and a snow storm to ensure that soldiers wounded in the nation’s first major battle with the Apaches at Apache Pass, Arizona, could get medical care. He then joined the fight and helped to break the siege...
defaeroreport.com
academic.oup.com

More Than “The Fighting Doctor”: Brigadier General Bernard J. D. Irwin

Brigadier General Bernard J. D. Irwin (1829–1917),1 earned the epitaph the “Fighting Doctor” for his exploits during the Civil War and against Indians out west.
academic.oup.com academic.oup.com
 
BarnBuster

BarnBuster

Virtually Unknown Member
Today in Military History:
1613347081348.png
1644874827909.png​
The fall of Singapore to the Japanese Army on February 15th 1942 is considered to be one of the greatest military defeats in the history of the British Empire

An island city, “Gibraltar of the East” and a strategic British stronghold and the capital of the Straits Settlement of the Malay Peninsula, Singapore had been a British colony since the 19th century. In July 1941, when Japanese troops occupied French Indochina, the Japanese telegraphed their intentions to transfer Singapore from the British to its own burgeoning empire. Sure enough, on the eve of the Pearl Harbor attack, 24,000 Japanese troops were transported from Indochina to the Malay Peninsula, and Japanese fighter pilots attacked Singapore, killing 61 civilians from the air.

The battle between Japanese and British forces on the Malay Peninsula continued throughout December and January, killing hundreds more civilians in the process. The British were forced to abandon and evacuate many of their positions, including Port Swettenham and Kuala Lumpur.

On February 8, 5,000 Japanese troops landed on Singapore Island. Pro-Japanese propaganda leaflets were dropped on the islands, encouraging surrender. On February 13, Singapore’s 15-inch coastal guns–the island’s main defensive weapons–were destroyed. Tactical miscalculations on the part of British Gen. Arthur Percival and poor communication between military and civilian authorities exacerbated the deteriorating British defense. Represented by General Percival and senior Allied officers, Singapore surrendered to Japanese Gen. Tomoyuki Yamashita in front of Japanese newsreel cameras. Sixty-two thousand Allied soldiers were taken prisoner; more than half eventually died as prisoners of war.

With the surrender of Singapore, Britain lost its foothold in the East. British Prime Minister Winston Churchill attempted to prop up morale by urging Brits “to display the calm and poise, combined with grim determination, which not so long ago brought us out of the very jaws of death.”

The Japanese took 100,000 men prisoner in Singapore . Many had just arrived and had not fired a bullet in anger. The people of Singapore fared worse. Many were of Chinese origin and were slaughtered by the Japanese. After the war, Japan admitted that 5000 had been murdered, but the Chinese population in Singapore put the figure at nearer 50,000. With the evidence of what the Japanese could do to a captured civilian population (as seen at Nanking), 5000 is likely to be an underestimate. Some of these POW's were used to construct theThai-Burma Railway (Bridge over the River Kwai, bb). Of the 60,000 Allied POWs who worked on the railway , some 12,500 died, many from disease, starvation and ill-treatment. A great many more Asian labourers, estimated at 75,000, also lost their lives while working on this railway.

The fall of Singapore was a humiliation for the British government. The Japanese had been portrayed as useless soldiers only capable of fighting the militarily inferior Chinese. This assessment clearly rested uncomfortably with how the British Army had done in the peninsula."

kokodahistorical.com.au

Fall of Singapore

Run by historian David Howell, Kokoda Historical tours to Kokoda and PNG Battlegrounds with a historical perspective
kokodahistorical.com.au kokodahistorical.com.au
ukdefencejournal.org.uk

The fall of Singapore: An avoidable catastrophe?

The Fall of Singapore represented the collapse of British influence in South East Asia, and severely diminished the British Empire's Asia-Pacific clout.
ukdefencejournal.org.uk ukdefencejournal.org.uk

BICYCLE BLITZKRIEG THE MALAYAN CAMPAIGN AND THE FALL OF SINGAPORE
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top