Operation Watchtower - 80 years ago

[fordson]

On the morning of 7 August, 1942, lead elements of the 1st Marine Div made amphibious landing assaults on the islands of Guadalcanal and Tulagi in the Solomon Island Chain. At the time, the amphibious base at Tulagi was the primary target, with Guadalcanal itself being secondary, but it’s airfield (re-named Henderson field) being a primary objective. This was the first major US ground offensive of the war. Some six months later, after brutal fighting and at the cost of 7000 Americans and over 30,000 Japanese lives, the island was secured. It was used as a forward supply and training base. Twenty MOH were awarded to Marine, Navy and Army personnel for their valor during the battle. The Battle for Guadalcanal was a “close run thing” (as the Duke of Wellington said of the Battle of Waterloo) with both sides fighting the jungle, weather and of course each other.

The major battle spawn other significant actions at the periphery:
Battle of Savo Island
Battle of the Eastern Solomons
The Battle the Tenaru
Edson’s Ridge
Batt of Cape Esperance
Battle of Henderson Field
Battle of the Santa Cruz Islands
Naval Battle of Guadalcanal
Battle of Tassafaronga
And the overall Air Campaign

The definitive account of this battle is “Guadalcanal “ by Richard B. Frank. It’s a 700+ page of the land, sea and air battles in and around Guadalcanal.

 

[ladder13]

Yesterday just happened to be the 77th Anniversary (for lack of a better term, no offense intended to anyone) of Hiroshima.

 

[fordson]

Yesterday just happened to be the 77th Anniversary (for lack of a better term, no offense intended to anyone) of Hiroshima.

A “Like” would be inappropriate for that reminder, but thank you anyway…….

 

[Chubbo]

80 years ago

Circa WW2, in 1942, I listened, with My mom & dad to the war news every evening, after supper. I laid on my back, on a couch, with my bottle-fed, full-grown, pet rabbit stretched out on my chest, and mom & dad sat in easy chairs on each side of an end table listening to the evening news report. The likes of Walter Cronkite, Lowell Thomas, Ernie Pyle, and Bill Mauldin, announced those reports. Dad chose to listen to a small table model radio, to conserve power to help the war effort. I still have that small radio.

Chubbo

 

[Ivan the Butcher]

My Great Aunt & Great Uncle were killed by the A-bombing of Nagasaki.

Some years back the photos of prepping and loading the B-29's for their A-bomb runs were declassified and released (and reprinted on this forum). I looked at them, and the oddest feelings came over me!

When I was in my late teens, I had a conversation with my uncle about there use on Japan. It was his wife's parents that died. He told how the Imperial Officers had taken almost all of the family into "Service", The teen girls becoming Pleasure Girls for the Imperial Army and the adults were in Concentration Camps to produce Labor for the Emperor. My aunt grew up living with an elderly distant relative. (My wife once asked, "Where was Hatsuka during all this?" I replied that all saine people of the world, avoid taking their children to a labor camp!

In that conservation with my uncle, I ask what his wife's feeling on the Bombing of Hiroshima and Nikiski were? I was told that the A-Bombs quickly ended the misery of many! That is an Okinawan's Buddhist's point of view! The Main Island Japanese may have a different point of view! But after that discussion, I become livid every time people tell me the US did evil!

Ivan

My uncle and I have no Asian blood, we are German-American-Hillbillies that grew up in Ohio. He joined the Marines and saw the world! Through him, I too saw things that just can't be unseen!

 

[THE PILGRIM]

Knew a Guy who was on one of the Cruisers lost at Savo Island.
He was an Engine Guy but not on duty there when the Skipper ordered General Quarters.
He went to back to the Stern, where his job was to pass Ammo to a Gun there.
He said when the ship was hit, it shook, and then he was in the water.
Nobody below decks got off. All his Buddies down in the Engine-room went down with the ship.
At Sunrise, Destroyers came in and rescued the survivors.
One Australian and three American Cruisers lost.

 

[Rudi]

I knew 2 USMC vets from the battle of the Tenaru river. Amazing to talk with them. Earl and Karl. Karl said "we started that battle with heavy machine guns, and finished it with cold steel." Earl said as much as he hated the enemy, they were brave and fanatic. True MEN those 2 were.

 

[BLACKHAWKNJ]

The USN had a rather steep learning curve in the Pacific War, they were going up against an enemy that was in may ways tactically and technically superior.

 

[fordson]

As an aside, The Slot (aka Iron Bottom Sound), the body of water that runs between the Solomon Islands to Guadalcanal is the resting place of 52 ships loss in various battles fought during those six months off the shores of the ‘Canal. Twenty-six were US and twenty-six were Japanese.

 

[Chubbo]

WW2 as kids

I’d like to comment on what we were taught as kids during WW2, what we did to help the war effort, and why some feelings still belabor us. That might violate the rules of this great forum, so I’ll just forget further comment.

Chubbo

 

[BLACKHAWKNJ]

The Japanese were vastly better at night fighting. However they made the mistake of belittling us, think we were soft and had no warrior spirit.
At Midway the Japanese' most serious personnel losses were in the maintenance and engineering crews of their carriers.

 

[AKtinman]

Just a moment...

 

[Onomea]

The Japanese were vastly better at night fighting. However they made the mistake of belittling us, think we were soft and had no warrior spirit.

Was reading yesterday in the NYT about the Solomons where China is trying to expand its influence, and the US and Australia recover theirs. The article concludes by noting a comment from JFK to his parents about his PT-109 ordeal:

“Previous to that I had been somewhat cynical about the American as a fighting man. I had seen too much bellyaching and laying off,” he told his parents in a letter. “But with the chips down, that all faded away.”

“For an American it’s got to be awfully easy or awfully tough,” he added. “When it’s in the middle, then there’s trouble.”

I think that's a very observant, correct statement about our people.


Guadalcanal Anniversary Marked by a Kennedy - The New York Times

 

[kmyers]

Neptune's Inferno by James D. Hornfischer is a good history of the Naval battles around Guadalcanal.