Veterans...Get the hell in here now!

Today in Military History:

"On October 7, 1943, Rear Adm. Shigematsu Sakaibara, commander of the Japanese garrison on the island, orders the execution of 96 Americans POWs, claiming they were trying to make radio contact with U.S. forces.

In late December 1941, the Japanese reinforced existing forces on Wake Island, part of a coral atoll west of Hawaii, in massive numbers after being unable to wrest the island from a small number of Americans troops earlier in the month. The Japanese strength was now overwhelming, and most of those Americans left alive after the battle were taken by the Japanese off the island to POW camps elsewhere. Ninety-six (?,bb) remained behind to be used as forced labor. The Allied response was periodic bombing of the island—but no more land invasions, as part of a larger Allied strategy to leave certain Japanese-occupied islands in the South Pacific to basically starve in isolation.

The execution of those remaining American POWs, who were blindfolded and shot in cold blood, remains one of the more brutal episodes of the War.

Sakaibara had the 98 prisoners machine-gunned en masse on the beach. One of them managed to survive and escape the slaughter, but was recaptured shortly after, and is supposed to have been personally beheaded by the admiral. It’s said that unidentified man carved a (misdated) testimony to the crime on a nearby coral rock known as “98 Rock”: “98 US PW 5-10-43”.

Although the Japanese had hastily exhumed the murdered POWs and reburied them in a cemetery as the end of the war approached, the cover story on the “Wake Island Massacre” soon cracked.

After the war, Sakaibara was taken into custody by the American occupation authorities, extradited to Guam, and sentenced to death by a military tribunal for war crimes in connection with his actions on Wake Island. He was hanged on June 18, 1947. Until the end, he maintained, "I think my trial was entirely unfair and the proceeding unfair, and the sentence too harsh, but I obey with pleasure."

https://bonitagilbert.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/WAKE-98.pdf

Battle of Wake Island - All Those Who Surrendered Were Tortured, 98 Were Machine-Gunned

Before the threat of war in the Pacific and the outbreak of World War II, Wake Island was a stopping off point for vacationers aboard Pan American flights

www.warhistoryonline.com

BarnBuster said:

Today in Military History:

View attachment 4706787
The 98 Rock on Wake Island​

"On October 7, 1943, Rear Adm. Shigematsu Sakaibara, commander of the Japanese garrison on the island, orders the execution of 96 Americans POWs, claiming they were trying to make radio contact with U.S. forces.

In late December 1941, the Japanese reinforced existing forces on Wake Island, part of a coral atoll west of Hawaii, in massive numbers after being unable to wrest the island from a small number of Americans troops earlier in the month. The Japanese strength was now overwhelming, and most of those Americans left alive after the battle were taken by the Japanese off the island to POW camps elsewhere. Ninety-six (?,bb) remained behind to be used as forced labor. The Allied response was periodic bombing of the island—but no more land invasions, as part of a larger Allied strategy to leave certain Japanese-occupied islands in the South Pacific to basically starve in isolation.

The execution of those remaining American POWs, who were blindfolded and shot in cold blood, remains one of the more brutal episodes of the War.

Sakaibara had the 98 prisoners machine-gunned en masse on the beach. One of them managed to survive and escape the slaughter, but was recaptured shortly after, and is supposed to have been personally beheaded by the admiral. It’s said that unidentified man carved a (misdated) testimony to the crime on a nearby coral rock known as “98 Rock”: “98 US PW 5-10-43”.

Although the Japanese had hastily exhumed the murdered POWs and reburied them in a cemetery as the end of the war approached, the cover story on the “Wake Island Massacre” soon cracked.

After the war, Sakaibara was taken into custody by the American occupation authorities, extradited to Guam, and sentenced to death by a military tribunal for war crimes in connection with his actions on Wake Island. He was hanged on June 18, 1947. Until the end, he maintained, "I think my trial was entirely unfair and the proceeding unfair, and the sentence too harsh, but I obey with pleasure."

https://bonitagilbert.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/WAKE-98.pdf

Battle of Wake Island - All Those Who Surrendered Were Tortured, 98 Were Machine-Gunned

Before the threat of war in the Pacific and the outbreak of World War II, Wake Island was a stopping off point for vacationers aboard Pan American flights

www.warhistoryonline.com

Click to expand...

This went on in Vietnam too. Have you ever noticed how few enlisted US soldiers were taken as POWs in Vietnam? That's because if you weren't an officer, the VC/NVA weren't taking prisoners.......and neither were we. That's a rough way to fight a war.

"On October 8, 1918, United States Corporal Alvin C. York reportedly kills over 20 German soldiers and captures an additional 132 at the head of a small detachment in the Argonne Forest near the Meuse River in France. The exploits later earned York the Medal of Honor.

Born in 1887 in a log cabin near the Tennessee-Kentucky border, York was the third of 11 children in a family supported by subsistence farming and hunting. After experiencing a religious conversion, he became a fundamentalist Christian around 1915. Two years later, when the United States entered World War I, York was drafted into the U.S. Army. After being denied conscientious-objector status, York enlisted in the 82nd Infantry Division and in May 1918 arrived in France for active duty on the Western Front. He served in the successful Saint-Mihiel offensive in September of that year, was promoted to corporal and given command of his own squad.

The events of October 8, 1918, took place as part of the Meuse-Argonne offensive—what was to be the final Allied push against German forces on the Western Front during World War I. York and his battalion were given the task of seizing German-held positions across a valley; after encountering difficulties, the small group of soldiers—numbering some 17 men—were fired upon by a German machine-gun nest at the top of a nearby hill. The gunners cut down nine men, including a superior officer, leaving York in charge of the squad.

As York wrote in his diary of his subsequent actions: “[T]hose machine guns were spitting fire and cutting down the undergrowth all around me something awful…. I didn’t have time to dodge behind a tree or dive into the brush, I didn’t even have time to kneel or lie down…. As soon as the machine guns opened fire on me, I began to exchange shots with them. In order to sight me or to swing their machine guns on me, the Germans had to show their heads above the trench, and every time I saw a head I just touched it off. All the time I kept yelling at them to come down. I didn’t want to kill any more than I had to. But it was they or I. And I was giving them the best I had.”

Several other American soldiers followed York’s lead and began firing; as they drew closer to the machine-gun nest, the German commander—thinking he had underestimated the size of the enemy squadron—surrendered his garrison of some 90 men. On the way back to the Allied lines, York and his squad took more prisoners, for a total of 132. Though Alvin York consistently played down his accomplishments of that day, he was given credit for killing more than 20 German soldiers. Promoted to the rank of sergeant, he remained on the front lines until November 1, 10 days before the armistice. In April 1919, York was awarded the highest American military decoration, the Medal of Honor.

Lauded by The New York Times as “the war’s biggest hero” and by General John J. Pershing, commander of the American Expeditionary Force (AEF), as “the greatest civilian soldier” of World War I, York went on to found a school for underprivileged children, the York Industrial Institute (now Alvin C. York Institute), in rural Tennessee. In 1941, his heroism became the basis for a movie, Sergeant York, starring Gary Cooper. Upon York’s death in 1964, U.S. President Lyndon Johnson called him “a symbol of American courage and sacrifice” who epitomized “the gallantry of American fighting men and their sacrifices on behalf of freedom.”

Regular Army vet here. Long fucking time ago, 87 - 89.
I do remember my favorite cadence tho....

A yellow bird, with a yellow bill
Was sitting on, my windowsill
I lured him in, with a piece of bread
And then I smashed his, fuckin' head
Sound off 1 2, sound again 3 4

BarnBuster said:

View attachment 4713177​

Sound Off: Where The Military's Rhythm Came From

In almost every Hollywood depiction of the American military, at some point a bunch of guys will jog past the camera, singing and stepping in unison. That rhythm infiltrated the Army in 1944.

www.npr.org

Click to expand...

I hated Jody!......

BarnBuster said:

View attachment 4713177​

Sound Off: Where The Military's Rhythm Came From

In almost every Hollywood depiction of the American military, at some point a bunch of guys will jog past the camera, singing and stepping in unison. That rhythm infiltrated the Army in 1944.

www.npr.org

Click to expand...

I was just trying to look up some of the cadences we used to do this morning, weird. Couldn't find them but I don't remember much of how they went.

raratt said:

I was just trying to look up some of the cadences we used to do this morning, weird. Couldn't find them but I don't remember much of how they went.

Click to expand...

"Ain't no use in looking down, aint no discharge on the ground"
"Ain't no use in looking back, Jody's got your Cadillac"...

There was one about fucking an ugly girl in the basement, but I can't find it. Something about putting a flag on her face and fucking her for Glory.
Sorry ladies, it was still an all boys club when I was in.

"According to reports on Tuesday, Oct. 12, 2020, the famed WWII Army unit Merrill's Marauders has been approved to receive the Congressional Gold Medal, Congress' highest honor. Nearly 3,000 soldiers began the unit's secret mission in Japanese occupied Burma in 1944. Barely 200 remained in the fight when their mission was completed five months later."

It's about time Merrill's Marauders got their due. I loved that story growing up.

Some of the acts of bravery in WW2 are breathtaking. Think about Doolittle and the raid on Tokyo in 1942. Taking off from the deck of an aircraft carrier in twin engined bombers twice as large and half as fast as they should be, launching in the middle of the Pacific on a one way mission to Tokyo, the most heavily defended city on Earth.
If all goes perfect, they'll drop a handful of bombs that do no meaningful damage, fly across Japan, then the Sea of Japan crossing far enough into China so they can bail out where the Japanese haven't advanced yet, hoping to get picked up by Chinese citizens who won't turn them in for reward.
Then maybe make it 10,000 miles back to America somehow, across a war zone either way.
Balls. Big balls of steel.

Today in Military History:

In one of the most decisive naval battles in history on October 21, 1805 the British fleet under Admiral Lord Horatio Nelson defeats a combined French and Spanish fleet at the Battle of Trafalgar, fought off the coast of Spain.

At sea, Lord Nelson and the Royal Navy consistently thwarted Napoleon Bonaparte, who led France to preeminence on the European mainland. Nelson’s last and greatest victory against the French was the Battle of Trafalgar, which began after Nelson caught sight of a Franco-Spanish force of 33 ships. Preparing to engage the enemy force on October 21, Nelson divided his 27 ships into two divisions and signaled a famous message from his flagship HMS Victory: “England expects that every man will do his duty.” Nelson’s default instruction to his officers was ‘No captain can do wrong if he puts his ship alongside the nearest enemy’.

In five hours of fighting, the British devastated the enemy fleet, destroying 19 enemy ships. British casualties were 1,587 men killed and wounded. The French and Spanish casualties were never revealed, but are thought to have been around 16,000 men killed, wounded or captured.

The battle raged at its fiercest around the Victory, and a French sniper shot Nelson in the shoulder and chest. The admiral was taken below and died about 30 minutes before the end of the battle. Nelson’s last words, after being informed that victory was imminent, were “Now I am satisfied. Thank God I have done my duty.”

Victory at the Battle of Trafalgar ensured that Napoleon would never invade Britain. Nelson, hailed as the savior of his nation, was given a magnificent funeral in St. Paul’s Cathedral in London. Rather than bury his body at sea, Nelson’s quick-thinking Irish surgeon William Beatty preserved it in a cask of brandy lashed to the deck of the ship. (A hurricane is on the horizon and the mast has been shot off; there is no way to hang the sails that would get ship (and body) to England quickly.)

The victory at the Battle of Trafalgar ensured that Britain’s dominance at sea remained largely unchallenged for the rest of the ten years of war against France, and continued worldwide for further one hundred and twenty years. His death brought about an outpouring of public grief hardly equaled to this day. Fascination with his life, both personal and public, had begun. In death, Nelson had finally achieved his greatest ambition, immortality. Even today, Nelson is revered as one of England’s greatest heroes. A column was erected to his memory in the newly named Trafalgar Square, and numerous streets were renamed in his honor.

HMS Victory, lies in Portsmouth Harbour Historic Dockyard , preserved as it was at the time of the battle. Victory currently has a dual role as the Flagship of the First Sea Lord and as a living museum to the Georgian Navy. She transferred to The National Museum of the Royal Navy in 2012.

The Battle of Trafalgar. 21 October 1805

Nelson’s crushing defeat of the French and Spanish Navies on 21st October 1805, establishing Britain as the dominant world naval power for…

graham100200.medium.com

The Scandalous Decision to Pickle Admiral Horatio Nelson in Brandy

In the middle of the Napoleonic War, Britain's most famous naval hero is struck by a fatal musket ball at the very moment of his greatest strategic triumph....

www.atlasobscura.com

I would love to tour HMS Victory

in honor ....

Hey fellow vet here (e-6 army two Iraq’s- combat mos...did missions) just saying hey and supporting all of you and growing your own medicine.

Thank you for your service. I was lucky to serve before GW1. I did get my Ready Reserve call up letter, and I'm like wait, what? Ready Reserve? The hell is that? I had to go back to my recruiter and be told that, yeah, they can call you back to active duty up to 7 years after you leave. Commerce Hershey squirts.

Thanks and thanks for your service too. I knew a few guys who got called back after they ets’d and had to deploy. I feel for you brother!

Today in Military History:

Inspired by both Britain and France honoring their unknown warriors, the U.S. Congress approved Public Resolution 67 in 1921 and the process of locating U.S. unknown soldier for burial in Arlington National Cemetery (ANC) began. On October 23, 1921, in the French town of Chalons-sur-Marne, an American officer selects the body of the first “Unknown Soldier” to be honored among the approximately 77,000 United States servicemen killed on the Western Front during World War I.

According to the official records of the Army Graves Registration Service deposited in the U.S. National Archives in Washington, four bodies were transported to Chalons from the cemeteries of Aisne-Marne, Somme, Meuse-Argonne and Saint-Mihiel.

All were great battlegrounds, and the latter two regions were the sites of two offensive operations in which American troops took a leading role in the decisive summer and fall of 1918. As the service records stated, the identity of the bodies was completely unknown: “The original records showing the internment of these bodies were searched and the four bodies selected represented the remains of soldiers of which there was absolutely no indication as to name, rank, organization or date of death.”

The four bodies arrived at the Hotel de Ville in Chalons-sur-Marne on October 23, 1921. At 10 o’clock the next morning, French and American officials entered a hall where the four caskets were displayed, each draped with an American flag. Sergeant Edward Younger, the man given the task of making the selection, carried a spray of white roses with which to mark the chosen casket. According to the official account, Younger “entered the chamber in which the bodies of the four Unknown Soldiers lay, circled the caskets three times, then silently placed the flowers on the third casket from the left. He faced the body, stood at attention and saluted.”

The casket was inscribed: 'An Unknown American who gave his life in the World War.' The coffin was sealed and then draped with the Stars and Stripes. The original spray of white roses was laid upon the new casket and, as the strains of Chopin's 'Funeral March' broke upon the silence, the pallbearers lifted the casket and bore it to the catafalque in a shrine erected in the center of the large hall facing the principal gate of the Hotel de Ville."

After the selection of the Unknown Soldier, the remaining three caskets were immediately loaded onto a waiting tuck and taken to Romagne Cemetery where they were reburied in grave numbers 1, 2 and 3.
The casket lay in state until late afternoon when it was loaded onto a special train and taken to Paris where it remained overnight. On the morning of October 25, the train carried the Unknown Soldier to the port of Le Havre where the casket was transferred to the American cruiser "Olympia for the final journey home:

"As the body was being transferred to the vessel, the band of the Olympia played the 'Marseillaise' and the 'Star Spangled Banner.' The American Marines were lined on the Quai d'Escale and presented arms as the pallbearers with the Unknown passed.

The casket was placed on the stern of the cruiser, which had been beautifully decorated with wreaths, flowers and flags. The school children of Le Havre went aboard and banked flowers around the casket. During the ceremonies, the two French destroyers, which had been acting as escorts to the American cruiser, were pulled out beyond the breakwater. Silently, the Olympia moved slowly from the pier and steamed out into the bay. She was met by a salute of 17 guns from the French destroyer in honor of America's Cherished hero, to which she promptly responded. The Nameless Warrior was leaving for his last resting place in the land of his birth."

The Olympia was Admiral Dewey's Flagship during the Spanish-American war. She served in the Mediterranean during World War I. Transporting the Unknown Soldier back to the US was her last mission.

Once back in the United States, the Unknown Soldier was buried in Arlington National Cemetery, near Washington, D.C.

Bringing the Unknown Soldier Home in 1921 (10 Photos)

archiveproject.com

CHAPTER I - The Last Salute