'Aussie Rick'’s
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(group member since Jun 12, 2009)
'Aussie Rick'’s
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from the THE WORLD WAR TWO GROUP group.
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Great post Jonny, that area was particularly difficult to assault.
"Salonica: City of Ghosts" - The vast Jewish cemetery at Salonica was destroyed by the Germans during WW2. According to the author: "The cemetery covered a vast area of nearly thirty-five hectares (in comparison, the Jewish cemetery in Prague is about one hectare) and contained hundreds of thousands of graves. German military authorities requisitioned some of the marble for road-building and to construct a swimming-pool. Greek organizations and individuals carted off more: indeed even a few years ago, tombstones could still be seen stacked in the city's churchyards or set in the walls and roads of the Upper Town."
Jewish cemetery of Salonica:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jewish_...
A very Merry Christmas to all the group members - I hope everyone has a great Christmas and all the best for the New Year!🎅🎅🎅
Liz V. wrote: "I stumbled across this site re Denmarkhttp://www.flensted.eu.com/"
Great resource site, thanks for posting the link Liz!
Great post Jonny! I liked the names of the two Boomerangs - Bib and Bub :)
"Saipan: The Battle That Doomed Japan in World War II" - Another incident from the fighting on Saipan that was finally resolved in 2002 was the award of the Medal of Honor to Captain Benjamin Salomon:https://www.nationalww2museum.org/war...
"Saipan: The Battle That Doomed Japan in World War II" - Long after the war had ended, the Battle of Saipan still reverberated throughout America in many different ways. One was the return of the remains of some of the missing American soldiers, like Private William Yawney:https://www.dpaa.mil/News-Stories/ID-...
"Saipan: The Battle That Doomed Japan in World War II" - Some more details on some of the brave actions of the Marines during the massed Banzai attack and the American counterattack. The actions of Sergeant Grant Frederick Timmerman in saving his fellow tank crew members certainly deserve the Medal of Honor that he was subsequently awarded:
https://npshistory.com/publications/w...
"Saipan: The Battle That Doomed Japan in World War II" - The author provided a detailed chapter on the massed Japanese attack that took place on the 7th July. This 'Banzai' attack was the largest of its kind that took place during WW2. The author also provided numerous accounts of the many brave actions of members of the US Army 27th Infantry Division. This article provides some details of some of those brave men:https://www.nationalww2museum.org/war...
Talking about American tanks at Saipan here are some great images of some Sherman tanks still on the beaches of Saipan:https://www.ww2wrecks.com/portfolio/t...
"Saipan: The Battle That Doomed Japan in World War II" - American armour suffered badly during the fighting in Death Valley:"The number of tanks lost in the fighting reflected the level of enemy resistance in Death Valley. On June 24 alone, the 27th Division reported that four medium tanks had been knocked out and ten others required repairs. All damage was due to heavy antitank gun fire. The 762nd Tank Battalion had arrived on Saipan with seventy-two vehicles. As of June 27th, only ten medium and eighteen light tanks remained in operating condition. Almost all of the damaged or destroyed armor had been hit in the Death Valley area since June 23.
The fate of Tank #54 in the 766th Tank Battalion's Company D the morning of June 27 demonstrated the lethality of the constricted valley. The tank was shelling the cliffs when the driver made the mistake of exposing its side to an enemy gun. A high-velocity shell pierced the armor, sending slivers of steel ricocheting around the crew compartment. Three of the crew, two of them wounded, bailed out just as two more shells hit the tank in rapid succession. The bow gunner, twenty-three-year-old Pvt. Martin L. Petosa, didn't make it. His badly burned body was found several days later, still inside the tank."
"Saipan: The Battle That Doomed Japan in World War II" - The author discussed the fighting around Death Valley and Purple Heart Ridge. Here is a pretty decent video covering the fighting for those areas on Saipan:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kuAFI...
"Saipan: The Battle That Doomed Japan in World War II" - The author mentioned this incident in the book:"The fighting overnight had been intense. One of Jumpin' Joe's noncoms, twenty-eight-year-old Sgt. Maj. Gilbert L. 'Irish' Morton, a longtime reservist from New Orleans, had taken over a platoon after their lieutenant was killed. Tucked into the rocky heights near the junction with the 2nd Marine Division, the platoon, running low on ammunition, had nearly been overrun in hand-to-hand fighting. Four Japanese jumped into Morton's foxhole. 'He had a Thompson submachine gun he had stolen from someplace,' said Chambers. 'Fearing the Thompson would hit his own people, [he] killed all four Japanese by beating them to death. It must have been one hell of a fight. I had never seen a human body so beaten up in my life as was Morton's when I saw him the next day'."
Saipan: The Battle That Doomed Japan in World War II by James H. Hallas
"Saipan: The Battle That Doomed Japan in World War II" - The flies at Saipan:" ... 'It was hot. And the place was full of bodies. And bodies cause maggots and maggots cause flies. During the day you couldn't even put any food to your mouth because flies would cover the spoon. You couldn't go to the bathroom because they'd be after that. You'd wait til night to have a bowel movement. You'd walk along, the flies would get on every little scratch you had, five or six of them trying to get to the blood. And that went on for most of the time.' A disgusted news correspondent wrote, 'All the flies in Asia are on Saipan. You don't shoo them from your food. You pick them from your teeth'."
Saipan: The Battle That Doomed Japan in World War II by James H. Hallas
Sounds like an excellent novel André!
Great post Perato - some of those shipboard accidents were pretty terrible!
"Saipan: The Battle That Doomed Japan in World War II" - The arrival of additional aerial support for the troops on Saipan:"On June 22, twenty-five P-47 'Thunderbolts' from the 318th Air Group's 19th Squadron were catapulted off the escort carrier USS Natoma Bay 60 miles off shore and landed at their new home at Aslito. Others flew in over the next two days, bringing the total to seventy-three P-47s. They immediately went into action in support of the ground troops. The P-47D carried six 5-inch rockets, had eight .50-caliber machine guns, and could handle two 1,000-pound bombs. The squadron's ground support missions - some of the shortest of the war in the first few days - were 'down and dirty,' flown low level at point-blank range.
From June 22 through July 17, the P-47s flew 2,500 sorties and dropped 200 tons of bombs, and fired 500 rockets and 530,000 rounds of .50-caliber ammunition. Among the air group's first casualties were lieutenants Wayne F. Kobler and Richard B. Witzig, who were killed during a mission against Tinian on June 27 when the Japanese set off a buried 500-pound bombs that caught their tow Thunderbolts full blast during a low-level strafing attack. The Japanese buried Kobler; his grave was found weeks later when Marines secured Tinian. Witzig simply vanished."
P-47s of USAAF 318th Fighter Group encounter heavy antiaircraft fire while strafing Japanese targets on Tinian in World War II:
https://www.criticalpast.com/video/65...
I will be out of communications for the rest of today and half of tomorrow. I am heading down the coast with Jayne to have a Christmas lunch with my father, brother and sister.
"Saipan: The Battle That Doomed Japan in World War II" - The end result of Japan's attempted naval strike against American forces off Saipan:"On the other hand, Mitscher's pilots had scored a stupendous victory over the Japanese counterparts. The enemy had lost 426 planes and 445 aviators. Japanese naval airpower would never recover. The planes and pilots lost on June 19 could never be replaced. Aircraft carriers had survived, but carriers without planes might as well be floating docks, or, as Combined Fleet chief of staff Ryonosuke Kusaka observed darkly, 'The task force without planes was, as it were, a living corpse.' Just as importantly, the American beachhead at Saipan remained secure. The Japanese garrison was doomed. There would be no succor. In coming weeks, Imperial soldiers on Saipan would fight on amid diminishing hopes for a naval armada that would never arrive."
"The Great Marianas Turkey Shoot" 19–20 June 1944:
https://www.history.navy.mil/browse-b...
Two very good books, Marc! Funny enough I have unread copies of both :)
