Friday, June 16, 2006
15 June 1944: Operation Forager
On land this meant a brutal campaign to secure the islands. Saipan was the first to be invaded and would require three divisions and nearly a month to secure. Another grim aspect of the battle was the number of Japanese civilians who chose suicide, by jumping off cliffs, to defeat. Of the three American divisions two were Marine and one, the 27th, was U.S. Army. The ground commander was U.S. Marine general Holland "Howling Mad" Smith. This arrangement led to controversy when Smith had to relieve the commander of the 27th division, General Ralph Smith, as ineffectual. The relieving of an Army general by a Marine did not sit well with many in Washington D.C. However, it was necessary. The Army division held the middle position between the two Marine divisions. The Army's slow progress meant that the faster moving Marines had exposed flanks. The was due not only to the Army's different training methods and philosophy, but also poor leadership.
Guam: General Holland Smith far right, not happy.
The most famous result of Operation Forager is the resulting naval battle: The Mariana Turkey Shoot. For the first time since the Guadalcanal campaign the main Japanese carrier fleet sortied to meet the America Fleet in battle. While the Japanese commander, Admiral Ozawa, knew he was outnumbered in aircraft he had little choice but to attack Admiral Spurance's, the victor of Midway, Fifth Fleet.
Spurance had fifteen aircraft carriers deploying a total of 891 planes. Ozawa had nine carriers and 430 aircraft. Ozawa hoped that the greater range of his planes would give him some advantage. It wasn't nearly enough. The main problem for the Japanese was the human element. Ozawa's pilots were green as grass, while he was attacking the cream of U.S. naval aviation. The result was slaughter. The sword was the Grumman F6F Hellcat:
Yesterday, I didn't have time to post on this. One interesting thing about WWII history is that it is "Eurocentic." A few weeks ago I posted something about D-Day for the anniversary. As did some other bloggers:
According to Technorati nobody has yet posted on Operation Forager or the resulting battles.
Update: Global Security has an interesting article on how the US Marines studied the Gallipoli campaign to help define their own amphibious doctrine.
There is also the Marines in World War II Commemorative Series, including "Opening Moves: Marines Gear Up for War."
Second, the US fought against an enemy that is still regarded as "politically incorrect" on the basis of their race in Europe. That is it is perfectly acceptable by the left to demonize ethnic Germans. Indeed Germans to this day can only be portrayed as oppressor never victims. This extends even to pacifist anti-nazi Germans like Russian-German Mennonites.
The Japanese in contrast are a protected racial group by virute of being "non-white." Hence they can only be portrayed as victims. Notice how almost no attention is given to atrocities committed by the Japanese government in the 30s and 40s compared to Nazi crimes.
Instead we are treated to endless depictions of Japanese-Americans as victims of US injustice during the war. The 11,000 German-Americans interned during the war get no coverage what so ever. In fact left-wing American law professors routinely deny that there was anywrong doing against German-Americans. The same leftists who write incessantly against the internment of Japanese-Americans. Go see the racist anti-German blog of Eric Muller "Is that Legal?" and notice the comments by people like John Walker for some good examples of this mind set.
Im not sure if you have this information but if you do, or know where I can get it, id appreciate it.
I know that the marine corps changed their warfighting philosophy to maneuver warfare, but what was it before? And what was it during WW2?
I think you might be referring to how in the early 1930's the Marines adopted and defined their tactics regarding amphibious warfare.
I'll provide a couple of links as an update that may prove helpful.
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