OT: Today in history - 1945 Battle of Okinawa draws to a close

[RUfromSoCal?]

The Battle of Okinawa was the largest and deadliest battle of the Pacific campaign. But the terrible battle on the island was only part of the fight, as the ships of the Navy faced an onslaught of Kamikaze attacks. The History Guy recalls the many desperate actions to save the ships of the Okinawa armada.

 

[DJ Spanky]

What a brutal, bloody campaign. The Japanese were sick bastards, instilling such fear into the local population of US forces that many of the local population killed their families and committed suicide before our troops got there.

 

[MadRU]

My Uncle was part of the battle.

 

[mdk01]

Hacksaw Ridge

 

[BigWill]

John was stationed there for just under a year.

We fly 24x7 patrols along the Ocean borders of Chin-na to gather Electronic Intelligence, as well as track underwater Subs.

 

[batts]

Read Eugene Sledge’s memoir, With the Old Breed, to get a true feel of the horrors of the battle for Okinawa. One excerpt has he and his fellow soldiers sliding down a hill in the rainy season into dead, decomposing bodies. They then had to remove maggots from their uniforms. Another excerpt details his nighttime hallucinations of dead American soldiers coming to life on the battlefield. It’s amazing that anyone can keep their sanity after such horrific experiences.

 

[RU Diesel07110]

That generation was special

 

[Yeah Baby]

That generation was special

Watching the protestors, looters and rioters makes me ponder who will replace those men who fought for our freedom today. Luckily we still have a lot of great people in this country who are not deemed newsworthy.

 

[Proud NJ Sports Fan]

That generation was special

No doubt.

 

[RUBOB72]

Watching the protestors, looters and rioters makes me ponder who will replace those men who fought for our freedom today. Luckily we still have a lot of great people in this country who are not deemed newsworthy.

And yet those people sit on the sidelines expecting others to say NO...stop the destruction.

 

[HeywoodGiant]

What a brutal, bloody campaign. The Japanese were sick bastards, instilling such fear into the local population of US forces that many of the local population killed their families and committed suicide before our troops got there.

They were told they would be raped...which in many cases they were.
There was also a problem with soldiers mutilating the japanese & sending body parts home.

 

[RUBOB72]

War is brutal, unkind, vicious , heartbreaking and we will see more of it. Perhaps even within our own cities ... we are well on our way to civil war since our politicians have no desire to stop the destruction and now mass murders in major cities....Chicago , New York just to name a few...

 

[mdk01]

They were told they would be raped...which in many cases they were.
There was also a problem with soldiers mutilating the japanese & sending body parts home.

Many cases?

 

[DJ Spanky]

Many cases?

He's talking out of his ass as he often does.

 

[HeywoodGiant]

He's talking out of his ass as he often does.

thousands, some estimates are over 10 thousand, & its very well documented by both sides. It's even on wiki which I dont really consider a reliable source

I dont consider anything you say credible either DJ. I'm still dumbfounded about your explanation for why most sites have stopped their comments sections. You claim it is a software issue. How come the sites don't just say that then? Are they lying or are you?

 

[RUBOB72]

thousands, some estimates are over 10 thousand, & its very well documented by both sides. It's even on wiki which I dont really consider a reliable source

I dont consider anything you say credible either DJ. I'm still dumbfounded about your explanation for why most sites have stopped their comments sections. You claim it is a software issue. How come the sites don't just say that then? Are they lying or are you?

I have never read documentation in which that was found to be substantiated . People believing anything on those sites are not very smart. They are controlled by unscrupulous individuals.

 

[colbert17]

If you haven't seen the HBO series The Pacific from a few years ago it gave a good insight into the war. It was supposed to be a version of Band of Brothers but it didn't quite make it.
Unlike the war in Europe, the Pacific Theater had a lot of racial undertones. The Japanese thought that we were a weak population, both morally and physically and could never understand the concept of a soldier surrendering. We looked at their fanaticism for their country and Emperor as being barbaric.
My high school basketball coach, who was like a father to me, was a Marine vet of Okinawa and later a D.I. on Parris Island. Needless to say we were a well disciplined team.
This was the first attack on a Japanese home island and the horrific casualties suffered by both sides and the projections of casualties of an invasion of the main islands were a factor in Truman's decision to drop the bomb.

 

[colbert17]

Many cases?

There undoubtedly were cases of rape by American soldiers in Europe but they were not common. Mutilation of dead enemies probably has some truth to it also.
If you go to the War Remnants Museum in HCMC there is an area called The Atrocities Room. Obviously My Lai takes up at least half of the exhibit but I've seen pictures there of grinning American soldiers sitting in the middle of severed heads and another of a VC prisoner hanging upside down from a helicopter skid.
The American military is still the greatest force for good in the world but war makes people do horrible things and Americans are not immune to that. Living here for the past four years has opened my eyes to some things.

 

[RUfromSoCal?]

Organized Japanese resistance on Okinawa was officially declared ended last night when Admiral Chester W. Nimitz, Pacific Fleet Commander, announced that “the battle of Okinawa has been won.” Elements of the 6th Marine Division had reached Ara Cape, southernmost tip of Okinawa, and only two small enemy groups remained to be annihilated.

Conquest of the sixty-seven square-mile island was accomplished after eighty-two days of the costliest fighting of the Pacific. For the 5th Fleet and 10th Army the price was high. Not since Pearl Harbor has the Navy taken such losses — thirty-one ships, sunk up to June 16 and fifty-four, including four large units, damaged.

[The United Press said that a total of 87,343 Japanese dead had been counted through Tuesday, and that 2,565 troops of the enemy had surrendered.]

Every one knew that Okinawa would be bitterly defended. No other island wrested from Japan since the offensive’s start has had such enormous strategic importance. Properly developed as an air base, Okinawa in our hands will cut off Formosa from Japan and permit blockade of the North China Yellow Sea and Corean Strait

 

[mdk01]

There undoubtedly were cases of rape by American soldiers in Europe but they were not common. Mutilation of dead enemies probably has some truth to it also.
If you go to the War Remnants Museum in HCMC there is an area called The Atrocities Room. Obviously My Lai takes up at least half of the exhibit but I've seen pictures there of grinning American soldiers sitting in the middle of severed heads and another of a VC prisoner hanging upside down from a helicopter skid.
The American military is still the greatest force for good in the world but war makes people do horrible things and Americans are not immune to that. Living here for the past four years has opened my eyes to some things.

There were in Europe and I'm sure there were on Okinawa. My issue is with "many".

 

[RUBOB72]

There undoubtedly were cases of rape by American soldiers in Europe but they were not common. Mutilation of dead enemies probably has some truth to it also.
If you go to the War Remnants Museum in HCMC there is an area called The Atrocities Room. Obviously My Lai takes up at least half of the exhibit but I've seen pictures there of grinning American soldiers sitting in the middle of severed heads and another of a VC prisoner hanging upside down from a helicopter skid.
The American military is still the greatest force for good in the world but war makes people do horrible things and Americans are not immune to that. Living here for the past four years has opened my eyes to some things.

I thought the post was regarding Okinawa WWII in the Pacific with the Japanese . Mi Lai province massacre in Vietnam was a war atrocity and yes both sides do did have them .

 

[BigWill]

Watching the protestors, looters and rioters makes me ponder who will replace those men who fought for our freedom today. Luckily we still have a lot of great people in this country who are not deemed newsworthy.

The people with the Riot helmets and the Badges on their uniform.

 

[colbert17]

I thought the post was regarding Okinawa WWII in the Pacific with the Japanese . Mi Lai province massacre in Vietnam was a war atrocity and yes both sides do did have them .

My point was that in any war there are many atrocities of which some were committed by Americans, most of which we never hear about.
My Lai pales in comparison to what the VC did in Hue when they took over the city during the 1968 Tet Offensive. Nearly 3000 civilian bodies were found in mass graves when the city was retaken.
Some times we don't get the whole story. A perfect example is the picture below. This also happened during Tet in Saigon. Media portrayed this as an example of the moral bankruptcy of the South Vietnamese government. What they don't say is that the prisoner was a VC officer who led a group into the home of the shooters best friend and massacred the family including children.

 

[BigWill]

IIRC, it was the shooter's family and his daughter was raped and killed ?

Soviet capture of Berlin, essentially every Woman in Berlin and surrounding areas was raped and repeatedly.

 

[RUfromSoCal?]

My point was that in any war there are many atrocities of which some were committed by Americans, most of which we never hear about.
My Lai pales in comparison to what the VC did in Hue when they took over the city during the 1968 Tet Offensive. Nearly 3000 civilian bodies were found in mass graves when the city was retaken.
Some times we don't get the whole story. A perfect example is the picture below. This also happened during Tet in Saigon. Media portrayed this as an example of the moral bankruptcy of the South Vietnamese government. What they don't say is that the prisoner was a VC officer who led a group into the home of the shooters best friend and massacred the family including children.

yeah, war sucks. bad things happen. rarely is even the most virtuous nation without some questionable actions.

No fair thinking person implies anything different. why you feel the need to bring up an obvious point no one disagrees with is the issue.

this thread is about young men put into the fires of hell and accomplishing a nearly impossible task. not virtue signaling.

 

[colbert17]

yeah, war sucks. bad things happen. rarely is even the most virtuous nation without some questionable actions.

No fair thinking person implies anything different. why you feel the need to bring up an obvious point no one disagrees with is the issue.

this thread is about young men put into the fires of hell and accomplishing a nearly impossible task. not virtue signaling.

I agree with everything you say and I probably should have held my posts for a different day, a different thread and a different discussion.
No disrespect was intended to anyone who has ever worn the uniform.
:USA: :America: :AmericanFlag:

 

[rudad02]

The Battle of Okinawa was the largest and deadliest battle of the Pacific campaign. But the terrible battle on the island was only part of the fight, as the ships of the Navy faced an onslaught of Kamikaze attacks. The History Guy recalls the many desperate actions to save the ships of the Okinawa armada.

View embedded media

My father served on the radar picket ship the Destroyer USS Gwin. They shot down 23 Kamikazes. I have a photo of the ship with 23 white bars painted on it's hull. They were hit once, went to dry dock, were patched up & went back out. In spite all that action, he told me that the only time he thought that he wouldn't come home was during the two Typhoons that they went through.

 

[RUfromSoCal?]

My father served on the radar picket ship the Destroyer Gwin. They shot down 23 Kamikazes. I have a photo of the ship with 23 white bars painted on it's hull. They were hit once, went to dry dock, were patched up & went back out. In spite all that action, he told me that the only time he thought that he wouldn't come home was during the two Typhons that they went through.

Typhoons Cobra and Louise (probably).... rarely told stories.... they were monsters..

 

[rudad02]

Typhoons Cobra and Louise (probably).... rarely told stories.... they were monsters..

They lost Destroyers among other ships during those.