War Stories II (84 page)

Enrico Fermi's lab in Chicago makes an important stride in an effort to produce an A-bomb. Elements go “critical” for four-plus minutes, and produce neutrons.

The ten-day Allied conference regarding World War II in both theaters changes the allocation of resources for the Pacific from 15 percent to 30 percent.

General Hap Arnold picks two brilliant young aviators, Phil Cochran and John Alison, to head a new risky operation called “Plan 9.” That proposal calls for using American-built CG-4A Waco gliders to ferry men, mules, supplies, and matériel behind enemy lines in Burma to attack Japanese and build jungle airstrips.

In between naval and air skirmishes with the Americans, Japanese commanders evacuate troops from Guadalcanal—a lost cause for them.

German scientists thought to be working on a nuclear bomb receive a major setback when commandos destroy their “heavy water” facility.

Japan invades and occupies Attu and Kiska, the two westernmost islands of the Aleutian Islands, as the northern anchor of their “ribbon defense.”

U.S. bombers destroy eight Japanese transport ships and four destroyer escorts while evading Zeros. It is a major defeat for Japan and ends the “Tokyo Express” means of bringing in supplies. Now they have to be brought in by subs.

The conference in Washington offers a plan called “Operation Cartwheel” to continue a dual advance against the Japanese in the Solomons and New Guinea.

American intelligence learns of a secret flight that includes Admiral Yamamoto. A squadron of P-38s shoots Yamamoto down, ending his illustrious military career.

An Allied meeting in Cairo approves a plan putting MacArthur in charge of an area from the South Pacific to the Philippines; Chiang Kai-shek is named top military leader from China to Hong Kong (including the B-29 air bases in his area); Nimitz is to oversee the central Pacific area to Formosa (and the B-29 bases there). The goal is to retake Luzon, strategically located near China, Formosa, and Japan.

Landings by the 7th Infantry Division are successful. Japanese troops fight desperately, and on 29 May, launch a futile 1,000-man suicide charge.

The USS
Essex
, the first of twenty-four “fast carriers,” arrives in the central Pacific. These new ships will have a huge impact on the war.

American troops land at Rendova Island; the 43rd Division engages the enemy but Munda on New Georgia is not taken until August.

A U.S. Marine fighter pilot is chosen to head a new squadron to provide air protection for Admiral Halsey's task force. Major Gregory Boyington is the new leader. He is nicknamed “Pappy” by his squadron because at age thirty-one he's the oldest man in the unit. The Black Sheep Squadron has many pilots who become “aces” in shooting down Japanese bombers and fighter planes.

Halsey skips Kolombangara for Vella Lavella en route to Bougainville. “Island-Hopping” strategy takes advantage of Pacific geography and lets American troops bypass the strongest Japanese garrisons, sealing them off by air and sea from getting supplies and reinforcements, while U.S. troops take more strategic islands.

American soldiers land at Kiska Island in the Aleutian chain and discover that the Japanese have evacuated their 5,000-man garrison.

After Fascist leader Mussolini is ousted and a new Italian government is formed, Italy surrenders to the Allies. A month later, Italy will declare war on Germany as the Allies occupy most of the country, except for Rome, which the Nazis still hold.

One “hop” in the “Island-Hopping” toward Rabaul lands U.S. troops on Bougainville.

Task Force 38 air strikes against four Japanese heavy cruisers, with ninety-seven carrier aircraft in attack; the U.S. loses only eight. All four Japanese cruisers are heavily damaged. It will mark the last time heavy Japanese warships come to Rabaul.

The Japanese fleet is crippled at this battle in the Pacific. The Japanese lose all their cruisers and half their fighter planes. It will require at least six months for Japan to train fresh pilots.

Landings for this battle start with fighting that becomes so intense that the four-day battle is called “Bloody Tarawa.” U.S. Marine total casualties are 3,301, including more than 1,000 who are killed. In contrast, nearly 5,000 Japanese are killed; only thirteen surrender.

Landings are made on Majuro Island, which is captured by U.S. Marines—the first Japanese territory to be taken by the United States. Kwajalein and Eniwetok islands are also taken. The invasion task force includes 297 ships with 84,000 troops. U.S. Navy ships and planes shoot down some 200 enemy aircraft and sink 15 enemy ships.

American navy destroys 250 Japanese planes and sinks fifteen warships in a battle to isolate the Japanese supply port at Truk Island, dubbed “the Gibraltar of the East” because of its impregnability. But the U.S. raids leave the Japanese base vulnerable, isolated, and increasingly impotent as a source of supplies.

After months of secret, intensive planning, the U.S. and its Allies launch a “D-Day” invasion of Normandy with thousands of naval ships and even more conscripted vessels to ferry the troops and matériel. There are terrific losses, yet it marks the turning point in the European theater.

This three-day battle, nicknamed the “Great Marianas Turkey Shoot,” is one of the biggest battles of World War II. This “greatest carrier battle of the war” costs the U.S. only thirty planes. But Japan loses a total of 346 planes
plus two carriers
. Japanese naval air forces can never again engage the U.S. in the Pacific on “any terms other than suicidal.”

Saipan is “taken at a high price,” and as many as 3,000 Americans are killed. Lt. General Saito commits suicide after convincing his army and civilians (men, women, and children could push the total to as many as 22,000) to make one last suicidal charge at advancing Americans. Enemy troops and civilians jump off cliffs when American lines do not break. Nimitz sees the carnage, including thousands of civilian suicides, and believes that similar problems will face the U.S. if it invades Japan.

After heavy losses in the China-Burma-India theater, Japanese troops withdraw from the northeast India cities of Imphal and Kohima, and a month later all Japanese resistance is ended.

Guam, largest of the three Mariana Islands, is liberated by U.S.Marines after nearly three years of Japanese occupation. Guam becomes Nimitz's headquarters for the central Pacific offensive. More than 18,500 enemy soldiers are killed or captured. The Marines' casualties are in the 1,000 range but only about 200 are killed.

The majority of 13,000 Japanese troops on the island are killed in the battle to take Tinian. Saipan is the staging area for taking the nearby island with its prized airfields. These airfields put our B-29s within striking range of the Japanese Home Islands. With a range of 1,500 miles they are a genuine threat. They could fly from Saipan to Tokyo and back in about 1,300 miles, and the Japanese know and fear this.

President Roosevelt schedules a meeting in Hawaii with Admiral Nimitz and General MacArthur to finalize objectives for taking the war to the main islands of Japan. It is at this meeting that the U.S. decides to retake the Philippine Islands rather than isolating them and going to islands closer to Japan, such as Formosa.

FDR and Churchill meet to discuss war strategy. Miscalculations render many plans a waste of time and they delay a number of postwar strategies, including the plan to invade and occupy Iwo Jima and Okinawa, primarily to provide air bases and staging areas for the bombings and invasion of Japan. Churchill insists that the Royal Navy be “in at the death” of Japan, alongside the U.S. Navy.

The invasion of Peleliu Island is part of a larger exercise dubbed Operation Stalemate as a component of an overall plan to take all of the Palau Islands. On 10–11 September the U.S. 3rd Fleet attacks the Palaus prior to the invasion. Marines suffer 6,500 casualties and the Army loses another 3,000. But for the Japanese it is even more terrible. Of the 10,000 troops of the original garrison, fewer than a hundred are alive at the end. Nearly 600 men of the 1st Marine Division and 81st Army Division receive awards for their heroism.

The Joint Chiefs of Staff approve MacArthur's plan for landings at Leyte on 20 October using the 7th Fleet and Admiral Halsey's Navy Task Force 38. As a prelude to the invasion, Marine Rangers are to invade nearby islands. Japan is wary about the U.S. efforts to retake part of the Philippines. Weakened by the loss of most of their warships and two-thirds of their tankers, they fear a U.S. invasion. Japan starts to maintain a “Home Fleet” with nine battleships and five carriers to patrol Japanese waters.

As air raids by planes from 3rd Fleet carriers start on Formosa, Okinawa, and Luzon, Americans destroy at least 500 Japanese aircraft in a week. Despite heavy losses, the Japanese government reports instead that they sank fifteen American ships. Imperial General Headquarters, which invents the myth, actually believes its own propaganda.

U.S. Marine Rangers invade Suluan and Dinagat Islands near Leyte in preparation for the Leyte invasion. Three Japanese naval forces try to oppose the landings and engage the U.S. fleets. When it ends on 27 October, the Japanese naval forces are repulsed and the U.S. Navy is undisputed victor. No longer will the Imperial Navy be able to make any significant challenge against the U.S. fleet.

The first “organized” kamikaze attack on U.S. escort carriers
Santee
and
Swanee
occurs during a battle off Samar. These frantic suicidal missions accelerate, as the Japanese grow more and more desperate.

On the island of Palawan, American POWs are burned alive by their Japanese guards. Japanese soldiers armed with guns, bayonets, grenades, and dynamite attack the POWs. They toss gasoline onto the American POWs and incinerate them while they are still alive. Altogether 151 prisoners are slaughtered.

The U.S. and Germany go toe to toe in combat in the Ardennes in the Battle of the Bulge. On 17 December the Nazi SS massacres U.S. prisoners of war in Malmédy. On 26 December General George Patton and the U.S. 3rd Army come to the rescue of beleaguered troops in Bastogne. Germans finally withdraw in January.

Chinese forces join to reopen the Burma Road, now renamed “Stilwell Road.”

General Walter Krueger's 6th Army begins landings on Luzon at the same location that Japanese forces had landed in December 1941. The only resistance to the American invasion is continuing attacks from kamikaze pilots. They are also effective. Suicidal Japanese pilots damage more than forty U.S. ships, almost half of them seriously, and they sink five U.S. ships. Nearly 800 Americans are killed in kamikaze attacks, and 1,400 are wounded.

General MacArthur wades ashore on Leyte beachhead to fulfill his promise to the Filipino people, “I shall return.”