MARINES/The Pacific (book) by Hugh Ambrose [& poll]
Oct 11, 2013 11:34:03 GMT -5
ptdixiegal likes this
Post by BoW GaCAman on Oct 11, 2013 11:34:03 GMT -5
MARINES
I'm just finishing up a book called 'The Pacific' (every red-blooded American needs to get a copy, starting today!) by Hugh Ambrose. It deals primarily with Marines in the Pacific island campaigns, and the Navy in relation to the carriers, planes and other ships that supported those operations. I'd like to share a couple of tidbits that probably even you 'jarines' (said with affection) don't know:
Did you know that after WW2 Pacific hostilities ceased, that the U.S. marines fought alongside their former enemies, the 'japs'? (circa term).
Pg. 435, paragraph 3:
As strange as protecting Japanese soldiers and civilians seemed, (ed. note: they were protecting them from Chinese civilians and communists) the other mission of the marines surpassed it. They protection they extended over the cities, rails, and ports denied those assets to the Chinese communists. The Chinese nationalist government, which had been at war with the communists for many years, was too weak to garrison those important locations with its own troops. The marines guarded as many key sites as they could. Since there weren't enough marines, though, the nationalists left units of Japanese forces in place. The U.S. stance angered the communists, who threatened war but could only afford to engage in the occasional skirmish. Austin Shofner's (ed. note: the marine commander) 1/1 was not only expected to protect the enemy, but to fight alongside them. The world the 1st Marine Division encountered in China had proven to be far stranger than they ever imagined.
Ed. note: The 1st Marine Division had been transferred after Okinawa directly to China, with many of their veterans of that horrendous campaign still in the unit.
And then did you also know that the U.S. Congress came within a gnat's eye of disbanding the Corp, in 1947?
Pg. 442, paragraph 2/3a
Austin Shofner found his future somewhat in doubt in the immediate postwar years because of the uncertainty over the future of his beloved Marine Corps. While he served at the marine base in Quantico, Virginia, the United States Congress debated the idea of the "unification" of the armed services. In general, the army supported the idea of creating a single Defense Department, while the navy opposed it. General Archer Vandegrift, the commandant, believed the bill would result in the marines "subjugation to the status of uselessness and servility." The great hero of the battle of Guadalcanal told Congress, "The bended knee is not a tradition of our Corps." He preferred to have it disbanded than to see it subsumed.
Vandegrift won his key point in July, 1947, when President Truman signed the National Security Act, which established the Marine Corps' special amphibious function. Only two divisions of the six that fought the war survived.
www.leatherneck.com/forums/archive/index.php/t-20006.html
Read more: hughambrose.com/the-pacific/
I'm just finishing up a book called 'The Pacific' (every red-blooded American needs to get a copy, starting today!) by Hugh Ambrose. It deals primarily with Marines in the Pacific island campaigns, and the Navy in relation to the carriers, planes and other ships that supported those operations. I'd like to share a couple of tidbits that probably even you 'jarines' (said with affection) don't know:
Did you know that after WW2 Pacific hostilities ceased, that the U.S. marines fought alongside their former enemies, the 'japs'? (circa term).
Pg. 435, paragraph 3:
As strange as protecting Japanese soldiers and civilians seemed, (ed. note: they were protecting them from Chinese civilians and communists) the other mission of the marines surpassed it. They protection they extended over the cities, rails, and ports denied those assets to the Chinese communists. The Chinese nationalist government, which had been at war with the communists for many years, was too weak to garrison those important locations with its own troops. The marines guarded as many key sites as they could. Since there weren't enough marines, though, the nationalists left units of Japanese forces in place. The U.S. stance angered the communists, who threatened war but could only afford to engage in the occasional skirmish. Austin Shofner's (ed. note: the marine commander) 1/1 was not only expected to protect the enemy, but to fight alongside them. The world the 1st Marine Division encountered in China had proven to be far stranger than they ever imagined.
Ed. note: The 1st Marine Division had been transferred after Okinawa directly to China, with many of their veterans of that horrendous campaign still in the unit.
And then did you also know that the U.S. Congress came within a gnat's eye of disbanding the Corp, in 1947?
Pg. 442, paragraph 2/3a
Austin Shofner found his future somewhat in doubt in the immediate postwar years because of the uncertainty over the future of his beloved Marine Corps. While he served at the marine base in Quantico, Virginia, the United States Congress debated the idea of the "unification" of the armed services. In general, the army supported the idea of creating a single Defense Department, while the navy opposed it. General Archer Vandegrift, the commandant, believed the bill would result in the marines "subjugation to the status of uselessness and servility." The great hero of the battle of Guadalcanal told Congress, "The bended knee is not a tradition of our Corps." He preferred to have it disbanded than to see it subsumed.
Vandegrift won his key point in July, 1947, when President Truman signed the National Security Act, which established the Marine Corps' special amphibious function. Only two divisions of the six that fought the war survived.
www.leatherneck.com/forums/archive/index.php/t-20006.html
Read more: hughambrose.com/the-pacific/