History Wars Weapons » Battles

Australian Campaigns

Thor — Wed, 19 Oct 2011 18:06:06 +0000

The Australian Campaigns were the Australian military operations against the Japanese forces in New Guinea and other islands of the Bismarck Archipelago, and Borneo during World War II. From October 1944, troops of the First Australian Army began relieving American divisions on Bougainville, New Britain, and the north coast of New Guinea. In New Britain, the Australians conducted a containment operation, and at the end of the war the Japanese garrison at Rabaul was found to number almost 70,000 army and naval personnel. The Australian commander, General Blarney, argued, however, that Australia had a duty to liberate its own territory. Therefore, on Bougainville the 2nd Australian Corps began a slow and careful offensive, which was still proceeding at the end of the war. In New Guinea the 6th Division captured Wewak, driving the Japanese into the mountains.

General MacArthur was at best lukewarm about the justification for these offensives, but he enthusiastically ordered the 1st Australian Corps, under Lieutenant-General Sir Leslie Morshead, to conduct operations in Borneo. The first of these began on May 1, 1945, with the capture of Tarakan after heavy fighting. Next, on June 10 the 9th Australian Division landed on Labuan Island and at Brunei. Blarney was now more wary and he opposed the landing of the 7th Division at Balikpapan. MacArthur warned the Australian government that to cancel the operation would disorganize Allied strategic plans; the government approved the landing. In truth, MacArthur wanted to show the Dutch government that he had attempted to recover part of its territory. The landing on July 1 was the last amphibious operation of the war. In the campaigns of late 1944 and 1945 the Australians lost more than 1,500 killed, but Japan lost ten times that number.

Island-Hopping Campaign (WWII)

Thor — Tue, 18 Oct 2011 02:42:18 +0000

Admiral King had always advocated using American naval power to attack the Japanese in the central Pacific, but MacArthur had argued for resources to enable him to advance through New Guinea toward the Philippines. If both approaches could be sustained, then they would throw the Japanese off-balance, but it was not until the latter months of 1943 that the US navy began to gather the strength necessary to prosecute an island-hopping campaign in the central Pacific. At the time of Pearl Harbor, the US navy had only three carriers in the Pacific; by late 1943 Nimitz had 10 fast large and medium carriers, seven escort carriers, and a dozen battleships. These formed the key elements of the Fifth Fleet under Vice-Admiral Spruance.

Toward the end of 1943 this force began conducting raids on Japanese island bases, and on November 20, 1943, the US 2nd Marine Division and army units landed on Tarawa and Makin atolls in the Gilbert Islands. Tarawa was a bitter fight; in a savage and bloody five-day battle the Marines lost 1,000 killed, but the Japanese their entire garrison of 5,000. However, Makin was captured relatively easily. American attention now turned to the Marshall Islands with the US Navy’s fast carrier task force raiding the islands in late December 1943 and early January 1944. On January 31, US Marine and army troops landed on Kwajalein Island. Eniwetok fell on February 17, six weeks ahead of schedule. Meanwhile, American carriers under Rear-Admiral Marc Mitscher heavily raided the Japanese naval base at Truk.

With the US navy moving faster than expected in the central Pacific, MacArthur was fearful of being left behind and on February 29, 1944, in a daring raid, his forces seized Los Negros in the Admiralty Islands. All ideas of attacking Rabaul were now abandoned; the huge Japanese garrison was to play little further part in the war. Instead, MacArthur directed a series of landings by American troops along the northern New Guinea coast that isolated 40,000 Japanese forces in the Wewak area. His forces took Aitape and Hollandia on April 23, Wakde on May 17, Biak on May 27, Noemfoor on July 2, and Sansapor on July 30. In three months of island-hopping and fierce fighting, he had advanced over 850 miles (1,400km). With no carriers of his own, and receiving limited carrier support from the Central Pacific, MacArthur’s forces constructed airfields at each landing to provide land-based air support for the next assault.

While MacArthur was advancing, Nimitz was focusing on the Mariana Islands. The key islands were Saipan, Guam, and Tinian, whose airfields were within bombing range of Japan. Realizing the danger, the Commander-in-Chief of the Japanese Combined Fleet (now Admiral Toyoda Soemu) ordered nine carriers and 450 aircraft to gather for a concerted attack on the Americans. Admiral Spruance commanded the invasion, to be covered by Mitscher’s Task Force 58, now with 15 carriers and 1,000 planes. The invasion force included nearly 130,000 troops (only 22,500 fewer than in the opening phase of Operation Overlord at Normandy on June 6, nine days earlier). The invasion force was carried in 535 ships.

Carrier strikes began on June 11, 1944, with troops of the 5th Amphibious Corps under Marine Lieutenant-General Holland Smith landing on Saipan on June 15. Japanese carrier and land-based aircraft attacked the US fleet on June 19, but were totally outclassed by the American aircraft and their more skillful pilots. In the "Great Marianas Turkey Shoot", the Japanese lost 400 aircraft, while the USA lost only 29. During this naval battle three Japanese carriers were sunk by the US aircraft and two by American submarines. Onshore, the Marine and army troops had a savage battle against 32,000 defenders. The Japanese conducted suicide charges, while Japanese civilians leapt to their death from high cliffs as they had been told by their Japanese commanders that the Americans would do terrible things to the civilian populations. By July 9, after 23 blood-drenched days of ferocious fighting, the US Marines had secured Saipan. Total Japanese deaths numbered 30,000. Meanwhile, US Marine and army troops captured Guam and Tinian. The defeat of the Japanese carrier force and the seizure of the Marianas were a devastating blow to the Japanese high command. On July 18, Tojo resigned as Prime Minister and War Minister, succeeding him Lieutenant-General Koiso Kuniaki.

Aleutian Islands Campaign (WWII)

Thor — Thu, 13 Oct 2011 17:57:57 +0000

The Aleutian Islands Campaign was a US military campaign carried out against the Japanese Army on the Aleutian Islands from early May to July 29, 1943. The ground battle took place on the island of Attu between the US 7th Infantry Division and Japanese Army units. The result was a US victory.

On the night of June 6, 1942, 2,500 Japanese troops had landed on the remote Attu Island, at the western end of the Aleutian Islands- an island chain that projected 1,000 nautical miles from Alaska into the northern Pacific Ocean. Next day a small force had taken Kiska, another westerly island. These islands had been undefended and had few inhabitants. The Japanese operation had been partly to prevent the Americans using the islands as a base for an attack on northern Japan, but mainly a diversion for the Midway operation. The Japanese occupations had posed little threat, but as the islands were American territory there was public agitation for their recovery.

In response, the US Eleventh Air Force mounted a protracted bombing campaign, while American warships tried to prevent the Japanese from reinforcing their garrisons. These were extremely difficult operations as the islands were often shrouded in fog and rain. Finally, on May 11, 1943, the US 7th Infantry Division landed on Attu, where it faced stiff opposition. After more than two weeks of ferocious fighting, the coragous American troops managed to ferret out all the Japanese from their bunkers and caves. The battle on Attu Island ended in a suicidal Japanese bayonet charge, on May 29. As a result, only 28 Japanese were captured as 2,351 of the 2,500 Japanese troops that had landed on June 6 were killed in action.

In a daring operation, on the night of July 28/29, 1943, under cover of fog, the Japanese navy evacuated its garrison of more than 5,000 troops from Kiska Island. The 34,000 American and Canadian troops who landed there on August 15 took several days to discover that they faced no opposition. For the Japanese, the Aleutian Islands campaign had been a disastrous waste of men and materiel when they had been under increasing pressure in the south and south-west Pacific.

Japanese Invasion of the Philippines

Thor — Tue, 11 Oct 2011 18:09:49 +0000

On December 8, 1942, one day after the attack on Pearl Harbor, the Japanese began the invasion of the Philippines, with the main landing taking place on December 22, 1941. The invasion of the Philippines was carried out by Lieutenant-General Homma Masaharu’s Fourteenth Army, at Lingayen Gulf on Luzon. By December 1941, the combined defense forces in the Philippines were organized into the US Army Forces in the Far East (USAFFE), which included the Philippine Army’s 1st Regular Division, 2nd (Constabulary) Division, and 10 mobilized reserve divisions, and the United States Army’s Philippine Department. However, these troops were inexperienced and lack enough training. After the initial engagements, the Japanese inflicted severe damage on the local forces, which began to rapidly fall back.

Realizing that his American and Filipino troops were no match for the experienced Japanese first-line troops, General MacArthur declared Manila an open city and withdrew into the Bataan peninsula, with his headquarters on Corregidor Island in Manila Bay. The Japanese occupied Manila on January 2, 1942. The troops on the Bataan peninsula resisted stoutly but were short of food and ammunition. On orders from President Roosevelt, on March 12, MacArthur left Corregidor by PT boat and, after transferring to an aircraft at Mindanao, continued to Australia. The force on Bataan surrendered on April 9, and MacArthur’s successor, Lieutenant-General Jonathan Wainwright, surrendered on Corregidor on May 6.

Seeing the victory in sight, the Japanese high command advanced by a month their timetable of operations in Borneo and Indonesia, and withdrew their best troops and the bulk of their airpower from the Philippines in early January 1942. Nevertheless, the defenders held defensive positions in the Bataan Peninsula, fighting against the Japanese for four more months.

Japanese Invasion of Malaya

Thor — Mon, 10 Oct 2011 18:04:50 +0000

Between December 1941 and March 1942, Japanese forces conducted a series of successful military campaigns. Perhaps the most remarkable campaign was the invasion of Malaya. It began on December 8, 1941, with the landing in north-east Malaya of troops from the Japanese Twenty-Fifth Army, under Lieutenant-General Yamashita Tomoyuki. Yamashita’s force of 60,000 men was opposed by 88,000 British, Australian, Indian, and Malayan troops, commanded by Lieutenant-General Arthur Percival, but the Japanese naval and land-based aircraft completely outnumbered and outclassed the British air force. On December 10, the British suffered a devastating blow when Japanese aircraft sank the battleship Prince of Wales and the battle cruiser Repulse in the South China Sea.

Advancing more than 600 miles (1,000km), by January 31, 1942, the Japanese Army had pushed the Commonwealth forces back to Singapore. Although they had suffered heavily, the Commonwealth forces had, however, been reinforced and now numbered 88,000. Yamashita attacked with 60,000 troops, crossing the Johore Strait on the night of February 7/8. On February 15, Percival surrendered his force. This defeat in the hands of the Japanese was Described by Winston Churchill as the "worst disaster in British military history," as the fall of Singapore had shattered British prestige in the Far East. Elsewhere, the Japanese were conducting similar military campaigns. Only America’s entry into World War II would stop the Japanese conquest in Asia and the Pacific.

Map of Japanese Invasion of Malaya

First Battle of the Aisne

Thor — Sat, 08 Oct 2011 19:43:16 +0000

The First Battle of the Aisne was a World War I battle fought between two German armies and the combined elements of the British Expeditionary Force and the French 5th and 6th Armies, in September 1914, on the Aisne River, France. The result of this military confrontation was a stalemate as both sides started to dig in after vicious and gory fighting, marking the beginning of trench warfare. Both the Allied forces and the German Army suffered approximately more than 20,000 casualties.

Summary

In early September 1914, the Allied armies had initiated a counter-offensive against the German 1st and 2nd Armies, commanded by Alexander von Kluck and Karl von Bülow respectively. However, the German forces suddenly halted their retreat on the north bank of the Aisne River and turned to confront their enemies as they dug in to stop the French and British counter-offensive, setting up machine gun nests and light artillery gun positions on strategic points on the front line.

The First Battle of the Aisne River broke out on the night of September 13, 1914, when the French 5th and 6th Armies, led by Louis Franchet d’Esperey and Michel Joseph Maunoury respectively, and the British Expeditionary Force, commanded by John French, attacked the German defensive positions on the north bank of the Aisne River. The French 5th Army crossed the river at Berry-au-Bac and took a steep ridge on the eastern tip of Chemin des Dames after ferocious fighting that included hand-to-hand combat using bayonets and lineman shovels. Units of the British Expeditionary Forces also got across the Aisne on pontoons at Bourg-et-Comin and at Venizel. Protected by thick fog, the British and the French kept advancing slowly, but when the fog lifted they were cross-raked by machine gun fire and light field artillery. French 6th Army elements, that had also crossed the river, were caught in the valley without the fog cover and were mauled to pieces.

Battle of Kham Duc

Thor — Tue, 04 Oct 2011 18:31:21 +0000

The Battle of Kham Duc was a military engagement fiercely fought between combined elements of US, Australian, and South Vietnamese armies, and the North Vietnamese and Vietcong forces, in Kham Duc, Quang Tin province, from May 10 to May 12, 1968, during the Vietnam War. Although the result of the battle was a communist victory, as they managed to capture the US base at Kham Duc, the North Vietnamese army suffered twice the number of casualties than the US and Australian troops.

At about 05:00 hours, on May 10, 1968, the Vietcong 1st Regiment launched an assault on the Ngok Tavak, one of several outposts of Kham Duc, defended by the Australian 11th Mobile Strike Force. Despite being reinforced, this Austrialian outpost was overran by the Vietcong, who were largely superior in number to the Australians, whose commander, John White, decided to evacuate his positions there and fall back toward Kham Duc with support of an AC-47 Spooky gunship. On the early hours of May 11, the North Vietnamese 2nd Division, reinforced by a Vietcong regiment, launched a massive attack on Kham Duc. As they closed in on the base, US and South Vietnamese elements, deployed on peripheral outposts, were forced to retreat into their main base of Kham Duc. As they were being overrun by the communist forces, the American commander, William Westmoreland decided to evacuate the base by airlift. By May 12, the North Vietnamese forces had captured the military installation after vicious fighting, and the Battle of Kham Duc was over.

Battle of Quang Tri

Thor — Wed, 28 Sep 2011 15:29:18 +0000

The Battle of Quang Tri was fought between the South Vietnamese Army, supported by US troops, and the North Vietnamese and Vietcong forces, from January 31 to February 6, 1968, in the City of Quang Tri, during the Vietnam War. The result was a US and South Vietnamese victory.

As part of the Tet Offensive, a combined force of North Vietnamese Army units and Vietcong battalions launched a massive assault on key targets in Quang Tri in the early hours of January 31, 1968, with the objective of bringing the city under communist control. The attack took the local troops off guard, so during the first day, they could barely manage to hold the enemy off. Nevertheless, after they got organized, the South Vietnamese troops, supported by the 1st Battalion (12th US Cavalry Regiment) and the 1st Battalion (5th Cavalry Regiment), began to regain lost ground as savage house-to-house fighting raged on. By February 2, the communist forces had been driven out of the city, leaving behind approximated 1,000 dead bodies. However, the battle continued on the outskirts and peripheral villages, and by February 6, the last enemy pockets had been snuffed out.

Battle of Hue

Thor — Tue, 27 Sep 2011 16:31:54 +0000

The Battle of Hue was a military engagement between the US Marines and the North Vietnamese Army in the city of Hue, from January 31 to March 3, 1968, during the Tet offensive of the Vietnam War. The US and South Vietnamese victory over the communist forces proved that the Tet Offensive, launched by North Vietnam during the Vietnamese Lunar New Year had failed, eventhough the American press put it as if the communist forces had definitely gained the upper hand in war. As a result, Congress significantly reduced the war budget, which crippled the US counter-offensive, giving the communists time to recover.

Despite the Tet Truce (Lunar New Year cease fire), the North Vietnamese, along with the Viet Cong, launched a major offensive throughout South Vietnam (known as the Tet Offensive) as many military installations and cities were viciously attacked by the communist forces, taking the Americans by surprise. On January 31, on the same day they had launched the massive assault, the communist forces took Hue, quickly controlling most of the city. The main objective of the North Vietnamese Army was to capture the whole city to help sweep the Communist insurgents into power. Two of the targets hit the hardest were the local airfield and the US Military Assistance Command, Vietnam.

For about thirty two days, the US 1st Battalion (1st Marines), the 2nd Battalion (5th Marines), and South Vietnamese forces fought ferociously a house-to-house street fighting in their attempt to reconquer the city. During the Battle of Hue more than 4,000 civilians were killed, most of them executed by the Viet Cong. Casualty among the communists were very high, around 9,000 men, as the South Vietnamese and American forces lost only 700 soldiers. It was an outright military victory for the Marines and South Vietnamese units as they totally recovered the city of Hue, annihialating the enemy forces. But it was a political and ideological defeat, for most of the American press put it the other way round.

Battle of Hue Documentary (Video)

Battle of Tora Bora (2001)

Thor — Thu, 22 Sep 2011 15:40:47 +0000

The Battle of Tora Bora was fought between the US-led Coalition forces and the Taliban, from December 12 to December 17, 2001, in the cave complex of Tora Bora, Safed Koh (White Mountains), Afghanistan, near the Pakistani border. Although they failed to capture Osabama Bin Laden, it was a victory for the Coalition troops from a military point of view as they managed to capture the whole area after fierce fighting. The Battle of Tora Bora was one the first military clashes in the global war against Islamic terrorism that had broken out as a result of the murderous attacks on the World Trade Center twin towers and the Pentagon on September 11, 2001, where more than 4,000 thousand civilians lost their lives.

On October 7, 2001, with an extensive bombing campaign, the US military had begun Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan to remove the Taliban from power, defeat al-Qaeda guerrilla fighters and capture their leader Osama Bin Laden who was hiding in that country. By November 30, the US-led Coalition troops and the Afghan anti-Taliban Northern Alliance had regained more than half of Afghan territory, including the capital Kabul, as the Taliban fled into the high mountains near the border with Pakistan. The Battle of Tora Bora broke out on December 12, 2001, when Taliban guerrillas opened fire on the Coalition forces vanguard that were closing in on them, throwing everything they had at the American Rangers. Nevertheless, US Navy Seals and Green Berets, who had already infiltrated the White Mountain region, called in air support and directed the US and British air strikes on the Taliban positions.

After two days of intense bombing, with all type of smart bombs as well as Tomahawk cruise missiles raining down on the targets designated by Special Forces members from observation points on high ground, American Delta Force, British SAS and SBS, Australian SAS, and German KSK Special Forces troops began a ferocious cave-by-cave fighting. On December 17, the last terrorists positions were overrun by US and Canadian troops as the Special Forces and CIA operatives took the last cave system. Although more than 350 Taliban and al-Qaeda members got killed in the battle, Osama Bin Laden and a large number of Islamic terrorists managed to escape into Pakistan.

Bombing of Tora Bora, Afghanistan (Video)