War stories...

[mgrist]

In the longest battle of the war, the German plan to wear down the French army and break civilian spirit failed. Casualties were huge: 355,000 German and 400,000 French.

Russian General Alexei Brusilov attacked the southern Austrian defences, advancing the front more than 60 miles and inflicting a million casualties.

The battle of Somme-Total casualties: 1,088,907 (both sides)

, the Germans were ready for the attack at Chemin des Dames and inflicted 100,000 casualties on the first day.

Just a few of the casulties, where did anybody ever get the people to fight WWII?

[wacojoe]

Just a few of the casulties, where did anybody ever get the people to fight WWII?

That's why at the end they called the war "The Lost Generation" — literally.

[Truckman]

My reply to Fred here turned up another war story after a little reading...Albert Peter Dewey, the first American military casualty in modern Vietnam, had his own set of coincidences before meeting his doom...

A distant relative of Thomas E. Dewey, who met defeat in the 1948 Presidential election at the hands of Harry Truman, he was sent to Vietnam by the Truman administration under the auspices of the OSS (the precursor to the CIA)...He was well regarded in France for his covert activities there during WWII, for which he was personally decorated by General W.J. Donovan...

While in Vietnam, he was responsible for the repatriation of 4,549 Allied POW's held in a Japanese prison camp near Saigon...After being told his flight out of Vietnam was delayed, he decided to have lunch with two news reporters, and was shot and killed in an ambush by the Viet Minh who mistook him for a Frenchman...The mistake is attributed to his not being allowed to identify his jeep with an American flag by a vindictive British officer after Dewey reported the poor treatment of Vietnamese civilians by some of the French POW's he had helped free...

Dewey is not listed on the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C. because the United States Department of Defense has ruled that the war officially started, from a U.S. perspective, on November 1, 1955, after the U.S. took over following the French defeat at Dien Bien Phu.

...Ben

[TriGuy]

Good “Old 666”, the Cursed Bomber that No One Wanted to Fly took on 17 Japanese Fighters Alone and Lived to Tell About It



https://www.warhistoryonline.com/fea...vedtell.html/2

[Wannabe]

Wow! I am truly impressed. That is the kind of people that made America Great.
Bob

[Truckman]

I've had some good book recommendations lately...Independent Voter suggested "Bury Us Upside Down," which I reviewed earlier...Phillbo said "Into the Mouth of the Cat" would be a good read, which was a gross understatement...My review of it is here...Keep the suggestions coming, people......Ben

[Truckman]

More on Capt. Sijan's ordeal below...What isn't shown in the video, but is covered extensively in the book, is the methods he used to survive, then successfully evade capture in the jungle...How his story was eventually pieced together, independently confirmed, documented and preserved for telling is also covered in the book......Ben

[wacojoe]

The saga of the USS Indianapolis —

http://edition.cnn.com/2016/07/29/us...g-anniversary/

[Truckman]

As I got deeper into researching this war story, my research turned up so many twists and convolutions, I decided to write it up as an article here instead...It turned out to be a lot longer than I planned, but for those who like to read, there are a number of links to verify the facts...Now I need a nap......Ben

[wacojoe]

http://www.scout.com/military/warrio...-japan-in-wwii

The website has many these little-known war stories.

[Truckman]

Thanks, Joe...I added that to my sources......Ben

[wacojoe]

Here's another interesting saga from WWII I never knew about — Fort Drum at the entrance to Manila Bay.

https://www.elitereaders.com/fort-dr...te-battleship/

It was the first to fire on the invading Japanese forces, the last to surrender, and after the Allies re-invaded it was the last Japanese installation to be recaptured in the Philippines...gruesomely!

[Truckman]

Some tidbits concerning Fort Drum's namesake...A veteran of many battles during his 44 year career, he served during the entire War of Northern Aggression without seeing combat...Camp Drum in California was also named for him......Ben

[wacojoe]

Below is a piece outlining the opposing batteries in Calais and Dover during WWII. I had missed this bit of history giving no thought that the Straights Of Dover allowed cannon fire to reach the other side of the 21 mile straight. The measurement given of the Nazi guns are in millimeters and for clarification for those, like myself, who need it, 400 millimeters equate to 15 3/4 inch guns.

http://warisboring.com/big-guns-name...glish-channel/

[wacojoe]

The Battle Of Leyte Gulf, 10/24/1944 was the last major sea battle in which aircraft carriers were not present —

http://nationalinterest.org/blog/the...o-strait-20713