The \\\"One Day in War Series\\\" articles from TheCombatReport.com http://www.thecombatreport.com Fri, 10 Sep 2010 10:20:52 +0100 FeedCreator 1.7.2 http://www.thecombatreport.com/images/M_images/joomla_rss.png http://www.thecombatreport.com The \\\"One Day in War Series\\\" articles from TheCombatReport.com http://www.thecombatreport.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=743&Itemid=86 (Editors Note: Don Bourgeois is a frequent contributor to The Combat Report. In the following story he recounts the experience of his friend John Lorenz while serving on the USS Yorktown (CV-5). The series One Day in War is designed to illustrate the events of a single day of action during wartime.) For several years before his death John Lorenz was my best friend. We’d meet for lunch every Tuesday at a local restaurant where he would order the same baked chicken dish time after time. Fri, 05 Sep 2008 16:58:48 +0100 http://www.thecombatreport.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=604&Itemid=86 By the spring of 1943, April 18 was starting to look like a lucky date for American forces. Exactly a year before, on April 18, 1942, the crews of 16 B-25B “Mitchell” medium bombers undertook the most daring, and ultimately successful allied air raid so far. Launched from the USS Hornet CV-8, the twin-engine army bombers under the command of “Jimmy” Doolittle managed to totally surprise defenders and bomb targets in Japan. While the damage inflicted was minimal, the positive effect upon the morale of the American public was immeasurable. Moreover, the raid convinced Japanese military leaders that the capture of Midway Atoll was necessary. Incredibly, Midway had been passed by on December 8, 1941. The attempt by the Japanese to invade Midway 6 months later on June 4-5, 1942 resulted in such a disaster at the Battle of Midway that their defeat in the Pacific was ensured. Thu, 05 Jun 2008 16:43:14 +0100 http://www.thecombatreport.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=551&Itemid=86 No one can argue that the US was prepared, some would even say willing, to fight the bloody war of attrition that became known as the Africa campaign of WWII. At once out gunned and out gutted, the collected forces had much to learn about conducting a war- and even more to learn about hatred for the enemy. It is said, and is true, that war cannot be successful without a keen sense of hatred. Mon, 07 Apr 2008 08:53:54 +0100 http://www.thecombatreport.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=385&Itemid=86 On 12 April 1945 (the day that FDR died) USS Purdy (DD 734) and USS Cassin Young (DD 793) ran radar picket off Okinawa in support of the over-all effort to push the Japanese out of that bastion and ever closer to the home islands. The Purdy, a 2200-ton Allen M. Sumner class destroyer, was no distant cousin to the peril of duty in that kamikaze infested area and her crew knew well the hazard associated with the vulnerable radar picket station. No one had to remind them that death came screaming on the wings of the Japanese pilots that held so little value for human life, their own or those of the US Navy men that patrolled against their vile threat and, with increasing success, shot them from the sky. Fri, 11 May 2007 17:27:21 +0100 http://www.thecombatreport.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=372&Itemid=86 1943 would mark a turning point in the US advance on Japan in the Pacific. In a slow and steady campaign the Allies had, by June of that year, taken Buna in New Guinea and all resistance by the Japanese had ceased on Guadalcanal. In October Hirohito would announce that Japan’s situation was “truly grave.” Makin and Tarawa were still to come at the end of the year. Ernie Pyle wrote from Africa that year that the German and the American forces hammering it out fought their war “mostly by the rules.” Had Pyle directed his famous powers of observation eastward, he may have had a different opinion of the struggle with Japan. Wed, 25 Apr 2007 11:27:13 +0100