• Choose a category
• All
• Classic-Fiction

[285] Operation Drumbeat.

[286] German Type VII submarines carried twelve torpedoes

[287] In fact, there were barely any escorts for convoy duty. The United States failed to construct or even design ships suitable for convoy duty or fighting submarines. Convoy escorts are normally smaller ships with a large carrying capacity so they can haul a lot of fuel and depth charges and stay on station for long periods of time. The larger and faster destroyers are not well suited for that kind of duty, but they could have been used for convoy protection given the state of the emergency in 1942.

[288] Horton was one of the most important and least known men of WWII. He was the key man in the defeat of the German U-boat menace. He was in charge of the Western Approaches to England.

[289] This shows how essential supply is to war. Logistics are THE first priority.

[290] Well . . . not everything. In the category of armor missteps occurred. Fast Tanks and Heavy Bombers: Innovation in the US Army, 1917-1945 (Cornell Studies in Security Affairs) by David E. Johnson (Paperback—Mar 2003). The Germans had better tanks, and both the British and American troops knew this by 1943. Somehow, the Allied generals did not get the message until late 1944. Better Allied steel, slopping the armor, better ammunition, and a high-velocity 75mm gun could have made a substantial difference for the main Allied battle tank, the M-4 Sherman. The Sherman was inferior to the German tanks but was not upgraded until sometime in late 1944 (Battle of the Bulge saw some improved Shermans). Some of this was due to Allied battle doctrine wherein the Tank Destroyer was to fight other tanks; however, anyone should have seen, as the Allied troops did, that the Sherman was totally outclassed at D-Day and needed immediate improvement or replacement. The tank crews were simply riding in their coffins as they faced German Tiger and Panther tanks. On the plus side, the Sherman was fast and reliable, and once up gunned it did a little better against the German tanks. The German Panther was an excellent tank, but it too had problems stemming mostly from design flaws that were caused by Nazi infighting during the production process.

[291] In later years, Montgomery said the invasion of Italy was planned in the men’s room at Allied HQ. The results certainly make it look like the plan was drawn up in the men’s room.

[292] The landings in Sicily were about as large in terms of men committed to the initial assault; but at D-Day, the follow-on forces were much larger and the stakes far higher.

[293] Large British raid of 18 to 19 August, 1942 on the German-held French coast at the town of Dieppe involving some five thousand Canadian troops. The raid was a colossal failure resulting in the loss of two-thirds of the invasion force.

[294] In one location, the Americans found a buried chest full of Japanese code books enabling US code breakers to read Japanese transmissions more extensively, thus giving US commanders better intelligence on Japan’s actions.

[295] General McKinney is largely unknown because he served under MacArthur, who was a fanatic about keeping his name ALONE in the news. It was “MacArthur’s air force sinks convoy.” McKinney was never mentioned. Most military men didn’t care. They were fighting to win the war, not gain accolades from the press

[296] The Higgins boat was a landing craft with a flat bottom, a shallow draft, and a bow ramp that dropped to let the troops rush ashore, but it needed four feet of water to float and the reef was three feet below the surface on invasion day.

[297] The admiral led at Pearl Harbor and Midway, but had been demoted after Midway. He died on Saipan.

[298] Lost in the sense they could not achieve their war aims; however, they might prevent an invasion of their homeland. Thus, they would lose the war but “save” Japan, if not successfully invaded.

[299] Kurita HAD to know the plan was to draw the US fleet away from where he was, so why was he surprised to be told the US