Register | Sign In


Understanding through Discussion


EvC Forum active members: 63 (9161 total)
4 online now:
Newest Member: popoi
Post Volume: Total: 915,581 Year: 2,838/9,624 Month: 683/1,588 Week: 89/229 Day: 61/28 Hour: 3/4


Thread  Details

Email This Thread
Newer Topic | Older Topic
  
Author Topic:   See How They Run -- 2020
dwise1
Member
Posts: 5925
Joined: 05-02-2006
Member Rating: 5.2


(1)
Message 16 of 19 (882838)
10-20-2020 5:18 AM
Reply to: Message 14 by anglagard
10-19-2020 6:55 PM


Re: Closer to Home
It's not that unlike being a Marine at Wake or Correigidor in some sense. Hang on for life, Guadalcanal is right here right now in this state, the turkey shoot and Saipan are on the horizon. Coming to your neighborhood everywhere.
Now you're pushing my history buttons.
I have done a bit of wargaming, mainly collecting games and analyzing them since at first I could find nobody to play with and then I had no spare time (family and refresher training in computer science) -- I have since donated the vast majority of my games to a local gaming club just so somebody could use them.
One such was a collection of four smaller games, Westwall by SPI. They were mainly small battles involved in the Battle of the Bulge where superior German forces just completely overran our positions or else we were returning the favor later. Victory conditions involved how long you could hold out before the onslaught before having to retreat.
Correigidor was one such hopeless battle as was Wake Island. There was just no way to win against such opposition. However, as the History Guy tells it, the Wake Island defenders acquitted themselves incredibly well against such overwhelming opposition (No webpage found at provided URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kbxrqQFetvI). Truly, as per the by-line, History that Deserves to be Remembered. That link is very well worth clicking on.
Guadalcanal was another matter. One of the major differences between the US Army and the US Marine Corps is that the marines deploy far faster and easier because they don't have to take their massive infrastructure with them, but rather the US Navy supplies that. At Guadalcanal, that naval infrastructure was quite literally sunk by the Japanese. In those wargames, one of the salient features was maintaining your line of communication (LOC) because that was also your supply line. Lose your LOC and your combat factors are diminished because you are out of supply. Our troops on Guadalcanal were out of supply. Our navy had to regain control of the waters off of Guadalcanal in order to restore those supply lines. While the Marines had to hang on until that happened.
The Marianas Campaign, Operation Forager, started with Saipan and then worked its way down the island chain with Tinian being next -- Tinian was the real objective because its massive airfields brought our B-29 Superfortress bombers within striking range of the Japanese homeland islands. The battle to take Saipan was bloody and fierce. Of historical note is Marine PFC Guy Gabaldon, a Mexican-American orphan from Los Angeles who was raised by a Japanese-American family (played by Jeffery Hunter, AKA Starfleet CAPT Christopher Pike, in Hell to Eternity (1960). He used his knowledge of the Japanese language to talk over 1,000 Japanese civilians and soldiers into surrendering instead of being killed senselessly.
My father was a SeaBee (Naval Construction Battallion, CB, hence "Sea Bees") assigned to Saipan after it was pacified. Despite not having been through actual combat, the aftermath that he witnessed changed him forever -- my mother said that he was never the same man after he returned.
The Marianas Turkey Shoot was an entirely different matter altogether. As Operation Forager descended on Saipan, the Japanese Operation Go (¿5?
As in ichi, ni, san, shi, go?) went into action. Operation Go was meant to deliver a decisive blow to the US Navy. It failed.
When ADM Spruance learned that a Japanese task force was approaching, he took much of the naval assets of Operation Forager, leaving what was needed to support the landings, to face the Japanese fleet. That became the Battle of the Philippine Sea. The air battle came to be known as the Marianas Turkey Shoot in which the Japanese suffered massive losses in aircraft and aircrews against our minimal losses such that after that Japanese air power was minimal and their aircraft carriers were mainly just tokens. ADM Spruance was criticized for not having pressed the advantage, but he didn't know that this attack wasn't just a feint, which was a typical Japanese strategy (eg, to divert our attention away from Midway, they invaded the Aleutian Islands at the same time).
Also, this battle is the source of one of the most inspiring naval commands for me, right up there with "Damn the torpedoes! Full speed ahead!": "Turn on the lights!" The last air battle was late in the day, so our aircraft were returning in the dark and could not find their carriers. Light discipline is very strict in the Navy in wartime, since the slightest hint of light from a ship could mark it for death from a submarine's torpedo. Spruance's order to turn on the lights so that the aircraft could return and land was incredibly courageous.

This message is a reply to:
 Message 14 by anglagard, posted 10-19-2020 6:55 PM anglagard has not replied

  
dwise1
Member
Posts: 5925
Joined: 05-02-2006
Member Rating: 5.2


Message 17 of 19 (882845)
10-20-2020 5:09 PM


Trump Preparing for Career Change?
Within this past hour on MSNBC Donny Deutsch suggested that Trump is getting ready for the next chapter in his life: Trump TV.
This could help to explain why Trump is doing pretty much all the wrong things if he actually wanted to win reelection. Instead of trying to appeal to and pull away undecided and Biden voters, he just continues to throw out red meat to his base. And he continues to air his personal grievances against individuals like Dr. Fauci, Biden, Obama, Clinton, the moderator of the next debate, the mute switch on his microphone at that next debate, etc. Nothing that would actually help him pull in the new votes needed for him to win.
However, if he's trying to build up a subscriber base for his planned Trump TV streaming service, then feeding his base would make sense.
 
ABE:
That segment is on YouTube now:
Edited by dwise1, : ABE & YouTube

  
anglagard
Member (Idle past 826 days)
Posts: 2339
From: Socorro, New Mexico USA
Joined: 03-18-2006


Message 18 of 19 (883827)
01-13-2021 5:57 PM
Reply to: Message 15 by dwise1
10-20-2020 4:10 AM


Re: Closer to Home
Figured I would provide an update.
As expected, Xochital Torres Small was defeated by Yvette Herrell. Small was a centrist Democrat who voted against medicare for all and raising the minimum wage and lost along with virtually every other Democrat last round who agreed with her. All progressive support, where the energy is, went elsewhere. Our energy went to elect Siah Correa Hemphill for the State Senate, for which we were successful. Meanwhile Herrell voted against the election of Biden because "Trump is god."
Next time, we must stop the centrist Democrats from repeating their losing strategy and turn the state back to solid blue at every state and federal level starting now.
As an aside both my parents were in the Navy during WW2 and Korea. My father was on Okinawa driving a deuce and a half equivalent through a bunch of mud when a Japanese soldier took a shot at his head. It hit a rib.
So dad ratted the location of the assault to the Marines, they sent in a squad to check. Located the cave, tossed in a grenade, four Japanese dead. One story out of many.

The problem with knowing everything is learning nothing.
If you don't know what you're doing, find someone who does, and do what they do.
Republican = death

This message is a reply to:
 Message 15 by dwise1, posted 10-20-2020 4:10 AM dwise1 has not replied

  
anglagard
Member (Idle past 826 days)
Posts: 2339
From: Socorro, New Mexico USA
Joined: 03-18-2006


(1)
Message 19 of 19 (886735)
06-02-2021 12:30 PM


Better Late Than Never
Well, it is 2021 so a bit post-topic. In case you didn't know, there was a House election a bit North of here. The Democrat Stansbury won over Moores with a 25% margin, so not much support for Nazis around these parts.
Meanwhile in Texas........
Everyone who is fully vaxed in New Mexico is eligible for a drawing, so of course we submitted our names. Prize in each of four regions is $250k, statewide $5 million. Winning statewide means Vancouver Island, regionally means Salto, Uruguay (if necessary, because Texas).
We agree with Einstein, Hitler becomes Chancellor, bye for good (apologies to Godwin and James Joyce).

The problem with knowing everything is learning nothing.

If you don't know what you're doing, find someone who does, and do what they do.

Republican = death


  
Newer Topic | Older Topic
Jump to:


Copyright 2001-2023 by EvC Forum, All Rights Reserved

™ Version 4.2
Innovative software from Qwixotic © 2024