thedrifter
01-14-09, 07:37 AM
Military Milestones From Halsey’s 'Right Arm' to 'The Mother of All Battles'
by W. Thomas Smith, Jr. (more by this author)
Posted 01/14/2009 ET
This Week in American Military History...
Jan. 12, 1945: Warplanes from the U.S. Navy’s carrier Task Force 38 under the command of Vice Adm. John Sidney McCain Sr. (father of Adm. John S. McCain Jr. and grandfather of Sen. John S. McCain III) attack enemy convoys and bases along the coast of Japanese-held French Indochina (Vietnam) in the Battle of the South China Sea.
Codenamed “Operation Gratitude,” the attacks are wildly successful. Despite rough seas and high winds from a dangerously close typhoon, Japanese bases at Saigon, Cape Saint Jacques (Vung Tau), Cam Ranh Bay, Qui Nhon, and Tourane Bay (Da Nang) are hit hard, resulting in the destruction of docks, barracks, weapons depots, hangars, and scores of Japanese seaplanes and other aircraft, as well as the sinking of more than 40 enemy ships.
Adm. McCain -- who Adm. William “Bull” Halsey refers to as “"not much more than my right arm" -- dies of a heart attack on Sept. 6, 1945, four days after witnessing the Japanese surrender ceremony aboard USS Missouri. He is posthumously awarded a fourth star.
Jan 13, 1865: U.S. soldiers, sailors, and Marines under the joint command of Maj. Gen. Alfred Howe Terry and Rear Adm. David Dixon Porter begin landing operations -- in what will prove to be the largest American amphibious operation until World War II -- aimed at seizing Fort Fisher, N.C., a Confederate stronghold near the port city of Wilmington.
The fort -- commanded by Confederate Gen. Braxton Bragg (yes, Fort Bragg, N.C. is named in his honor) -- will fall to Union forces within two days.
Jan. 14, 1784: The U.S. Congress, temporarily meeting in Annapolis, Maryland, ratifies the Treaty of Paris, officially ending America’s War of Independence.
Jan. 17, 1781: Three years prior to the ratification, Continental Army forces -- including infantry, cavalry, dragoons (horse-mounted infantry), and militia -- under the command of Brig. Gen. Daniel Morgan, clash with a better-equipped, more-experienced force of British Army regulars and Loyalists under the command of Lt. Col. Banastre “Bloody Ban” Tarleton in a sprawling pastureland known as Hannah’s Cowpens in the South Carolina upcountry.
Celebrated today as the Battle of Cowpens, the engagement ends in a decisive victory for Morgan -- who defeats Tarleton in a classic double-envelopment -- and a near-irrevocable loss of men, equipment, and reputation for the infamous Tarleton and his “British Legion.”
Tarleton’s boss, Gen. Sir Charles Cornwallis, will abandon South Carolina and in less than two months chalk up a pyrrhic victory at the Battle of Guilford Courthouse (N.C.). Meanwhile, word of Morgan’s victory will spread like wildfire throughout the Carolinas and up into Virginia where -- at Yorktown -- Cornwallis’ entire army (including Tarleton and his feared green-jacketed horsemen) will surrender to the combined American-French forces of Generals George Washington and Comte de Rochambeau on October 19, almost nine months to the day after Cowpens.
Jan. 17, 1991: Two-hundred-ten years to the day after the Battle of Cowpens, American, British, and French forces -- this time all three on the same team -- kick off what Iraqi Pres. Saddam Hussein predicted would be “the Mother of all Battles” with a series of blistering air attacks aimed at destroying the Iraqi Air Force, Iraq’s air-defense forces and overall command and control. It is day one of Operation Desert Storm.
AUTHOR’S NOTE: “This Week in American Military History,” appears every Wednesday as a feature of HUMAN EVENTS.
Let's increase awareness of American military tradition and honor America’s greatest heroes by supporting the Medal of Honor Society's 2010 Convention to be held in Charleston, S.C., Sept. 29-Oct. 3, 2010 (for more information,http://medalofhonorconvention.com/ ).
Ellie
by W. Thomas Smith, Jr. (more by this author)
Posted 01/14/2009 ET
This Week in American Military History...
Jan. 12, 1945: Warplanes from the U.S. Navy’s carrier Task Force 38 under the command of Vice Adm. John Sidney McCain Sr. (father of Adm. John S. McCain Jr. and grandfather of Sen. John S. McCain III) attack enemy convoys and bases along the coast of Japanese-held French Indochina (Vietnam) in the Battle of the South China Sea.
Codenamed “Operation Gratitude,” the attacks are wildly successful. Despite rough seas and high winds from a dangerously close typhoon, Japanese bases at Saigon, Cape Saint Jacques (Vung Tau), Cam Ranh Bay, Qui Nhon, and Tourane Bay (Da Nang) are hit hard, resulting in the destruction of docks, barracks, weapons depots, hangars, and scores of Japanese seaplanes and other aircraft, as well as the sinking of more than 40 enemy ships.
Adm. McCain -- who Adm. William “Bull” Halsey refers to as “"not much more than my right arm" -- dies of a heart attack on Sept. 6, 1945, four days after witnessing the Japanese surrender ceremony aboard USS Missouri. He is posthumously awarded a fourth star.
Jan 13, 1865: U.S. soldiers, sailors, and Marines under the joint command of Maj. Gen. Alfred Howe Terry and Rear Adm. David Dixon Porter begin landing operations -- in what will prove to be the largest American amphibious operation until World War II -- aimed at seizing Fort Fisher, N.C., a Confederate stronghold near the port city of Wilmington.
The fort -- commanded by Confederate Gen. Braxton Bragg (yes, Fort Bragg, N.C. is named in his honor) -- will fall to Union forces within two days.
Jan. 14, 1784: The U.S. Congress, temporarily meeting in Annapolis, Maryland, ratifies the Treaty of Paris, officially ending America’s War of Independence.
Jan. 17, 1781: Three years prior to the ratification, Continental Army forces -- including infantry, cavalry, dragoons (horse-mounted infantry), and militia -- under the command of Brig. Gen. Daniel Morgan, clash with a better-equipped, more-experienced force of British Army regulars and Loyalists under the command of Lt. Col. Banastre “Bloody Ban” Tarleton in a sprawling pastureland known as Hannah’s Cowpens in the South Carolina upcountry.
Celebrated today as the Battle of Cowpens, the engagement ends in a decisive victory for Morgan -- who defeats Tarleton in a classic double-envelopment -- and a near-irrevocable loss of men, equipment, and reputation for the infamous Tarleton and his “British Legion.”
Tarleton’s boss, Gen. Sir Charles Cornwallis, will abandon South Carolina and in less than two months chalk up a pyrrhic victory at the Battle of Guilford Courthouse (N.C.). Meanwhile, word of Morgan’s victory will spread like wildfire throughout the Carolinas and up into Virginia where -- at Yorktown -- Cornwallis’ entire army (including Tarleton and his feared green-jacketed horsemen) will surrender to the combined American-French forces of Generals George Washington and Comte de Rochambeau on October 19, almost nine months to the day after Cowpens.
Jan. 17, 1991: Two-hundred-ten years to the day after the Battle of Cowpens, American, British, and French forces -- this time all three on the same team -- kick off what Iraqi Pres. Saddam Hussein predicted would be “the Mother of all Battles” with a series of blistering air attacks aimed at destroying the Iraqi Air Force, Iraq’s air-defense forces and overall command and control. It is day one of Operation Desert Storm.
AUTHOR’S NOTE: “This Week in American Military History,” appears every Wednesday as a feature of HUMAN EVENTS.
Let's increase awareness of American military tradition and honor America’s greatest heroes by supporting the Medal of Honor Society's 2010 Convention to be held in Charleston, S.C., Sept. 29-Oct. 3, 2010 (for more information,http://medalofhonorconvention.com/ ).
Ellie