Son of a Confederate General and the highest ranking US officer killed by enemy fire in the Second World War, US Army LT. General Simon Bolivar Buckner Jr. Commander 10th Army here on Okinawa, Summer, 1945.
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WW2 Heroes
- Thread starter Weatherman2020
- Start date
Son of a Confederate General and the highest ranking US officer killed by enemy fire in the Second World War, US Army LT. General Simon Bolivar Buckner Jr. Commander 10th Army here on Okinawa, Summer, 1945.
Otto Skorzeny, special missions, freed Mussolini, fought behind enemy lines. Acquittal in Nuremberg.
Otto Skorzeny, special missions, freed Mussolini, fought behind enemy lines. Acquittal in Nuremberg.
Actually, he glommed on to a fallschirmjaeger mission to rescue Mussolini, and then almost killed Mussolini by demanding he be able to fly out in the Storch with Mussolini, so he could claim credit for a mission he didn't lead, plan, or do much in except follow along.
He was also in the plane and it was used because it is a STOL plane. Read his book for details.
Otto Skorzeny, special missions, freed Mussolini, fought behind enemy lines. Acquittal in Nuremberg.
Actually, he glommed on to a fallschirmjaeger mission to rescue Mussolini, and then almost killed Mussolini by demanding he be able to fly out in the Storch with Mussolini, so he could claim credit for a mission he didn't lead, plan, or do much in except follow along.
- Thread starter
- #5
Major Josef “Sepp” Gangl. In the twilight days of the war he led his unit to join US forces in the Alps to save French political prisoners held in a castle who were going to be executed by the SS. He died in the battle.
He was also in the plane and it was used because it is a STOL plane. Read his book for details.
Otto Skorzeny, special missions, freed Mussolini, fought behind enemy lines. Acquittal in Nuremberg.
Actually, he glommed on to a fallschirmjaeger mission to rescue Mussolini, and then almost killed Mussolini by demanding he be able to fly out in the Storch with Mussolini, so he could claim credit for a mission he didn't lead, plan, or do much in except follow along.
I talked to the people who led the mission. He almost caused the plane to crash because he overloaded it. The fallschirm who actually ran the mission despised him as a peacock, vain to the point of ridiculousness.
Skorzeny led the mission, he got it directly from Hitler. Read his book for details and you know how close it really was.He was also in the plane and it was used because it is a STOL plane. Read his book for details.
Otto Skorzeny, special missions, freed Mussolini, fought behind enemy lines. Acquittal in Nuremberg.
Actually, he glommed on to a fallschirmjaeger mission to rescue Mussolini, and then almost killed Mussolini by demanding he be able to fly out in the Storch with Mussolini, so he could claim credit for a mission he didn't lead, plan, or do much in except follow along.
I talked to the people who led the mission. He almost caused the plane to crash because he overloaded it. The fallschirm who actually ran the mission despised him as a peacock, vain to the point of ridiculousness.
View attachment 314191
Son of a Confederate General and the highest ranking US officer killed by enemy fire in the Second World War, US Army LT. General Simon Bolivar Buckner Jr. Commander 10th Army here on Okinawa, Summer, 1945.
On Aug13,1965 my Brigade boarded the USNS General Simon B Buckner in Charleston, SC and sailed 30 days, landing in Qui Nhon, S. Vietnam on Sep 13 1965. The picture is my platoon hitting the beach.
- Thread starter
- #9
- Thread starter
- #10
From Tara Ross today:
*** Medal of Honor Monday! ***
During this week in 1945, a Navy chaplain engages in an action that would earn him the Medal of Honor. Father Joseph T. O'Callahan was then stationed aboard USS Franklin, an aircraft carrier working just off the coast of Japan.
Franklin and others were working to neutralize the Japanese kamikaze threat before the invasion of Okinawa on April 1.
Trouble came early on March 19 when a Japanese Judy dive bomber dropped out of the clouds, mere yards in front of Franklin. Two semi-armor piercing bombs were launched, ripping through Franklin’s flight deck.
The timing couldn’t have been worse. Dozens of planes were on the flight deck and in the hangar, many of them fully gassed and armed. Now they were simply fuel for a firestorm.
When the bombs hit, “Father Joe” was eating in the wardroom. He was soon on his feet, as his Medal citation describes, “braving the perilous barriers of flame and twisted metal” and “grop[ing] his way through smoke-filled corridors to the open flight deck and into the midst of violently exploding bombs, shells, rockets, and other armament.”
The scene on the flight deck must have been unimaginable. The ship was being “rocked by incessant explosions,” the Medal citation adds, “with debris and fragments raining down and fires raging in ever-increasing fury.”
Father Joe braved these explosions to minister to the wounded. He motivated men into action and got them manning hoses. He figured out which men knew how to disarm bombs so they could be rolled overboard.
Importantly, he led by example. “You shouldn’t ask lads to do what you yourself are not willing to do,” he would later explain. He was older than many of those around him, with “creaking bones,” but his presence kept the boys going.
“Father O’Callahan asked me to help with the hoses,” Corporal Mike Sansone admitted, “but the first couple times he asked I declined. I was part of the aviation group and I wasn’t trained in firefighting. He had a very calm presence about him and he insisted, and I finally agreed to go.”
“You couldn’t miss the white cross on his helmet,” WT3/c Sam Rhodes agreed, “and he was organizing fire crews like you wouldn’t believe.” At O’Callahan’s prompting, Rhodes was helping to roll a bomb off the flight deck and into the water. He was nervous, but then he thought: “Well . . . if I go up with the bomb at least I’ll go with a priest.”
Father Joe would later write of the shock and disorientation of the men on deck. Thus, his task involved more than just asking people to help. He had to figure out who was capable.
“There were many who listened but did not hear, who looked you in the eye but did not see. They were conscious but they didn’t know it,” he wrote. “They were for the time stunned . . . . Later these boys would help, but for the moment their systems had to become readjusted to the mere fact of being alive.”
He learned to identify which men were ready to help “by their eyes.”
It would take hours and hours of work, but ultimately Franklin was saved. She would even travel all the way back to New York, cruising under her own power. On May 17, an awards ceremony was held on Franklin’s deck with family members in attendance.
Franklin’s Captain, Leslie Gehres found O’Callahan’s mother and approached her. “I’m not a religious man,” he said. “But I watched your son that day and I thought if faith can do this for a man, there must be something to it. Your son is the bravest man I have ever seen.”
Father Joe’s Medal of Honor wasn’t awarded that day, but he would receive it from President Harry Truman in early 1946.
Another hero from the Greatest Generation.
---------------------------
If you enjoy these history posts, please see my note below.
Gentle reminder: History posts are copyright © 2013-2020 by Tara Ross. I appreciate it when you use the shar e feature instead of cutting/pasting.
#TDIH #OTD #AmericanHistory #USHistory #liberty #freedom #ShareTheHistor
*** Medal of Honor Monday! ***
During this week in 1945, a Navy chaplain engages in an action that would earn him the Medal of Honor. Father Joseph T. O'Callahan was then stationed aboard USS Franklin, an aircraft carrier working just off the coast of Japan.
Franklin and others were working to neutralize the Japanese kamikaze threat before the invasion of Okinawa on April 1.
Trouble came early on March 19 when a Japanese Judy dive bomber dropped out of the clouds, mere yards in front of Franklin. Two semi-armor piercing bombs were launched, ripping through Franklin’s flight deck.
The timing couldn’t have been worse. Dozens of planes were on the flight deck and in the hangar, many of them fully gassed and armed. Now they were simply fuel for a firestorm.
When the bombs hit, “Father Joe” was eating in the wardroom. He was soon on his feet, as his Medal citation describes, “braving the perilous barriers of flame and twisted metal” and “grop[ing] his way through smoke-filled corridors to the open flight deck and into the midst of violently exploding bombs, shells, rockets, and other armament.”
The scene on the flight deck must have been unimaginable. The ship was being “rocked by incessant explosions,” the Medal citation adds, “with debris and fragments raining down and fires raging in ever-increasing fury.”
Father Joe braved these explosions to minister to the wounded. He motivated men into action and got them manning hoses. He figured out which men knew how to disarm bombs so they could be rolled overboard.
Importantly, he led by example. “You shouldn’t ask lads to do what you yourself are not willing to do,” he would later explain. He was older than many of those around him, with “creaking bones,” but his presence kept the boys going.
“Father O’Callahan asked me to help with the hoses,” Corporal Mike Sansone admitted, “but the first couple times he asked I declined. I was part of the aviation group and I wasn’t trained in firefighting. He had a very calm presence about him and he insisted, and I finally agreed to go.”
“You couldn’t miss the white cross on his helmet,” WT3/c Sam Rhodes agreed, “and he was organizing fire crews like you wouldn’t believe.” At O’Callahan’s prompting, Rhodes was helping to roll a bomb off the flight deck and into the water. He was nervous, but then he thought: “Well . . . if I go up with the bomb at least I’ll go with a priest.”
Father Joe would later write of the shock and disorientation of the men on deck. Thus, his task involved more than just asking people to help. He had to figure out who was capable.
“There were many who listened but did not hear, who looked you in the eye but did not see. They were conscious but they didn’t know it,” he wrote. “They were for the time stunned . . . . Later these boys would help, but for the moment their systems had to become readjusted to the mere fact of being alive.”
He learned to identify which men were ready to help “by their eyes.”
It would take hours and hours of work, but ultimately Franklin was saved. She would even travel all the way back to New York, cruising under her own power. On May 17, an awards ceremony was held on Franklin’s deck with family members in attendance.
Franklin’s Captain, Leslie Gehres found O’Callahan’s mother and approached her. “I’m not a religious man,” he said. “But I watched your son that day and I thought if faith can do this for a man, there must be something to it. Your son is the bravest man I have ever seen.”
Father Joe’s Medal of Honor wasn’t awarded that day, but he would receive it from President Harry Truman in early 1946.
Another hero from the Greatest Generation.
---------------------------
If you enjoy these history posts, please see my note below.
Gentle reminder: History posts are copyright © 2013-2020 by Tara Ross. I appreciate it when you use the shar e feature instead of cutting/pasting.
#TDIH #OTD #AmericanHistory #USHistory #liberty #freedom #ShareTheHistor
General Jonathan "Skinny" Wainwright was left holding the bag on Corrigador when MacArthur abandoned his Army (under orders). Wainwright was nicknamed "skinny" by fellow cadets at West Point and looked the part when he was finally released by the Japanese. The last order MacArthur issued to him was "do not surrender and fight to the last man". MacArthur, who was awarded the MOH for presumably shaking his fist at marauding Japanese planes on Corrigador and earned a nickname "Dougout Doug", was furious that Wainwright would also be awarded the MOH.
- Thread starter
- #13
I would agree with that. They wanted to GIVE their kids all they didn’t have. And because the kids didn’t EARN it, they had no clue why hard work, community, and ambition means.The only complaint I have with the WWII greatest generation is that they spawned the baby boomers who were the most spoiled and clueless generation up to that time
See clinton, bush, romney, and the entire democrat party
Mac-7
Diamond Member
- Oct 9, 2019
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I wish we could post 2 ThanksThey wanted to GIVE their kids all they didn’t have. And because the kids didn’t EARN it, they had no clue why hard work, community, and ambition means.
"Uncommon valor was a common virtue"....Adm. Nimitz. Think about that phrase, it was said after Marines lost about 6,000 in combat on Iwo Jima in a month and 27 Medals of Honor were awarded .
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