|
Posted on 08/15/2003 12:00:16 AM PDT by SAMWolf
|
|
 are acknowledged, affirmed and commemorated.
|
| Our Mission: The FReeper Foxhole is dedicated to Veterans of our Nation's military forces and to others who are affected in their relationships with Veterans. In the FReeper Foxhole, Veterans or their family members should feel free to address their specific circumstances or whatever issues concern them in an atmosphere of peace, understanding, brotherhood and support. The FReeper Foxhole hopes to share with it's readers an open forum where we can learn about and discuss military history, military news and other topics of concern or interest to our readers be they Veteran's, Current Duty or anyone interested in what we have to offer. If the Foxhole makes someone appreciate, even a little, what others have sacrificed for us, then it has accomplished one of it's missions. We hope the Foxhole in some small way helps us to remember and honor those who came before us.
|
 The FReeper Foxhole thanks all our WWII Veterans for their sacrifices and remembers those who gave all.  Flights of F4U "Corsairs" and F6F "Hellcats" over the USS Missouri (BB-63). VJ Day August 1945. |
|
(An Invasion Not Found in History Books) The end of World War II, described by most of our educational institutions and the Media, especially during 50th anniversary year, centers on the use of the Atomic Bomb. They fail to remember what happened at Pearl Harbor December 7, 1941, (that started the whole thing in the first place), the Bataan Death March, the Japanese Hell Ship (where 1800 American Prisoners prayed to die and all but 8 got their wish), the Rape of Nanking, plus many other deceitful acts and atrocities not mentioned in this article. They failed to look at the planned invasion of the Japanese mainland and the enormous cost in human lives on both sides that would have occurred.  Deep in the National Archives hidden for decades, lie thousands of pages of dusty yellowing documents stamped "TOP SECRET". These documents, now declassified, are the plans for Operation Downfall, the invasion of the Japanese Homeland during World War II. Only a few Americans in 1945 were aware of the elaborate plans that had been prepared for the Allied Invasion of the Japanese Homeland. Even fewer today are aware of the defense the Japanese had prepared to counter the invasion had it occurred. "Japan, loser of the Pacific War, still had plenty of deadly weapons to defend its homeland against invasion. Any invasion attempt would have been Guadalcanal, Tarawa, Iwo Jima, Okinawa and all the other bloody Pacific battles wrapped into one." The demolition teams started to neutralize Japanese defenses, August 28,1945, in Tokyo Bay and on mainland Japan, prior to the formal surrender aboard the USS Missouri, September 2, 1945. After the initial "demilitarization" of ships in Tokyo Bay was completed, IE: (destroying ammunition, dismantling guns and throwing the breeches overboard), the teams moved inland. There they blew up fleets of suicide boats moored all along the coast, exploded torpedoes, disabled or destroyed two man "suicide" submarines. In caves that honeycomb the coastline, the big coastal defense guns were blown up. "Weapons guarding the Japanese homeland were insidiously camouflaged." Gun emplacements were buried in craggy hillsides. Their ammunition supplies moved through a series of underground tunnels on tiny railroads they could have never are seen by invaders from the sea or air. Huge caves had been hollowed out in the hills along the coast. These were crammed with heavy armaments, torpedoes, small suicide submarines, mines and all manners of explosive devices. The Invasion of Japan, OPERATION DOWNFALL, called for two massive military undertakings to be carried out in succession and aimed at the heart of the Japanese Empire.  In the first invasion, (code named OPERATION OLYMPIC), combat troops would land on Japan by amphibious assault during the early morning hours of November 1, 1945. Fourteen combat divisions of soldiers and Marines would land on heavily fortified and defended Kyushu, the southernmost of the Japanese home islands, after an unprecedented naval and air bombardment. The second invasion on March 1, 1946, (code named OPERATION CORONET), would send 22 combat divisions against one million Japanese defenders of the main island of Honshu. Its goal: the unconditional surrender of Japan. OPERATION DOWNFALL was to be a strictly American operation, except for a part of the British Pacific Fleet. It called for using the entire Marine Corps, the entire Pacific Navy, elements of the Seventh Army Air Force, the Eighth Air Force (recently re-deployed from Europe), The 20th Air Force and the American Far Eastern Air Force. More than 1.5 million combat troops, with 3 million more in support, (more than 40 per cent of all servicemen still in uniform in 1945), would be directly involved in two amphibious assaults. Casualties were expected to be extremely heavy. Admiral William Leahy estimated more than 250,00 killed or wounded on Kyushu alone. General Charles Willoughby, Chief of Intelligence for General Douglas MacArthur, estimated American casualties from the entire operation would be one million men by the fall of 1946. This was considered, by many, to be a very conservative estimate. A naval blockade and strategic bombing of Japan was considered, most everyone agreed that they would choke and destroy cities, but leave whole armies intact.  After extensive deliberation, the Joint Chiefs of Staff issued a top secret directive May 25, 1945, to proceed with the invasion of Kyushu, the southernmost island of Japan. The target date was set for after the typhoon season. Two days later the United States issued a Potsdam Proclamation, which called upon Japan to surrender unconditionally or face, total destruction. Three days later, the Japanese government news agency broadcast to the world, Japan would ignore the proclamation and would refuse to surrender. During this same period it was learned from monitoring Japanese radio broadcasts, that they were closing all schools, mobilizing the schoolchildren, arming the civilian population, fortifying caves and constructing underground defenses. OPERATION OLYMPIC called for a four pronged assault on Kyushu. Its objective was to seize and control the southern one-third of that island and establish naval and air bases, tighten the naval blockade of the home islands, destroy units of the main Japanese army and support the later invasion of the Tokyo plain. The preliminary invasion would begin October 27, 1945, when the 40th Infantry Division would land on a series of small islands west and southwest of Kyushu. At the same time the 158th Regimental Combat Team would land and occupy a small island 28 miles south of Kyushu. On these islands, seaplane bases would be established, radar stations set up to provide advance warning to the invasion fleet, direct carrier base aircraft and provide an emergency anchorage for the invasion fleet, should things not go well on the day of invasion of Kyushu. As the invasion grew imminent, the massive power of the Third and Fifth fleets would approach Japan, The Third Fleet, under Admiral William "Bull" Halsey, would provide strategic support for operation against Honshu and Hokkaido.  Halsey's fleet would be composed of battleships, heavy cruisers, destroyers, dozens of support ships and three fast carrier groups. Hundreds of Navy fighter's dive-bombers and torpedo planes would hit targets all over the island of Honshu. The 3000 ship Fifth Fleet, under Admiral Spruance, would carry the invasion troops. Several days before the invasion, the battleships, heavy cruisers and destroyers would pour thousands of tons of high explosives into the target areas. They would not cease the bombardment until after the landing forces had launched. The invasion would begin in the early morning hours of November 1,1945. Thousands of soldiers and Marines would pour ashore on beaches all along the eastern, southern and western coasts of Kyushu. Waves of aircraft from 66 carriers would bomb, rocket and strafe enemy defenses, gun and troop concentrations along the beaches. The Eastern Assault Force, consisting of the 25th, 33rd and 41st infantry divisions, would land near Miyaski, at beaches called Austin, Buick, Cadillac, Chevrolet, Chrysler and Cord, move inland and attempt to capture the city and its nearby airfield. The Southern Force, consisting of the First Cavalry, 43rd and Americal divisions, would land at beaches labeled Desoto, Dusenburg, Essex, Ford and Franklin and attempt to capture Shibushi and the city of Kanoya and its airfield. On the western shore of Kyushu, at beaches Pontiac, Reo, Rolls Royce, Saxon, Star, Studebaker, Stutz and Zepher the 5th Amphibious Corps would land the Second, Third and Fifth Marine divisions, sending half of its force inland to Sendai and the other half to the port city of Kagoshima.  On November 4,1945 the 81st, 98th, and 11th Airborne Divisions would feign an attack off the island of Shikoku then land near Kaimondake, (if not needed elseware), near the southernmost tip of Kagoshima Bay at beaches designated Locomobile, Lincoln, LaSalle, Hupmobile, Moon, Mercedes, Maxwell, Overland, Oldsmobile, Packard and Plymouth. Operation Olympic was not just a plan for invasion, but for conquest and occupation as well. It was expected to take four months to achieve its objective, with three fresh divisions per month to be landed to support the operation if needed. If all went well with Operation Olympic, Operation Cornet would be launched March 1, 1946. Operation Cornet would be twice the size of Olympic, with as many as 28 divisions landing on Honshu. All along the coast near Tokyo, the American First Army would land the 5th, 7th, 27th,44th,86 and 96th Infantry Divisions along with the 1st, 4th and 6th Marine Divisions.  At Sagami Bay, just south of Tokyo, the entire 8th and 10th armies would strike north and east to clear the long western shore of Tokyo Bay, then attempt to go as far as Yokohama. The assault troops landing south of Tokyo would be the 4th,6th,8th, 24th,31st,32nd and 87th,Infantry Divisions along with the 13th, and 20th Armored divisions. Following the assault eight more divisions, the 2nd, 28th, 35th, 91st, 95th, 97th, and 104th Infantry divisions and the 11th Airborne Division would be landed. If additional troops were needed as expected, other divisions re-deployed from Europe and undergoing training in the United States would be shipped to Japan in what was hoped to be the final push.
|
I'm going to stay up a while but I'll post your song now anyway. Just cuz!
Karma's blossom in full bloom.
I would have not invaded but rather established a fleet of tankers delivering an ocean of napalm.
No U.S. troops would have been killed in the filming of that barbecue.
Emperor my ass.
Thank you for the graphic reminder of why those bombs were dropped, a point so many seem to conveniently forget.
The bombing was the worst exhibition of coldblooded mass murder that [they] have so far been able to perpetrate,” was how an eyewitness described it in the Times of London.
“The areas infected were raging infernos. I never saw anything like it. Most of the houses which climb the hillside are made of timber, perched on long piles. They burned like tinder. The phosphorus kept the fires raging and a breeze extended them …. Three quarters of a square mile of houses were in flames…. The cries and shrieks of the dying and the wounded resounded in the night, muffled only by the incessant roar of the ever-hungry fire.
So began the long and twisted tale of Allied Strategic Bombing in World War II. This was how it began – only it didn't begin with the Allies' bombing of Dresden or Yokohama, Berlin or Tokyo. No, strategic bombing began in 1939 with the Japanese attack on Chungking, China's provisional capital.
It began with the Japanese in China and ended with the Japanese in the atomic ash of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
Weep not for the Japanese, who reaped the whirlwind of misery that they brought to so many.
Samuel W. Heed, Esq.
Great quote!
For those who are serious about researching Operation Downfall, the following is a good starting list of primary source documents:
Operation Olympic Documents
AFPAC Staff Study, ‘Olympic Operation in Southern Kyushu’, 28 May 1945, RG 165, NARA
AFPAC Operations Instructions No. 1/9, 3 August 1945, RG 338, Box 193,
Engineer Annex to USAFPAC Operations Instructions No. 1, 20 June 1945, RG 338, Box 193
CINCPAC Staff Study ‘OLYMPIC’, 18 June 1945, RG 218, NARA
CINCPAC Operations Plan, OLYMPIC, USMC Geographic File, Japan, Box 50, Folder B1-1, WNRC
Sixth Army Field Order No. 74, Troop List, 28 July 1945, Records of the Strategic Plans Division, Box 187, NHC
Memo, Colonel Elliott to General Krueger, 28 June 1945, Sub: Command Request for Construction Groups and Construction Battalions for Olympic, RG 338, Box 196
Sixth Army Engineer Section Plans and Operations, 1943 – 1945, WNRC
Troop List of Service Troops to Stage through Luzon, 19 July 1945, RG 338, Box 59, Sixth Army G-4 Decimal File, 1943 – 46, File 4, WNRC
Memo, Sixth Army Engineer to Chief of Staff, 3 June 1945, RG 338, Box 59, Sixth Army G-4 Decimal File, 1943 – 1946
Letters, Allied Air Forces to CINCAFPAC, 3 August 1945 and CINCAFPAC to CGFEAF, RG 338, Box 191, File No. 5
Amphibious Forces Pacific Fleet Operations Plan No. A11 – 45, 10 August 1945, NHC
Amphibious Corps Operation Plan, No. 1 – 45, 6 August 1945, USMC Geographic File, Japan, Box 52, WNRC
V Marine Amphibious Corps Operations Report, Occupation of Japan, Appendix 3 to Annex C, 30 November 1945, Marine Historical Centre, Washington DC;
I Corps Field Order, 4 August 1945, RG 94, Box 3089, File 201-3.9, WNRC
IX Corps Field Order No. 1, Operation OLYMPIC, 12 August 1945, RG 94, Box 4105, File 209-3.9, WNRC
IX Corps Report of Reconnaissance and Survey of Japanese Dispositions, Southern Kyushu (Operation OLYMPIC-MAJESTIC), 15 December 1945, RG 94, Box 4104, File 209-2.0, WNRC
XI Corps Staff Conferences on OLYMPIC, 6-9 July 1945, RG 94, Box 4159, File 2.11-0.5, WNRC
XI Corps Tentative Plan for AAA Employment for Operation OLYMPIC, 8 July 1945, RG 338, Box 17, Operations Reports and Related Records, 1944 – 46, WNRC
Basic Logistic Plan, OLYMPIC, in Fifth Air Force Logistical Plan for Operation OLYMPIC, US Air Force Historical Center, Bolling Air Force Base, Washington DC
Operation Coronet Documents
Appreciation and Plan for the Defeat of Japan, JWPC 46/5, 9 July 1943, RG 218, NARA
Outline Plan for the Invasion of the Kanto Plain, RG 218, CCS Honshu (7-19-44), NARA
AFPAC Staff Study CORONET, 15 August 1945, RG 165, NARA
Eighth Army, CORONET Operation, G-3 Plans (Invasion of Japan), May-June 1945, RG 407, Box 2836, WNRC
AFPAC, DOWNFALL, Strategic Plans for Operations in the Japanese Archipelago, 28 May 1945, RG 15, OPD 350.05, NARA
Staff Study of Cover and Deception Objectives for CORONET, JWPC 190/16, 26 July 1945, RG 218, NARA
Logistical Plan for the Invasion of the Kanto Plain, JLPC 47/10, 8 May 1945, RG 218, NARA
Memo, Marshall to Hull, 28 May 1945, Verifax 1193, Item 2288, Marshall Library;
Message, Hull to MacArthur, 29 May 1945, Verifax 1193, Item 2799, Marshall Library
Defensive Preparations in Japan, 2 August 1945, JIC 311, RG 218, NARA
Japanese Reaction to an Assault on the Kanto Plain (Tokyo) of Honshu, JIC 218/9, 10 July 1945, RG 218, NARA
Operations following Invasion of Kanto Plain (Broad Plans), JCS 1417, 10 July 1945, in CCS 381 POA (4-21-45), RG 218, NARA
‘Operations in Japan Following CORONET’, JWPC 333/1, 26 July 1945, Records of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (microfilm edition)
This is a list of Secondary sources (both books and articles) that provide some very in-depth background on Japanese culture, industrial and military preparedness as applies to Operation Downfall:
Dennis Showalter, “Storm Over the Pacific,” in The Pacific War Companion (Oxford: Osprey Publications, 2005), 15.
Edward S. Miller, War Plan Orange: The US Strategy to Defeat Japan (Annapolis, MD: US Naval Institute Press, 1991), 44.
Iriye Akira, Power and Culture: The Japanese-American War 1941–45 (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press,1981), 66–9.
Peter J. Wooley, Geography & Japan’s Strategic Choices (Washington D.C.: Potomac Books, 2005), 10–11.
John Toland, The Rising Sun: The Decline and Fall of the Japanese Empire (New York: Bantam Books, 1970),
EB Schumpeter, Ed., GC Allen, MS Gordon, The Industrialization of Japan and Manchukuo 1930–1940: Population, Raw Materials and Industry (New York: The MacMillan Company, 1940), 676–79
Takekoshi Yosoburo, The Economic Aspects of the History of the Civilization of Japan Volume 3 (New York: The MacMillan Company, 1930), 277.
Takekoshi Yosoburo, The Economic Aspects of the History of the Civilization of Japan Volume 1 (New York: The MacMillan Company, 1930), 282.
Joseph D’Autremer, The Japanese Empire and Its Economic Conditions (New York: Charles Scribner’s & Sons, 1910), 135.
GE and Denzil Baring Hubbard, Eastern Industrialization and Its Effect on the West (London: Oxford University Press, 1935), 2.
George Forty, Japanese Army Handbook 1939–45 (Sparkford, England: Sutton & Company, 2002), 95–103;
Richard B. Frank, Downfall: The End of the Imperial Japanese Empire (New York: Penguin Group, 1999) This is the single book to own on Operation Downfall.
Okumiya Matsake and Horkioshi Jiro with Martin Cadin, Zero! (New York: EP Dutton & Company, 1956). Zero! is an excellent chronology of the deterioration of the Japanese Air Forces that should be taken in toto.
Jim Rearden, “Koga’s Zero,” Invention & Technology 13 (Fall 1997): 61, 63.
David C. Isby, “CA: Tactical Naval Warfare in the Pacific, 1941–43,” Strategy and Tactics Magazine # 38, May 1973,
Robert B. Edgerton, Warriors of the Rising Sum: A History of the Japanese Military (New York: W.W. Norton and Company, 1997),
Ronald Spector, Eagle Against the Sun: The American War with Japan (New York: The Free Press, 1985),
Walter Boyne, The Influence of Air Power Upon History (New York: Pelican Publishing Company, 2003),
Suzuki Kanji, “A Kamikaze’s Story,” MHQ: Military History Quarterly 7, Number 3 (Spring 1995).
George Feifer, Tennozan (New York: Tichnor & Fields, 1992)
BTTT
Thanks for the timely links. We did the right thing.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.
