One thing that occurred to me, is how many such landings were there in the Pacific War?
It’s kind of a shame that our focus on the Pacific war pales in comparison to the European war, not that D-Day doesn’t deserve all of the attention that it gets, but the fact is, the conditions those who fought in the Pacific faced were much tougher than even in Europe.
Its kind of a shame that our focus on the Pacific war pales in comparison to the European war, not that D-Day doesnt deserve all of the attention that it gets, but the fact is, the conditions those who fought in the Pacific faced were much tougher than even in Europe."
It's obvious military history is not your strong suit.
And neither is diplomacy, if you think a discussion of the 75th anniversary of D-Day is the proper venue for broaching your dissatisfaction with the deference given to D-Day.
There were many, many more. Most, if not all, of the land battles after Midway started with beach landings opposed by Japanese forces with entrenched defenses. Many, if not most, had higher casualty rates than Normandy. The total forces, though were much smaller. Many of the mistakes made in the early landings provided important 'lessons learned' which improved the effectiveness of the Normandy landing.
My father in law was an aircraft mechanic on a Pacific 'Jeep carrier', one of the small carriers built by Henry Kaiser at the start of the war. His was one of many built from already designed Liberty Ships. His stories of the landings, and Kamikaze attacks were hair raising. Though an aircraft mechanic during off time, in battles, my FiL was an anti-aircraft gunner on one of the side gun pods on the ship. A native Minnesotan, he described the gunfire from the ship during the attacks as "snow falling backwards" from the tracer bullets fired from the guns at the Kamikazes.
During one such attack, a Kamikaze was flying at wave height directly at his gun position. The 'snow' was flying sideways. At the last minute, the ship's one 'big' gun knocked one airplane wing. The plane hit the water, and bounced right over the ship. My FiL felt the heat from the burning plane as it bounced over him. My later-to-be-born wife and daughters are forever grateful for the lucky hit.
There were many, many more. Almost all the battles after Midway started with beach landings opposed by Japanese forces with entrenched defenses. Many, if not most, had higher casualty rates than Normandy. The total forces, though were much smaller. Many of the mistakes made in the early landings provided important 'lessons learned' which improved the effectiveness of the Normandy landing.
My father in law was an aircraft mechanic on a Pacific 'Jeep carrier', one of the small carriers built by Henry Kaiser at the start of the war. His was one of many built from already designed Liberty Ships. His stories of the landings, and Kamikaze attacks were hair raising. Though an aircraft mechanic during off time, in battles, my FiL was an anti-aircraft gunner on one of the side gun pods on the ship. A native Minnesotan, he described the gunfire from the ship during the attacks as "snow falling backwards" from the tracer bullets fired from the guns at the Kamikazes.
During one such attack, a Kamikaze was flying at wave height directly at his gun position. The 'snow' was flying sideways. At the last minute, the ship's one 'big' gun knocked one airplane wing off. The plane hit the water, and bounced right over the ship. My FiL felt the heat from the burning plane as it bounced over him. My later-to-be-born wife and daughters are forever grateful for the lucky hit.