As for Mac Arthur leaving the Philippines, he was under strict orders to be evacuated. He and a few of his staff were evacuated on PT boats as there was no room to evacuate the wounded. At that time we had no idea that the Japanese would mistreat POWs.
If Mac Arthur had stayed he would have ended up being a POW along with his family which would have been a major propaganda coup for the Japanese.
As it was, Mac Arthur's parting words "I shall return!" gave hope to the Filipinos that all was not lost and that they could endure the Japanese occupation.
Albeit, Mac Arthur was a vainglorious pompous ass.
Mac Arthur's command was not the only one guilty of leaving aircraft vulnerable to enemy attack. The same thing happened at the Army Air Corps bases in Hawai'i. Some idiot colonel ordered all of the fighter planes lined up in the center of the field to prevent sabotage by Japanese Americans if war should come. Instead they made perfect targets for the strafing Japanese Zeros.
Albeit, Mac Arthur was a vainglorious pompous ass. you bet there has beenn questions asked about room on the PT boat it included 2 reporters from Life. i wonder about hid i will return stattement obviously i think mcArthur is a dink. Was it his father and the philopino warefare that esulted in torture and real nasty stuff happening? Of course the japanese were by far crueler.
the japanese did it on one of their aircraft carriers left their planes fuel & munitions open on deck so when the american bombd hit major kaboom. plus the japanese were not big on fire drills. this mistake just might be a fact of industrialized warfare. I wonder now that we are post industrial with communications that are so fast if this could happen?
I don't know much about all the Civil (?) war stuff but wasn't Churchill an Admiral in the British Royal Navy at the time of Gallipoli? It was under his orders and persuasion that colonial forces be landed onto that fateful land to secure the straits of Hormuz to gain access to Russia via the Caspian Sea to the Indian Ocean. (Damn.....I wish I had an Atlas to confirm what I just said)...
Anyway....by the time the colonials got there the Turks had well and truly had heard of the invasion so were dug into the hilltops. While Churchills orders to 'soften up' the Turks with a naval bombardment were being carried out, their bombs bursting midair, the Turks were playing cards underground. When the Anzacs finally set shore they were not only landed onto the wrong spot but were met with heavy machine gun fire set atop those rocky craigs. A narrow strip of sand seperated them from death.
Can ya think of a better set of circumstances that resulted in death?
Yichel says,
Allies at 7:30 AM sent a group over the top to which the usual machine gun and real; waste of life occurred.
This type of maneuver is caused by line commanders who individually adjust time periods. If HQ says 11:30, they figure 7:30 is good enough.
This is called a S.A.M.F.U. Or, Self-Adjusting Military Fruck Up.
Churchill wasn't an admiral, but was First Lord of The Admiralty, comparable to the US Secretary of the Navy. He okayed the Gallipoli adventure that was bumbled by bumbling British Generals and Admirals who were almost as incompetent as the British Generals at the siege of Sebastopol during the Crimean War and the massacre of the Light Brigade.
In context the Confederate general Palmerton had been given orders to fight for every street in Vicksburg by Gen., Lee and Pres Davis he was also give the orders by his immediate superior Joe Johnson to take the war to grant.
Grant had just crossed the Mississippi and landed 25 thousand men on the Vicksburg side of the e river. Sherman had had just burned to the ground the city of Jackson and turned due west to attack Vicksburg from the rear. Pemberton had his cavalry taken away so he was pretty much blind. He goes out to attack only grant’s supply line think that would stall him. He has 6 thousand men 400 wagons of supplies Mistake (no joke) someone forgot to order up the ammunition. Now he is stalled he realizes there was not enough food rations order up further delay. Finally he gets on the rod. On day 2 his superior tells him to reverse. Now this is not easy turning 4000 wagons around it also puts them in the front. Grant receives a copy of these instructions and prepares to attack. Now the battle begins At one point on champion hill Pemberton’s lt. Gen. Bowen runs at of ammunition telling his men to attack with bayonets and strip any ammunition from the thousands of dead on the ground they do so. A colonel Loring was supposed to reinforce Bowens but in turning around became “lost” and the battle stopped. At that point a confederate victory. Although they lost too many men.
There is a wonderful phrase " the fog of war " . Even today , with such advanced communications , it is very difficult for commanders to keep an accurate picture of what is going on during a battle . In the days before radios , it was almost impossible to know what was happening . A staff officer of the commanding general might write the following report about a victory . ---- Our plan was well-conceived and well-executed . The artillery barrage was on time and on target . It suppressed enemy action as our flanking manouver was being done . The resulting attack upon their flank drove the enemy from the field in confusion . ---- The report of a line officer leading troops in the same battle might read like this . ----- Our maps were over 100 years old and completely inaccurate . We could not figure out where we were or where the enemy were . When we started to move out , our own artillery fired on us , causing many casualties .Our supply chain had completely broken down and we were unable to get sufficient, food , water , or ammunition . We somehow found ourselves in the enemy's rear and attacked with bayonets , because we were out of ammunition . The only reason that we were able to win was that the enemy appeared to be even more confused and screwed up than we were .
posted by Dirck
5 months ago
History writes of battles, wars, rumors of war, pestilence, greed and victories.....yet if the truth be told by an illiterate combatant history would be littered with the word 'confusion' as the predominating theme. The ANZACs' had a song they sang on board ship heading for Gallipoli. "We're here becuz we're hear becuz we're here. We're here becuz we're here becuz we're here."
