Usually, when I cover a topic, the search for related artwork or photos is relatively easy. But when the subject is the USS Liscome Bay, such is not the case. There are very few photos available. And that’s because the life of Liscome Bay was short, and it was a life that ended quickly…and violently.
She [...]
Archive for the ‘World War II (1939-1945)’ Category
USS Liscome Bay: Makin’s Biggest Victim
Posted in Pacific, World War II (1939-1945), tagged 1943, Gilbert Islands, I-175, Makin Atoll, St. Lo, Tarawa Atoll, USS Liscome Bay on November 24 | Leave a Comment »
Operation Uranus: The Noose is Set
Posted in Russia, World War II (1939-1945), tagged 1942, Hermann Goering, Wolfram von Richthofen, Field Marshall Friedrich Paulus, Stalingrad, Operation Uranus, Marshal Georgy Zhukov, Volga River, Fortress Stalingrad on November 23 | Leave a Comment »
“Fortress Stalingrad” had a grandiose sound to it, but the title was deceiving. German General Friedrich Paulus knew that his 6th Army was in serious trouble. What a difference 5 days made! Back then he believed his Soviet enemies had their backs against the proverbial wall and that Stalingrad was nearly his.
But a massive Soviet counterattack [...]
Operation Uranus: Turnabout in Stalingrad
Posted in Russia, World War II (1939-1945), tagged 1942, Case Blue, Fall Blau, Field Marshall Friedrich Paulus, Marshal Georgy Zhukov, Operation Uranus, Stalingrad on November 19 | Leave a Comment »
Case Blue, launched in late June of 1942, got off to a smashing start for both the Soviets and the German aggressors…sort of. The Red Army got smashed a lot, and the Wehrmacht did a lot of smashing.
By mid-August, the Germans were knocking on the doors of Stalingrad, having reached the Volga River north of [...]
British Launch Crusade: Salvation of Tobruk the Goal
Posted in Africa, World War II (1939-1945), tagged 1941, Afrika Korps, Field Marshall Erwin Rommel, General Claude Auchinleck, Libya, Operation Crusader, Seige, Tobruk on November 18 | Leave a Comment »
Field Marshal Erwin Rommel knew what full-scale assaults looked like, and this didn’t look like one. Having just returned to North Africa from Italy (where he had celebrated his 50th birthday), he was greeted with the news that a large contingent of tanks…British tanks…were gathering to the east. But Rommel had plans, and he didn’t [...]
Operation Judgement Gives Japan Pearl of Wisdom
Posted in Mediterranean, World War II (1939-1945), tagged 1940, Battle of Taranto, Fairley TSR Swordfish, HMS Illustrious, Italy, Operation Judgement, Taranto on November 11 | Leave a Comment »
The Battle of Taranto is one of the Second World War’s more obscure engagements. Maybe that’s because it happened at night, or because it lasted only a few hours. But as we’ll soon see, it was very important for a couple of reasons.
Taranto itself might be familiar to readers of Today’s History Lesson, who may [...]
Mount Hood Erupts!!
Posted in Pacific, World War II (1939-1945), tagged 1944, HMS Hood, Manus Island, Seeadler Harbor, USS Mount Hood on November 10 | Leave a Comment »
The mighty battleship HMS Hood was felled in 1941 in spectacular (and catastrophic) fashion. Engaged in a fight with the Bismarck and Prinz Eugen, her aft ammunition magazine was pierced by gunfire from the Bismarck. The Hood exploded in a conflagration that split her in two, sank her in minutes with nearly all hands, and [...]
Finland Calls Soviet Bluff
Posted in Scandanavia, World War II (1939-1945), tagged 1939, Carl Gustav Mannerheim, Finland, Joseph Stalin, Karelian Isthmus, Lake Ladoga, Mannerheim Line, Nazi-Soviet Pact, Soviet Union on November 9 | Leave a Comment »
For nearly a month, direct negotiations had persisted. Back-and-forth communications?…more than 18 months. The Soviet Union had, since April of 1938, been interested in territory that belonged to Finland, its neighbor to the west. And Finland had (more or less) politely refused.
The Nazi-Soviet Pact came and went. The combined German-Soviet removal of Poland from the map [...]
The Great Gate of Kiev
Posted in Russia, World War II (1939-1945), tagged 1943, Kiev, Operation Citadel on November 6 | 1 Comment »
When Operation Citadel was abandoned by Adolf Hitler in July of 1943, it left in its wake the scattered bit of destroyed aircraft, the hulks of thousands of tanks, the burned out remains of more artillery pieces, and the still, quiet corpses of even more Russian and German soldiers.
While not marking the eastern-most advance of Germany’s territorial conquests (those [...]
British Begin Westward Push in North Africa
Posted in Africa, World War II (1939-1945), tagged 1942, Adolf Hitler, Afrika Korps, El Alamein, Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery, Field Marshal Erwin Rommel on November 5 | Leave a Comment »
The last two months had been particularly unkind to the Afrika Korps. Field Marshal Erwin Rommel’s gamble at Alma el Halfa had not paid off, and early advances merely gave way to a retreat that, ten days later, found them back where they started…with a smaller force. And that was the good news. Two weeks [...]
British Capture Shark in the Mediterranean
Posted in Mediterranean, World War II (1939-1945), tagged 1942, Bletchley Park, Enigma, Shark, Triton, U-559, U-571 on October 30 | 2 Comments »
We rarely visit the movie theater. Occasionally, we’ll go and watch a movie, but even “occasionally” is too strong a word. The last time I occupied a theater seat was in December of 2006, when I took my wife to a show as part of a Christmas present. I don’t remember when I went before [...]
Japan Wins Big and Loses Bigger at Santa Cruz
Posted in Pacific, World War II (1939-1945), tagged 1942, Admiral Nobutake Kondo, Admiral William Halsey, Battle of Santa Cruz, Guadalcanal, Santa Cruz Islands, Solomon Islands on October 26 | Leave a Comment »
For the Imperial Japanese Navy, the Battle of Santa Cruz was one of those battles that was looked back on with downcast eyes, heavy sighs, and lots of phrases that began with “If only we…” and “It almost…” and “We just about…”. Fought to the northest of the Santa Cruz Islands (several hundred miles east [...]
St. Lo Laid Low by Yukio
Posted in Pacific, World War II (1939-1945), tagged 1944, Kamikaze, Leyte Gulf, Battle of Leyte Gulf, Divine Wind, Lt. Yukio Seki, Taffy 3, San Bernardino Strait, St. Lo on October 25 | Leave a Comment »
The Battle of Leyte Gulf needs no serious introduction to regular readers of Today’s History Lesson, as we spent several days looking at it a year ago. If you’d like a refresher, here are the three articles from last year, which should give you an above-and-below-water overview of what is considered to be the largest [...]
Clark Takes Secret Trip, Returns with Extra Baggage
Posted in Africa, World War II (1939-1945), tagged 1942, North Africa, General Mark Clark, Operation Torch, Cherchel, Algeria, HMS Seraph, General Henri Giraud on October 21 | Leave a Comment »
It was October 21, 1942. In Virginia, the mid-afternoon sun shone down on an invasion fleet. To date, it was largest of its kind ever assembled. It’s destination?…the coasts of North Africa where Operation Torch would be unleashed.
An ocean away, off the coast of North Africa, it was also October 21, 1942. But the sun [...]
A Divine Wind Stirs the Balacat Trees
Posted in Pacific, World War II (1939-1945), tagged 1944, Kamikaze, Leyte Gulf, Philippines, Mabalacat, East Airfield, Luzon, Divine Wind, Pampanga Province on October 20 | Leave a Comment »
Today, East Airfield is just a field. Every year, a crop of sugar cane is grown there. When the time is right (like it is at some point every year), the sugar cane is harvested and turned into whatever sweet things it becomes. And it’s then, when the sugar cane is removed, that the field [...]
U-47 Threads the Needle and Fells the Mighty Oak
Posted in Europe, World War II (1939-1945), tagged 1939, Gunther Prien, HMS Royal Oak, Karl Donitz, Scapa Flow, Scotland, U-47 on October 14 | Leave a Comment »
As October 13, 1939 ended, the HMS Royal Oak was sitting in the relative quiet of Scapa Flow. Located within the Orkney Islands off the northern tip of Scotland, Scapa Flow was a natural harbor surrounded by islands (right about here). Its beauty as a harbor had been recognized as far back as ships had been [...]
Corporal Andrusko: 1 Bullet, 3 Wounds, 1 Miracle
Posted in Pacific, World War II (1939-1945), tagged 1944, Blood Poisoning, Captain Andy Haldane, Corporal Eddy Lee Andrusko, Peleliu, Vicissitude on October 13 | Leave a Comment »
Vicissitudes.
I love that word. The way it rolls off the tongue…it’s smooth. Vicissitudes. The first time I heard that word was, somewhat surprisingly, during an episode of Mystery Science Theater 3000. Mike and the Bots were making fun of the short A Date with Your Family, which preceded the movie Invasion USA (which happens to be [...]
Andy Haldane: Loved and Lost on Peleliu’s Hill 140
Posted in Pacific, World War II (1939-1945), tagged 1944, Captain Andy Haldane, Hill 140, Peleliu on October 12 | 2 Comments »
As I’ve been reading “To the Far Side of Hell“, I’m reminded again that history looks back on the Battle of Peleliu with an extremely critical eye. The garrison there was strong and well-entrenched, but the island’s airfield was useless and its aircraft destroyed. The general principle of “island-hopping” (bypassing Japanese strongholds and letting them [...]
