WWII Buffs – what was the most audacious action by a US unit in the war?

Storming a fricking beach littered with mines and lined with armed Nazis.

Nothing comes close.

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Any other unit actions come to mind?

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Operation Neptune

The Frog Men units (precursor to SEAL units) that cleared submerged mines / underwater obstacles ahead of the D-Day invasion. Those guys were fricking nuts and some of the biggest unsung heroes in the history of the world.

The first men ashore on "D" day were frogmen; this time they were called Landing Craft Obstruction Clearance Units [LCOCUs pronounced Lock-yews]. There were a hundred and twenty of them and their object was to clear away the underwater obstructions and mines so that the assault craft could get on to the beach.

The frogmen who blasted a hole in the Nazis' Atlantic Wall, and enabled invasion craft to reach the Normandy beaches on "D" day were nearly all "hostilities only" men. The men who led the units were Lt. R. E. Billington, D.S.C. and Bar, R.N.V.R., aged 28, of Purley; Lt. H. Hargreaves, D.S.C., aged 21, a cotton salesman from Burnley; Lt. J. B. Taylor, D.S.C., R.N.V.R., aged 22, a Middlesex bank clerk; Lt. W. Brewster, D.S.C., R.N.V.R., aged 28, an Edinburgh bank clerk; Capt. A. B. Jackson, Royal Marines, a Dumfries bank cashier; C.S.M., D. J. R. Morss, R.M., a carpenter's mate from Herne Hill; Lt. D. J. Cogger, M.C., R.M., an engineer­ing apprentice from Canterbury; Sgt. P. H. Jones, D.S.M., R.M., a carpenter from Bournemouth; Lt. D. J. Smith, R.M., an assistant engineer from Purley, and Sgt. K. Briggs, D.S.M., R.M., from Dorking.

Hargreaves, Billington, Taylor, Briggs and Jones received their decorations for the Normandy invasion operation. Four others who were decorated were P.O. S. C. Eagles. D.S.M., a costing clerk from Manchester; P.O. F. Livingstone, D.S.M., a Hull carpenter; Cpl. E. Deans, D.S.M., a motor driver from Barrow-in-Furness, and Cpl. R. Headley, a Newcastle-on-Tyne apprentice engineer. So there you have them - bank clerks, engineers, carpenters, clerks and students. Some of them had previously served in midget submarines and the human torpedoes. All of these bank clerks, engineers, carpenters, clerks and students acquitted themselves nobly on "D" day.

A long time before the invasion of Normandy it had become apparent to us that the much vaunted Western Wall of the enemy extended not only to the shores of Europe but beyond them, and into the sea. This extension of the wall consisted of formidable obstacles laid right down to the low-water line in such a manner that they would soon be covered by a rising tide. The most formidable of these obstacles was known as Element "C". It was a two-and-a-half-ton mass of steel, constructed like a picket fence. It was ten feet high by ten feet broad and on a base which measured ten feet by fourteen feet. This had to be scientifically destroyed, because if it had been merely blown up carelessly it would still have been a formidable obstacle. Thirty-six small charges were placed at different positions on the obstruction and when they were all exploded it fell to pieces, and no part of it was more than eighteen inches above the sea bottom.

The defense of Wake Island

Army Rangers - Pont du Hoc

Fire bombing of civilians in Dresden

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The Manhattan Project

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At the Trinity shot, scientists were taking bets on whether it would ignite the atmosphere.

I can tell you what the most useless loss of lives was, Peleliu. Never even used the airfield on it one time and that was the specific reason for attacking that island.

Also lost in the pacific theater firewroks was the Atoll of Tarawa action, Gilbert Islands, November 20 to 24, 1943.

People focus on Iwo Jima, Guadacanal, etc, while this action was paramount to reinforcing the region and letting us have a bigger foothold for supplies and aircraft.

The Huey landing craft got caught up on the Coral Reefs, making these marines abandon their boats a few hundred yards from shore. They had to wade in chest deep water into machine gun and sniper fire to take the small beach heads. They could have abandoned the attack due to the conditions, but pressed on and took the beaches with probably 50% of their possible forces. My gramps told me they looked at those cats in awe when they reinforced their unit.

2nd Marines baby. Badasses.

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the piece of shite

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He was an enemy serving his country. He was a naval attache in the US before the war, knew and liked Americans, and thought Japan was making a terrible mistake. Nevertheless, he did his duty.

Pearl Harbor wasn't supposed to be a surprise attack, BTW. The Japanese embassy had trouble decoding the message they were supposed to give the Secretary of State and it wasn't ready until after the attack. The Japanese forces fully expected to meet an American fleet on alert and ready for action. The fact that they were still in port and not at sea worked out for the Americans, since many of the ships could be salvaged.

What Rockford said.

Yamamoto was given a mission, to attack the American fleet at Pearl Harbor. He didn't choose to start the war, but he was a military commander who was given an objective and came up with an absolutely brilliant attack plan.

Just because he wasn't on our side doesn't make him a piece of shite. He loved America and believed it was a mistake to bring them into the war. Tojo and assorted political types didn't heed his words of caution and told him to come up with a plan anyway, so he did.