re: WWII history buffs - Pacific theater island hopping

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I worked with a guy that fought in the Pacific. He said the Japs were some fierce fighters with no quit in them. Death or victory were their only options. He said they had to go tunnel to tunnel and kill them all with fire or any means necessary.

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You must have worked with my father. He island hopped for a couple years and had bullet holes in his arm, leg and yep arse to show for it. I have his Colt 1911 45 that he carried all over the Pacific. He was sitting on a troop transport in the harbor loaded and ready for the invasion of Japan when they dropped the bombs. I'd say he was happy about that.

That old man could drink some scotch and I miss him.

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the US Navy seeking an all out battle with the Imperial Navy would have been playing into Japanese strategy. Japan wanted a decisive battle with the US Navy and figured that once they won it, the US would seek a negotiated peace. If the US Navy steamed straight for Japan, it would have been attacked by airplane, cruiser and destroyer forces operating from Japanese island bases and whittled down until the main force of the IJN moved in for the kill.

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The Japs absolutely wanted a decisive naval battle, that's why they staged the Midway battle. After Midway, however, they were in no shape whatsoever to meet the US for a decisive naval encounter. Their last attempt was the Leyte Gulf trap (which somehow Halsey's clueless braindead arse completely fell for and almost sunk half the US Navy). After the failure to destroy the US Naval fleet at the Leyte Gulf encounter the Japs had next to no ability to meet in a large-scale naval encounter.

The US has come under a lot of scrutiny for its island hopping campaign, and rightfully so. Mobility and carrier-based attack squadrons had completely become the dominant military pieces, but this combined Army-Navy campaign struggles to recognize it as quickly as they should have. They were adhering to time-tested principles about securing every post as you advance to mitigate any breaks in the lines when in reality they could have cutoff the majority of the islands and never dealt with them.

People think storming the beaches at Normandy was tough (and no one is saying it wasn't), but the island hopping campaigns were incredible. Some of the "beaches" have reefs that make them unbeachable from less than 200 yards out. Try "storming" a position 200 yards out in shin deep water while walking on reefs. You've also got the relentless Japs who are as brutal as any warriors ever. You've got the Pacific heat and constant humidity that basically melts and wilts everything (including human extremities).

The Pacific never gets its due. It was absolutely horrific.

MacArthur and the Army bypassed when they could, Nimitz and the Marines really didn't.

Wrong. Nimitz' and the USMC's Central Pacific campaign bypassed many islands. Strategy was dictated by the range of land-based air and deep-water ports for resupply.

In fact, it was MacArthur that gets blamed for one of the bloodiest and unnecessary invasions of the campaign - Pelelieu. The Marines still blame Mac for that.

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After the failure to destroy the US Naval fleet at the Leyte Gulf encounter the Japs had next to no ability to meet in a large-scale naval encounter.

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Read the book Last Stand of the Tin Can Sailors, if you haven't already.

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MacArthur and the Army bypassed when they could, Nimitz and the Marines really didn't.

Wrong. Nimitz' and the USMC's Central Pacific campaign bypassed many islands. Strategy was dictated by the range of land-based air and deep-water ports for resupply.

In fact, it was MacArthur that gets blamed for one of the bloodiest and unnecessary invasions of the campaign - Pelelieu. The Marines still blame Mac for that.

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The operations around the invasion of the Philippines are the obvious exception, but in general what I said is true. MacArthur's tactics around Hollandia and Rabaul were perfect examples of this.

Historians are still debating whether the Battle of Iwo Jima was even necessary, for instance. The airfield was used less than 10 times for long-range fighter escorts.

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Read the book Last Stand of the Tin Can Sailors, if you haven't already.

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One of the GOATs. The epics in that novel are almost not believable.

I forget his name but the Indian captain who led his destroyer (basically the naval equivalent of a bateau) directly at the Jap battleships was something you couldn't makeup in a Hollywood feature film.

The US is so lucky Admirals Sprague and Kinkaid were there to save Halsey's dumbass (per usual). It's funny and frustrating knowing the Halsey and MacArthur looked at as US legend when in reality they were both fairly incompetent but had to be propped up as triumphant heroes for morale's purpose.

I love watching this stuff thinking of my grandfather serving in the Marine 2nd paratrooper battalion (a very cool, but short lived special combat unit that he joined simply because it paid another $1/month). He fought on many of these islands; lost a leg from a mortar shell on Iwo and was in the ambushed/trapped group rescued by JFK's PT-59 on Choiseul. He want on to live a great life.

I miss that tough, but gentle-souled man.

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Because we needed more tropical islands for the chair force to sit around and do nothing at.

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Air Force didn't exist until 1947...

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Watching in HD and it has got me wondering why we didn't just bomb the shite out of or totally bypassed many of the little atolls and islands we lost so many men on. Especially late in the war when most of these islands were cutoff with no way to leave we could have just bombed them or let them starve. I know some of the bigger islands were needed for staging points and air fields, not taking about those. I am talking the battle of Tarawa and the like.

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We did.

But early in the campaign we were still sorting out how to make amphibious landings...thus places like Tarawa

Same line of thinking of what we did in europe. You don't defeat nazi Germany by jumping into Berlin or invading from the north sea. You take control of africa, southern italy, and then you invade across the low countries