US General Douglas MacArthur
Douglas MacArthur was born on January 26, 1880, in Little Rock, Arkansas. His father was Arthur MacArthur who was an army captain and his mother was Mary Pinkney Hardy MacArthur. When he was young, he lived in remote sections of New Mexico where his father commanded an infantry company. When Douglas was six, his father was assigned to Ft. Leavenworth, Kansas, where him and his brother, Arthur, were introduced to life back in "civilization". He graduated from the West Point Military Academy in 1903. During the years after he graduated from the U.S. Military Academy, he was assigned to Army posts in the U.S., the Philippines and Panama. He also served at the War Department and participated in the occupation of Vera Cruz, Mexico.
He married Jean Marie Faircloth from Murfreesboro, Tennessee. He met her after the death of his mother so having her helped fill the void and get him through that difficult time in his life. Douglas and Jean had one son named Arthur MacArthur IV.
In 1917, during World War I, MacArthur was sent to France. There, he distinguished himself at the second battle of the Marne. Later when the war ended in November of 1918, MacArthur was the youngest divisional commander in the field. He then went on to be Chief of Staff of the American Army from 1930 to 1935. During World War II, Douglas was America's senior military commander in the Far East. After the attack on Pearl Harbor, he was put in charge of the Philippines where his job was to defend the islands against attacks by Japan. He failed in doing this, which was not uncommon because few western commanders had been successful against the Japanese at the start of the Pacific War. He was determined to take back the islands in the Philippines.
By 1943, America was ready to attack the Japanese. Instead of trying to take back every single island, MacArthur decided to use a tactic called ‘island-hopping’, which meant that they would take the larger more important islands, like Iwo Jima and Okinawa, and left the smaller ones. America estimated that there would be a million casualties if they tried to take over Japan so President Truman ordered the use of atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
MacArthur became the head of the occupation forces in Japan after their surrender in August 1945 to 1951. He forced emperor Hirohito to announce on the radio that he was not a god but a mortal. MacArthur did many things to try to rebuild Japan who was very damaged by the war. Some people in America did not like him for his attempts to help Japan.
After World War II, MacArthur became head of the United Nations force. Later in his life, he returned to America and died in 1964 at the age of 84. He lived out his retirement in Manhattan.
D-Day: Operation Overlord
Operation Overlord was code name for the Battle of Normandy. Operation Overlord was the codename for the Allied invasion of northwest Europe occupied by Germany. It began on June 6, 1944, with the operation landings at a beach in Normandy, known as Omaha Beach. The initial target date for Operation Overlord was May 14, 1944. The date was later changed to June 5 but inclement weather postponed the date back a day. The invasion began with overnight parachute and glider landings, massive air attacks, naval bombardments, early morning amphibious attacks, and evening parachute landings. Forces were deployed from bases along the south coast of England. On June 6, almost 160,000 troops crossed the English Channel. Operation Overlord involved 12,000 planes and over 7,000 vessels. A few of the weapons used on D-Day were the M1 Grand Rifle, Thompson Submachine Gun, Mark II Frag Grenade, GI M1911 Automatic and M3 Fighting Knife.
Operation Overlord was the first successful opposed landing across the English Channel in nine centuries and it also secured the establishment of a new major front. The defeat that was inflicted on the Germans was the largest in World War II. It led to the loss of German position in most of France.
The twelve Allied nations that were involved in the invasion were Australia, Canada, Belgium, France, Czechoslovakia, Greece, New Zealand, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, the United Kingdom, and the United States.
Operation Overlord remains the largest seaborne invasion in history; more then 3 million troops were in France by the end of August. The United States had 1,465 deaths and 5,183 were wounded. The United Kingdom had 2,700 casualties. Germany had between 4,000 and 9,000 casualties.
Leaders/Commanders
Allied Forces:
Dwight Eisenhower was the Supreme Allied Commander from the United States. Arthur Tedder was the Deputy Supreme Allied Commander from the United Kingdom. Bernard Montgomery was the Ground Forces Commander in Chief from United Kingdom. Trafford Leigh-Mallory was the Air Commander in Chief from the United Kingdom. Bertram Ramsay was the Naval Commander in Chief also from the United Kingdom.
German Forces:
Gerd von Rundstedt and Erwin Rommel
Personal Thoughts!
Douglas MacArthur was interesting but I enjoyed researching Operation Overlord much more. There were a lot of YouTube videos about it and even one that was of FDR speaking about the mission, that was really cool. I also love all of the pictures from D-Day, they are really interesting. Another picture I like is the one above that shows Douglas MacArthur, FDR and Nimitz, I'm really glad I found that one to put in my blog.
Comments
Well done Alex!