G.I.JOE LIVE

The Invasion of Crete

2011-07-28T13:19:00.000-07:00

On May 20th, 1941, Nazi German paratroopers (or "Fallschirmjager") attacked and took the British held island of Crete in the Mediterranean sea by airborne assault. The Nazi paratroopers, landing on an enemy held island and capturing it by suprise (despite being outnumbered by the British and Greek defenders), proved to the world that airborne assaults were indeed successful against a numerically superior foe.

Two German paratroopers recover a crate full of ammunition and guns that was dropped by parachute on Crete.

After recovering the weapons, the Nazis head torwards the allied airfields to secure them. This denied the British the ability to send in re-enforcements by plane.

A German Officer.

The soldier in the foreground is wearing a unique style of German helmet, specially designed for paratroopers: it does not have the signature ear protection on the side that German helmets are known for. The blue-ish colored cloth belt he wears on his front is a ammunition bandolier.

The battle of Crete was a German victory; but a costly one. The surviving British and Greek troops were evacuated by ship, and as for the Germans, their losses were so costly that for the rest of the war they would be fighting as ground troops, like regular infantry, rather than jumping out of airplanes behind enemy lines.

Turning Back The Empire, Part III: Victory

2011-03-09T17:08:00.000-08:00

In our last entry, part II of this three-part series on the Guadalcanal campaign, we ended with the conclusion of the fight for the Tenaru River, an American victory that foiled a Japanese attempt to drive the Americans off of Guadalcanal.

The end of August and the arrival of September found the American Marines on Guadalcanal battered, tired, but none the less alive and continually ready to fight. The success of the Tenaru River battle bolstered the Marines fighting spirit; but by no means were the Americans enjoying the comfort of complete victory. The Japanese bombed the Marines at Henderson Field from the air daily; and the Japanese command knew that the only way to achieve victory was to land more troops on the island, then to take Henderson Field as soon as possible, therefore annihilating the Americans, placing the island once and for all under complete Japanese control.

Here are two examples of Japanese air force pilots who took part in the Guadalcanal campaign:

a Japanese fighter pilot, his back to the morning sun. A fighter pilot receiving instructions from his superior at the Japanese air base at Tulagi (one of many islands off Guadalcanal's coast still under Japanese control). On September 13th, after days of continual air bombardment, the Japanese attempted to take Henderson Field by attacking a ridge to the South of the Field, held by two battalions of Marines. The ridge guarded the Southern--or inland--side of Henderson Field, the island coast being to the North. Therefore it was the North side of Henderson field that was the most strongest fortified part of the American line, since Japanese troops would have to land on the beaches to the North of Henderson field to attack the Americans. To land troops on the coast far from Henderson field, and to march them through the thick jungle to attack the relatively weak Southern portion of the American line, therefore, would surely bring success.

The Japanese were well adapted to attacking strait through the thickest of jungles, as the Japanese conquest of British-Held Singapore proved earlier that year.

And so, the attack on the ridge was launched just before midnight, and lasted well into the following morning. The Marines, while inferior in numbers, were strong in their position. The grassy field that the Japanese soldiers had to cross to get to the ridge was completely bare of trees; rather, they had to attack in the open. The Japanese had sent snipers around the flanks of the ridge to fire on the Marine positions from the rear; they kept quite busy harassing the Americans during the battle. The troops attacking the ridge head-on enjoyed no such luxury; mown down in large numbers in the wall of fire from the Marines machine guns, rifles, and grenades as they pressed up the slope, the Japanese met their chosen alternative to defeat: death. Handfuls of soldiers broke through portions of the Marines lines on the ridge, but were quickly driven back each time. On the break of the following morning--September 14th--the frontal assaults had been driven back, and the rest of the day for the Marines was spent evading snipers and fighting off pockets of Japanese resistance.

One more Japanese land battle to take Henderson Field failed, with the Japanese suffering hundreds of casualties. On the 18th of September, the Marines were finally re-enforced by more Marines and U.S. Army troops. This was exactly what the exhausted Marines on Guadalcanal needed; combat losses and deadly tropical diseases had been taking their toll through the American ranks, but with fresh troops, equipment, and supplies, things were now looking less bleak.

A U.S. soldier cleans his rifle. Weapons maintenance was essential in jungle combat; high temperatures and humidity could reduce metal gun parts to rusted junk in a single day if not properly cared for.

Problems for the American armed forces stationed on this tiny island were by no means over, however; rather, on the night of October 14th, a Japanese fleet sailed within extremely close range of the Americans and shelled their positions intensely with the soul objective of causing as much damage to Henderson field as possible. Nearly half of the 90 or so airplanes of the "cactus air force" (the nickname given to the detachment of Navy and Marine fighter and bomber aircraft stationed at Guadalcanal) were either destroyed or badly damaged. Ammunition and gasoline stores were transformed into flaming wrecks, and several Americans were killed or injured. But ingenuity prevailed the following day as the Americans repaired the airplanes with spare parts, and gas was siphoned from the tanks of destroyed B-17 bombers to be used in other surviving aircraft. As both sides poured re-enforcements onto the island, preparing for the knock-down, drag-out fight that was sure to come, two new arrivals--the American battleships U.S.S. Washington and U.S.S. South Dakota--won a narrow but critical victory against a huge Japanese ship fleet. Several Japanese troop transports, each full of soldiers to be landed on Guadalcanal to support the fight against the Americans, were sunk in the battle.

By December, American Army and Marine re-enforcements were arriving in such numbers that the 1st and 7th Marine regiments were allowed to pull out of Guadalcanal for a long-awaited and well deserved rest. General Vandegrift, who was the commander of the two Marine regiments who landed on Guadalcanal in August, was replaced by General Alexander M. Patch of the U.S. Army. General Patch, who now possessed superior ground, air, and firepower, took the offensive against the Japanese still on Guadalcanal, attacking the Japanese held high ground overlooking the American held areas, chiefly at a low mountain called Gifu.
Fighting was fierce, back-and-fourth, and when Gifu finally fell the Americans found that the Japanese had been preoccupied with evacuating Guadalcanal for good. Nearly 10,000 troops had been pulled out of Guadalcanal during night evacuation runs, to fight elsewhere in the Pacific.

On February 9th, 1943, General Patch sent

this message via radio to his superior,

Admiral Halsey:

"Total and complete defeat of Japanese forces

on Guadalcanal effected 1625 today"

(Note: "1625" means 4:25 p.m.)

The Guadalcanal campaign was over. It took nearly six months, from August to February, to win this first American land victory against the seemingly invincible Japanese armed forces. The United states lost 1,600 men in land and air combat; in Naval engagements, 2,000 sailors had given their lives. The Japanese lost a total of 20,000 men in the campaign to keep Guadalcanal under their control.

The victory of Guadalcanal was the major turning point in the war in the Pacific. The Japanese defeat at the Naval battle of Midway early in 1942 was a hard blow, and the first American victory of the war, but the Guadalcanal campaign was the first major step to winning the war, a goal that would be achieved in September 1945.

Turning Back the Empire, Pt. II: Guadalcanal

2010-08-06T17:51:00.000-07:00

Henderson Field to Tenaru River

As we saw in our last entry, the beach landings on Guadalcanal went well, without a hitch. But it was not before long after the landing crafts reached the shore than Japanese air attacks swarmed down on the transport ships landing troops and supplies onto Guadalcanal. As a result, it became increasingly difficult for supplies to be landed. While casualties resulting from the air attacks were low, the greatest problem on the beaches was the chaos that resulted from inexperienced boat captains unloading gear, ammo, and food on the beach in an extreme hurry to get out of the area and back to safety--leaving the beaches littered in a disarray of vehicles, troops, and supplies. Needless to say, this provided a tempting target for Japanese bomber pilots.
When the 1st U.S. Marine Division landed on Guadalcanal virtually un-opposed by enemy land forces, they were dumbfounded. "Where are the Japanese?" was the question on every body's minds. Other than the air attacks, there was virtually no sign of the enemy's presence. As the Marines moved inland, however, they did meet slight pockets of resistance as we saw in the entry below. The Japanese airfield on Guadalcanal was captured without opposition only 36 hours after the landings. The airstrip was renamed "Henderson Field", after an American pilot who died in the battle of Midway the previous June. Before long several American aircraft were arriving from aircraft carriers. These were mostly Grumman F4F-4 Wildcat fighters and Dauntless Dive-bombers.

A Dauntless Dive-bomber warms up on Henderson Field before take-off. A Dauntless Dive-bomber flies over the jungle of Guadalcanal. Two American Soldiers move along a jungle trail on their way inland. Trees are felled to make the rural paths wider....
...until roads are formed, wide enough for vehicles.
In reality, the Japanese were completely caught unaware of the U.S. Invasion. When the severely understrength and outnumbered Japanese garrison on Guadalcanal came under attack, the troops guarding the coast fled inland to put up a fight elsewhere on the island. When the Japanese High Command learned that Guadalcanal was under attack, it was decided that all efforts would be taken by the Imperial Army and Navy both the push the Americans off of Guadalcanal. Things for the Americans soon got tough; as Japanese planes attacked the Marines and their supply ships from the air, Japanese ships brought fresh troops from other islands to fight on Guadalcanal. And in the early hours of August 9th, four ships from the American Navy were sunk in a night battle by a Japanese naval force with superior night-fighting skills and experience.
But the Marines were not easily removed; rather, despite attacks from fresh Japanese infantry on Henderson Field a few days after it's capture, the Americans held onto their 3x6 mile toehold they had gained on the island and stubbornly resisted all the Japanese could throw at them.
More and more Japanese troops poured into Guadalcanal's Japanese-held territory. Japanese supply and troop ships came and went so frequently on a regular schedule that the Marines dubbed the endless back-and-fourth movements of boats "The Tokyo Express".

Reports pour into the U.S. Headquarters. Communication was vital for the Americans for decision-making. A Dauntless Dive-bomber takes off from Henderson Field to bomb Japanese infantry positions facing the Marines front. On August 21st, the Japanese Army took up position on the Tenaru River, very close to Henderson Field. A fight ensued between the Marines and the Japanese, and each side contested for full control of both river banks.

Two U.S. Marines advance in high grass towards the Tenaru River.

Orders are given to send four American Tanks to the Tenaru river fight, to assist in flushing out the Japanese from the riverbanks. Japanese Soldiers rush in to the front on the Tenaru river. The battle lasted for several hours. A Japanese Marine keeps a wary eye on the enemy as he reaches into his ammo pouch for more ammunition to re-load his rifle. Fighting conditions were difficult; grass and trees higher than a man's head covered the island, and only a small patch of open ground ran along each river bank between the sandy waterline and the treeline.

A U.S. Marine breaks out into the open to let loose with his M1 Thompson Sub-Machine gun. The firing is kept up.... Anyone who steps into the open risks being shot. Here a U.S. Marine reloads his M3 Sub machine gun (nicknamed a "grease gun" because of it's appearance). The Americans won the battle, partially in thanks to the use of Tanks to help flush the Japanese out of concealed riverside positions. The fight for the Tenaru took place very near the delta, close to where the river met the open sea. Soldiers took cover behind sand bars, curves in the riverbank, and tall river grass or anything that offered the slightest bit of cover.

The battle for Guadalcanal was tough, but the Marines were doing well. Japanese losses were very high, and the Marines garrison was holding out despite the hardships. Jungle Heat: a Marine offers a drink from his canteen to a buddy during a break on a patrol through the jungle. Patrols were conducted throughout day and night to detect all enemy movement possible. Here a Marine refills his canteen. In the blistering heat of the South Pacific, water was more essential than bullets in jungle campaigns. When water was found, it didn't always have to be crystal-clear to be accepted as "drinkable"... Despite the hardships, the Marines were doing well--so far. But they braced themselves for something else that they knew was inevitable: a major, all-out attack on Henderson Field in an attempt to break the Marines line of defense and push them off Guadalcanal once and for all. Only 1,000 Japanese troops had been sent to take Tenaru, and were defeated; but thousands more were being massed for another attack somewhere else on the American lines.

More is to follow in the next upcoming post.

TURNING BACK THE EMPIRE: The Allies First Pacific Land Victories

2010-04-29T14:16:00.001-07:00

For five years, from 1937 to 1942, the Japanese Army barely knew defeat. From their Conquest of Eastern China in 1937 to their takeover of the Philippine Islands from the United States in early 1942, it seemed that the Japanese Army and Navy could not be stopped. In their conquest of the Philippine Islands, the Japanese Army defeated and captured a large combined force of American and Filipino soldiers on the Bataan peninsula. After being forced to surrender to the Japanese, the Allied prisoners numbering 76,000 were formed into columns and marched 65 miles North to prison camps. The prisoners were very ill treated, and any stragglers who fell behind or were too slow were executed by the Japanese guards. Of all those who surrendered, over 10,000 of the already starved and exhausted prisoners died on what became known as the "Bataan Death March". With the Philippine Islands in Japanese hands, along with French Indo-China, Hong Kong, Singapore, and the oil-and mineral-rich nations of Burma and Thailand, the Allied Powers of Great Britain, Australia, China and the United States were well on their way to losing the war in the Pacific. By mid-1942, the Japanese Army had already advanced as far South as the Solomon Islands, just North-East of Australia. After the loss of the Philippine Islands to the Japanese, the Allied Forces decided that the key to preventing Australia's capture was to take over the Japanese-held Island of Guadalcanal, located in the Solomon Islands. Not only was the Island a key location for amphibious operations in the South Pacific, but the Japanese garrison in control of Guadalcanal were near to completing the construction of an airfield on the island. The airfield could then be used for launching air attacks on Australia prior to a military invasion. But if the United States took control of Guadalcanal, the airfield could be a base for further Island operations. Already, fierce fighting was taking place in Papau and New Guinea, where an Allied Force of United States and Australian soldiers were fighting desperately to keep the Japanese from overrunning the Island.

A United States soldier takes cover at the base of a rock formation during the intense struggle to keep New Guinea out of Japanese control.

The conditions were horrible for both sides. Along with the enemy soldiers, the men stationed in the South Pacific also battled overwhelming humidity, soaring temperatures, and scores of jungle diseases.

Here a Japanese soldier, soaking wet from tropical rains in the New Guinea jungle, keeps a keen eye out for enemy movements.
The battles for New Guinea only doubled the importance of the urgent need to wrest Guadalcanal from Japanese hands. And so, the United States attacked the Island on August 7th, 1942 with two divisions of Marines. Totalling 40,000 men, the invasion force consisted of soldiers, tankers, and lots of supplies.

The first U.S. Marines to land on Guadalcanal were surprised when they met no enemy resistance when they landed on the beach from their landing crafts. Instead, what they knew to be a fiercely defended Japanese beachhead was apparently empty. After the first wave of U.S. Marines hit the shore, the larger transports with jeeps and supplies came ashore. Here, a driver works his jeep up the sandy strip of beach as the soldiers come ashore in force. As the Marines moved inland, they kept a wary eye out for the enemy. And then, a discovery is made: The Japanese camp! It had been abandoned when the lookouts on the beach saw the U.S. Ships coming in. Almost all the Japanese soldiers fled the camp, running inland to put up a fight deeper in the jungle rather than near the open beach. At the tables, the U.S. soldiers found that the Japanese left half-eaten breakfast, gear, and weaponry. The weather on Guadalcanal that day was hot, humid, and the sky was mostly sunny but with a few scattered clouds. As the Marines established a beachhead, patrols began to move inland. So far, the only casualty was from a soldier who cut his hand while trying to open a coconut with his bayonet. The Marines were on high alert, since they now knew that the Japanese were preparing to fight to the death farther in the jungle. "No sign of the enemy yet. Keep a good look out". Sure enough, not far ahead were a few Japanese who decided to halt where they were and wait for the attackers to come close before opening fire. When fighting in the jungle, a Japanese would hide as well as he could and wait for the enemy to approach to within 15 feet before opening fire to increase his chances of hitting his target. "Crack, Bang, Crack!" Two Japanese soldiers, isolated from the rest of the army, fire on an approaching U.S. Patrol. One man hit, another is wounded; and a third marine returns fire with his Thompson Sub-Machine gun. After emptying his first magazine, he re-loads his weapon. Both of the Japanese soldiers have been killed in action. He then helps his wounded comrade back to the field hospital that was set up on the beach at the end of the Jungle. The battle of Guadalcanal was the first land victory that the Allies scored against the Japanese Army. And as the Marines battled the Japanese on Guadalcanal, the United States Navy was busy keeping the Japanese Navy from assisting in the quest of the Solomon Islands. Naval fighting even reached near Guadalcanal's coast, but the United States had the upper hand when they learned to fight battles at night, using newly-invented radar to locate Japanese ships in the dark. And the tide turned when the U.S. finally defeated the Japanese Imperial Navy at the battle of Midway.

It was the Beginning of the End for the Japanese Empire.

We will cover the rest of the battle of Guadalcanal in our next Pacific Theatre installment.

Counter-Guerrilla Patrol In Action During the Vietnam War.

2010-01-20T11:59:00.001-08:00

The Vietnam War was different than any other war America has fought in the way that both sides used guerrilla warfare tactics more than conventional fighting methods. Unlike conventional warfare, where two opposing armies attack each other using infantry, artillery, tanks and planes, guerrilla warfare involves "hit and run" tactics where combat patrols penetrate deep into enemy territory to cause as much damage and havoc behind enemy lines as possible.
To counter the threat of Viet Cong (or "VC") guerrillas--civilians in arms aiding the North Vietnamese Army to expand Communism throughout all of Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos--the U.S. Army sent out counter-guerrilla combat teams to seek out and destroy small but fierce bands of Viet Cong as they conducted sabotage raids deep in U.S./South Vietnamese territory.

There were many contributing factors to why guerrilla warfare was so prevalent; for instance, the geography. Vietnam is made up of jungle-covered mountains, with very little roads connecting the scattered villages throughout the countryside. The staple food crop was rice, grown in water-filled paddies, rather than dry solid farm fields like Europe or North America. Because of the extremely rough terrain, moving large armies on massive campaigns was unthinkable; instead, we would send small units to venture out from an established base camp to slowly gain ground or collect information on enemy troop movements. Because of this, Viet Cong patrols were sent out to ambush and clear the area of our patrols to keep the way open to conduct raids of their own, and the American and South Vietnamese armies sent out counter-patrols to counter these, which turned Vietnam into a constant back-and-forth battlefield of hundreds of small but fierce firefights day and night.

Let's now take a look at a U.S. Combat patrol conducting a mission.

A U.S. Combat patrol usually consisted of of 10-15 men; a 9-man squad plus one medic was the most common arrangement. Being a long-range strike force, all the soldiers were heavily armed and only carried the bare necessities or less to reduce weight and to make room for as much ammunition as possible.

The Mission: local villagers have reported a patrol of Viet Cong moving South through the jungle at around 3:30-4:00 a.m. Note that the Viet Cong wear black uniforms and the soldier in front carries a M1 Springfield leftover from World War II.

Later that morning, a U.S. patrol undertakes a final weapon's check before moving out.
Hours later, a U.S. soldier finds fresh footprints. "They can't be more than half an hour old" he says, and the squad leader is notified immediately.

Two men are sent forward to scout out the location of the Vietcong, but not to engage in combat. Before long, the scouts return with news that the VC patrol is heading their way. The squad leader immediately orders everybody to prepare to ambush the oncoming enemy.

Here we see a heavy machine gunner taking position with his M-60 machine gun.

The VC patrol is wary of U.S. or South Vietnamese movements; they are in enemy territory, and take extra precaution to spread out on their return trip in case they were detected. Silently they move through the jungle, keeping their eyes and ears open for signs of the enemy.
The squad commander takes a look for himself at the surrounding area. "We should ambush them here; if a medivac is needed, the clearing to our rear will be perfect for an airlift."
All the soldiers are ready with guns loaded, waiting for the commander's order to fire.
"Corporal, take position behind that bamboo grove. Fire on sight."
"OPEN FIRE!"
The soldiers open fire on the VC patrol with all their firepower; light and heavy machine guns, grenades, and as pictured here a U.S. Soldier fires his grenade launcher, nicked-named "Blooper" by American soldiers for the noise it made when discharging the grenade.
The M-16 automatic rifle was the most commonly used rifle by U.S. forces in the Vietnam War. It is used by the soldier pictured below.

Three hits are scored on the enemy....
...But one U.S. Soldier is wounded in the fighting.
"Man hit! We need a medic over here!"
The medic rushes over, but has only bad news: the injured soldier is in critical condition, and a medivac (medical evacuation helicopter, the ancestor of today's life-flight) is needed.

A medivac is requested by radio, and soon the sound of whirling rotors beating the air comes close. As the fight draws to a close, all the enemy soldiers having been killed, captured, or escaped, the helicopter hovers over the clearing where the medic is signaling for it to land.

The fight is over, and everybody re-loads before returning to the base camp, or "fire base" as they were called.

The patrol returns to the fire base the following night. A patrol could be out in the jungle for days or even sometimes weeks on end, depending on troop strength, supplies, and proximity to friendly bases and villages.

World War II, Pacific Theatre:

2009-06-07T11:13:00.000-07:00

An Overview

In this entry, we will turn our focus once again to the second World War; but this time, we will be featuring the Pacific Theatre rather than Europe.

When most people think of the South-East Pacific, what usually comes to mind will include warm oceans, beautiful volcanic islands covered in palm trees, sandy beaches, and Hawaiian shirts. But to the Allied troops fighting in the jungle islands from 1941-45, it was no happy vacation. On December 7th, 1941, the Japanese suprise attack on Pearl Harbor threw the United States into one of the worst wars in the history of the world; and to defeat Japan, which had been taking over much of Asia since the 1930's, the U.S.-along with our allies in the Pacific, Great Britain and Austrailia to name a few-soon found themselves fighting a new kind of warfare in South-East Asia. In most of America's past wars, both armies fought on stable continents; but in the Pacific, almost every battle was fought on very small islands or in the middle of the ocean. This led to a kind of "leap frog" warfare: "jumping" armies from one island to the next to take ground, and naval engagements in between, if not involved in the land battles. The Pacific theatre saw a rise in airplane engagements; and with the development and improvement of the aircraft carrier, planes soon made a huge part of the defending and attacking forces on both sides.

In this overview, we will see what fighting in South East Asia was like, and what made the Pacific Theatre of the war so different, and yet so vital of importance.

The Americans

"Hit the beach!" After a naval artillery barrage and aircraft bombings to "soften up" the dug-in enemy, U.S. troops beach landings could turn out to be a brilliant victory or a bloody nightmare of a failure.

A U.S. Soldier runs for cover on a hill covered with giant native grasses and bamboo. The jungle islands were often covered in dense foilage; giving the enemy excellent concealment. A U.S. Soldier waits at the ready near a coastal cliff.
This picture, along with the one above, shows the gear of the average U.S. Marine serving in the South Pacific. Helmet with cloth camoflauge cover, belt with ammo pouches and-most importantly-a canteen, camoflauge uniform, and M1 Garand rifle with bayonet.
The Enemy: Japan

This is what the enemy soldier looked like.

A khaki uniform, cotton for the hot jungle, putees, and U.S. made M1 Springfield rifle leftover from the First World War (we were allies then, and the United States had been supplying Japan with military arms, equiptment, raw materials, and advisors since the 1860's). The only gear he wore was a light-weight belt with ammo pouches, a canteen, and a bayonet. He wears a standard issue field cap.

A Japanese soldier with standard-issue jacket and early-style helmet. The Aircraft

A Japanese A6M5 Mitsubishi, nick-named "zero" by U.S. troops. It was extremely effective, and during the first two years of the war it could not be out-fought by any fighter the allies could muster.
U.S. Navy Avenger, a fighter-bomber that proved it's service well.

A U.S. P-38 Lightning, nick-named "forked-tailed devil" by the Japanese for it's unique fuselage. It was one of the best airplanes in U.S. Service, and it was a group of Lightnings that shot down and killed Japanese Admiral Yamamoto in his private plane as he flew out one morning to survey the area before the battle.

The Combat
Combat in the jungle was often a nightmare of an experience involving close-combat on many occasions, or assaulting an open beach which often ended in a horrid battle.

U.S. troops fire at oncoming Japanese troops.
A U.S. Marine fires through an opening in the jungle at a distant enemy.

We hope you enjoyed this entry, and we'll be updating with more in-depth entries on the Pacific Theatre soon!

World War I, Life in the Trenches: Part Two

2009-03-06T03:45:00.000-08:00

In part one of the entry series, we saw how trench warfare became the main method of fighting on the western front during the First World War. Now, we will not only see what took place, but what day-to-day life was like for the soldiers in the trenches.

On Guard Duty. Both sides had to be careful to watch the enemy lines at all times, so that if an attack came they would not be caught off guard. When a soldier was on guard duty, he had to keep out of sight, for enemy snipers were always a danger.

Home Sweet Home. Soldiers tried to find what little shelter from the elements that they could, but the constant shelling and bombing meant that the shelter had to be "bomb-proof". The most common type of shelter was, therefore, a small cave-like hole dug out of the forward side of the trench. These were often nick-named "worm holes".

Some underground shelters had log-lined walls to hold the dirt back.

What's For Lunch? All meals were usually pre-packaged, or was prepared in the rear lines and brought it to the front lines in buckets. Cooking in the front lines was prohibited, as smoke from cook fires could attract grenades and mortar fire. The most common meal for the Allied soldiers was mass-produced canned corn beef and potatoes. This was often accompanied by tea if you were in the British Army.

All soldiers were equipped with a mess kit consisting of a multi-purpose tin pan with a removable lid, and a knife, fork, and spoon, usually wrapped in a napkin.

Winter In The Trenches. While spring and fall brought mostly rain to the trench-laced French farmland, winter often brought bouts of cold, uncomfortable rain or snow showers.

A soldier keeps watch over the trench lines after a light snowfall.Winter was the worst season of all for soldiers in the trenches. The winter also brought many new problems; frostbite and trenchfoot, a condition received from standing in cold water for extended periods, proved devastating. Disease was common year-round, but in the winter it increased drastically, claiming the lives of thousands of soldiers on both sides.

A soldier makes his way through a trench knee-deep in mud.

As we bring this dual-part entry to a close, we hope that you all have enjoyed this entry series! Thank you all for the comments as we return to the blog-world, and we shall be updating soon.

The Willys Jeep

2009-02-20T15:00:00.000-08:00

The American Workhorse of World War II

Among the most common sights to all American forces serving in the Second World War was the Willys Jeep. First tested and accepted by the U.S. Armed Forces in the late 1930's, the Willys Jeep was to become as the title depicts: the workhorse of the U.S. military. Starting in the First World War, the United States realized that they desperately needed a fast, mobile, low-maintenance, all-terrain, multi-purpose fighting and transportation vehicle. The quickest and most reliable transportation of the day was still the horse-drawn ambulances for the battlefield, and the steam train-which, of course, as much as it was used behind the combat zones, could not be used on the battlefield. It became clear that to succeed in modern warfare, new technology was needed, especially in the case of transport.

Finally, at the outbreak of World War Two, two companies--General Motors and Willys--responded to the need of the military for the perfect vehicle. Willys won the race to come up with the best design, and by the early stages of World War two they had perfected the ideal all-purpose vehicle: the Willys Jeep.

The first soldiers who received the jeep thought it was an excellent vehicle; and it would prove itself in the bitter fighting and rapid action to come.

"Open fire!" Many jeeps were fitted with a Browning .30 caliber machine gun, which were belt-fed and fired from the rear.

All jeeps were fitted with an axe and shovel,
and a gas can and spare tire. The only disadvantage was that the gas can was sometimes exposed to hot bullets and explosions in battle.

Here a soldier gives directions to a driver of one of the new jeeps.

When the weather went foul, the unpaved roads turned into a muddy quagmire that highly resembled chocolate-colored porridge. For days afterward, even after the sun made it's appearance, it could take days to dry out. It was at times such as this that the Willys Jeep proved itself as a true all-terrain vehicle, being able to make it's way through almost any terrain.

Another great aspect of the jeep was the simplicity of the driver's controls and transmission system.

As low maintenance as they were, problems weren't non-existent...

It soon became clear from the first months of service that the Willys Jeep was indispensable. Rugged, good-quality, and always at the ready, U.S. Servicemen for the next forty years preferred the jeep to most other vehicles. Proven the most used combat vehicle in the Second World War besides the M4 Sherman tank, the jeep has been used by armies world wide ever since.

We're Back

2009-02-20T14:53:00.000-08:00

It's been about a year since we have been here; we are very sorry for leaving without notice. But now we have returned, hoping to have a fruitful upcoming season of posts.

Well, I guess we had better start!

Sincerely,

Jerry O'Malley
Editor of G.I. Joe Live

World War I: Life in the Trenches, part 1.

2008-04-18T09:34:00.000-07:00

In this next series of entries, we'll be focusing on life in the trenches during the first world war.

The Germans had dug the first trenches of the war during a retreat in the battle of the Marne, in 1914. To hold back the pursuing British forces, they started to dig in. This new defense stopped the British in their tracks. Then followed what historians call "The Race to the Sea" in which both sides started to march north and try to outflank the enemy, digging more trenches as they went. By the winter of 1914, the Western front had turned into a "ribbon of death", or line of trenches that stretched 475 miles from the Belgian coast to Switzerland, with a small strip of no-man's-land in between the two opposing sides.

Digging the new trench.

Displaced dirt was thrown over the top of trench and was piled on the side facing the enemy lines.

The trench is half-done! The man in the rear is placing logs in place to hold back the displaced dirt.

Every once and a while, the soldiers had to stop constructing the trench in order to fight; then resume the digging.

This soldier is preparing to throw a grenade, a small lightweight bomb that could easily be thrown by hand into an enemy position. Grenade duels were common, for it enabled the soldiers to fight without being exposed to enemy rifle or machine-gun fire. Finished! The completed trench is done, and supports of logs and corrugated iron have been put in to strengthen the walls and keep them from collapsing inward.

We hope you enjoyed this entry! We will be updating soon.

War in Vietnam, Part Two.

2008-02-07T13:04:00.000-08:00

Here is our second post on the Vietnam War. While a lot of action took place in the fields and rice paddies throughout the Vietnam countryside, a good portion of the fighting was in the mountain jungles. In this post, we will be focusing on the latter.

A U.S. soldier hacks his way through the jungle weeds and vines, cutting a narrow path in the tangled underbrush with his machete (a sword-like knife, ideal for clearing away thick plant growth).

Two U.S. Soldiers unviel a pit of punjee sticks: a booby trap made of sharpened bamboo stakes pointed upright in a pit about two feet below ground level, camoflauged by a thin layer of sticks and foilage that gave way when stepped on to inflict injury to the foot. Traps such as these were very dangerous, especially when set along wooded trails, and were used commonly by the VietCong guerrillas.

Under fire, two Infantryman rush to battle positions. To be ambushed in the jungle was very common, and both sides had to be on constant lookout for the enemy.

A VietCong (VC) guerrilla pauses to re-load his rifle after emtying the magazine (small container for where the bullets were held in the gun). Note that the rifle is of foriegn make; it is a gun imported by North Vietnam's communist enemy, the former Soviet Union.

The two soldiers return fire. Many ambushes began and sputtered out in a span of only two minutes; they were not, however, few and far between.

We hoped that you enjoyed this entry.

Christmas and the Battle Of The Bulge

2007-12-24T11:42:00.000-08:00

It is at Christmas that the suffering and loneliness of soldiers fighting and dying away from home is more keenly felt. Today we at G.I. Joe Live want to wish all of you a Merry Christmas but also to ask that you remember the soldiers who were in the midst of battle and away from home both in the past, and today. We wanted to share a few stories from World War II, specifically the Battle of the Bulge, which was raging at Christmastime.

Our first story is from the collection "One Christmas Eve During World War II":
One of the most poignant stories I ever heard about World War II was about American servicemen fighting in the fierce battles in Europe, and how they stopped firing at the nearby German soldiers for a few moments because it was Christmas Eve. And, for some mysterious and awesome reason, the Germans stopped firing as well.
Someone began to sing the beloved hymn Silent Night, and the Germans joined the Americans with Stille Nacht.
For those few moments, the madness of war ceased, and all of those men became fathers, sons and brothers -- just people worshiping their God instead of soldiers fighting for their lives in the hell of the Battle of the Bulge.

The next story is from the memoirs and remembrances of a soldier who goes by the initials G.K.W. His story is as follows:

On 24 December 1944 I was spending my Christmas at a little place called BASTOGNE, Belgium, with the 101st Airborne Division. As many of you already know the story about the Battle of the Bulge, I won’t go into all the details about how we were surrounded and outnumbered by the German Army. It was a cold, bitter, dark night and around about midnight surprisingly quiet. All of a sudden, from the German position, we heard a single voice singing "SILENT NIGHT," in German. Soon more voices were added from the Germans. Suddenly, some American Soldier picked it up and before long most of us were singing along with the Germans. This went on for about 5 or 10 minutes and then stopped. A few minutes later we were back at each other, with guns blazing.This incident has stayed in my memory all these years (56) and when I hear Silent Night I remember. Later I talked to American, British and French Soldiers about it and some of them had experienced the same thing on whatever front they had been fighting on, (Italy, France, Holland). I have talked to Veterans of WW1 and they tell similar stories.
In the middle of the worst battle of WW2 there was Peace on Earth for a few minutes.

Another account of Christmas during war I found interesting was written by Corporal Delbert P. Berninghaus, who was a POW in Germany. There was no room in the POW camps for he and the other servicemen who were prisoners, so they were on the move and in the elements under the watch of German guards. Corporal Berninghaus was from West Bend, Iowa, and was in the 106th Infantry Division, 422nd Regiment. Here is his account:

As we were herded into the barns for the night, we would repeat our previously established routine. Winters in Germany are much like ours in the Midwest as far as temperatures and weather conditions are concerned. After walking all day through snow, slush, or mud, our feet were always cold and wet or damp. We had no overshoes for protection and any protection that might have built up on our combat boots from polish or care had long worn off. We would remove our shoes and massage each others’ feet to warm them and get the blood circulating again. We had no overcoats or blankets, so in an attempt to keep warm, we would huddle together to give each other body heat. After days of the living conditions under which we survived, we were filthy and sick with dysentery. Our very survival depended on each other .
Friendships formed as we bonded together in our struggle for survival. I guess in a strange sense of the word we became a family, looking out for one another. We would find ourselves grouped with the same bunch of boys from day to day, but our guards would change.
By morning our feet would be so swollen it was difficult to push our swollen feet back into our shoes. The guards would again assemble us and the barns usually would be searched by the dogs. Some of the boys attempted to escape by covering themselves with the straw or hay found in the barns. Some tried to hide in the haylofts of the barns; some simply tried running away over the hills. As I said, the barns would be searched by dogs; the dogs used, in most cases, were well trained German Shepherds. These dogs showed no mercy as they literally tore apart the boys hiding or attempting escape. There was no chance of survival when the dogs were turned loose in the barns or in pursuit of those on the run. I remember a change of the guard when I saw one of the dogs rip the clothing right off of a new guard before anyone could control the animal.
Christmas Eve day was eight days after our capture. Here I was, twenty years old, a prisoner of war in Germany, wondering if I would even live to see another Christmas. As usual the day began with marching on the country roads, destination still unknown. At each village we were told, "At the next stop there will be food for you", but the bombs were always ahead of us. Village after village lay in ruins, bombed before we came; our stomachs remained as empty as the German promises.
It was approximately 4 p.m. in the afternoon on Christmas Eve when we arrived in the little village where we would be spending the night. We would again be spending the night in a barn. The guards allowed me to go to the barn owner’s home to ask for food. I was hoping for some potatoes or apples. The man answering the door invited me inside. The gentleman was a raw-boned farmer with a warm friendly face. He wore a pair of little round wire-rimmed glasses. I looked around the room and saw no one other than the man, but suspected there were other family members, keeping out of sight. My eyes were immediately drawn to the evergreen tree standing in the room. The Christmas tree was not decorated as ours are today; it was standing there unadorned in all its splendor. I shall never forget the sight of that tree and the memories it triggered. Momentarily, I was at peace. It was beautiful! Away from home and the security I once knew, a lump formed in my throat. My eyes welled with tears. I asked the farmer, "Could you spare some food for me and the boys in the barn? Some apples or some potatoes, for we are very hungry. " On the table lay a coffeecake already cut in wedges. It was pie sized and covered with apple slices. Pointing to the cake, the man said, "Eat it, you eat the whole cake." I did eat the cake, the whole thing. I felt a certain amount of shame because I ate without sharing my treasure and at the same time gratitude. I was so happy. In this strange country of enemies, God had given me a friend. I asked if he had any more so I could give some to the boys. "Oh, no," he said, but he gave me a pail with apples and potatoes that I carried out to the others on that Christmas Eve. They ate the seeds, cores, and peels of the apples and the raw potatoes.
On Christmas morning, I went to thank the farmer and tell him goodbye. He again gave me a bucket of potatoes and apples. Our day was starting out better than it normally did. We again set out on our daily march taking us thirty-five to forty kilometers. This day the American fliers again flew over us; our hope was that they would not drop bombs, but food. To our surprise, they recognized us, dipping their wings. The event was a highlight of our day — our spirits soared. The planes flew on to their mission; we continued our trek across Germany.

As our family recounts the innumerable blessings of Liberty we currently enjoy, we challenge each of you to thank God for His goodness to us and our nation. May His bountiful love through the Gift of his Precious Son refresh your souls this night and always.

The First World War, Part Two.

2007-11-23T19:15:00.000-08:00

The early months of 1918 had been promising for the German army. A revolution-torn Russia had been beaten decisively, and in March 1918 the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk ended the war on the eastern front in the German's favor. With the eastern front taken care of, Germany could now devote a mass number of soldiers and weapons to the western front; and so the Germans prepared a mighty series of attacks aimed at crushing the British and French Allied forces in France before the Americans arrived. They began the offensive on March 21st, 1918, when three German armies-numbering well over 800,000 men-attacked the British defenses of trenches along a 40 mile front and within two days British Field Marshall Douglas Haig's outnumbered troops were in a full retreat. As the British pulled back towards the English Channel, ready to evacuate France by sea, they opened a gap between themselves and the French forces. Before the German army could take the advantage and rush in to fill the gap, however, the French sent re-enforcements, and the Allied lines held. All throughout the spring of 1918, the Germans continued to hammer the allied lines. Again and again they would gain great amounts of ground, but only to be stopped short of a truly decisive victory. By summer, a great number of Americans were ready to fight, and it was clear that the great German offensive had failed. In mid-July, the German commander, Erich von Ludendorff, made a final effort by launching a attack in the Marne Valley aimed at Paris. This struggle was the turning point of the war; the exhausted Germans were halted once and for all, and an Allied counter-offensive began. There were now 1,000,000 Americans in France, and and another 500,000 would arrive by November. Using the newly arrived American troops to spearhead the drive in the Marne Salient, the Allies began pushing the German armies back, turning the western front into one enormous Allied attack. Although they met stiff resistance, the Allies were victorious. By fall, with a revolution threatening the Germans at home, the Germans willingly agreed to an armistice. Thus, on November 11th, the First World War came to an end.

Although most fighting in the western front took place in the trenches, filled with mud and bristling with barbed wire, there was also a reasonable amount of fighting in the nearby towns, woods, farms, and forests; of which we will be focusing on in this entry.

A American soldier runs for cover during the fighting near one of many small towns and settlements throughout the French countryside.

An American soldier moves through the dense woods in the first stages of the Meuse-Argonne offense. Note that he has his bayonet-a knife like weapon that could be attached to the end of a gun barrel-is fixed onto his rifle for hand-to-hand fighting. An ambush or attack by the enemy in the woods often ended up in hand-to-hand and close quarters combat, and the Allied Soldier had to be ready for anything.

A two-man crew prepares to fire this water-cooled Browning machine gun. Machine guns, first used by the U.S. Army during the American Civil War, were used by both sides in World War One.

Poison mustard gas, a German secret weapon, was used on the western front with deadly effect. Both sides had to wear protective masks equipped with a special air filter in order to survive. If you were exposed to the gas without a mask, it would result in blindness, burns, lung damage, but most of the time death. Here we see a American soldier wearing his gas mask while fighting in the Argonne forest in the fall of 1918.

Fighting in the swirling yellow-brown clouds of gas, a soldier takes aim at the enemy. Visibility was cut down when gas was used, and it was sometimes hard to tell friend from foe; and soldiers had to be careful at who they aimed at.

War in Vietnam, part one

2007-09-04T07:38:00.000-07:00

During the Vietnam War (1961-1975) the United States and the South Vietnamese armies fought against the combined forces of the North Vietnamese regular army and the irregular Viet Cong (or 'VC') guerrillas. Much of the fighting took place in the jungle or on rice 'paddies' (fields) run by local farmers. The land was lovely to look at, with mountains, green rice paddies, and beautiful tropical scenes; but that same terrain was treacherous to those who did not know their way about. The Viet Cong often planted explosives around the perimeter of rice fields, and the U.S. Infantrymen learned that it was usually safer to walk through the paddies, which were always flooded with water. Even there, however, it could be dangerous, as we will see in this following post.

My brothers and I took these pictures in our back yard behind our garden, where the grass was tall and shaggy--making a perfect tropical climate backdrop for these pictures.

A patrol of two U.S. Infantrymen moving across a rice paddy

A Viet Cong irregular guerrilla; note he wears civilian clothing, and his weapon is imported from the Soviet Union.

A guerrilla, after waiting in his concealed position for hours, takes aim at the patrol...

And fires.

Returning fire; a direct hit!

World War One: The Western Front

2007-08-06T14:39:00.000-07:00

In the year 1918, the United States of America entered the First World War, deploying troops overseas to Europe. At that time, most of Europe's and North America's armies were using trench warfare; fighting by digging ditch-like trenches for battle positions and means of protection.

My brothers and I made these pictures not to long ago, making the "trenches" out of sticks and small-scale sandbags. I hope you enjoy them as much as we did making them!

This is how the American soldier, often known by their nick-name "doughboys" looked in the muddy farmland of France. Note how his rifle is fixed with a bayonet, a knife-like weapon that fitted onto the end of gun barrel for close combat.

Here, a soldier fires from his 'rifle pit'. Note that he wears a blanketroll on his back.

When charging the enemy, a soldier tried his best to find the most cover from enemy bullets and mortar shells.

Here a U.S. infantryman comes upon an abandon enemy machine gun nest; they had to take caution when doing this.

Allied Airborne Troops On D-day

2007-07-19T12:52:00.000-07:00

On the early morning of June 6th, 1944, U.S. paratroopers of the 82nd and 101st airborne divisions dropped out of the sky by parachute, landing in the countryside of Normandy, France, behind German lines to surround them from the rear in order to make way for the Allied amphimbious assualt that would land on the beaches of the Normandy in a few hours. Most of them, however, did not land in their designated landing zones. The wind scattered many of them throughout the French coutryside, where they landed in trees, roads, fields, and even on rooftops! Once on the ground, many soldiers could not find their own units, and paratroopers from different companys and regiments had to fight the enemy together.

My brothers and I enjoyed making these pictures; we got our best G.I. Joe paratroopers together, and one of us would toss up a parachute in the air with G.I. Joe attached, while another one of us would be standing below on the ground, snapping away on our camera. I hope you enjoy reading this post as much as we did making it.

A paratrooper steadily floats down after being dropped out of a U.S. paratrooper aircraft.
Heading torwards the ground About to land
The German Field Marshal Erwin Rommel flooded fields with water to make the French farmland a bad place for a landing zone in preparation for any airborne invasion. The Allies overcame this obstacle, however, and they were soon moving inland.

World War Two Urban Combat

2007-07-10T15:15:00.000-07:00

During the second World War, during and after the D-day invasion, combat in urban areas became very common as Allied forces battled the Nazis to liberate Northern Europe and to end Hitler's reign of power. Many towns and villages throughout France, Holland, and Belgium became battlegrounds as stone and brick buildings, shelled and bombed to rubble, gave excelent cover for enemy soilders, machine-gunners, and snipers. The Allies had to fight their way from building-to-building in a deadly game of hide-and-seek, employing hand grenades, sub-machine guns, and any weapon that could be used. My brothers and I re-created these scenes after researching old books, looking at old photographs, and having been to a couple museums....

This Allied soldier is from the 82nd Airborne Division, one of two American Airborne units to drop out of the sky by parachute on the early morning of June 6th behind Nazi lines in Normandy (Northern France).A U.S. Infantryman blasts away at a German Nazi defender with his M3 "Grease Gun" a submachine gun called by this name due to the fact it highly resembles a grease gun.Grenades, light-weight bombs that could be thrown by hand, were used freely in street fighting, as they could be thrown quickly around a corner of a building to clear out any machine gun nest or rifle pit that might be on the other side.

G.I. Joe Live

2007-06-28T17:22:00.000-07:00

Welcome to the world of pretend, where toys come alive.