Field Atillery:

The U.S. 155mm howitzer



A U.S. howitzer in action



Two soldiers carry a crate of
artillery ammunition



In the second World War, artillery was beginning to get more advanced. The day of the classic cannon-on-wagon-wheels was over; and the age of modern artillery had begun. 



A U.S. howitzer in the Pacific Theatre,
Second World War



 One common piece of artillery in WWII was the 155 millimeter howitzer. A howitzer is a multi-purpose gun; it can fire direct, shooting strait ahead at a visible target, or it can fire indirect, firing upwards into the air so the shell can come down on top of a target. 

Allied artillery giving indirect fire
in France, 1944

Direct fire was commonly used against walls or in defense; indirect fire could attack enemy-held hilltop positions. That made it a very popular weapon.



Two U.S. Artillerymen load and prepare to
fire their 155 mm howitzer



 Artillery pieces were often named according to what size of ammunition it used. The shell (bomb) fired by this particular gun had a diameter of 155mm. Hence it's name, the 155mm howitzer.

Securing the fold-out legs of a 155mm howitzer in
preparation to fire

Bombs away! A 155mm howitzer in the
Korean War

Artillery position, South Pacific Theatre, WWII

The Invasion of Crete

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: The Allies First Pacific Land Victories

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.

World War II, Pacific Theatre:

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!