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

Turning Back The Empire, Part III: Victory

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.

Counter-Guerrilla Patrol In Action During the Vietnam War.

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.

The Willys Jeep

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.