Author: Dr. Edward J. Drea
Publisher: Pickle Partners Publishing
ISBN: 1782894578
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 188

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Book Description
Illustrated with 32 maps, 8 Illustrations and 4 charts. On the night of 10-11 July 1944, several thousand Japanese infantrymen attacked and broke through U.S. Army covering force units defending the Driniumor River about twenty miles east of Aitape, New Guinea. For the next month U.S. Army troops were locked in a battle of attrition with the Japanese, as the Americans fought to restore the breakthrough line and destroy the Japanese attackers. This Leavenworth Paper describes the events leading up to the Japanese breakthrough and the subsequent American counterattacks to restore the original defensive positions. This Leavenworth Paper provides a day-by-day account of the course of the battle. Naturally not every moment was spent fighting, so commensurate attention is given to tactical planning, logistics, combat support-those oft-times overlooked functions that are only noticeable by their absence. There is sufficient detail for an in-depth analysis of both combatants’ doctrine, effectiveness of training, tactics, leadership, and unit cohesion...The combatants created their doctrine and applied it in combat isolated from the "Big Picture." Their concern was more basic, to survive. Training, previous combat experience, and leadership seem to have been the ingredients that most contributed to unit cohesion in the struggle. Those naturally developed unit bonds provided the underpinning for morale factors essential in protracted battle in a harsh natural environment. By the same token, one should not infer that tactics were therefore flawless and leadership bold and imaginative. In most cases, the opposite appears true. The reasons for this apparent contradiction unfold with the developing battle. By approaching these questions from the small unit perspective, one gains a fresh insight into the U.S. Army’s historic jungle warfare campaigns as well as a tactical appreciation of the enormous difficulties both sides experienced in the jungled terrain.

Author: Edward J. Drea
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Government publications
Languages : en
Pages : 200

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Book Description
The planning and maneuvering that brought Japanese and American forces to the Driniumor River serve as the focus for the first part of this study. As the battle raged, however, the respective commanders had to depend on the collective skills of their individual soldiers and hope that their operational deployments, training, and tactical doctrine would bring them victory. The tactical struggle, or second phase, then, was as removed from the strategic and operational phase as the experience of the officers and men on the front line was from the abstract map symbols that represented their units at higher headquarters. This paper seeks to integrate American and Japanese strategic, operational, tactical, and human dimensions into a narrative form. The focus is on the 112th Cavalry Regiment because that unit played a significant role in defeating a numerically superior Japanese force that tried to outflank an American covering force. Ultra adds the intelligence dimension to American decision making.

Author:
Publisher: DIANE Publishing
ISBN: 1428915796
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 189

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Book Description

Author: Edward J. Drea
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Papua New Guinea
Languages : en
Pages : 182

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Book Description

Author: Dr. Edward J. Drea
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 182

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Book Description

Author: Edward J. Drea
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Government publications
Languages : en
Pages : 196

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Book Description
The planning and maneuvering that brought Japanese and American forces to the Driniumor River serve as the focus for the first part of this study. As the battle raged, however, the respective commanders had to depend on the collective skills of their individual soldiers and hope that their operational deployments, training, and tactical doctrine would bring them victory. The tactical struggle, or second phase, then, was as removed from the strategic and operational phase as the experience of the officers and men on the front line was from the abstract map symbols that represented their units at higher headquarters. This paper seeks to integrate American and Japanese strategic, operational, tactical, and human dimensions into a narrative form. The focus is on the 112th Cavalry Regiment because that unit played a significant role in defeating a numerically superior Japanese force that tried to outflank an American covering force. Ultra adds the intelligence dimension to American decision making.

Author: Robert Sterling Rush
Publisher: University Press of Kansas
ISBN: 0700613609
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 423

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Book Description
Some of the most brutally intense infantry combat in World War II occurred within Germany's Hrtgen Forest. Focusing on the bitterly fought battle between the American 22d Infantry Regiment and elements of the German LXXIV Korps around Grosshau, Rush chronicles small-unit combat at its most extreme and shows why, despite enormous losses, the Americans persevered in the Hrtgenwald "meat grinder," a battle similar to two punch-drunk fighters staggering to survive the round. On 16 November 1944, the 22d Infantry entered the Hürtgen Forest as part of the U.S. Army's drive to cross the Roer River. During the next eighteen days, the 22d suffered more than 2,800 casualties-or about 86 percent of its normal strength of about 3,250 officers and men. After three days of fighting, the regiment had lost all three battalion commanders. After seven days, rifle company strengths stood at 50 percent and by battle's end each had suffered nearly 140 percent casualties. Despite these horrendous losses, the 22d Regiment survived and fought on, due in part to army personnel policies that ensured that unit strengths remained high even during extreme combat. Previously wounded soldiers returned to their units and new replacements, "green" to battle, arrived to follow the remaining battle-hardened cadre. The attack halted only when no veterans remained to follow. The German units in the Hrtgenwald suffered the same horrendous attrition, with one telling difference. German replacement policy detracted from rather than enhanced German combat effectiveness. Organizations had high paper strength but low manpower, and commanders consolidated decimated units time after time until these ever-dwindling bands of soldiers disappeared forever: killed, wounded, captured, or surrendered. The performance of American and German forces during this harrowing eighteen days of combat was largely a product of their respective backgrounds, training, and organization. This pre-battle aspect, not normally seen in combat history, helps explain why the Americans were successful and the Germans were not. Rush's work underscores both the horrors of combat and the resiliency of American organizations. While honoring the sacrifice and triumph of the common soldier, it also compels us to reexamine our views on the requisites for victory on the battlefield.

Author: Stephen R. Taaffe
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 338

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Book Description
His book tells not only how victory was gained through a combination of technology, tactics, and army-navy cooperation but also how the New Guinea campaign exemplified the strategic differences that plagued the Pacific War, since many high-ranking officers considered it a diversionary tactic rather than a key offensive.

Author: Bernard C. Nalty
Publisher: University of Oklahoma Press
ISBN: 9780806131993
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 312

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Book Description
The collective effort of ten military historians describes World War II's Pacific campaign, describing each step of the conflict with clarity and in exhaustive detail. Color maps. Photos, many in color.

Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Armed Forces
Languages : en
Pages : 698

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Book Description
Comment and abstracts & citations of important articles from international military and defence periodicals.