On this day in 1945, kamikazes plow into American warships near Iwo Jima. One aircraft carrier, the USS Bismarck Sea, was fatally wounded. A handful of other American ships were also hit, but they managed to stay afloat.
One observer would later say that there were so many Japanese planes that “they looked like a swarm of flies on a boarding house table.”
When most Americans think of the Battle of Iwo Jima, they think of the difficult Marine landings during February 1945. But there were losses at sea, too. Some of those men were living through a hell of their own.
Trouble began late on February 21, just as night was falling. Little did anyone know it, but the American warships hovering near Iwo Jima were in danger. Dozens of kamikazes had left Tokyo earlier that day, and they were headed straight toward the Americans.
The kamikazes hit many ships, but Bismarck Sea took the worst of it. A Japanese pilot had come in, flying low and swerving around the stern of an American destroyer. What was Bismarck Sea to do? It couldn’t fire at the kamikaze without also firing at the destroyer.
The story continues here: https://www.taraross.com/post/tdih-uss-bismarck-sea
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Did you know that today’s holiday would not exist but for the actions of a 19-year old schoolteacher from Wisconsin?
In other words, anyone, anywhere can make a difference. :)
In 1885, Bernard J. Cigrand was teaching in a one-room schoolhouse in Waubeka, Wisconsin. He’d devised a simple class exercise for his students: They were to write essays about the flag in commemoration of the flag’s birthday on June 14.
The story continues here: https://www.taraross.com/post/tdih-flag-day
On this day in 1778, the Continental Congress receives peace overtures from the so-called Carlisle Commission.
Let’s just say that the British peace commission achieved anything but peace. To the contrary, the missive it sent to Congress caused such an uproar that the reading of the letter could not even be completed for three days.
The British had created the peace commission months earlier, soon after Parliament received word of the French alliance with America. At nearly the same time, the Continental Congress was across the ocean, then deciding that it would not negotiate with Britain until the King recognized American independence.
Remember, at this point, the war had been ongoing for three years. Americans had offered their own olive branches to the King, and those overtures had been decisively rejected. The British were willing to talk now that the French were backing our cause?
Perhaps our ancestors had cause to view peace overtures with a bit of skepticsm.
The story ...
On this day in 1924, George H.W. Bush is born. You know him as the 41st President of the United States, but do you know about his service during World War II? He was among those that rushed to enlist after the infamous Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.
He was then just 17 years old and a senior in high school. Nevertheless, the question wasn’t if he would serve: The question was how and when. He wanted to be an aviator, but he wasn’t quite old enough—or at least he wasn’t old enough until his 18th birthday in June 1942.
He enlisted in the U.S. Navy on his birthday.
The story continues here: https://www.taraross.com/post/tdih-wwii-georgehwbush
