Criteria
The Soldier's Medal may be awarded to members of the Armed Forces who, while serving in any capacity with the Army, distinguish themselves by heroism not involving actual conflict with an enemy.
Criteria The Army Good Conduct Medal is awarded on a selective basis to enlisted members of the Army who distinguish themselves by exemplary behavior, efficiency and fidelity during a specified period of conti... The Army Good Conduct Medal is awarded on a selective basis to enlisted members of the Army who distinguish themselves by exemplary behavior, efficiency and fidelity during a specified period of continuous enlisted active service (normally three years in peacetime). MoreHide
Criteria The American Campaign Medal was awarded for For thirty days service outside the Continental United States but within the American Theater of Operations between December 7, 1941, and March 2, 1946; or,... The American Campaign Medal was awarded for For thirty days service outside the Continental United States but within the American Theater of Operations between December 7, 1941, and March 2, 1946; or, an aggregate service of one year within the Continental United States during the same period under the following circumstances: On permanent assignment outside the continental limits of the United States; or, On permanent assignment as a member of a crew of a vessel sailing ocean waters for a period of 30 consecutive days or 60 non-consecutive days; or, For service outside the continental limits of the United States in a passenger status or on temporary duty for 30 consecutive days or 60 non consecutive days; or, For service in active combat against the enemy and awarded a combat decoration or furnished a certificate by the commanding general of a corps, higher unit, or independent force that the individual actually participated in combat; or, For service within the continental limits of the United States for an aggregate period of one year. MoreHide
Criteria The Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal was awarded for for qualifying service within the Asiatic-Pacific Theater of Operations between December 7, 1941, and March 2, 1946, under any of the following condi... The Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal was awarded for for qualifying service within the Asiatic-Pacific Theater of Operations between December 7, 1941, and March 2, 1946, under any of the following conditions: On permanent assignment within the Asiatic-Pacific Theater; or, For service in a passenger status or on temporary duty for 30 consecutive days or 60 non-consecutive days; or, For service in active combat in the Asiatic-Pacific Theater of Operations against the enemy and awarded a combat decoration or furnished a certificate by the commanding general of a corps, higher unit, or independent force that the individual actually participated in combat. MoreHide
Criteria The Army of Occupation Medal is a military award of the United States military which was established by the United States War Department on 5 April 1946. The medal was created in the aftermath of the ... The Army of Occupation Medal is a military award of the United States military which was established by the United States War Department on 5 April 1946. The medal was created in the aftermath of the Second World War to recognize those who had performed occupation service in either Germany, Italy, Austria, or Japan. MoreHide
Criteria The Philippine Liberation Medal was awarded for service in the liberation of the Philippines from October 17, 1944, to September 2, 1945. In order to qualify, one of the following provisions must be m... The Philippine Liberation Medal was awarded for service in the liberation of the Philippines from October 17, 1944, to September 2, 1945. In order to qualify, one of the following provisions must be met: Participation in the initial landing operation of Leyte and adjoining islands from October 7-20, 1944; or, Participation in any engagement against the enemy during the Philippine Liberation Campaign; or, Service in the Philippine Islands or in ships in Philippine wates for not less than 30 days during the period of October 17, 1944 to September 2, 1945. MoreHide
Description (Luzon Campaign 15 December 1944 to 4 July 1945) After Leyte came Mindoro, which was invaded on 15 December 1944, an air strip being obtained to provide a base for operations during the invasion on Lu(Luzon Campaign 15 December 1944 to 4 July 1945) After Leyte came Mindoro, which was invaded on 15 December 1944, an air strip being obtained to provide a base for operations during the invasion on Luzon. American troops landed on the shores of Lingayen Gulf on g January 1945 and pushed to Manila, which the Japanese defended vigorously until 24 February. Rather than meet the Americans in a decisive battle, the Japanese decided to fight delaying actions in numerous places. Organized resistance ended in southern Luzon in April and in central and northern Luzon in June.... More
Description The Battle for the Recapture of Corregidor, 16-26 February 1945, pitted American liberation forces against the defending Japanese garrison on the island fortress. Prior to the Japanese invasion in 194The Battle for the Recapture of Corregidor, 16-26 February 1945, pitted American liberation forces against the defending Japanese garrison on the island fortress. Prior to the Japanese invasion in 1942, the USAFFE had held the bastion until they surrendered in 1942.
The retaking of the island, officially named Fort Mills, along with the bloody battle to liberate Manila and the earlier recapture of the Bataan Peninsula, by invading US forces from the occupying Japanese, marked the redemption of the American and Filipino surrender on 6 May 1942 and the subsequent fall of the Philippines.
The surrender of Corregidor in 1942 and the ensuing grisly fate of its 11,000 American and Filipino defenders led to a particular sense of moral purpose in General Douglas MacArthur, and as shown in the subsequent campaigns for the liberation of the Philippine archipelago, he showed no hesitation in committing the bulk of US and Philippine forces under his command. To the American soldier, Corregidor was more than a military objective; long before the campaign to recapture it, the Rock had become an important symbol in United States history as the last Pacific outpost of any size to fall to the enemy in the early stages of the Pacific War.
Battle
Bombardment
Warships provide fire support during the Corregidor landings
On 23 January 1945, the aerial bombing to soften up the defenses on Corregidor commenced. Daily strikes by heavy bombers of the United States Army Air Forces (USAAF) continued until 16 February, with 595 short tons (540 t) of bombs dropped. Estimated figures since the bombing campaign started up to 24 February showed 2,028 effective sorties, with 3,163 short tons (2,869 t) of bombs dropped on Corregidor.
On 13 February, the United States Navy added to the bombardment, with cruisers and destroyers shelling from close to shore and braving sporadic Japanese artillery counterfire, with minesweepers operating around the island by the next day. The softening up, or gloucesterizing (so-called after an intense pre-invasion bombardment of Cape Gloucester the previous December), of the island of Corregidor lasted for three more days.
The naval barrage on Corregidor, however, was not without incident. On 14 February, while assisting minesweeping operations prior to landings on Manila Bay's Corregidor Island, USS Fletcher was hit by an enemy shell and set afire. Watertender First Class Elmer Charles Bigelow fought the blaze, contributing greatly to saving his ship, but was badly injured and died the next day. For his valor and personal sacrifice he was awarded the Medal of Honor.
At sunrise on 16 February, attacks by Consolidated B-24 Liberators and an hour of low-altitude bombing and strafing runs by Douglas A-20s preceded the landings.
Touchdown on Topside
At 08:33 on 16 February, barely three minutes late from their intended time, and facing 16-18 knot winds over the drop zones, the first of one thousand troopers of the 503rd PRCT based at Mindoro, began dropping out of C-47 troop carriers of the US Thirteenth Air Force and to float down on the surprised Japanese defenders, remnants of Maj. Gen. Rikichi Tsukada's Kembu Group at the two tiny go-point areas of Topside's western heights. However, some paratroopers were blown back into Japanese held territory. Despite rumors to the contrary, no troopers drowned, although some who were unable to climb the cliffs through hostile territory, or had fallen close to the rocks, had to be rescued near Wheeler Point.
Despite the grueling air and naval bombardment that left the defending troops dazed and scattered, they vigorously rallied, and fierce fighting erupted almost immediately. At one point that same morning, they threatened to drive a salient into the paratroopers' tenuous foothold on 'Topside'.
Paratroopers and infantrymen waged a tenacious battle with the well dug-in and determined enemy. Private Lloyd G. McCarter, a scout attached to the 503rd, during the initial landing on 16 February, crossed 30 yd (27 m) of open ground under intense fire and at point-blank range silenced a machine gun with hand grenades. In the next few days, he inflicted heavy casualties on the Japanese, but was seriously wounded. Pvt. McCarter was awarded the Medal of Honor.
Battle of Banzai Point
The most ferocious battle to regain Corregidor occurred at Wheeler Point on the night of 18 February and early the next morning, when D and F Companies, 2nd Battalion, 503rd PRCT, settled down in defensive positions near Battery Hearn and Cheney Trail. At 22:30 under a black, moonless night, 500 suicidal Japanese marines came out of the Battery Smith armory and charged the American and the Philippine positions. (This was also the night Pvt. McCarter earned his Medal of Honor). F Company stopped the frenzied attacks by the Japanese trying to break through to the south. Any minor breakthrough by the charge would have been cut short by the rear echelons.
Aside from flares fired throughout the night by warships laying offshore, the three-hour battle was decided by the weapons of the 50 paratroopers ranged against the Japanese Special Landing Force, the best among the empire's fighting men. Not all men of the company were involved in the fighting because of the ensuing confusion. The savage encounter ended in failure with more than 250 Japanese corpses strewn along a 200 yd (180 m) stretch of Cheney Trail. F Company suffered 14 dead and 15 wounded. This was the first significant attack by the Japanese on Corregidor. Official historians of the 503rd refer to Wheeler Point as "Banzai Point".
Seizure of Malinta Hill
34th Infantry lands at San Jose Point
At the same time the 503rd paratroopers touched down at 'Topside', the first wave of 3rd Battalion under Lt. Col. Edward M. Postlethwait of the 24th Infantry Division's 34th Infantry Regiment under ( Col. Aubrey "Red" S. Newman) waded ashore and established a beachhead at San Jose Point on the eastern end of Corregidor named 'Black Beach'. The succeeding waves of troops took the brunt of the hastily-organized Japanese defense, and several landing craft and infantrymen became victims of landmines. The battalion pushed inland against sporadic resistance, mostly from groups coming out of the subterranean passages of the inland to waylay the advancing American troops.
Two 3rd Battalion units—K and L Companies under Captains Frank Centanni and Lewis F. Stearns, respectively—managed to secure the road and both northern and southern entrances to Malinta Hill, while Capt. Gilbert Heaberlin's A Company stationed itself near the waterline. I Company—under 1st Lt. Paul Cain—occupied the North Dock and guarded the harbor. They intended to keep the Japanese troops inside the tunnel as other units moved inland, accompanied by tanks and flamethrowers; weapons that devastated pillboxes and tunnels in the surrounding areas held by the Japanese. For eight straight days until 23 February, these units staved off successive banzai charges, mortar attacks, and even a suicide squad of soldiers with explosives strapped to their bodies, they killed over 300 Japanese.
On 21 February at 21:30, Malinta Hill reacted like a volcano when several detonations in quick succession tore it asunder. The Japanese trapped inside had blown themselves up, and after the explosions and rock falls ceased, some 50 Japanese exited the cave to attack, the Americans mowed them down. Two nights later, a similar attack happened. Finally, engineers went to work, poured large quantities of gasoline down the tunnels and set them afire, they then sealed the tunnels' entrances. After some time, silence finally reigned inside Malinta Hill.
There were no more organized Japanese attacks for the rest of the campaign. Only isolated pockets of resistance continued to fight on with a suicidal frenzy until 26 February, when Corregidor was finally declared secured.
Aftermath
The remains of a Japanese cave
Large numbers of Japanese troops drowned while attempting to swim away from the Rock. Many of them, estimated in the thousands, sealed themselves in the numerous subterranean passages of the island. In compliance with the philosophy of Bushid�?, the defenders, hiding in caves and tunnels like the ones at Malinta Hill, preferred to commit suicide rather than surrender. Corregidor reverberated with many underground explosions for days afterward.
There were very few Japanese soldiers captured, but the victory was not without a price. An M4 Sherman tank fired a shell into a sealed tunnel suspected of harboring Japanese soldiers but which instead contained tons of stored ammunition. The subsequent tremendous explosion threw the 30 short tons (27 t) tank several dozen feet, killing its four-man crew, it also killed 48 US soldiers nearby, and wounded more than 100 others in the immediate area.
By 1 March, the devastated island bastion, with its harbor, the finest in the East, was officially opened to Allied shipping. Six days later, on 7 March, Gen. MacArthur returned to the island fortress he had been forced to leave three years before. "I see that the old flagpole still stands. Have your troops hoist the colors to its peak and let no enemy ever again haul it down", he said, at the ceremonial raising of the Stars and Stripes.
The perfectly coordinated triphibious American assault to recapture Corregidor left the 503rd PRCT with 169 dead and 531 wounded. The 34th Infantry Regiment suffered 38 killed and 153 wounded. Of the 2,065 men of both lifts by the 503rd PRCT, about 280 were killed or severely injured. Three men suffered parachute malfunctions, and two men who collided with buildings died. Eight men were killed either in the air or before they were able to get free of their chutes, a further 50 were wounded in the air or upon landing. Several men were missing in action at the drop. The total injuries (not by wounding) on the drop were 210.
For many recent years, Japanese sources have estimated that there were about 6,700 Japanese on the island when the 503rd PRCT and 34th Infantry landed, of which, only 50 survived. Another 19 were taken prisoner, but 20 Japanese stragglers surfaced after the war on 1 January 1946.... More
Description The Battle of Okinawa, codenamed Operation Iceberg, was fought on the Ryukyu Islands of Okinawa and was the largest amphibious assault in the Pacific War of World War II. The 82-day-long battle lastedThe Battle of Okinawa, codenamed Operation Iceberg, was fought on the Ryukyu Islands of Okinawa and was the largest amphibious assault in the Pacific War of World War II. The 82-day-long battle lasted from early April until mid-June 1945. After a long campaign of island hopping, the Allies were approaching Japan, and planned to use Okinawa, a large island only 340 mi (550 km) away from mainland Japan, as a base for air operations on the planned invasion of Japanese mainland (coded Operation Downfall). Four divisions of the U.S. 10th Army (the 7th, 27th, 77th, and 96th) and two Marine Divisions (the 1st and 6th) fought on the island. Their invasion was supported by naval, amphibious, and tactical air forces.
The battle has been referred to as the "typhoon of steel" in English, and tetsu no ame ("rain of steel") or tetsu no bufū ("violent wind of steel") in Japanese. The nicknames refer to the ferocity of the fighting, the intensity of kamikaze attacks from the Japanese defenders, and to the sheer numbers of Allied ships and armored vehicles that assaulted the island. The battle resulted in the highest number of casualties in the Pacific Theater during World War II. Based on Okinawan government sources, mainland Japan lost 77,166 soldiers, who were either killed or committed suicide, and the Allies suffered 14,009 deaths (with an estimated total of more than 65,000 casualties of all kinds). Simultaneously, 42,000–150,000 local civilians were killed or committed suicide, a significant proportion of the local population. The atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki together with the Soviet invasion of Manchuria caused Japan to surrender less than two months after the end of the fighting on Okinawa.... More
