World War II: Who Fought Where

[Nightcrawler]

Okay, I'm familliar with Army operations in Europe during the Second World War, and know about Marine missions in the Pacific.

But, the Army was in the Pacific theater too, was it not? I know the Army Air Force was.

Did the Marines fight in Europe or North Africa at all, or were they all sent to fight the Japanese?

Did the Australians fight in the Atlantic theater at all? What about North Africa?

Interesting that virtually none of our many aircraft carriers were used in the Atlantic Theater (I think small escort carriers went along with the Merchant Marine fleets sometimes). But, since we had Britain as a base of operations, and later North Africa, I can see how they wouldn't have been necessary.

 

[agricola]

There were several RAAF and "independent" Australian personnel in Bomber Command definately, and probably some in Coastal and Fighter Command (as indeed was the entire Commonwealth).

 

[Mike Irwin]

Yes, I believe there were more Army troops on Guadalcanal than there were Marines.

Maj. Richard Bong, America's highest scoring ace with 40 kills, flew exclusively in the Pacific. He was USAAF.

The USAAF also few the B-29s that flattened Japan.

I'm not sure, but I believe that there were Marine Beachmasters at D-Day operating in an overall supervisory position, given the extreme amount of experience they had with amphib operations by that time.

According to one website I just viewed, there were fewer than 6,000 Marines who participated in Atlantic, North African, or European operations.

 

[JDSlack]

IIRC, the USMC had little involvement in the ETO. There were several Army divisions in the Pacific. The majority under MacArthur's command, but several under Nimitz as well. The ANZAC troops served in North Africa and in Europe. In fact one of the reasons US troops predominated in the Pacific, at least early on, was because the majority of the ANZAC troops were in Europe/Africa, and when Japan attacked there were few Commonwealth troops available to defend Austrailia, New Zealand or New Guinea. A lot of ANZACs were in Burma/India also, I think.

 

[Mike Irwin]

As a matter of fact, view this page...

http://www.usmc.mil/history.nsf/0/77f992b2acb682eb852564d70059c642?OpenDocument&ExpandSection=5

 

[Nightcrawler]

To what extent were the allies involved in the ground war in the China-Burma-India theater? Or was it all the Chinese? (Communists and Nationalists)

Was there any fighting in India? Is it true that Hitler had invasion plans?

How far eastward was Hitler planning to go? What would've happened if the Soviet Union had collapsed? Did he plan on going straight to the Pacific? Did he really think he had the resources, or was it just the delusions of a madman?

 

[Ky Larry]

My father was in the Army in WWII. He fought in the liberation of the Philliphines and on Okinawa.

 

[cdbeaver]

My eldest brother was a Navy SeaBee.

He was wounded on Iwo Jima.

My older brother was also a SeaBee. He piloted a ferry boat at Pearl Harbor.

 

[HankB]

My father fought in WWII in the Pacific. He was USAAF. His outfit had P-51s, C-47s, F-5s (stripped down and souped up fighters with recon cameras) and B-24s. He fought in many of the famous battles, including Leyte Gulf, the Philippines, New Guinea, etc.

 

[Mike Irwin]

The CBI was an extremely diverse theater of operations.

You had troops from America, most of the British Empire, Free French, Free Dutch, and, of course, Chinese.

And, did anyone catch that Madam Chiang died on October 25?

She was 105 or 106, depending on which obit you read.

 

[Nightcrawler]

People seem to forget what widescale war World War 2 was. Most people (myself included sometimes) think only of fighting the Germans in France, Italy, and North Africa, and of fighting the Japanese in the Pacific Islands.

One can only imagine what would've happened if Stalin and Hilter had maintained their uneasy truce. If Hitler hadn't opened up that Eastern Front.

How strong would the Japanese have gotten had they NOT bombed Pearl Harbor, and instead concentrated on their holdings and China (and thus not dragging the US into the war against them)? What if they had invaded Vladivostok, forcing the Soviets to split their forces on either side of Siberia? What if Stalingrad had fallen to the Nazis?

In any case, you hardly hear anything about the fighting in China and India.

World War 2 was truly a world war; I believe The Americas (and of course, Antarctica) were the only continents spared serious attack. While there was no ground war IN Australia, they were certainly bombed by the Japanese. All of Eurasia was engulfed by the war, as was a goodly sized chunk of Africa.

 

[WT]

About 30 US Army divisions served in the Pacific compared to 6 Marine divisions. The Battle of Henderson field on Guadalcanal was fought by Marines and the North Dakota National Guard.

A small group of Marines participated in the North African invasion. Another group captured a small island in the Med. Marines ran patrols between Italy and the Balkans, rescuing downed USAAF crewmen. Some Marines served in Patton's Third Army.

The Aussies and New Zealanders served in North Africa as well as in Italy. The Abbey of Monte Cassino was bombed to facilitate a NZ attack.

The USN had over 100 carriers. Most were in the Pacific but some did serve in the Med and Atlantic.

 

[bountyhunter]

But, the Army was in the Pacific theater too, was it not?

Not only was the Army fighting in the pacific, they were on the Big Island when the japanese attacked Pearl Harbor. My father started his career in the Army as a rifleman in an infantry company. He was stationed at Scofield barracks on the main island when Pearl was attacked, and that barracks was bombed as well.

In the movies it always shows the marines island hopping and winning the war, but the Army fought plenty in the Pacific theater. My dad once said that at the end of the war there were less than 20 of his original company still there. In four years my dad got six bronze stars, two silver, two purple hearts, and more ribbons than fit on a uniform. The Army took a pounding over there.

 

[DorGunR]

bountyhunter I'm a little confused bt what you call the "Main Island"
The Big Island is the island of Hawaii.
Schofield Bks. is on Oahu.

 

[rayra]

The majority of the Solomon Islands "island hopping" campaign was Marine led & bled, with Army troops used primarily as occupation troops after the initial fighting. That was the pattern of most of the central pacific fighting, up to the Saipan and Okinawa campaigns, when the force mix (and the initial fighting) was more balanced between Marines and Army.

The southwestern Pacfic, from Australia NNW to Philippines and Malaysia-ish was under MacArthur's command and primarily a US Army operation.

The relative lack of ANZAC forces in the region was primarily due to all their forces in the region being overrun in 1940, and the balance being tied down in the African and ETO.

Burma etc had a very mixed force of Brits / UK / Army pushing overland East from eastern India, and leapfrogging around the cambodian / vietnam pennisular region.

 

[Mike Irwin]

Most American fleet carriers served in the Pacific -- the Essex class and its predecessors, such as the Enterprise, Yorktown, Hornet, Wasp, Lexington, and Saratoga.

Of all US pre-war fleet carriers, the only one that didn't serve in the Pacific was the Ranger, which was considered to be too small and too cramped to be an adequate Pacific carrier. She was, however, almost perfectly suited to the use that she served -- as the core to a very effective convoy escort and sub hunter killer group.

The vast bulk of America's carrier power, though, wasn't made up of fleet carriers, but of the smaller "Jeep" carriers. Well over 100 of these were built during the war, and they were spread liberally around combat theaters.

There were 50 Casablanca class CVEs built during the war alone.

 

[Langenator]

Army units involved in the Pacific fighting included the 1st Cav Division, 7th, 24th, 25th, and 32nd Infantry Divisions, plus at least one airborne unit. Most of the Army's fighting was done in the SW Pac-New Guinea, Phillipines, meeting the Marines at Okinawa. The Army also fought a short but rather cold and nasty battle up in the Aleutians.

Merrill's Marauders fought in the CBI, and the famous Flying Tigers (who at first were American volunteers fighting for the Chinese, later brought into the Army Air Corps) operated out of China.

The Chindits, led by General Wingate, were an unconventional Chinese/Commonwealth force also in the CBI.

 

[DorGunR]

Langenator I believe that the Airborne unit you are refering to was the 187th Regimental Combat Team.

 

[IRONFIST]

My Grandfather served in the army in WWII. He was there when the Phillipines fell and then he was told to surrender by his superiors. After being captured by an advance recon unit of the Imperial Japanese army, he eventually was part of the Bataan "death march". He survived the march, but saw close friends of his killed by Japanese soldiers for no good reason. Over the next few months he was held prisoner at two different camps, starved, beaten and overworked(he was able to help kill a Japanese prison guard AND get rewarded by the commander of the camp for it) and then was put aboard a prison ship and sent to Japan to work in a coal mine. He was about 190 lbs. when he entered the service and when he was liberated when the war ended... he was about 95 lbs or less. My Grandfather died a few years ago and he truly was the finest man I have ever met.


Michael in Sandy, Oregon/Owner of IronWolf Industries

 

[4v50 Gary]

Hi Ironfist. I know one vet who also surrendered in the Philipines. He survived the Death March and was sent to Japan and worked in the mines. Along with other PoWs, he was told that if the Allies landed, they would all be killed. The BOMB saved their bacon and I'm grateful that Truman had the cajones to help usher Japan into the atomic era (I don't hate today's Japanese and I don't fault them for the sins of their grandfathers).

Orde Wingate and the Chindits inspired Merill's Marauders. Wingate wanted to prove you can take a 30 year or so Englishman, train him in jungle warfare and beat the Japanese at their own game. He organized mobile columns that would outmarch the Japanese. To deceive the spies, he did the Rommel routine of having soldiers march through a village, double back and march through again (change hats or other features to disguise themselves) as if the column was larger than it actually was. They depended a lot on air drops and if a man was seriously injured and impeded the column, he was left behind (read a tale of a lt. who was left behind but hidden later by good natives & limped back to India). The purpose of the Chindits was to confuse, mislead and cause the Japanese to retain an inordinate # of soldiers to protect their supply line; thereby denying their presence along the Indian border.

Before serving in Asia, Wingate also served in Ethiopia and helped to chase out the Italians. When his column was famished, he sent two natives into an Italian held town to buy food. They returned and fed the column whereupon the column attacked that town. Another time they had captured an Italian fort and the telephone rang. They got an Italian speaking Englishman to answer the phone and in an excited voice, the Englishman reported hundreds of British tanks and thousands of soldiers overruning them and that they (the listener) was next. The Italians at the other end panicked and fled. Wingate was unorthodox to say the least and well beloved by his men. The stuffy establishment officers didn't appreciate him (kinda like the way Lawrence of Arabia was viewed by everyone except Allenby).

Don't forget we had a huge presence in China. Besides the 14th Air Force (which had taken over for the brief and glorious Flying Tigers), we had an intelligence network of Chinese American soldiers who snuck in and photographed troop movements and collected intelligence, established and trained radio operators and acted as advisors for the Chinese Army. They're largely unsung and their story awaits to be told.

 

[Billy Sparks]

Nightcrawler I am not a expert on WWII but have read a fair amount about it.

One can only imagine what would've happened if Stalin and Hilter had maintained their uneasy truce. If Hitler hadn't opened up that Eastern Front.

Would not have happened. Hitler all along said he needed "living space" for the Germans. He also needed the oil fields and breadbasket of the Eastern Europe.

How strong would the Japanese have gotten had they NOT bombed Pearl Harbor, and instead concentrated on their holdings and China (and thus not dragging the US into the war against them)?

The Japanese had all along decided that the US had to be attacked and
defeated. Remember we had embargoed most of there oil and steel supply. They had to attack the US and Britain to get the raw materials they needed to expand in China.

What if they had invaded Vladivostok, forcing the Soviets to split their forces on either side of Siberia?

The Japanese had been beaten very badly by Zukuhov[sp] in the Siberian area in 1937/38/39 time frame. Stalin picked Zukuhov[sp] to lead the Russian army on the strengths of his victories in the east against Japan.

 

[jrhead75]

What if they had invaded Vladivostok, forcing the Soviets to split their forces on either side of Siberia? What if Stalingrad had fallen to the Nazis?

As a point of interest, it was the Japanese decision not to invade that freed up the Siberian divisions that Zhukov was able to use as the hammer to finish off the 6th Army in Stalingrad. Score one for intelligence.

 

[OEF_VET]

langenator and DorGunR,

The 187th RCT wasn't the only airborne unit to serve in the Pacific Theater. The 11th Airborne Division fought there also.

As a side note, the 187 RCT, later the 187th PIR, later the 187th Inf. Rgt. (3rd BDE/101st ABN DIV(AASLT)), is the only unit to have used all forms of vertical envelopment in combat operations. During WW2 they used gliders and parachutes. In Korea, they used parachutes. In Vietnam, they used Hueys to carry out 'Airmobile' operations. In Gulf War 1, Operation Enduring Freedom, and Operation Iraqi Freedom, they used helicopters to carry out Air Assault operations. The 187th is one of the most experienced regiments when it comes to using vertical envelopment techniques in combat. Makes me proud to have been associated with the Rakkasans for 5 1/2 years.

Frank

P.S. The regiment earned its' nickname, the Rakkasans while on occupation duty in post-war Japan. The Japanese people said that the parachutists looked like 'falling umbrellas', which translates into Japanese as Rakkasan.

 

[DorGunR]

OEF_VET posted langenator and DorGunR,

The 187th RCT wasn't the only airborne unit to serve in the Pacific Theater. The 11th Airborne Division fought there also.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
OEF_VET
Thanks for clearing that up......I was thinking there was another Airborne unit in the Pacific.......but I just couldn;t remember for sure.
I was with the old 77th SFG at Fort Bragg, NC when the 187th RCT returned from Okinawa.......we cleaned up the area they moved into and walked fireguard for them the first 30 days they were back....BTW this was in 1955.

 

[RTFM]

Dad was 86th Infantry. BlackHawks.

Germany then the Philippines

Combat Chronicle
The 86th Infantry Division arrived in France, 4 March 1945, and moved to Koln, Germany, taking over defensive positions near Weiden, 24 March, in relief of the 8th Infantry Division. After a short period of patrolling on both sides of the Rhine, the Division was relieved, and moved across the Rhine to Eibelshausen, Germany, 5 April. In a rapid offensive advance, the 86th moved across the Bigge River, cleared Attendorn, 11 April, and continued on to the Ruhr, taking part in the Ruhr pocket fighting. On 21 April, the Division moved to Ansbach and continued to advance, taking Eichstatt on the 25th, crossing the Danube on the 27th, securing the bridge over the Amper Canal, 29 April, crossing the Isar and reaching Mittel Isar Canal by the end of the month. The Division was ordered to take Wasserburg, 1 May, and leading elements had reached the outskirts of the city when they were ordered to withdraw, 2 May, and to move east to Salzburg. The Division was securing the left flank of the XV Corps, when the war in Europe ended. After processing German prisoners of war, it was redeployed to the United States, arriving in New York 17 June 1945. The Division trained briefly at Camp Gruber, Okla., 21 June-11 August 1945; and then left San Francisco, 24 August 1945, for the Philippines.

Command Posts Top

Date Town Region Country
03.03.1945 Yvetot Seine-Inferieure France
27.03.1945 Weiden (vic Cologne) Rhineland Germany
05.04.1945 Eibelshausen Hessen-Nassau Germany
09.04.1945 Erndtebruck Hessen-Nassau Germany
10.04.1945 Einsburg Hessen-Nassau Germany
11.04.1945 Bilstein Hessen-Nassau Germany
12.04.1945 Attendorn Westphalia Germany
14.04.1945 Ludenscheid Westphalia Germany
19.04.1945 Windsheim Bavaria Germany
21.04.1945 Ansbach Bavaria Germany
24.04.1945 Ellingen Bavaria Germany
25.04.1945 Eichstatt (5 miles North) Bavaria Germany
26.04.1945 Eitensheim Bavaria Germany
27.04.1945 Ingolstadt Bavaria Germany
29.04.1945 Wolnzach Bavaria Germany
30.04.1945 Freising Bavaria Germany
01.05.1945 Erding Bavaria Germany
04.05.1945 Purten (vic Aschau) Bavaria Germany
05.05.1945 Neu Oberndorf Ober Oesterreich Austria
08.05.1945 Burghausen Bavaria Germany