The 10th Mountain Division was highly trained for operations in this environment and hand-picked personnel, at least initially.
Two questions:
1. Were replacements to the 10th from the regular infantry replacement pool or were specially trained replacements provided? If so, where were they trained and by whom?
The main question though is:
2. Standard infantry divisions without specialized training had to fight in the same environment and conditions and from my understanding they did well. Has anyone ever read anything addressing that? A comparison on how well standard divisions did in the mountains of Italy under winter conditions compared to the 10th?
On July 1, 1943, after 11 months of consolidation at Guadalcanal, U.S. forces were headed up the slot of the Solomons toward the big Japanese air force base at Munda, on New Georgia Island. The landing was to be at nearby Rendova in pouting rain., which was standard weather in that area. The first Marine landing had pretty well taken care of the Japanese on Rendova but not on Munda. The only obstacles were nature, Japanese guns and planes on nearby Munda and snipers left on Rendova. Here's how Commander Whittaker described things, as quoted in William Bradford Huie's book "Can-Do". Where we landed the soil was unbelievably marshy. A swampy coconut grove lay just back of the beach and we had to cut a road through there. Guns had to be transported from our beach over to West Beach so that shells could be hurled across the narrow strip of water into the Jap positions at Munda. And still that rain poured........
All day long, we sweated and swore, and worked to bring the heavy stuff ashore and hide it from Jap Bombers. Our mesh, designed to snowshoe vehicles over soft mud, failed miserably. Even our biggest tractors bogged down in the muck. The men ceased to look like men. They looked like slimy frohs working in some prehistoric ooze. As they sank to their knees, they discarded their clothes. The Japs were still sniping, but in spite of this, the men began felling the coconut palms, cutting then into 12-foot lengths and corrugating the road. Our traction-treaded vehicles could go over these logs, but the spinning wheels of a truck would send the logs flying and the truck would bury itself. To pull the trucks out, we lashed a bulldozer to a tree, then dragged the trucks clear with the dozers winch.
When night came, we had unloaded six ships, but the mud was about to lick us. Foxholes filled with water as rapidly as they could be dug. The men rolled their exhausted, mud covered bodies in tents and slept in the mud. The next day, at 1330, without warning, the Jap planes came in with bomb bays open. all of us began firing with what guns had been set up, but most of the Seabees had to lie in the open on the beach and take it. The first bombs found our two main fuel dumps and we had to lie there in the mud and watch our supplies burn while the Japs strafed us. One bomb landed almost under our largest bulldozer and the big machine just reared up like a stallion and disintegrated. Then every man among us thought that his time had come. A five ton cache of our dynamite went out, exploding the eardrums of the men nearest to it. Two of our best officers and 21 men were dead. Many more were wounded, others were missing and a number were out of their heads.
Our galley equipment, most of our supplies and all the men's seabags and personal belongings were destroyed. By the morning of the fourth day, we had opened the road to West Beach, but what a road it was. We had literally snaked those big 155's guns to fire at Munda, through two miles of mud and the Marines began setting them up. Our men had been under constant strain for 90 hours. At least 50 of them were running high temperatures. They could only jump between gasoline drums and powder when the Japs came over. And the beach, as always, was a potential torch with ammunition, diesel oil and gasoline everywhere. To move the inflammable stuff back into the storage areas, the men had to emplace themselves in the mud in bucket brigade fashion. For hour they worked that way, sinking deeper into the mud each time they handled a package. And still the rain poured. Late that afternoon, from over on the West Beach, the Marines opened up on Munda with 155's. Our men stopped work and cheered almost insanely. No group of men had endured more in order for guns to begin firing. Our number of psychopathic cases had begun to mount. We had to evacuate ten men who had become hysterical. As men grow physically exhausted, they become more and more susceptible to nervous collapse under bombing. By the sixth day, the 155's were pouring shells into Munda almost incessantly and we had the supply road open, bur our position seemed more impossible than ever. None of us could remember anything except mud and bombs. The rains seemed to get heavier. But somehow, the men kept working. The air raids continued, but Whittakers Seabees did their jobs. Finally U.S. planes started to provided effective air cover and things improved. Later, the Japanese were chased out of Munda and the Seabees went in to build a large airfield there.
1. The first German serviceman killed in WW II was killed by the Japanese (China, 1937), the first American serviceman killed was killed by the Russians (Finland 1940), the highest ranking American killed was Lt. Gen. Lesley McNair, killed by the US Army Air Corps. . . So much for allies.
2. The youngest US serviceman was 12 year old Calvin Graham, USN. He was wounded and given a Dishonorable Discharge for lying about his age. (His benefits were later restored by act of Congress)
3. At the time of Pearl Harbor the top US Navy command was Called CINCUS (pronounced "sink us"), the shoulder patch of the US Army's 45th Infantry division was the Swastika, and Hitler's private train was named "Amerika."
All three were soon changed for PR purposes.
4. More US servicemen died in the Air Corps than the Marine Corps. While completing the required 30 missions your chance of being killed was 71%.
5. Generally speaking there was no such thing as an average fighter pilot. You were either an ace or a target. For instance Japanese ace Hiroyoshi Nishizawa shot down over 80 planes. He died while a passenger on a cargo plane.
6. It was a common practice on fighter planes to load every 5th round with a tracer round to aid in aiming. This was a mistake. Tracers had different ballistics so (at long range) if your tracers were hitting the target 80% of your rounds were missing. Worse yet tracers instantly told your enemy he was under fire and from which direction. Worst of all was the practice of loading a string of tracers at the end of the belt to tell you that you were out of ammo. This was definitely not something you wanted to tell the enemy. Units that stopped using tracers saw their success rate nearly double and their loss rate go down.
7. When allied armies reached the Rhine the first thing men did was pee in it. This was pretty universal from the lowest private to Winston Churchill (who made a big show of it) and Gen. Patton (who had himself photographed in the act).
8. German Me-264 bombers were capable of bombing New York City but it wasn't worth the effort.
9. German submarine U-120 was sunk by a malfunctioning toilet.
10. Among the first "Germans" captured at Normandy were several Koreans. They had been forced to fight for the Japanese Army until they were captured by the Russians and forced to fight for the Russian Army until they were captured by the Germans and forced to fight for the German Army until they were captured by the US Army.
AND THE BEST FOR LAST....
11. Following a massive naval bombardment 35,000 US and Canadian troops stormed ashore at Kiska, in the Aleutian Islands. 21 troops were killed in the firefight. It would have been even worse if there had been any Japanese on the island
Well in reading the journals from NARA, I came across O'Leary's name. Seems he had a bit too much fun one night! It's funny because I am becoming so familiar with many names and when I run across them, it's like, wow, I know that name, that face...
March 4, 1944
Pvt O'Leary from duty to Arrest in Quarters and confined to company area, as a result of being drunk in garrison.
Well in reading the journals from NARA, I came across O'Leary's name. Seems he had a bit too much fun one night! It's funny because I am becoming so familiar with many names and when I run across them, it's like, wow, I know that name, that face...
