r/MilitaryHistory

T/Sgt. Burton "Pat" Christenson, Easy Company, 506th PIR, 101st Airborne, the unit Band of Brothers was written about. He was the second man out the door behind Dick Winters on the Normandy jump and the resident artist of the company.

He carried a sketchpad through the entire war. In the barns and billets and foxholes, while other men wrote letters or played cards, he drew what he had just seen. After the war he took those field sketches and what he carried in his memory and refined them into forty six finished drawings.

The monument was erected in 2008 near Brécourt Manor, where Winters and a dozen men knocked out the German battery firing on Utah Beach on the morning of June 6, 1944. Two field stone bases with black granite plaques. The center panel carries the Screaming Eagle, and below it an etching of one of my father's drawings, the same one Stephen Ambrose used in his book.

The flanking panels list the Easy Company men killed in Normandy between June 6 and June 18, 1944. Lieutenant Meehan is on the left panel with the men who went down in the headquarters plane.

The Battle for Henderson Field was the largest Japanese operation of the entire Guadalcanal Campaign. More than 20,000 Japanese troops were involved across three separate attack sectors.

Last week I explored all the battle sites, including General Sumiyoshi’s attack across the Matanikau sandbar, Colonel Oka’s attack on Kola Ridge, and the main attack by General Murayama’s force on the Henderson Field perimeter. We walked the jungle south of Henderson and located remnants of the American bunkers and barbed wire entanglements around John Basilone’s Medal of Honor action.

BACKGROUND TO THE BATTLE

After their defeat at Bloody Ridge in September, the Japanese had continued to reinforce Guadalcanal. Between 1-17 Oct 42, Japanese fast destroyer convoys delivered 15,000 fresh troops, including the remainder of 2nd Infantry Division and one Regiment of 38th Division. Commander of the 17th Army, General Harukichi Hyakutake, landed to take overall control.

After the battles on the Matanikau front in early October, the Japanese realised that an attack along the coast was not viable. Hyakutake decided his next offensive would approach the Henderson Field perimeter from the south. LTG Maruyama with three regiments (29th, 230th, 16th) would march about 24 km cross-country to their attack positions. Maruyama’s force commenced hacking this trail through jungle on 12 October, and his main force commenced their march on 16 October.

The American position at Henderson Field was defended by the newly arrived 164th Infantry Regiment in the east, the 7th Marines in the south, and the 5th on the west. 3rd Battalion/1st and 3rd Battalion/7th Marines defended the mouth of Manatikau against any Japanese crossing.

THE JAPANESE ATTACK PLAN

The Japanese plan was to make General Murayama’s main attack from the jungle south of Henderson Field. Major General Sumiyoshi, commander of the 17th Army artillery, would attack across the Matanikau with tank support, while Colonel Oka led his 124th Infantry Regiment across ‘One-Log Bridge’ to flank the American positions on the Matanikau. Unfortunately for the Japanese, Maruyama’s force was delayed on their jungle march, and the supporting attacks commenced too early. On 23 October, Sumiyoshi attacked across the Matanikau with nine tanks, all of which were destroyed. At least one of those tanks is still there and visible at low tide. Another one is at the Vilu Museum near Tassafaronga.

The attack on the Matanikau caused the American commander, Major General Vandegrift, to pull 2nd Battalion, 7th Marines out of the southern defensive sector and redeploy it to Kola Ridge, where it played a critical role in halting Colonel Oka’s flanking attack. Unfortunately, though, 'Chesty' Puller’s 1st Battalion, 7th Marines now had to cover neatly 2,500 yards of front with less than 600 troops. Puller’s A and C Companies were supported by Sergeant John Basilone’s heavy machine gun section, equipped with two pairs of M1917 Browning water-cooled machine guns.

THE JOHN BASILONE ACTION

At about 10 PM on 24 October, elements of the Japanese 230th Infantry Regiment struck Puller’s lines and were driven off. At around 01:30 on 25 October, elements of the 29th Infantry Regiment attacked Puller’s Company A, and soon also struck Company C to the west. The Japanese attack was caught up on Marine barbed wire entanglements, and Sergeant Basilone’s machine gun section killed nearly two companies worth of Japanese infantry. Throughout the engagement, Basilone kept his gunners supplied with ammunition, cleared their guns, and repositioned guns to reinforce sectors under threat. At some point his asbestos glove went missing, and he carried an overheated machine gun in his bare hands, inflicting third-degree burns on his skin.

By dawn on 25 October, the Japanese had sustained horrendous casualties and pulled back to regroup. Vandegrift reinforced Puller’s sector with 3/2 Marines and the Army’s 164th Infantry. The Japanese attacked again on the night of 25 October, this time without the element of surprise. This attack was also defeated. At about 03:00 on 26 October, Colonel Oka’s supporting attack on Kla Ridge finally got underway, but it too was defeated.

OUTCOMES OF THE BATTLE

The Battle for Henderson Field was the largest attack the Japanese would undertake during the Guadalcanal Campaign. It ended with about 2,500 Japanese killed either during the attack or during the long jungle retreat. About 70 Marines were killed during the action. Sergeant John Basilone was awarded the Medal of Honor for his role in the battle.

Bonjour,
Je préfère poster en français afin de ne pas faire d’erreur.
J’aimerais savoir si quelqu’un peut identifier ces tenues. Je ne suis pas certaine, est-ce que ça peut être des résistants français ?
Si quelqu’un a une idée, je suis preneuse.
Je n’ai malheureusement pas de date pour la photo.
D’avance merci

The supply section of a unit, with two-wheeled carts called "agava", probably in the Maglenica valley in the rear of the front of the Serbian II Army.

Courtesy of the National Library of Serbia, Great War Collection ([https://velikirat.nb.rs\](https://velikirat.nb.rs))

Soem Kepis, especially the Kepis that were used by the US forces during the US civil war, had its bented front part towards the outside.

What is the exact origin of this?

Is this French origin as well or does it have a different origin?

Inv. No. 6138

German artillery in flames, 15. X 1944. in the King Aleksandar Street - today the Revolution Boulevard \[now King Aleksandar Boulevard\].

Photo gifted by Vojin Đorđević, journalist, Draže Pavlovića 3.

Courtesy of Museum of Yugoslavia.

Thanks in advance!

https://youtu.be/9hTxcPl1TBs?is=rvFW5KQcNON\_oqgZ

I just bought this original 1943 helmet and the mark is disintegrating. How to I stop it? + how do I fix it?

Reconstruction of Kalmyk/Oirat spherocylindrical helmets, showing two views. Independently drawn by the uploader based on the published research and illustrations of L. A. Bobrov and Yuri Filipovich. The artwork was not traced from the cited illustrations.

Aimo Koivunen 🇫🇮 during WW2, look him up

I just wanted to say Extention_Blue_507 was my account but i can't access it because I've forgot the password, so that's why reposting this again.

This is still One of the most Underrated Battles in History because of how unbelievable it was.

Well, the commanders of the 17th century are among my absolute favourites to study, but while a lot of people may know of Gustav, I wonder how many know of his campaigns in-depth beyond just Breitenfeld? What about his famed opponents such as Tilly and Wallenstein or the many other renowned commanders of the age?

Therefore, I suppose I'ma begin a series in which I compile the campaigns of these various commanders and break them down into concise docs in order to illustrate their ability in the tactical, operational, and strategic arts of war, shining a light on many of these relatively obscure or less popular figures in order to make their feats more known in the general mil-his community.

Therefore, I thought of no one better to introduce first than Tilly, the great opponent who Gustav crossed swords with before Wallenstein. Linked below is a doc (which is a work-in-progress) of his campaigns starting from 1620 all the way to his death in 1632. Though, so far, I have only covered the campaigns of 1620, 1622, and 1623, they should hopefully provide a nice appetizer for those interested in the careers of these individuals.

Without further ado, here is The Military Career of Johann Tserclaes, Graf von Tilly.

Hello everyone, can someone help me identify the woman in the uniform or help me find a way to find her name? She is next to my grandma who was a nurse in the north of France where the photo was taken and the American woman was a nurse too I think. My grandma was not allowed to go to Germany but the American did.

She always told us she died in Germany in a concentration camp but I don't know if it is true...Did she survive? Did she die with typhus or something else? I am sorry I can't give you more information and I will understand if nobody can help me? Thank you.