Paratroopers in the Pacific?
Printed From: History Community ~ All Empires
Category: Regional History or Period History
Forum Name: History of Oceania, South-East Asia and Pacific
Forum Discription: Discuss the history of SE Asia: Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore etc.
URL: http://www.allempires.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=16988
Printed Date: 20-May-2024 at 17:07
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Topic: Paratroopers in the Pacific?
Posted By: Emperor Barbarossa
Subject: Paratroopers in the Pacific?
Date Posted: 07-Jan-2007 at 18:20
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Did the United States ever use any paratroopers in the Pacific?
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Replies:
Posted By: konstantinius
Date Posted: 07-Jan-2007 at 21:02
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Not to my knowledge. Operations in the Pacific consisted of amphibious landings with coordination between Navy and Marines. The planned invasion of the Japanese home islands probably include airborne forces but this never materialized.
------------- " I do disagree with what you say but I'll defend to my death your right to do so." |
Posted By: Guests
Date Posted: 07-Jan-2007 at 23:25
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Yes in the Philippines and New Guinea the 11th Airbourne was used.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/11th_Airborne_Division_%28United_States%29 - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/11th_Airborne_Division_%28United_States%29
Also the British used Paratroopers in Burma.
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Posted By: Emperor Barbarossa
Date Posted: 08-Jan-2007 at 08:55
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Thanks, Sparten, I could not find any mentions of the Paratroopers in the Pacific, only in Europe, and I was wondering if they were ever employed elsewhere. -------------
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Posted By: jacobtowne
Date Posted: 10-Jan-2007 at 14:58
Actually, quite a few Army divisions took part in Pacific battles, beginning with the Guadalcanal Campaign in 1942. Some island operations, such as Tarawa and Iwo Jima, were indeed Marine only. At Okinawa, the penultimate land battle of WWII, the landing force was composed of two Army and two Marine divisions under Army command, Gen. Simon Bolivar Buckner, Jr., whilst a third Marine division demonstrated on the southeast coast. The Philippines Campaign was Army only. JT |
Posted By: konstantinius
Date Posted: 10-Jan-2007 at 16:41
Sorry, I wasn't aware. ------------- " I do disagree with what you say but I'll defend to my death your right to do so." |
Posted By: red clay
Date Posted: 10-Jan-2007 at 23:01
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Dad's LST squadron was in support of the landings at Leyte, He said there were Marine units involved in the Philipines, just not on a large scale. ------------- "Arguing with someone who hates you or your ideas, is like playing chess with a pigeon. No matter what move you make, your opponent will walk all over the board and scramble the pieces". Unknown. |
Posted By: Guests
Date Posted: 11-Jan-2007 at 00:47
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Marines were involved at Normandy as well. They are always there on the beach during "phib" ops. Even if its just as beach masters.
As for the para ops, the Japanese made several in China as well. And the planned recapture of Singapore was going to use perhaps as many as three airbourne divs (1 and 6 British and 2 Indian).
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Posted By: Gundamor
Date Posted: 12-Jan-2007 at 00:47
Yep the Japanese were quite amazed by the German successes during the early years of ww2 with paratroopers. They even had a glider unit i believe to go along with their paratroopers. The battle of Palembang was a fairly large airborne operation for the Japanese in February of 1942. They also jumped into Menado on Celebes Island in January of 1942. Japanese paratroopers at the Battle of Palembang  ------------- "An eye for an eye only ends up making the whole world blind" |
Posted By: Guests
Date Posted: 13-Jan-2007 at 10:29
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A small thing to note is that American paradrops in New Guinea were met with disaster. The leaders failed to fully comprehend the reality of paradropping into dense jungle. Many men were trapped, killed on landing or subsequently captured or killed by the japanese. One thing that's always puzzled me, why is shooting a paratrooper before he/she lands a war crime? ------------- |
Posted By: pikeshot1600
Date Posted: 13-Jan-2007 at 14:17
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I disagree with the statements about US airborne forces on New Guinea. The parachute drops were to take airfields, and were not carried out over heavily forested areas.
see: http://www.diggerhistory.info - www.diggerhistory.info for joint Australian-US action on New Guinea.....with several photos of the parachute drops.
see also: http://www.173abnbde.setaf.army.mil - www.173abnbde.setaf.army.mil for a brief history of the 1st and 2nd bns/503 ParaIR.
The airborne operations were quite successful in coordination with Australian and US advances up the New Guinea coast. Casualties were not excessive.
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Posted By: Guests
Date Posted: 14-Jan-2007 at 00:31
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One thing that's always puzzled me, why is shooting a paratrooper before he/she lands a war crime? Becoz he is as of yet not a combatant. ------------- |