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*Note #1 Camp Forrest, located on the outskirts of Tullahoma, Tennessee, was developed as a World War II military training center. Built to serve 40,000 to 50,000 soldiers at a time, at its peak occupation in 1943, Camp Forest had more than 150,000 troops trained during that year. A total of around 250,000 soldiers trained there during the war years. Today, most of Camp Forrest is contained within the Arnold Engineering Development Center, Arnold Air Station.
*Note #2 Across Catoosa County from Ringgold
lies the city of Fort Oglethorpe. The city serves as the gateway
to Chickamauga and Chattanooga National Military Park. It was incorporated
in 1949. During the Spanish American War U.S. Army troops trained
on the grounds of the national park. Construction on the 810-acre U.S.
Army installation which was named after James Oglethorpe, the founder of
the colony of Georgia, was begun in 1902 and completed two years later.
The post was active throughout World War I and World War II, most notably
as the home of the 6th Cavalry Brigade. Some original buildings remain,
including the officers quarters adjacent to the polo grounds.
Thousands of cadets and trainees marched around the polo grounds.
Among them were young officers John J. Pershing, future commander of American
forces in Europe during World War I, and Dwight D. Eisenhower, who would
hold the same position of responsibility in World War II and ultimately
become president. Some German prisoners were housed at Fort Oglethorpe
as well.
*Note #3 During World War One, the city
fathers in Macon wanted an army camp located here. The history of the Army
in Atlanta has evolved from the state militia's use of a pasture for a
meeting place and drill ground in 1835 -- where Fort McPherson sits today
-- to the current Army presence at Fort McPherson, Fort Gillem and various
locations throughout Atlanta. Established 1885, named for Maj. Gen. James
Birdseye McPherson, Civil War commander of the Army of Tennessee, who was
killed during the siege of Atlanta, July 1864.
The post encompasses 483 acres of well-landscaped grounds located
four-mile southwest of downtown Atlanta, Georgia. Its history is rich in
Military tradition and its beginnings go back over a century to 1867. Fort
McPherson, is the location of Headquarters US Army Forces Command, Third
US Army, and is the "Home of the Combat Soldier."
*Note #4 During World War One, the
city fathers in Macon wanted an army camp located here. The camp was named
for Joseph Wheeler (9/10/1836-1/25/1906) who was born in Augusta Georgia.
Wheeler, a 1859 West Point graduate, had the distinction of serving as
a Lt. General in the Confederate Army and Construction began in July of
1917 with quarters for the troops being tents over wooden floors. In December
1918 the camp was ordered closed.
In 1940, prudence dictated that America increase its military
training. Accordingly, on October 12, 1940, Congress announced that Camp
Wheeler would be rebuilt and was scheduled to be ready for operation by
March 15, 1941. The camp¹s first commander was Colonel A. R. Emery.
Although nearly one-third smaller in area (14,394) than the World War I
facility, the construction was to be far more substantial. Where wooden
floors and tents had been the order of the day during the first world war,
steel reinforced concrete foundations topped with wooden buildings were
the new standards. The total cost of construction was reported to be $13,550,485.
The camp had a housing capacity for about 24,603 enlisted men and 1,290
officers. Many of the men working on the huge Great Depression-era archeological
projects at nearby Ocmulgee National Monument were reassigned to Camp Wheeler.
Camp Wheeler was built as an infantry replacement center, requiring
that troops be trained in virtually all types of small arms used by the
military at the time. The troops thus trained could be sent anywhere they
were needed by Camp Wheeler's importance to America's war effort can, perhaps,
best be proved by the fact that in 1942 German spies confessed that Camp
Wheeler was one facility they had concentrated on before their capture.
On December 15, 1945, the last graduation parade was held. The camp
was officially closed January 19, 1946.
*Note #5 Fort Ord Army Base is located
on scenic Hwy 1 about five miles north of Monterey in Monterey County.
It was once home to 25,000 soldiers and civilian workers. Founded as a
cavalry post in 1917, it became a major training post during World War
II. Most recently, Fort Ord was home to the 7th Infantry Div., which inactivated
in 1993.
About 750 acres of Fort Ord, including three housing areas and the
post exchange and commissary, was annexed to the Presidio of Monterey.
They serve the Defense Language Institute, the Naval Postgraduate School
and the Coast Guard station. About 50 percent of Fort Ord's remaining property
will be turned over to the U.S. Bureau of Land Management for use as open
space. The coastal weapon ranges will become part of the California state
park system.
In addition, the new California State University at Monterey Bay opened
its doors on former Fort Ord property, the University of California at
Santa Cruz has based a new research center there, and the Monterey Institute
of International Studies will take over the officer's club and several
other buildings. The post's airfield was turned over to the city of Marina.
The Army will continue to occupy 277 buildings, including 600 family
housing units, the community club, commissary, post exchange, and a small
medical clinic.
*Note #8 Clark Field or Air Base was originally an U.S. Army cavalry post named Fort Stotsenberg. It was the largest overseas U.S. military base in the world, with 156,204 acres. While most of that was unoccupied fields and jungle, the base grew up around the old cavalry post's large parade field, surrounded by magnificent Banyan trees. The 13th Air Force Headquarters occupied buildings that went back to the early part of the 20th Century. Behind, mountains loomed from the dark green jungle, including Mount Pinatubo, which erupted in April 1991 devastating the airbase.
*Note #13 (BAR) Browning Automatic Rifle
United States Rifle, Caliber .30, M1
Date Adopted: 9 January 1936
Length: 1103mm (43.50")
Weight: 4.32kg (9.50 lbs.)
Caliber: .30 M1906 Ball M2
Muzzle Velocity: 853mps (2800FPS)
The M1's early performance problems gave it such a bad reputation that
after the 1939 National Matches, the National Rifle Association was able
to get Congress to look at the problem. A major redesign was ordered
on 26 October 1939 and Garand redesigned the rifle to operate with gases
tapped from a gas port just below the barrel. In July, 1940, the
Army demonstrated the revised M1 before Congressional officials, allowing
them to fire the rifle for themselves. Senator Ernest Lundeen, a
former infantry officer and the M1 rifle's biggest critic, fired 27 consecutive
bull's-eyes at 300 yards, convincing all at the event the M1 was the best
design available. In November, 1940, the United States Marine Corps
adopted the M1 as its standard service rifle. Between 1942 and 1945,
Springfield Armory and Winchester Repeating Arms built just over 4 million
M1 rifles.
*Note #14 Lieut. Gen. Tomoyuki Yamashita
Yamashita Tomoyuki (1885-1946), also Yamashita Hobun, the "Tiger of
Malaya," Japanese general principally responsible for the successful conquest
of British Malaya and Singapore during World War II (1939-1945).
Yamashita became commander of the Japanese army on the Manchurian (now
northeastern China) border in 1937 with the rank of lieutenant general,
and eventually became the highest-ranking general in the army air force.
He developed strategies and tactics for jungle fighting later used in invasions
of the Thai and Malay peninsulas. Appointed commander of the Japanese
25th Army in 1941, he was dispatched to Malaya and overran the Malay Peninsula
within ten weeks, forcing the surrender of the British fortress installation
at Singapore on February 15, 1942. Yamashita was sent to defend the
Philippines against American forces, but suffered severe defeats in the
Leyte and Luzon campaigns. The front cover of YANK FAR EAST, the
American Army newspaper, carried a full-length picture of Yamashita striding
down the mountain trail, followed by his staff and flanked by the American
doughboys against whom he had fought so long and so bitterly. He was imprisoned
at New Bilibid Prison, Muntinglupa Province, Luzon, on October 4, 1945
about 25 miles south of Manila. His formal criminal charge read :
"Tomoyuki Yamashita, General Imperial Japanese Army, between 9 October,
1944, and 2 September, 1945, at Manila and at other places in the Philippine
Islands, while commander of the armed forces of Japan at war with the United
States of America and its allies, unlawfully disregarded and failed to
discharge his duty as commander to control the operations of the members
of his command, permitting them to commit brutal atrocities and other high
crimes against people of the United States and of its allies and dependencies,
particularly the Philippines; and he, General TOMOYUKI YAMASHITA, thereby
violated the laws of war.Yamashita was eventually hanged in Manila in 1946
for war crimes committed under his command, although his defense claimed
he was ignorant of the crimes. His name is associated with Yamashita's
Gold, the rumored hoard of treasure looted from the Pacific theater by
the Japanese and buried at secret locations in the Philippines during the
final phases of the war.
Yamashita's Gold, treasure hoard in the Philippines, amassed during
the Japanese occupation of the islands from 1942 to 1945 during World War
II, also known as "The Yamashita Treasure". The extent and location of
the treasure have never been confirmed. During their wartime occupation
of Southeast Asia, the Japanese confiscated temple treasures and personal
holdings of precious metals and shipped them to the Philippines for transshipment
to Japan. Growing allied control of shipping routes made it increasingly
difficult for the Japanese to transport such cargo safely, and much of
it was concealed in the Philippines. The treasure trove takes its
name from "General Tomoyuki Yamashita", who assumed command of Japanese
forces in the Philippines in 1944. Much of it had been assembled
and buried before his arrival. Some of the treasure is alleged to
have been buried by prisoners of war that were then entombed with the riches
in booby-trapped locations. Former Japanese soldiers have been among
those who have searched for the treasure. "Ferdinand Marcos", president
of the Philippines from 1965 to 1986, is believed to have obtained part
of his personal fortune from it. In 1995 Philippine government agents
recovered two metric tons of platinum (valued at $480 million in the mid-1990s)
believed to be part of the hoard.
Here is an article by the Associated Press 1945
YAMASHITA HANGED NEAR LOS BANOS WHERE AMERICANS WERE TORTURED
MANILA, Saturday, Feb. 23, 1945
Lieut. Gen. Tomoyuki Yamashita, whose Japanese soldiers turned to an
orgy of rape and butchery when unable to stop Gen. Douglas MacArthur’s
reconquest of the Philippines, was hanged as a war criminal before dawn
today in a cane field.
Once one of Japan’s ablest generals, he died in disgrace with two other
Japanese officers, southeast of Manila near Los Banos, where his soldiers
only a year ago killed 2,000 civilians in revenge for the dramatic release
by Americans and Filipinos of Allied nationals at a near-by prison camp.
He died with his last spoken words “for the Emperor’s long life.” Stripped
of his uniform and medals by order of General MacArthur, the 60-year-old
conqueror of Singapore walked the thirteen steps to the crude wooden scaffold
attired in United States Army fatigue clothes made to look as little as
possible like a uniform. (A personal disgrace for Yamashita) He was convicted
of having tortured and killed Filipino civilians.
After the noose was tied, the trap sprung and the neck broken, his
body was sewed into a blanket preparatory to being carried on a canvas
stretcher to one of the waiting graves.
His grave will be marked by a white post, waist-high, like that of
5,000 of his men who died of dysentery and malaria after their capture.
The cross will bear no name.
*Note #15 Rape of Nanking
Between December 1937 and March 1938 at least 369,366 Chinese civilians
and prisoners of war were slaughtered by the invading troops. An
estimated 80,000 women and girls were raped; many of them were then mutilated
or murdered. Thousands of victims were beheaded, burned, bayoneted,
buried alive, or disemboweled. To this day the Japanese government
has refused to apologize for these and other World War II atrocities, and
a significant sector of Japanese society denies that they took place at
all.
In Nanking, babies were thrown in the air and bayoneted on the way
down. Some people were buried waist deep and torn apart by German
shepherds. People were killed in any manner you could imagine. I mean,
fire, freezing, mutilation, explosion. ... Prisoners were used for bayonet
practice. Women's breasts were cut off. Men were castrated.
There are accounts of tanks being stuck, not able to go across a ditch
because the ditch was empty, and so they would round up all the civilians
in the area, men, women, children, and shoot them all down and they'd put
their bodies in the ditch so the tank could go over it.
The atrocities in The Rape of Nanking far exceed the worst reports
coming out of Kosovo. The brutality exceeds that attributed to the
Nazis in the Jewish Holocaust. While "only" a quarter million Chinese civilians
were tortured and slaughtered by the Japanese soldiers invading Nanking
(Nan-Jing), this number exceeds the civilian casualties in the atomic bombing
of Hiroshima and Nagasaki combined. The total civilian death toll
throughout China appears to exceed the 6 million Jews killed in Hitler's
"final solution."
After World War II, while the Germans were preparing for trial
at Nuremberg, the U.S., represented by General Douglas MacArthur, brokered
secret deals with the Japanese government. Prince Asaka of the Japanese
Imperial family was one of the main commanders who present and ordered
the Rape of Nanking. Gen. MacArthur and the occupation army cut a
deal to protect the Imperial family from retribution (in order to secure
a bulwark against possible communist expansion in the east). In exchange
for their research on germ warfare and human biology, the murderous actions
of the Japanese in China and elsewhere in the Pacific would be ignored.
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