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Military History

On 1 Jan 1946, an American soldier accepted the surrender of about 20 Japanese soldiers who only discovered that the war was over by reading it in the newspaper.

On the island of Corregidor, a lone soldier on detail for the American Graves Registration was busy recording the makeshift graves of American soldiers who had lost their lives fighting the Japanese. He was interrupted when approximately 20 Japanese soldiers approached him—literally waving a white flag. They’d been living in an underground tunnel built during the war and learned that their country had already surrendered when one of them ventured out in search of water and found a newspaper announcing Japan’s defeat.

On 2 Jan 1942, the Navy Airship Patrol Group 1 and Air Ship Squadron 12 were established at Lakehurst, N.J. The Navy was the only military service in the world to use airships–also known as blimps–during the war. They proved extremely effective; in fact, no convoy supported by blimp surveillance ever lost a ship.

Between the wars, it was agreed that the Army would use non-rigid airships to patrol the coasts of the US, while the Navy would use rigid airships (which were aluminum-hulled and kept their shape whether or not they were filled with gas) for long-range scouting and fleet support. The Navy ended its construction and employment of the rigid airships in the 1930s after two crashed at sea. In 1937, the Army transferred all its remaining non-rigid blimps to the Navy.

On 4 Jan 1910, the USS Michigan (BB-27) was commissioned; it was the first US dreadnought battleship.

On 4 Jan 1944, during WWII, Operation Carpetbagger: US aircraft begin dropping supplies to guerrilla forces throughout Western Europe. The action demonstrated that we believed guerrillas were a vital support to the formal armies of the Allies in their battle against the Axis powers. Virtually every country that experienced Axis invasion raised a guerrilla force; they were especially effective and numerous in Italy, France, China, Greece, the Philippines, Yugoslavia, and the Soviet Union. Tens of thousands of guerillas died in the course of the war but were never awarded the formal recognition given the “official” fighting forces, despite the enormous risks and sacrifices.

On 5 Jan 1945, during WWII, Japanese pilots received the first order to become kamikaze, meaning “divine wind” in Japanese. The suicidal blitz of the kamikazes revealed Japan’s desperation in the final months of WWII. Most of Japan’s top pilots were dead, but youngsters needed little training to take planes full of explosives and crash them into ships. At Okinawa, they sank 30 ships and killed almost 5,000 Americans.

On 6 Jan 1944, during WWII, in Burma, Brigadier General Merrill was designated to command a volunteer unit that became known as “Merrill’s Marauders”.

On 6 Jan 1967, during the Vietnam War, over 16,000 US and 14,000 Vietnamese troops started their biggest attack on the Iron Triangle, northwest of Saigon.

On 7 Jan 1789, America’s first presidential election was held. Voters cast ballots to choose state electors; only white men who owned property were allowed to vote. As expected, George Washington won the election and was sworn into office on April 30, 1789.

On 8 Jan 1815, two weeks after the War of 1812 officially ended with the signing of the Treaty of Ghent, US General Andrew Jackson achieved the greatest American victory of the war at the Battle of New Orleans.

In September 1814, an impressive American naval victory on Lake Champlain forced invading British forces back into Canada and led to the conclusion of peace negotiations in Ghent, Belgium. Although the peace agreement was signed on 24 Dec, word did not reach the British forces assailing the Gulf coast in time to halt a major attack.

On 8 Jan 1815, the British marched against New Orleans, hoping that by capturing the city they could separate Louisiana from the rest of the US. Pirate Jean Lafitte, however, had warned the Americans of the attack, and the arriving British found militiamen under General Andrew Jackson strongly entrenched at the Rodriquez Canal. In two separate assaults, the 7,500 British soldiers under Sir Edward Pakenham were unable to penetrate our defenses, and Jackson’s 4,500 troops, many of them expert marksmen from Kentucky and Tennessee, decimated the British lines. In half an hour, the British had retreated, General Pakenham was dead, and nearly 2,000 of his men were killed, wounded, or missing. Our forces suffered only eight killed and 13 wounded.

Although the battle had no bearing on the outcome of the war, Jackson’s overwhelming victory elevated national pride, which had suffered a number of setbacks during the War. The Battle of New Orleans was also the last armed engagement between the US and Britain.

On 9 Jan 1945, During WWII, Gen. Douglas MacArthur and the American 6th Army landed on the Lingayen Gulf of Luzon, another step in the capture of the Philippine Islands from the Japanese. The Japanese controlled the Philippines from May 1942. But in October 1944, over 100,000 American soldiers landed on Leyte Island to launch one of one of the bloodiest battles of the Pacific war–and herald the beginning of the end for Japan. Newsreels captured the event as MacArthur waded ashore at Leyte on October 20, returning to the Philippines as he had famously promised he would after the original defeat of American forces there. What the newsreels didn’t capture were the 67 days it took to subdue the island. Our forces lost about 3,500. The sea battle of Leyte Gulf was the same story. The loss of ships and sailors was horrendous for both sides. That battle also saw the introduction of the Japanese kamikaze suicide bombers. Over 5,000 kamikaze pilots died in this gulf battle, taking down 34 ships. But the Japanese were not able to prevent the loss of their biggest and best warships, which meant the virtual end of the Japanese Imperial Fleet. These American victories on land and sea at Leyte opened the door for the landing of over 60,000 American troops on Luzon on January 9. Despite their best efforts, the Japanese lost the battle for Luzon and eventually, the battle for control over all of the Philippines.

On 10 Jan 1776, during our Revolutionary War, Thomas Paine published his pamphlet “Common Sense,” setting forth the arguments for American independence. Although little used today, pamphlets were an important medium for the spread of ideas in the 16th through 19th centuries. Paine was born in England in 1737 and worked as a corset-maker in his teens. He also worked as a sailor and schoolteacher before becoming a prominent pamphleteer. In 1774, Paine arrived in Philadelphia and came to support American independence. His 47-page pamphlet sold some 500,000 copies and had a powerful influence on American opinion. Paine served in the US Army and worked for the Committee of Foreign Affairs before returning to Europe in 1787. Back in England, he continued writing pamphlets in support of revolution. He released The Rights of Man, supporting the French revolution in 1791-2, in answer to Edmund Burke’s famous Reflections on the Revolution in France (1790). His sentiments were highly unpopular with the British government, so he fled to France but was later arrested for his political opinions. He returned to the United States in 1802 and died in New York in 1809.

On 10 Jan 1779, during our Revolutionary War, the French presented John Paul Jones with a dilapidated vessel, the Duc de Duras. This Jones refits, mounts with 42 guns and renames Bonhomme Richard in honor of Benjamin Franklin. On 19 June 1779, Bonhomme Richard sailed from L’Orient accompanied by Alliance, Pallas, Vengeance, and Cerf with troop transports and merchant vessels under convoy to Bordeaux and to cruise against the British in the Bay of Biscay. Forced to return to port for repair, the squadron sailed again 14 August 1779. Going northwest around the west coast of the British Isles into the North Sea and then down the east coast the squadron took 16 merchant vessels as prizes. On 23 September 1779 they encountered the Baltic Fleet of 41 sail under convoy of HMS Serapis (44) and Countess of Scarborough (22) near Flamborough Head. After 1800 Bonhomme Richard engaged Serapis and a bitter engagement ensued during the next four hours before Serapis struck her colors. Bonhomme Richard, shattered, on fire, and leaking badly defied all efforts to save her and sank at 1100 on 25 September 1779. John Paul Jones sailed the captured Serapis to Holland for repairs.

On 10 Jan 1923, four years after the end of WWI, President Warren Harding ordered US occupation troops stationed in Germany to return home. In 1917, after several years of bloody stalemate along the western front, the entrance of America’s well-supplied forces into WWI was a major turning point in the conflict. When the war ended in November 1918, more than two million American soldiers had served on the battlefields of Western Europe, and more than 50,000 of them had lost their lives. As part of the Treaty of Versailles, signed the next year, US troops, along with other Allied forces, were to occupy the defeated Central Powers nations to enforce the terms of the peace agreement. In Germany, Allied occupation and stiff war reparations levied against the country were regarded with increasing bitterness, and in 1923, after four years of contending with a resentful German populace, the American troops were ordered home.

On 10 Jan 1944, during WWII, the GI Bill of Rights, first proposed by the American Legion, was passed by Congress. The Bill, more formally known as the Servicemen’s Readjustment Act of 1944, was intended to smooth demobilization for America’s almost 16 million servicemen and women. Postwar college and vocational school attendance soared as more than 50 percent of honorably discharged veterans took advantage of education benefits of up to $500 a year for tuition, plus a living allowance. When they returned home to marry and start families in record numbers, veterans faced a severe housing shortage. The home loan provisions of the GI Bill provided more than 2 million home loans and created a new American landscape in the suburbs. In 1990, President George Bush summed up the impact of the GI Bill: “The GI Bill changed the lives of millions by replacing old roadblocks with paths of opportunity.”

On 12 Jan 1962, during the Vietnam War, our Air Force launched Operation Ranch Hand, a “modern technological area-denial technique” designed to expose the roads and trails used by the Viet Cong. Flying C-123 Providers, US personnel dumped an estimated 19 million gallons of defoliating herbicides over 10-20% of Vietnam and parts of Laos between 1962-1971. Agent Orange – named for the color of its metal containers – was the most frequently used defoliating herbicide. The operation succeeded in killing vegetation, but not in stopping the Viet Cong. The use of these agents was controversial, both during and after the war, because of the questions about long-term ecological impacts and the effect on humans who either handled or were sprayed by the chemicals. Beginning in the late 1970s, Vietnam veterans began to cite the herbicides, especially Agent Orange, as the cause of health problems ranging from skin rashes to cancer to birth defects in their children. Similar problems, including an abnormally high incidence of miscarriages and congenital malformations, have been reported among the Vietnamese people who lived in the areas where the defoliating agents were used.

On 13 Jan 1942, during WWII, German U-Boats began operations on our East Coast. The move was called operation Paukenschlag (Drum Roll). Admiral Doenitz had faced arguments from his superiors in the German Navy who did not favor the operation, and he had the difficulty that only the larger 740-ton U-Boats are really suitable for such long range patrols. When Doenitz gave the order for the attack to begin there were 11 U-Boats in position and 10 more en route. Together they sank over 150,000 tons during the first month. Intelligence sources had given reasonable warning of the attack, but the U-Boats found virtually peace-time conditions in operation. Ships sailed with lights on at night; lighthouses and bouys were still lit; there was no radio discipline – merchant ships often gave their positions in plain text; there were destroyer patrols (not convoys with escorts) but they were regular and predictable and their crews inexperienced.

On 14 Jan 1960, Elvis Presley was promoted to Sergeant in the Army; the promotion was well earned.

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