Over his twenty- seven year career, Lieutenant Colonel John C. Gurney distinguished himself by exceptionally meritorious
The Lost Battalion is based totally on a real story of an American battalion that was sent out to battle during the World War I. Major Charles Whittlesey, a New York lawyer, who ends up in the trenches of France having under his command mostly young, unexperienced men. When Whittlesey and his battalion of five hundred men are ordered to advance into the Argonne Forest they find themselves surrounded by Germans troops when the other battalions instantly withdrew, leaving Whittlesey’s battalion on his own. Confined behind enemy lines, Whittlesey’s battalion turned into the only force in the German army’s plans to move forward. Trapped and with no other way to rescue, Whittlesey is given an opportunity to surrender, but chose to continue fighting and keep his men together. The following day, the battalion loses
The Dieppe Raid was a failure! The raid was a failure because even though it taught troops many lessons to help them with future raids and battles, it failed and many soldiers lost their lives for nothing but defeat. The Dieppe Raid involved troops making mistakes that could have been prevented, although Canada learned from her mistakes and the learning helped with future battles, Canada didn’t win the raid nor did Canada complete their mission.
On July 30, 2008, a bloody battle involving Coalition forces took place in the mountainous eastern Afghan province of Nuristan. This was the Battle of Wanat and the devastating amount of Coalition casualties began a vigorous investigation by the United States Army. The village of Wanat, defended by Second Platoon, Chosen Company, Second Battalion, 503rd Infantry Regiment, 173rd Airborne Brigade Combat Team would fall victim to numerous bad decision made by higher command. Although the men of Chosen Company fought hard, they ended up surrounded, vastly outnumbered, and without any Battalion assets. This paper will argue the reasons for the disastrous outcome of the Battle of Wanat; examining the effective company leadership exploiting effective
As people and technology continue to evolve so do the ways we fight wars. There is currently a gap in the knowledge and skills between current Noncommissioned Officers (NCO) and the NCOs future operations will demand. This paper goes over what the NCO 2020 Strategy is and how it will close that gap. It will identify the reasons for the NCO 2020 Strategy, the end state, and tasks NCOs must complete in the interim to realize that end state. This paper starts with the statement of the overall vision and intent of this strategy before delving into the three Lines of Effort (LOE). The three Lines of Effort being Development, Talent Management, and Stewardship of the Profession are the three primary areas of focus in the major objectives which simultaneously
The Battle of Iwo Jima was one of the bloodiest battles of World War Two. Iwo Jima had air stips that both the United States and the Japanese wanted to help them during World War Two. This battle did not end up going exactly as planned for either country. Both countries had their own strategy but neither succeeded. The Battle of Iwo Jima is an important battle to know about when discussing World War Two.
By definition, “mission command is the exercise of authority and direction by the commander using mission orders to enable disciplined initiative within the commander’s intent to empower agile and adaptive leaders in the conduct of unified land operations,” according to ADRP 5-0. Mission command is about knowing when to change the task to fit the purpose. This paper is intended to analyze the mission command of one side of the battle, focusing on the commander’s role in the operations process. The Battle of Bunker Hill was the most important battle of the American Revolution because of Colonel Prescott’s superior command and control. Although commonly referred to as the Battle of Bunker Hill, most of the fighting occurred on nearby Breed’s
America had 3 aircraft carriers (Yorktown, Enterprise and Hornet), 8 cruisers, 14 destroyers, and the aircraft located at Midway. The Battle of Midway began quickly. Many bombs were dropped on the ships at sea. The turning point of the battle was when the Japanese battleships sunk because the aircraft in the sky forced them to shoot at the planes, but more bombers dropped bombs on the Japanese battleships, causing them to sink. This loss of Japanese aircraft proved a deciding factor in the battle. Japanese fleet commander Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto made plans to lead the Japanese Navy and attack the 2 islands that make up Midway Atoll. He thought that the U.S. could not win a battle based so close to its broken Pearl Harbor. Admiral Yamamoto was expecting to ambush America, but America surprised them with the ambush. American Navy successfully sank the Japanese Akagi, Kaga, Soryu, and Hiryu aircraft carriers, with 322 planes and over 5,000 soldiers on them. Japan also lost the heavy cruiser
The 1945 Raid of Cabanatuan, Luzon Island, Philippines stands fast in history as a battle of wits between Imperial Japanese Army and the partnership of the United States Armed Forces and the United States Armed Forces Far East (USAFFE) Filipino Guerilla Forces. Americans and Allied Armed Forces used distraction tactics and precise human collected intelligence to successfully free over 500 Prisoners of War (POW) held by Japanese forces. The purpose of this paper is to conduct a battle analysis of the Raid of Cabanatuan and to provide an alternate outcome based on applicable intelligence assets using intellectual standards and elements of reasoning.
This attack also resulted from the failure in communication, as well as the misinterpretation of radar signals. This also marks the turning point in the naval history as the age of the battleship came to an end and the age of the aircraft carrier was ushered
An explosive controversy of the early 1840s involved the Maine boundary dispute. The St. Lawrence River is icebound several months of the year, as the British, remembering the War of 1812, well knew. They were determined, as a defensive precaution against the Yankees, to build a road westward from Halifax to Quebec. But the proposed route ran through disputed territory, claimed also by Maine under the misleading peace treaty of 1783. Lumberjacks from both Maine and Canada entered the disputed land of the Aroostook River valley. Ugly fights flared up, and both sides summoned the local militia. This was known as the Aroostook War and occurred in 1839.
knowledge with regards to the whereabouts of this attack, furthering the argument that the attack was a genuine surprise. American intelligence was unable to speculate or guess the Japanese nation’s intention (source B). This statement is supported by the fact that Japan had meticulously planned the attack, taking various precautionary measures to safeguard the security of their plan (source A). The United States would have found it tremendously difficult to completely decipher the Japanese plan. The messages that were recovered by American intelligence gave no indication that there would be an, “outbreak of hostilities” (Source B).
A debate between intelligence agencies on whether the enemy troops would be on the valley floor or on the hills. Well before the battle, early intelligence estimates, which drew on
The Guadalcanal campaign, also known as The battle of Guadalcanal and codified by The allies as operation Watchtower, was developed between August 7, 1942 and February 9, 1943, around The island of Guadalcanal as part of the front of the Pacific of World War II. This military campaign was the largest offensive launched by the allies against the forces of the Empire of the Japan.
After General MacArthur’s arrival, Japan went on the defensive and constructed the Sho-Go or Operation Victory. Their goal was to “decoy the U.S. Third Fleet north away from the San Bernardino Strait, while converging three forces on Leyte Gulf to attack the landing” (Britannica). Once this was