Hell to Pay: Operation DOWNFALL and the Invasion of Japan, 1945-1947 by Giangreco D. M

Author:Giangreco, D. M. [Giangreco, D. M.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Naval Institute Press
Published: 2017-10-14T16:00:00+00:00

The skeletal remains of an American or Filipino soldier found when members of the 130th Infantry Guerrilla Force (Philippine Army) and an AFPAC Recovered Personnel Field Team entered the Davao Penal Colony in May 1945. Approximately seventy-five unburied bodies in varying stages of decay were found on the evacuated facility, which the Imperial Army had turned into a POW camp. ​ U.S. Army

An astonished Engineering Intelligence Division geologist, William Putnam, working under MacArthur’s chief engineer, Maj. Gen. Hugh J. Casey, blurted out the obvious to a planning staff colonel who had asked his opinion of Miyazaki Beach targeted by I Corps. Pointing to the close-set contour lines on a terrain map, he incredulously replied, “That’s a cliff, C-L-I-F-F,” and stated flatly that anyone sending landing craft ashore there was a “murderer.” 8 Likewise, the commander of the 931st Engineer Construction Group (Aviation), Col. John H. Dudley, was initially chagrined to find that his engineers were landing with the second invasion echelon, a delay that could have serious repercussions for troops in desperate need of close air support. A close examination of the operational plans, however, quickly revealed that the second landing force was assigned the exact same objectives as the first. “It was clear to me then,” said Dudley. “They expected the first echelon to be wiped out.” 9 Long after the war, a comprehensive Marine examination of the opposing forces, terrain, and operational plans concluded that “V Amphibious Corps would likely have expended itself trying to reach its two primary objectives, Sendai to the north and Kagoshima to the east.” 10 Use of the words “trying to reach” instead of “reaching” was not likely by accident.

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