TODAY IN MILITARY HISTORY
23 October
◆1739 War of Jenkins' Ear begins: Britain against Spain.
◆1775 - Continental Congress approved a resolution barring blacks from army.
◆1861 President Abraham Lincoln suspended the writ of habeas corpus in Washington, D.C. for all military-related cases.
◆1863 General Grant arrived at Chattanooga and assumed command from General GeorgeThomas..
◆1864 Forces led by Union Gen. Samuel R. Curtis defeated Confederate Gen. Stirling Price's army in Missouri.
◆1917 The 1st Infantry division, "Big Red One," fired the 1st US shot in WW I. This morning the first American shell of the war was sent screaming toward German lines by a First Division artillery unit.
◆1918 President Wilson felt satisfied that the Germans were accepting his armistice terms and agreed to transmit their request for an armistice to the Allies.The Germans had agreed to suspend submarine warfare, cease inhumane practices such as the use of poison gas, and withdraw troops back into Germany.
◆1918 By the 22nd of the month III and V Corps had secured the Bois de Foret and Bois des Rappes and had pushed to the northern and western limits of the Bois de Bantheville. First Army prepares for final assault on Sedan.
◆1942 In preparation for Operation Torch, British General Clark lands in Algeria for discussion with French General Mast and Robert Murphy, an American diplomat. Murphy has been conducting the negotiations with the French leaders in Morocco and Algeria concerning the coming invasion. French Generals Mast and Bethourart, Chiefs of Staff at Algiers and Casablanca have given their support. However, support of the Allies is less prevalent with the more senior French officials and soldiers. It is nonexistent with the Navy, who have not forgiven the British for the bombings of French ships at Mers-el-Kebir and Dakar. The purpose of this particular meeting is to ensure the cooperation of General Mast with the allied effort and to gain his acceptance of French General Giraud as the French leader. Mast agrees.
◆1942 The Western Task Force, destined for North Africa, departed from Hampton Roads, Virginia. The command of the Western Task Force, part of an invasion of North Africa during World War II known as Operation Torch, was given to General George Patton. Placed under the command of General George Patton, the Western Task Force had the advantage of having a man at the top who would stop at nothing to see that the mission was accomplished, a quality that would be needed in the days ahead. Naval operations were in the hands of Rear Adm. H. Kent Hewitt, an easygoing man who, in the beginning, found it difficult to work with Patton, but with increasing familiarity became a solid partner.
◆1942 4th Marine Raider Battalion organized at Camp Joseph H. Pendleton, Oceanside, CA. Bn. composed of HQ, A, B and C Companies.
◆1943 In Italy, a British division of Gen. Mark Clark's 5th Army takes Sparanise, a town adjacent to the ancient Roman Appian Way, and nears the Germans' Barbara defense line, 95 miles south of Rome.
◆1944 In the Philippines the Battle of Leyte Gulf began. The US 1st Cavalry Division (part of US 10th Corps) attacks northwest form Toclaban. To the right, armored forces attached to 7th Division (part of US 24th Corps) capture Burauen. At sea, the Japanese Center Force (Kurita) is sited off Palawan by two American submarines. The Japanese lose 2 cruisers to the submarines and sink 1 American submarine. The report of the sighting, however, alerts the three groups of Task Force 38, east of the Philippines.
◆1944 Troops of the US 5th Army capture Monte Salvaro, Italy.
◆1944 The 1st Battalion, 141st Infantry, 36th Infantry Division (TX), soon known as the “Lost Battalion” was cut off on top of a hill by German infantry and armored forces. After six days of stemming repeated enemy attacks and suffering extremely high losses and with ammunition, food and water running out, the battalion was relieved by the other two battalions of the 141st along with the famed 442nd Regimental Combat Team made up of Japanese-Americans.
◆1950 Communist troops massacred 68 American POWs in the Sunchon tunnel. A 1st Cavalry Division force under the command of Brigadier General Frank A. Allen rescued 21 survivors.
◆1954 In Paris, an agreement was signed providing for West German sovereignty and permitting West Germany to rearm and enter NATO and the Western European Union. Britain, England, France and USSR agreed to end occupation of Germany.
◆1983 A truck filled with explosives, driven by a Moslem suicide terrorist, crashed into the U.S. Marine barracks near the Beirut International Airport in Lebanon. The bomb killed 241 Marines and sailors and injured 80. Almost simultaneously, a similar incident occurred at French military headquarters, where 58 died and 15 were injured. Hezbollah leader Imad Mughniyeh was suspected of involvement. They were part of a contingent of 1,800 Marines that had been sent to Lebanon as part of a multinational force to help separate the warring Lebanese factions. Twice during the early 1980s the U.S. had deployed troops to Lebanon to deal with the fall-out from the 1982 Israeli invasion. In the first deployment, Marines helped oversee the peaceful withdrawal of the PLO from Beirut. In mid-September 1982 -- after the U.S. troops had left -- Israel's Lebanese allies massacred an estimated 800 unarmed Palestinian civilians remaining in refugee camps. Following this, 1,800 Marines had been ordered back into Lebanon. The president assembled his national security team to devise a plan of military action. The planned target was the Sheik Abdullah barracks in Baalbek, Lebanon, which housed Iranian Revolutionary Guards believed to be training Hezbollah fighters. Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger aborted the mission, reportedly because of his concerns that it would harm U.S. relations with other Arab nations. Instead, President Reagan ordered the battleship USS New Jersey, stationed off the coast of Lebanon, to the hills near Beirut. The move was seen as largely ineffective. Four months after the Marine barracks bombing, U.S. Marines were ordered to start pulling out of Lebanon.
◆1983 Operation Urgent Fury (Grenada, West Indies) begins. The State Department sent Ambassador Francis J. McNeill to meet with representatives of the OECS, Jamaica, and Barbados in Bridgetown, Barbados, and assess their countries’ willingness to join peacekeeping operations. Admiral McDonald flew to Washington late in the evening to brief the JCS on the plan. Titled “Evacuation of US Citizens from Grenada,” it reflected the missions added to the estimate: restoration of a democratic government in concert with the OECS, Jamaica, and Barbados; logistical support for US allies; and deterrence of Cuban intervention. Thre were several operational problems in ADM McDonald’s concept of operations which stemmed from the makeup of his and VADM Metcalf’s headquarters. Both organizations were “bluewater commands” overwhelmingly made up of naval officers. Atlantic Command lacked the Army and Air Force staff officers needed to plan the maneuver and tactical air support of several battalions of ground troops. To remedy that deficiency, this night, the JCS ordered MG Schwarzkopf, Commanding General of the 24th Mechanized Infantry Division, to report to VADM Metcalf at Norfolk to serve as Metcalf’s adviser on ground operations. Two of General Schwarzkopf’s superiors, Lieutenant General Jack V. Mackmull, USA, Commanding General, XVIII Airborne Corps, and General Richard E. Cavazos, USA, Commander in Chief, Forces Command, had recommended Schwarzkopf because of his extensive experience with airborne troops and Rangers and with Marines while assigned to a unified command.
◆1992 President Bush announced that Vietnam had agreed to turn over all materials in its possession related to U.S. personnel in the Vietnam War.
◆2001 A relieved NASA team celebrated as the 2001 Mars Odyssey slipped into orbit around the Red Planet, two years after back-to-back failures by Mars missions.
◆2001 US military officers were sent to the Philippines to assess how the US might help the local war against terrorism.
◆2001 The Irish Republican Army (IRA) began to destroy its arsenal of weapons in a move to save the Northern Ireland peace process.
◆2003 Madame Chiang Kai-shek (105), who became one of the world's most famous women as she helped her husband fight the Japanese during World War II and later the Chinese Communists, died in NYC.