| Kaoschallenged | 17 Dec 2013 8:00 p.m. PST |
"The Tachibana Maru was the only Japanese ship captured under sail by the U.S. Navy during World War II. Harry Allcroft was aboard the destroyer that helped capture her 57 years ago. The 78-year old Port Charlotte man was a 2nd class motor machinist mate aboard the USS Conner, DD-582. Early in the morning of Aug. 1, 1945, the 279-foot hospital ship smuggling 29 tons of weapons and ammunition and 1,663 Japanese soldiers bandaged to look like injured troops, was straddled by the Conner and the USS Charrette, DD-581, in the Banda Sea in the Southwest Pacific."
link link |
| Sundance | 17 Dec 2013 8:08 p.m. PST |
Very cool. I was unaware that we had captured any Japanese ships on the high seas. |
| CampyF | 18 Dec 2013 6:22 a.m. PST |
I'm surprised the soldiers let themselves be captured. |
| HistoryPhD | 18 Dec 2013 7:40 a.m. PST |
Interesting. After reading it, I tried to look up the Morica Island mentioned, but the only one that comes up is in Latvia. Anyone know what the intended island is called today? |
| Eclectic Wave | 18 Dec 2013 7:42 a.m. PST |
It doesn't surprise me that they let themselves be captured. They had no officers, and your average Japanese soldier did nothing without a order from a officer. Oh sure they had fanatical devotion to their officers, but that goes hand in hand with being dependent on said officers for doing pretty much anything. |
| cwbuff | 18 Dec 2013 1:26 p.m. PST |
You find the neatest things. Thanks again. |
| Durrati | 18 Dec 2013 2:51 p.m. PST |
Hm, not sure that I would describe Japanese soldiers being devoted to their officers – fanatically or otherwise. Discipline in the Japanese army ranged from horrific, to at the touchy feely end merely brutal. Such treatment does not tend to inspire devotion. |
| Murvihill | 20 Dec 2013 11:18 a.m. PST |
As I understand it the Japanese were also imbued with a sense of fatalism that would give them a higher tolerance for brutality both for or against them than a westerner. After all, being mistreated and killed in some far corner of the world was their fate… |
| Robert Kennedy | 20 Dec 2013 4:47 p.m. PST |
Most welcome cwbuff. I like these little nuggets. and HistoryPhD my Google-fu is weak also.No luck yet. Robert |
| Robert Kennedy | 23 Dec 2013 3:36 p.m. PST |
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| Robert Kennedy | 26 Dec 2013 9:53 p.m. PST |
Report on Japanese Hospital Ship TACHIBANA MARU.
link |
experiments to find a better way to mount aircraft for wargaming.
