18 MARCH 1945 - CENTRAL VISAYAS CAMPAIGN BEGINS - #WWII
After attacking Palawan and Mindanao, General MacArthur directed the capture of the now-isolated Central Visayas, or Visayan islands, of Panay, Negros, Cebu, and Bohol.
While Filipino guerrillas controlled much of the countryside, 30,000 Japanese troops held the vital coastal town. Beyond his immediate objective to liberate the Philippines, the two ports were to be important staging areas for the expected invasion of Japan.
The four islands were in close geographical proximity, but the high mountain range that ran north-south down Negros divided the region into two areas of operations, code named VICTOR I and VICTOR II.
After more than two weeks of air attacks on Japanese positions, the 185th Infantry, 40th Division, landed on Panay just west of Iloilo on 18 March and linked up with Filipino guerillas who had already secured much of the island.
The 40th Division quickly swept through the remaining Japanese outposts and then drove the enemy from the city in two days. The Japanese withdrew into the thick mountain jungle. Mopping operations lasted until the last 1,500 Japanese surrendered at the end of the war.
On 20 March, the same day that Iloilo fell, other 40th Division units seized Guimaras Island in the strait separating Panay from Negros and the following day took nearby Inampulugan. The next phase of liberating the Central Visayans was set for 26 March.
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The main thrust of the OIF ground assault burst forth from Kuwait, with the I MEF striking northwards while the U.S. Army’s V Corps swung northwest to towards the lower Euphrates Valley.
The 3rd ID led the charge, breaching an earthen berm on the border and blitzing about 90 miles northwards to seize the enemy airbase at Tallil by 22 MAR. 3rd ID elements secured critical Euphrates River crossings and reached As Samawah, 130 miles away from Kuwait.
By 23 MAR, the 101st ABD was conducting attack helicopter assaults which penetrated as far as Baghdad. Special Forces units attached to Task Force Viking and Task Force Dagger penetrated Iraq from the northeast and southwest during these early days of OIF. #Armyhistory#USArmy
19 MARCH 2003 – OPN IRAQI FREEDOM AIR CAMPAIGN BEGINS -20th ANNIVERSARY
“My fellow citizens, at this hour, American and coalition forces are in the early stages of military operations to disarm Iraq, to free its people and to defend the world from grave danger.”
– Pres. G.W. Bush
On 19 MAR 2003, Pres. Bush declared Operation IRAQI FREEDOM (OIF), a U.S.-led invasion of Iraq with the goal of deposing Saddam Hussein’s decades-old despotic regime and eliminating its capacity to create or utilize weapons of mass destruction. #USArmy#TRADOC#IraqWar@USArmy
Operation IRAQI FREEDOM, the military intervention to liberate Iraq from Saddam Hussein’s dictatorial regime, began on 19 MAR 2003 and was the culmination of months of planning and international negotiation. #IraqWar
A 46-strong coalition of the willing was assembled under U.S.-leadership. Four countries (the U.S., the U.K., Australia, and Poland) committed combat troops to the initial invasion. The U.S. Army contributed 50% of the deployed personnel utilized in the campaign. #Armyhistory
The most of the ~230,000 U.S. Army soldiers were deployed under V Corps, which organized itself in Kuwait and included the 3rd ID, the 4th ID, the 82nd ABD, and the 101st ABD. V Corps and the I MEF would thrust northwest from Kuwait into Iraq at the start of OIF. @USArmy@TRADOC
17 MARCH 1862 - PENINSULA CAMPAIGN BEGINS - #CivilWar
The U.S. Army of the Potomac began sailing from Alexandria to Fort Monroe, VA. This marked the beginning the Peninsula Campaign in which as many as 155,000 U.S. Army and 95,500 rebel soldiers participated.
The commander of the U.S. Army of the Potomac, Maj Gen McClellan, planned the campaign with the objective of capturing the Confederate capital at Richmond. McClellan's army gathered strength and supplies before advancing up the Peninsula between the York toward Richmond in April.
In the meantime, many slaves escaped bondage and sought refuge at the U.S. Army's Fortress Monroe, then commanded by Major General Benjamin Butler. Under the Confiscation Act, anything of use to the enemy's war effort could be confiscated as "contraband of war."
After the Massachusetts militia surrounded the British occupied city of Boston in April 1775 the provincial government established the New England Army of Observation.
The Continental Congress adopted that force and established the Continental Army, with Gen Washington appointed as commander in chief, in June. In the meantime, the Battle of Bunker Hill was fought on 17 June, which proved to be the only major engagement of the prolonged siege.
Washington traveled to Cambridge where he took formal command of the besieging army on 3 July 1775 and devoted the next several months to building and organizing the American force, and solving its severe logistical difficulties.
Between 1802 and 1882 Congress authorized the Army to hire laundresses. The women, who were the wives of enlisted men, received official rations. Their pay, however, came from the soldiers for whom they worked.
During the Civil War the Army hired thousands of women as nurses, cooks, matrons, laundresses, seamstresses, and waitresses. Many of these were African Americans who either had escaped from slavery or been liberated by the Army.
Some of the nurses served in field hospitals and came under enemy fire. As in the Revolutionary War, a few women disguised themselves as men and served in combat.