WWII blunders
On Feb. 28 evening, Channel 13 was showing the Allied invasion off the coast of France, June 6, 1944. I cannot believe that our tanks were cast off three miles from the coast. We lost about 30 tanks that sank before they reached the coast. Our men didn’t have much protection. The British, further north, waited till they were near the coast before they cast off their tanks. They lost a lot less men as the Americans. Why did we cast off so far? Three miles are a long way in water.
I was in the southwest Pacific in World War II, for 35 months; serving in New Guinea and the Philippines. I cannot forget some of the blunders we made. In Saidor, New Guinea, on the night of April 6, 1944, a Japanese airplane flew in low and dropped bombs on us.
We lost 19 men and 17 were wounded. I was one of the wounded. We had a small light where meals were prepared. Later on in the Philippines, we made a few more blunders.
Pat F. Guariglis
Vanderbilt