Cam across this statement in Encyclopedia of Tanks "Some sources claim that, off the coast of Leyte, USMC LVTs attacked and destroyed some Ka-Mi's". Can anyone give any details? regards Keith
Actually the claim was that this was done by US Army LVT-1's. A number of sources say the claim is highly doubtful, as the Ka-Mi's were accounted for as being destroyed ashore. Another thing that makes me question it is that they misidentify the American tracks involved as LVT-1's. The Army never used the LVT-1, they did use the LVT(A)-1, a totally different beast, which would make sense because it has the turret of an M-3 Stuart and it's 37mm AT gun. No tracker woul;d screw that up, and no historian that knew tracks would. LVT-1 LVT(A)-1
Cheers, chum I did wonder how tanks would cope firing at each other while floating under power ;-) The US Army seems to get a raw deal in most accounts of the Pacific. There's lots on USMC exploits and quite a lot of misidentification of Army soldiers as Marines. Yet all the great works of fiction "The Naked and the dead", "The Thin Red Line" and "From here to eternity" are about Army units.... Catching up on my US Army references now, especially the much-maligned 27th ID.
Maybe much-maligned, but from what I've read it was pretty much deserved. Part of the problem was it was a pre-war National Guard division and during the pre-war years it was more of a social club. These close pre-war relationships led to ineffective NCO's and officers being retained due to the good ole' boy network. The US Army actually had reservations about their (27th Divisions) training, preparedness and probable combat efficiency prior to the Makin operation.
I know that there were quite a lot of factors involved in determining how good or bad the 27th was. Certainly losing drafts of the more experienced Ncos and other ranks to other divisions before they even entered combat can't have helped. From what I have read the senior staff officers were a very mixed bag and distanced themselves from their men. They were also lazy and slapdash in their planning. Unfortunate when they were thrown into battle at Saipan and Okinawa. The men however, faced with determined Japanese resistance in well prepared positions, fought with great courage. Of course it also seems Holland Smith was not a good General .....
The old Smith vs Smith controversy. Ralph Smith lived a long time and was sharp to the end. This argument cost Holland Smith his postwar career. Not a whole lot was written about it. The senior staff officer problem was real. It has been noted that a lot of the National Guard units had older personnel at the higher levels. I think all of the Guard units had this at first. The 27th having been one of the first Army divisions in Hawaii, meant they kept these officers in place. A lot of NG divisions replaced these older officers before combat, the 27th did not. I have a 105th Lt. Colonel's uniform, he was a WWI vet and served until the end of the war. LVTs did not have enough firepower in the army version. The Marine version did. Still a bit of a stretch.
