May 2, 1944 - Tuesday - 80 years ago today

Status - John Skinner - USS Daly: 

USS Daly (DD-519) -New Guinea 

April 29th:  Patrolling continued in the Hollandia area for most of the day; in the evening Daly joined with other ships and moved west in formation.  Temperatures 80s, light winds.

April 30th:  A cruiser-destroyer group including Daly has moved up to the next invasion target on the New Guinea coast, the Wakde area, to execute a bombardment.  What the US forces referred to as Wakde was a large island Insoemoar, and a small island nearby.  These islands were about 130 miles west of Hollandia, just off the New Guinea coast.  Bombardment of the islands was done in the early morning, with patrols nearby continuing during the day, and return to Hollandia in the evening.  Temperatures 80s, light winds.

May 1st: Patrolling around Humboldt Bay near Hollandia all day.  Temperatures 80s, light winds.

May 2nd: Again patrolling at Humboldt Bay, New Guinea, all day. Temperatures 80s, light winds.

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Fighting in New Guinea would continue for many weeks at several areas along the coast including Aitape, Wewak, and Hollandia.  Japanese forces had been successfully separated, and suffered significant losses without being able to consolidate. 

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In the Central Pacific, an attack on Truk (Chuuk) Lagoon is made by a US carrier force; only a few ships remain and so not many are sunk, but most of the remaining Japanese aircraft there are destroyed. Bombardments continue in areas of the Caroline Islands while preparations continue for the Marianas invasion.

Fighting continues in Italy at Anzio and at Monte Cassino.

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More Information:

• Official Navy Chronology, pp. 476-478. 
• New Guinea and the Marianas, Samuel Eliot Morison, pp. 58-96, 157-169.
• War at the End of the World, James P. Duffy, pp, 281-306.
  
• Events of April, 1944 
• Events of May, 1944
  
• Logbooks of the US Navy at the National Archives, USS Daly, DD-519, April 1944
• Logbooks of the US Navy at the National Archives, USS Daly, DD-519, May 1944

NEXT POST:  MAY 6TH

 

 

 

 

 

May 2, 1864 - Monday - 160 years ago today

Status - John Baer - 40th Indiana Regiment - Howard's Corps - Newton's Division - Wagner's Brigade

Newton's Second Division is at Cleveland, TN on April 30, and the next day is ordered to advance to Catoosa Springs, GA where they will be near the front line of General Thomas's center Army of the Cumberland.  They have only to wait for General Schofield's troops to arrive at Cleveland before moving forward.  The first march is made at midnight on the night of May 2nd.

Elsewhere the scramble continues to move all of the armies forward to their positions for the start of the campaign on May 5th.  Schofield's left wing is moving up to Cleveland as Howard's corps joins Thomas in the center.  The right wing is coming from several areas and moving to consolidate at Rossville, GA, just south of the Tennessee line, by the 5th, before moving forward.

More Information:

• Link: War Operations, see Volume XXXII, Chapter XLIV, Part III, Correspondence, pp. 532-573. 
• Link: War Operations, see Volume XXXVIII, Chapter L, Part IV, Correspondence, pp. 1-19.
  
• The Civil War Day by Day, John S. Bowman, Ed. pp. 151-153.
• The Civil War, A Narrative, Vol 1II, Red River to Appomattox, Shelby Foote, pp. 318-323.
• Battles and Leaders of the Civil War, Retreat With Honor, pp. 293-294
  
• Decision In The West, The Atlanta Campaign of 1864, Albert Castel, pp, 104-123.
• Personal Memoirs of U. S. Grant, pp. 485-499.
• Memoirs of General William T. Sherman, pp. 396-495.
  
• Events: 1864
  

NEXT POST:  MAY 6TH