On this day 24 Oct 1944. Musashi Meets the Carrier Air Wings. During the battle of leyte gulf the Yamato's sister ship, armed with the llargest guns ever fitted to a warship, absorbed wave after wave of US carrier aircraft. Torpedo/bomb hit counts are disputed (US battle narratives ~19 torpedo + 17 bomb hits; Japanese accounts ~11 torpedo + 10 bomb). She sank that evening with more than 1,000 of her crew.

At 00:16 on October 23, 1944, USS Darter (SS-227) made radar contact with Vice Admiral Takeo Kurita's Centre Force of 5 battleships, 10 heavy cruisers, 2 light cruisers and 15 destroyers, the most powerful surface force Japan still possessed was steaming toward the Sibuyan Sea. Darter and her companion USS Dace coordinated a dawn torpedo attack: Darter put four torpedoes into the heavy cruiser Atago, Kurita's own flagship, sinking her in 18 minutes and forcing Kurita into the water. Dace sank the heavy cruiser Maya with four more torpedoes. A fifth cruiser, Takao, was so badly damaged she withdrew. Both submarines transmitted contact reports that gave Halsey and Kinkaid their first warning. Over the next three days what is known as the Battle of Leyte Gulf happens. Which is the largest naval battle in history by ships involved,

Well I guess I am an author as well now 😬. Check out my first steps into fantasy publishing hope you enjoy.🫵 amzn.eu/d/0bO2SO6C

#OnThisDay 1962 At 19:00 EST on October 22, 1962, President John F. Kennedy delivered an 18-minute television address from the Oval Office. He told a stunned American public and the world that the Soviet Union had secretly installed nuclear missiles in Cuba capable of striking most of the Western Hemisphere. Kennedy announced a naval 'quarantine' of Cuba, carefully avoiding the word 'blockade,' which under international law constitutes an act of war and demanded the removal of all Soviet missiles. He had already placed US forces at DEFCON 3 and alerted Strategic Air Command; B-52 bombers went to continuous airborne alert. Soviet ships carrying additional missiles were steaming toward the quarantine line. For the next six days, the world held its breath as the two superpowers faced each other across 500 miles of open ocean. #ColdWar #NavalHistory #MilitaryHistory #CubanMissileCrisis #Kennedy #NavalQuarantine #DEFCON #NuclearWar

Don't judge your company by what it does when things go right, judge them on how they react when things go wrong. Aberfan - never forget.

#OnThisDay 1944 At 12:05 on October 21, 1944, Oberst Gerhard Wilc, commander of the Aachen garrison, surrendered to US forces after nine days of brutal urban combat. Aachen, once Charlemagne's imperial capital, was the first major German city captured by the Western Allies. The 30th and 1st Infantry Divisions of US VII Corps had encircled the city on October 16 and fought street-by-street against determined SS and Wehrmacht defenders ordered by Hitler to hold to the last man. The defenders had converted every cellar into a bunker, every window into a firing position. Artillery and aircraft could barely be used for fear of friendly fire. When the battle ended, 5,000 German soldiers were captured; the city was 65% destroyed. 'Unser Aachen' — 'our Aachen' — Nazi propaganda had declared it would never fall. It just did. #WWII #MilitaryHistory #Aachen #Germany1944 #USArmy #30thInfDiv #1stInfDiv #WesternFront

#OnThisDay 1944 At approximately 13:00 on October 20, 1944, General Douglas MacArthur waded ashore at Red Beach near Palo on Leyte Island in the Philippines. Fulfilling the promise he had made when abandoning the Philippines in March 1942. Behind him, 200,000 Allied troops were landing across four beaches, supported by over 700 ships of Vice Admiral Thomas Kinkaid's Seventh Fleet and covered overhead by aircraft of the Fifth Air Force. MacArthur broadcast from the beach: 'People of the Philippines: I have returned. By the grace of Almighty God, our forces stand again on Philippine soil.' The landing triggered Japan's most desperate response: the Battle of Leyte Gulf. The largest naval battle in history which would begin within three days, committing Japan's remaining fleet in a final all-or-nothing attempt to destroy the invasion force. #WWII #NavalHistory #PacificWar #MilitaryHistory #MacArthur #Philippines #LeyteGulf #IHaveReturned

Hi everyone check out my latest YouTube video on the history and life of the mighty F16 Viper. youtu.be/9Xp8KLkWgoc

#OnThisDay 1950 On the night of October 19, 1950, the Chinese People's Volunteer Army began crossing the Yalu River into North Korea in the largest covert military movement of the Cold War. Eighteen divisions, that's approximately 260,000 troops crossed over two weeks. Marching only at night, maintaining strict radio silence, hiding under cover of forest during daylight, with all vehicle headlights extinguished. American aerial reconnaissance, focused on the retreating North Korean Army, failed to detect the movement. MacArthur's intelligence chief, Major General Charles Willoughby, reported that Chinese intervention remained unlikely even as UN forces advanced toward the Yalu. When Chinese forces struck UN positions on October 25, the shock was total it triggering the longest retreat in US Army history as 18 understrength US and ROK divisions were driven back 275 miles in bitter winter fighting. #ColdWar #KoreanWar #MilitaryHistory #China #YaluRiver #MacArthur #PeoplesVolunteerArmy #Korea1950

#OnThisDay 1944 On October 18, 1944 on the anniversary of the Battle of the Nations at Leipzig in 1813. Where a coalition of European powers had defeated Napoleon, Heinrich Himmler formally proclaimed the Volkssturm. The German national militia that would conscript all remaining males aged 16 to 60 not already in military service. Goebbels organised the propaganda spectacle; Himmler commanded it. Armed primarily with Panzerfaust anti-tank rockets and obsolete rifles. With no uniforms beyond an armband, the Volkssturm represented Germany's absolute final manpower reserve. An estimated one million men were eventually enrolled. Many were thrown into combat with minimal training and suffered appalling casualties. Military professionals regarded it with despair: it would cost lives without changing outcomes. Soldiers who surrendered wearing only an armband risk #WWII #MilitaryHistory #Volkssturm #Germany1944 #Himmler #LastStand #WW2Germany #WesternFront

#OnThisDay 1941 At approximately 01:30 on October 17, 1941, fourteen months before America formally entered World War II the USS Kearny (DD-432) was torpedoed by German submarine U-568. This happened while escorting convoy SC-48 south of Iceland. The torpedo struck the starboard engine room; eleven sailors were killed the first US Navy personnel to die in combat in World War II. Kearny survived, making Iceland under her own power. President Roosevelt immediately used the incident in a Fireside Chat: 'America has been attacked. The USS Kearny is not just a Navy ship. She belongs to every man, woman and child in this Nation.' He did not disclose that the destroyer had been tracking the U-boat and had dropped depth charges before being torpedoed. Congress passed the Neutrality Act amendments weeks later, allowing American ships to arm and enter war zones. #WWII #NavalHistory #MilitaryHistory #USSKearny #BattleOfAtlantic #Neutrality #UBoat #PrePearlHarbor

#OnThisDay 1962 At 08:45 on October 16, 1962, CIA analyst Arthur Lundahl briefed National Security Advisor McGeorge Bundy with photographs taken by U-2 pilot Major Richard Heyser on October 14 over Cuba. Clear evidence of Soviet SS-4 Sandal medium-range ballistic missile sites under construction near San Cristóbal. Kennedy was briefed immediately. By 11:50, the Executive Committee of the National Security Council (ExComm) had convened its first meeting. Kennedy's advisors divided between an air strike to destroy the sites and a naval blockade (officially termed 'quarantine' to avoid the legal connotations of blockade). The 13-day crisis that followed, during which both sides had nuclear weapons on hair-trigger alert, is the closest humanity has come to nuclear war. The U-2 photographs that started it are among the most consequential aerial reconnaissance images ever taken. #ColdWar #MilitaryHistory #CubanMissileCrisis #U2SpyPlane #Kennedy #ExComm #NuclearWar #1962

#OnThisDay 1944 At 13:00 on October 15, 1944, Hungarian Regent Admiral Miklós Horthy broadcast an announcement that Hungary was seeking an armistice with the Soviet Union. This was Hungary's second attempt to exit the Axis after Romania had switched sides in August. The Germans had anticipated the move. SS-Obersturmbannführer Otto Skorzeny, fresh from the Gran Sasso rescue, had already kidnapped Horthy's son Miklós Jr as a hostage (wrapping him in a carpet and shipping him to Germany). Within hours, Skorzeny's paratroopers seized the Budapest citadel. Horthy was arrested, forced to rescind his armistice proclamation, and deported to Bavaria. The fascist Arrow Cross movement was installed in power. Hungary remained an Axis belligerent until April 1945, condemning hundreds of thousands of Hungarian Jews to deportation to Auschwitz. #WWII #MilitaryHistory #Hungary #OperationPanzerfaust #Skorzeny #Horthy #ArrowCross #WW2Eastern