Podcasts about Humboldt Bay

A new study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) warns that when we experience the next Cascadia subduction zone earthquake, land near the coast may rise or fall significantly over a short period of time—think +/-5 feet in five minutes. If it falls, it could significantly expose new parts of our coast to sea level rise and coastal flooding. Check out the coverage from the Lost Coast Outpost or read the study yourself.Dr. Jay Patton of the California Geological Survey joins the show to discuss why land may suddenly jump or fall, the archeological evidence of past earthquake-driven subsidence, and the consequences of such a sudden shift. Want to be prepared for the big one? Check out "Living on Shaky Ground" for advice on how to get ready to rumble.Support the show

What's the difference between a strike-slip fault and a subduction zone? Can a local 7.0-magnitude earthquake? And what on earth was going on with all that weird footage of Humboldt Bay last week, in the wake of the quake?Jay Patton, of Cal Poly Humboldt's geology department, is here to talk us through it all. Check out his blog here.Support the show

The industrial legacy of the 20th Century left many contaminated sites around Humboldt Bay. Our second special episode on communities at risk from sea level rise features local residents talking about several of the most vulnerable sites, including Tuluwat Island, Butcher Slough in Arcata, and the nuclear waste storage site above King Salmon. Many thanks to Hilanea Wilkinson, Adam Canter, Jerry Rohde, Nate Faith, and to Jessie Eden, who produced this episode with funding provided by the California Coastal Commission Whale Tail Grant Program.   For more info:The 44 Feet Project Cal Poly Humboldt Sea Level Rise InstituteHumboldt Bay Shoreline, North Eureka to South Arcata: A History of Cultural Influences - Jerry RohdeHumboldt Bay King Tide Photo Project - Humboldt WaterkeeperSupport the show

Join us for episode #1 of our special series on communities at risk from sea level rise featuring local residents who share their thoughts on the challenges and potential solutions facing our region. Many thanks to Marnie Atkins, Jerry Rohde, Nate Faith, Troy Nicolini, Adam Canter, and to Jessie Eden, who produced this episode with funding provided by the California Coastal Commission Whale Tail Grant Program.  For more info: Cal Poly Humboldt Sea Level Rise InstituteCommunities at Risk: King Salmon, Fields Landing, Fairhaven and Finntown - Aldaron LairdHumboldt Bay Shoreline, North Eureka to South Arcata: A History of Cultural Influences - Jerry RohdeHumboldt Bay King Tide Photo Project - Humboldt WaterkeeperSupport the show

In this episode of The Real ResQ Podcast, host Jason Quinn is joined by Tony Puglia, U.S. Coast Guard Rescue Swimmer #499. Puglia and Quinn graduated together from the U.S. Coast Guard Rescue Swimmer “A” School, Class 10-00. In this episode, they catch up and reflect on Puglia's impressive career in the USCG. Starting at his first unit post-swimmer school in Hawaii, Puglia shares the story of his first rescue, where he had to perform CPR on a victim in the water. We also touch on his end-of-tour Letter of Commendation, which highlights his role in saving 14 lives. Moving to his next unit in Humboldt Bay, California, Puglia recalls a dramatic rescue of three fishermen who were swept out to sea by powerful currents, as well as a rescue involving two men on a sailboat that capsized right next to him. Next, we dive into his time at HITRON in Jacksonville, Florida, where he encountered some unique challenges, including discovering a semi-submersible vessel loaded with contraband and a thrilling pursuit that ended with the engines of a "go-fast" boat being shot out. Puglia then takes us back to Hawaii, where he earned an Achievement Medal and was involved in multiple rescues. One standout was saving three fishermen whose boat capsized and drifted out to sea, earning him a Letter of Commendation for rescuing eight survivors from a sunken vessel. Finally, we wrap up Puglia's last assignment in Sitka, Alaska, where he conducted numerous rescues. He discusses a particularly noteworthy rescue that earned him another Letter of Commendation, as well as his third and fourth Coast Guard Achievement Medals. He also talks about a significant plane crash that garnered major news attention and shares the story of his final rescue mission before retiring. Enjoy!   This episode is powered by Vertical HeliCASTS. Thank you for sponsoring this episode of The Real ResQ: Axnes, Bluedrop, Breeze-Eastern, Ready Swimmer and Spectorlab. Follow The Real ResQ on Facebook and Instagram and listen on Vertical Helicasts. Plus, get your podcast gear at therealresqstore.com.

Northcoastoffshorewind.org is a new website designed to provide objective answers to some of the most frequently asked questions about offshore wind with links to primary sources.On this week's show, Matt Simmons of EPIC and Jen Kalt of Humboldt Waterkeeper answer the top 10 most frequent questions that we get about offshore wind. Want to learn about whales, birds, fish and more? Listen in or go to https://www.northcoastoffshorewind.org/.Support the Show.

In the third episode of Humboldt Waterkeeper's special series on communities at risk from sea level rise, we hear from long-time residents and relative newcomers who share their thoughts and concerns about sea level rise. We are also joined by Laurie Richmond of the Cal Poly Humboldt Sea Level Rise Institute, which is a network of academics, tribes, government agencies, NGOs, private consultants, and civic and community groups working to envision the future of our region. How will we adapt to increased flooding and rising groundwater in low-lying areas? Whether we decide to protect certain areas, relocate critical facilities, or figure out how to live with rising water levels, major changes are on the horizon. The good news is that we have time to plan, and a lot of people are thinking deeply about these issues. Many thanks to Hilanea Wilkinson, Maurice Viand, Lia Stoffers, Weeramon Sudkrathok ("Cake"), Laurie Richmond, and to Jessie Eden, who produced this episode with funding provided by the California Coastal Commission Whale Tail Grant Program.   For more info:Cal Poly Humboldt Sea Level Rise Institute's Digital Commons (reports and publications on sea level rise)California's new Sea Level Rise Guidance Wiyot Tribe's Climate Adaptation PlanEpisode 1: Is Humboldt Bay the Canary in the Coal Mine for Sea Level Rise?Episode 2: Can We Clean Up Humboldt Bay Before the Sea Rises?Support the Show.

Last time we spoke about the Siege of Myitkyina. General Vinegar Joe made huge gains in northern Burma. Myitkyina's airstrip was taken, now the main town was under siege. The Japanese resistance around Kamaing was greatly reduced. However setbacks were also seen, such as the Chindits abandonment of the Blackpool stronghold, prompting Stiwell to toss a new attack at Mogaung. Likewise American officers embedded with the Chinese units were sending reports of how the Chinese were suffering very heavy casualties and utilizing far too much ammunition for their objectives. Regardless, it seemed the Ledo Road to China was going to pan out. Calvert chose a new stronghold location, this time at Lakum, where his Chindits faced heavy resistance. Over on New Guinea, the allies were advancing west of their new beachheads to assault Lone Tree Hill. Soon assaults against Arare and Biak would also be made. This episode is the Landing against Biak Welcome to the Pacific War Podcast Week by Week, I am your dutiful host Craig Watson. But, before we start I want to also remind you this podcast is only made possible through the efforts of Kings and Generals over at Youtube. Perhaps you want to learn more about world war two? Kings and Generals have an assortment of episodes on world war two and much more  so go give them a look over on Youtube. So please subscribe to Kings and Generals over at Youtube and to continue helping us produce this content please check out www.patreon.com/kingsandgenerals. If you are still hungry for some more history related content, over on my channel, the Pacific War Channel you can find a few videos all the way from the Opium Wars of the 1800's until the end of the Pacific War in 1945.  In the last episode, plans were made for an amphibious assault against Biak, yet there were some hiccups. The Hurricane Task Force staged at Humboldt Bay, were facing issues with terrain. Terrain considerations forced most of the task force to assemble on the southern of the two sand spits dividing Humboldt and Jautefa Bays. On this spit the beach had a steep slope which made it impossible for more than a very few LST's to be held against the shore line long enough to load bulk stores. The LST's had to beach on the northern spit, where clearing and salvage after the fires and explosions which had ravaged that beach during the early phases of the Hollandia operation had not been completed. In addition, the northern spit was being used to unload supplies destined to be used at Hollandia, to load supplies being sent to the Tornado Task Force at Wakde-Sarmi, and to unload cargo for the Hurricane Task Force. No road connected the northern and southern sandspits. Consequently, most of the supplies and equipment, as well as many of the troops, had to be transported by water from the southern to the northern loading area. There were only a few LCT's available for this work and only by working twenty-four hours a day, were all the troops and supplies transported to the loading beach in time for departure on the 25th.  Finally, General Fuller's task force would depart the bay on the evening of May 25th, covered by Admiral Fectheler's cruisers and destroyers. Taking the most direct route, the convoy would be able to arrive off Biak on the morning of May 27th. At the time, Biak was held by the Biak Detachment, under Colonel Kuzume Naoyoki. It consisted of the 222nd Regiment; the 19th Guard Unit; and some rear echelon, service, and construction units. There were 10000 IJA personnel, 4000 were combat troops in total and 2000 IJN personnel, 125 were combat troops in total. In view of the intense enemy concentration on the Sorido-Mokmer airfield sector, Colonel Kuzume decided on May 22nd to shift the operational center of gravity of the detachment to the west. The 1st Battalion, 222nd Infantry, was relieved of its mission in the sector east of Opiaref and sent to replace the naval garrison unit in the Bosnek sector. The naval troops were, in turn, shifted westward into the Sorido airfield sector, while the tank company was brought over from Arfak Saba and assembled in the area northwest of Mokmer airfield. Although most of the Japanese efforts had been directed to the construction of airfields, Kuzume had ably managed to build a system of strong cave positions.  In this amphitheater-like terrain and along the low ridge, both of which were covered with thick growth, the Biak Detachment emplaced many field artillery and antiaircraft weapons. There were also many automatic weapons and a few mortars. All these weapons were located within range of Mokmer Drome and most of them could also fire on Borokoe Drome. The key to Colonel Kuzume's defenses in this area was the West Caves area, located about 50 yards north of the low ridge and about 1200 yards north of the western end of Mokmer Drome. The West Caves were actually three large sumps, or depressions in the ground, which were connected by underground tunnels and caverns. The caves were ringed with pillboxes, bunkers, and foxholes, and an extensive system of coral and log emplacements was built along the spur ridge above Mokmer Drome. Biak naval headquarters was originally located in the West Caves, which could shelter 1000 men, and Colonel Kuzume planned to move Biak Detachment headquarters to the caves for the final defense of the airdromes. As long as the West Caves and the positions along the low ridge were occupied by the Japanese, Allied planes could not safely use the airfields. Chief of Staff of 2nd Area Army, Lieutenant-General Numata Takazo and Rear-Admiral Senda Sadatoshi, Commander of the 28th Special Base Force, with HQ at Manokwari had come to visit the garrison just as the Allies were preparing to invade, with Numata choosing to stay on the island to direct the battle alongside the resourceful Kuzume. Yet all of the Japanese at Biak were about to be caught with their pants down as many of their troops were scattered about the island. The Biak Detachment would not be in their defensive positions on Z Day but were apparently being held mobile. Detachment headquarters, the 1st Battalion of the 222nd Infantry about half of the 19th Naval Guard Unit, and miscellaneous service organizations were all located in a cave and garden area on the inland plateau about 3,000 yards north-northwest of Bosnek. Outposts at Saba and Opiaref were held by the 1st Company, 222nd Infantry, and a platoon of the 2nd Company was stationed along the main ridge behind Bosnek. The bulk of the 2nd Battalion, the rest of the naval guard unit, and some naval antiaircraft organizations were located at the East Caves. Naval headquarters, various naval service units, and the 6th Company, 222nd Infantry, were at the West Caves. Most of the army service units were at Mokmer Drome or disposed along the low ridge north of that field. The bulk of the 3rd Battalion was posted at the west end of the same airfield. One platoon of the 10th Company was at Sorido, guarding the southern terminus of a trail which led north across the island to Korim Bay. The tanks had not yet moved to Saba but were assembled on the terrace north of the eastern end of Mokmer Drome. On the morning of May 27, Fechteler carried out his naval fire support as planned and General Kenney's bombers also launched their air bombardment, receiving little answering fire from the surprised Japanese shore installations. Yet there was a westerly current off Biak that would push the transports over 3000 yards to the west, which would complicate the landings. A rocket-equipped LCI, which began firing on the beaches about H minus 4 minutes, led the first LVT wave toward the shore. The LCI fire, consisting of rockets and fire from automatic weapons, continued until H plus 2 minutes, when it was lifted because it began to endanger the troops who were unloading and pushing inland. The first waves of LVTs then formed rapidly and crossed the line of departure; but because of the westerly current and the smoke and dust raised by the preliminary bombardment, they would end up landing on a mangrove swamp almost 3000 yards west of Green Beach 4. Nevertheless, by 7:30, the 2nd Battalion, 186th Regiment had successfully landed and was pushing beyond the swamps to the main coastal road connecting Bosnek and the airfields. Five minutes later, Companies I and K of Colonel Newman's 186th Regiment also landed about 700 yards east of the 2nd Battalion. Realizing about the westerly current, Fechteler then started to turn succeeding waves eastward to the proper beaches, with the troops coming ashore in disorder for the next thirty minutes.  With more than half of his regiment already far west of the proper landing beaches, and knowing that the landing had become disorganized and that the rest of the boat waves were being delayed, Colonel Newman asked the task force commander if the 186th Regiment should continue with its original mission or whether it might be feasible to switch missions with the 162nd Regiment and start moving west toward the airfields. General Fuller, the Task Force commander, ordered the 186th Regiment to continue with its original mission. As events turned out, it might have been better had the regiment continued west, and it is possible that a great deal of time might have been saved if the missions had been switched. In the first place, the maps with which the task force was supplied were so inaccurate that both regiments soon came upon terrain features that threw much planning out of gear. Secondly, most of the 186th Regiment had landed so far west that both it and the 162nd consumed much valuable time getting to their proper locations. Finally, an exchange of missions might have been executed without much difficulty, for, in amphibious training, the 41st Division had learned to switch missions when such mistakes were made. Luckily, the landings would face no opposition, though the confusion would give Kuzume time to prepare his defense. By 8:00, the rest of Newman's 3rd Battalion had landed to secure the jetties; and by 10:30, Companies I and K arrived to take their position west of Old Jetty. Entangled with the landed artillery and tanks, the 2nd Battalion would only be able to reach the area east of New Jetty by noon, then sending patrols to the north and east to secure the Bosnek perimeter. The face of the coral ridge behind Bosnek was found to be rough and honeycombed with small caves. Companies F and G, aided by elements of the Support Battery, 542nd Engineer Boat and Shore Regiment, sent patrols along the steep slope and to the top of the ridge to investigate many of the caves, most of which proved to be unoccupied, though three Japanese were killed near caves directly north of New Jetty. The companies moved over the first slope to a second ridge line which was parallel to and about seventy-five yards north of the first. Company G started looking for a trail which was thought to lead over the ridges to the plateau north of Bosnek, but it was Company E which, shortly after noon, found the ill-defined track. A few Japanese from the 2nd Company, 222nd Regiment in a pillbox temporarily prevented the two companies from securing the trail, which was not cleared until 2:00 hours, after the pillbox had been destroyed. During the late afternoon, patrols were sent north of the ridges to the area which the Japanese had surveyed for an airdrome. A few Japanese , most of whom fled upon being sighted, were found at the airdrome site, but there were no signs of large organized enemy groups north, northeast, or east of Bosnek insofar as the 186th Infantry could ascertain. The only enemy action during this day would be an air attack by four Japanese bombers.  A few enemy planes which flew over Biak around noon fled before anti-aircraft guns from ship or shore could be brought to bear. But all anti-aircraft crews were on the alert to expect further Japanese air action late in the afternoon. Because of the difference in time of sunset at the closest Allied and Japanese bases, Japanese aircraft could remain in the Biak area about half an hour after Allied planes had to leave. The expected attacks developed shortly after 4:00, when four Japanese two-engined bombers, accompanied by three or four fighters, approached the beachhead from the north, flying low over the ridge behind Bosnek and thus escaping radar detection. Some excellent targets were ready for the Japanese. Admiral Fechteler had permitted four LST's to tie up side by side at one of the jetties. Although he knew this move to be tactically unsound, he considered it justified because of the importance of the cargo aboard the LST's and because the jetty provided the only good spot for LST beaching. The Japanese bombing was accurate, but the LST's were lucky. None of the Japanese bombs exploded! Though the Japanese planes also bombed and strafed the beaches, none of the bombs dropped ashore exploded, while the strafing runs killed only one man and wounded two others. All four bombers were shot down by ground or ship-based antiaircraft, and the Japanese fighters were driven off by some Allied fighter planes which had remained late in the area. One Japanese bomber crashed into the water, sideswiping an SC which was standing offshore. Two of the ship's crew were killed and nine wounded. The SC had to be towed away for repairs, and a few other naval vessels suffered minor damage from strafing. There was negligible damage to supplies and equipment ashore. Total Allied losses as a result of the air raid were three killed and fourteen wounded, most of them naval personnel. Unloading also progressed satisfactorily, with 12000 men, 12 medium tanks, 29 artillery pieces, about 500 vehicles, and an estimated 3000 tons of bulk cargo being landed by 5:15. Meanwhile, Colonel Haney's 162nd Regiment had begun landing shortly after 9:00 and immediately started moving west along the main coastal road towards Biak's three airdromes. Moving with speed, the 3rd Battalion passed through Ibdi village at 10:30 and then began to traverse the difficult Parai Defile. At 11:15, the regimental Intelligence and Reconnaissance Platoon discovered an enemy position on the face of the cliff west of Ibdi, that the 162nd Infantry first learned of the existence of the Parai Defile. At 1:00 the 3rd Battalion, with six tanks of the 603rd Tank Company leading the advance, arrived at the eastern entrance to the defile. There was no large Japanese force stationed along the cliff, but the few Japanese had such a tactical advantage over troops moving along the coastal road that they were able to delay the 162nd Infantry's advance for some time. Meanwhile Company E, which had been attempting to advance along the ridge north of the rest of the regiment, had found that the terrain and thick vegetation made progress along that route next to impossible. Since the company was lagging far behind the rest of the advance and since strong enemy opposition had not yet been encountered either inland or on the coastal route, it withdrew to join the rest of the 2nd Battalion on the beach, and by the time that battalion had reached Parai, Company E was back in place.  By 3:00, the 3rd Battalion had successfully pushed through the defile and had secured Parai and a large jetty at that village. Progress west of the Parai Defile was without noteworthy incident during the rest of the afternoon, so Haney's 2nd and 3rd Battalion would be able to dig in at Parai by nightfall. On the other side, Kuzume was surprised by the landings, but he was expecting the enemy to land exactly there, where the extreme narrowness of the beach and the few entrances inland would make deployment difficult. Deciding to seize this momentary advantage, he thus ordered his 1st and 3rd Battalions to carry out an attack all along the Bosnek beachhead during the night. On the 3rd Battalion front, after an unsuccessful raid against two batteries near Ibdi. Then the 3rd Battalion, 222nd Infantry , renewed the attack with grenades and rifle fire, some circling to the north around Battery C and a few others moving against Battery B, located 200 yards to the east. Attacks on Battery C continued until daylight, when the last Japanese withdrew. The action cost Battery C 4 men killed and 8 wounded, while a near-by antiaircraft detachment lost 1 man killed and 1 wounded. Over 15 of the enemy had been killed during the night and an unknown number wounded. The 1st Battalion also raided the beachhead, suffering many casualties as a result.  On the morning of May 28th, the 162nd then resumed its westward advance, with its 3rd Battalion rapidly proceeding through Mokmer village without opposition. By 9:30, however, the Americans began to face stiff resistance at a road junction nearly 1500 yards west of Mokmer. Supported by artillery, Company K would be able to push to within 200 yards of Mokmer Drome; yet Kuzume would rapidly counterattack them with his 2nd Battalion. Charging repeatedly, the Japanese would eventually force the Americans to pull back by noon, with Lieutenant Yokoyama Hideo dying heroically during these attacks. Emboldened by this success, Kuzume then launched an all out assault from the East Caves area. On the main ridge north of Mokmer the Japanese had another strongpoint east of the West Caves, which was called by the Japanese the East Caves. Behind Mokmer the ridge rose to a height of 240 feet. It was not so steep a cliff as the Parai Defile barricade, but it could not be climbed without the use of hands. About three quarters of the way to the top was a flat ledge from which two large caverns, similar to those in the West Caves area, could be entered. The Japanese constructed pillboxes on the ridge both below and above the ledge, and in the caverns they emplaced mortars, 20-mm. guns, and heavy machine guns. Observation posts were also set up at the East Caves, from which an unobstructed view of the coast from Parai to the west end of Mokmer Drome could be obtained. The Biak Detachment used the East Caves principally as living quarters, supply dumps, and as a connecting link between the Ibdi Pocket and the West Caves. Continued Japanese occupation of the East Caves would endanger Allied troop and supply movements along the coastal road from Parai to Mokmer Drome. The enemy threw more troops into the battle from the East Caves area until the attackers were coming not only from the west but also from the northwest and north. The Japanese split the 3rd Battalion by driving a wedge along the cliff between the troops on the shore and those on the terrace. Companies L and M were cut off. The 2nd Battalion, attempting to get on the terrace to the north of the 3rd Battalion, was pinned down by Japanese fire from the East Caves and was unable to advance. Company G, on the terrace north of the main road and between the 2nd and 3rd Battalions, was also cut off. In response to the attacks, Haney ordered the 1st Battalion to move north from Parai onto the main coastal ridge to outflank the enemy positions, but efforts to do so were halted by enemy fire from the East Caves. Two companies patrolled in the broken terrain along the main ridge but were unable to move westward. Most of Company L and the Company M detachment which was also on the coral terrace managed to find a covered route back to the rest of the 3rd Battalion on the shore, but one platoon, initially surrounded, had to fight its way eastward into the lines of the 2nd Battalion, north of Mokmer village. Company G, on the terrace north of the main road and between the 2nd and 3rd Battalions, was also cut off and withdrew to the 2nd Battalion only with difficulty, and after it had suffered many casualties from Japanese fire. During the afternoon the 3rd Battalion stood off two more concerted enemy counterattacks, one at 12:00 and another shortly after 2:00, and suffered more casualties from the enemy mortar and artillery fire. During the latter attack, the Japanese began moving some light tanks forward from the Mokmer Drome area. The 3rd Platoon, 603rd Tank Company, engaged these tanks at a range of 1,200 yards and, with the aid of fire from destroyers lying offshore, drove the enemy tanks back into defilade positions. Three tanks of the 603rd were damaged by Japanese artillery fire and three men of the same organization were wounded during the action. Meanwhile, General Fuller had decided to reinforce the 3rd Battalion, 162nd Infantry. The 1st Platoon, 603rd Tank Company, moved west along the coastal road. At the same time small boats manned by the 542nd Engineer Boat and Shore Regiment were also sent forward with ammunition and medical supplies, both dangerously low. The small craft moved along the shore out of range of Japanese mortar and artillery fire until opposite the 3rd Battalion's position and then shot inshore at full speed, one by one. Supplies were replenished and the worst casualties evacuated despite continued shelling of the 3rd Battalion's position by the Japanese. The 1st and 2nd Battalions continued their efforts to clear the Japanese from the terrace behind the 3rd but met with little success. By late afternoon, just as the 3rd Battalion's position was becoming untenable, Fuller gave up plans for further attempts at reinforcement and ordered Haney to withdraw his 3rd Battalion. The withdrawal started slowly because communications difficulties still prevented concentration of supporting fires. However, at 5:00 the regimental commander finally ordered the 3rd Battalion to start moving back along the coastal road. Tanks were to act as point, and rear guard and close-in artillery fire was substituted for a disengaging force. The battalion was to continue eastward until it had passed through the 2nd, which was setting up a new defensive position east of Mokmer village. The men of the 3rd Battalion moved in small parties along the beach and main road, which was intermittently swept by Japanese mortar, machine gun, and rifle fire. Many troops were unable to use the main road, but had to drop down to the beach below the overhanging cliff. Four tanks brought up the rear and protected the north flank. Between 1830 and 1900 all elements of the 3rd Battalion reached safety beyond the 2nd Battalion's lines and began digging in for the night east of the latter unit. Casualties for the day, almost all of them suffered by the 3rd Battalion, were 16 killed and 87 wounded. Facing strong resistance, he also decided to commit his tank company to the attack. At around 8:00, new waves of Japanese infantry, now supported by four tanks, appeared west and north of the 2nd Battalion, thus beginning the first tank battle of the war in the Southwest Pacific Area. The 2nd Battalion, 162nd Infantry, with the 1st Platoon, 603rd Tank Company, in support, was astride the main coastal road 1,000 yards east of Mokmer. The battalion's left flank was on the beach while its right was against the coastal cliff and less than forty yards inland. Between the beach and the cliff was a coconut grove. The main coastal road crossed the rise of the cliff at a point about 475 yards west of the 2nd Battalion's lines. Shortly after 8:00 the Japanese tanks, followed by an infantry column, advanced down the incline where the main road crossed the cliff and deployed in echelon left formation in the coconut grove. The Japanese vehicles were light tanks, Type 95, weighing about nine tons, carrying a crew of three men, and armed with one 37-mm. cannon and two 7.7-mm. machine guns. They were opposed by two General Sherman M4A1 medium tanks, the heaviest armament on which was the 75-mm. Each Japanese tank was stopped by one round of 75-mm. armor-piercing ammunition, while the enemy infantry was literally mowed down by the machine guns and mortars of the 2nd Battalion, 162nd Infantry. Armor-piercing 75-mm. shells passed right through the Japanese light tanks, and the Shermans followed with a few rounds of 75-mm. high explosive, which tore holes in the Japanese vehicles and blew loose their turrets. During this action several hits scored on the Shermans by the Japanese 37-mm. guns caused no damage. About thirty minutes after the first attack the Japanese sent in a second wave of three tanks, which used the same route of approach and the same formation in the coconut grove. These three were quickly destroyed by three Shermans. One enemy 37-mm. shell locked the 75-mm. gun of one Sherman in place, but the American tank backed part way into a shell hole to obtain elevation for its weapon and, despite the damage, managed to destroy one of the enemy tanks. The Japanese tanks having been stopped and the leading elements of the second infantry wave killed, the attack disintegrated and the enemy withdrew. For an hour or so the Japanese were quiet, but late in the morning, under the cover of machine gun fire and mortar barrages, they began to circle north of the 2nd and 3rd Battalions, 162nd Infantry. New infantry attacks began about 12:00. The enemy was unable to dislodge the 162nd Infantry, but his mortar fire caused many casualties within the regimental perimeter and the Japanese managed to cut the coast road east of a large T-jetty at Parai. Company B and the Cannon Company counterattacked the Japanese roadblock behind close-in mortar support and succeeded in dislodging the enemy by fire and movement. During the afternoon of May 29, the 162nd thus moved back to Parai, where the 2nd Battalion and two companies boarded some amphibious craft back to Bosnek while the rest of the regiment moved overland through the Parai Defile and took up positions at Ibdi The 162nd Infantry's casualties during the day were 16 killed, 96 wounded, and 3 injured. The regiment estimated that it had killed over 500 Japanese during the day. Though Kuzume's forces had suffered massive casualties, they had heroically managed to stop the enemy advance and would subsequently push troops forward to Parai and into the cliffs along the Parai Defile. They would however also lose most of their armor during these attacks. Only five tanks survived and were withdrawn to the West Caves. Pending the arrival of reinforcements, General Fuller planned to use his available troops to hold the west flank at Ibdi and expand the beachhead at Bosnek. The 162nd Infantry was to establish a semicircular perimeter beginning on the beach west of Ibdi, reaching north to the main ridge, and returning to the beach at the village. The 1st Battalion, 186th Infantry, would maintain a perimeter around Mandom, where the Hurrican Task Force HQ was located, while the 3rd Battalion moved over the ridge behind Bosnek to set up defenses on the inland plateau. The 2nd Battalion, with part of the 3rd attached, would remain at the Bosnek beachhead. During this period, the 800 well-armed men of the 3rd Battalion, 222nd Infantry in the Ibdi Pocket, made only harassing attacks with small groups against the positions of the 162nd Infantry. On 30th and 31st of May the 162nd Infantry patrolled around the main ridge near Ibdi for a route over which large bodies of troops might move north to the inland plateau in preparation for the second attack westward. During the course of this patrolling, it was discovered that the main ridge from Bosnek to the Parai Defile actually comprised a series of seven sharp coral ridges, the crests of which were 50-75 yards apart and separated by gullies 50-100 feet deep. These separate ridges were honeycombed with small natural caves, potholes, and crevices. There was little soil on most of the coral, yet the area maintained a cover of dense rain forest containing trees 8-20 inches thick and 100-150 feet high. The 162nd Infantry discovered two native trails over the ridges. The most easterly of these, designated "Old Man's Trail," began on the beach road about 1,200 yards west of Mandom. It was a fairly well defined track which swung north over the seven ridges along a comparatively easy route. Another track began 1,200 yards to the west, near Ibdi. Called "Young Man's Trail," the latter followed a very difficult route over the ridges to the inland plateau. Both of these trails ran through the outer defenses of the Ibdi Pocket, into which the Biak Detachment, on 30 May, moved the 3rd Battalion, 222nd Infantry. On 30 and 31 May the 162nd Infantry's patrols along the ridges north of Ibdi and Mandom were harassed by the Japanese in the Ibdi Pocket, which had not yet been recognized as a major enemy strong point. On 30 May the 162nd Infantry located a water hole near the beach terminal of Old Man's Trail. A regimental water point established there was constantly harassed by Japanese rifle fire from the Ibdi Pocket area or by small enemy parties which moved down out of the ridges north of Ibdi and Mandom. The Cannon Company, 162nd Infantry, was therefore assigned the missions of clearing the enemy from the water point area and protecting that important installation from Japanese attacks. Halfway through the Parai Defile, a little over a mile west of the 162nd Infantry's main perimeter, an underground stream ran from the base of the cliff into Soanggarai Bay. At the point where the main road crossed the stream, the 162nd Infantry set up an ambush to prevent Japanese infiltration from the west along the beach. The ambush site was also used as a patrol base from which small parties reconnoitered along the cliffs of the Parai Defile to discover enemy dispositions in the area. Patrolling on 30th and 31st of May cost the 162nd Infantry 6 men killed, 17 wounded, and 4 injured. On the main coastal ridge between the village of Ibdi and the Parai Defile the Biak Detachment developed another center of resistance which came to be known as the Ibdi Pocket. The terrain in the area was a series of knifelike east-west ridges separated by depressions and crevices up to fifty feet deep. These ridges were connected in places by cross-ridges, and the entire area was covered with thick rain forest and dense jungle undergrowth which had found a foothold in the coral. Pillboxes of coral and logs, hasty emplacements of the same materials, small caves and crevices, and foxholes at the bases of large trees were all utilized by the enemy to defend the area. Back to the Wakde-Sarmi area, General Patrick was preparing to launch another assault on Lone Tree Hill. On the morning of May 27th at 7:00 two destroyers, firing on Lone Tree Hill and the Maffin Strip area, started scheduled fire support for the day's advance. Artillery and infantry action on this morning was much more closely coordinated than on the previous day. The destroyer fire lasted until 7:45, at which time the field artillery and all the 81-mm. mortars of the 158th Infantry laid concentrations on suspected and known enemy positions in the defile, on Lone Tree Hill, and on Hill 225. After this Colonel Herndon sent his 1st Battalion against the defile between Lone Tree Hill and the eastern nose of Mount Saksin and his 2nd Battalion against Hill 225. At 8:30 Company F, moving around Company E on the south flank, started its attack. Behind close artillery support, apparently controlled by artillery liaison planes for the most part, Company F pushed up a terrain feature initially believed to be Hill 225. It was not discovered until late the next day that F Company was actually on the eastern nose of Mt. Saksin and about 700 yards east of its reported location. Since artillery fire had knocked out two enemy machine gun nests which had been delaying the advance, patrols of Company F were able to reach the top of the eastern ridge. The rest of the company moved up the hill at 10:00; encountering scattered rifle fire from enemy positions to the southwest. Company E, just before noon, arrived atop the same hill on F's right. Company E had orders to secure the southern slopes of the defile between Hill 225 and Lone Tree Hill. Company B, still at the eastern entrance to the defile, was again unable to make any progress and during the morning was held up by machine gun and mortar fire from concealed enemy positions on the southern and southwestern slopes of Lone Tree Hill. No sooner had some of these positions been eliminated by American artillery and mortar fire than Company B was subjected to enemy machine gun and mortar fire originating from the northeast side of Hill 225, the reported location of Companies E and F. Actually, the artillery fire had not been entirely effective, because it had not reached into deep draws or caves in which many of the Japanese weapons were emplaced. Company E, attempting to move down the northern slopes of the eastern ridge to Company B's aid, was soon forced back by enemy rifle fire and infantry counterattacks from the west. At the same time small parties of Japanese, under cover of their own machine guns, started a series of minor counterattacks against Company B. Company F did not become engaged in this action. Instead, the company dug in on the ridge it was holding and sent patrols to the south and west to probe Japanese defenses. It was soon discovered that the combination of rugged terrain and Japanese machine gun and rifle fire limited patrolling to a very small area. North of Company B, Company A patrolled along the west bank of the Snaky River and on the eastern slope of Lone Tree Hill during the morning and early afternoon. About 4:30 the company moved in force up Lone Tree, finding the eastern slope of the hill to be unoccupied. Most of the fire that had harassed the company during the morning had apparently originated on the beach below the northern face of Lone Tree Hill. For the night the unit dug in at the crest of the hill. Again, little ground had been gained, although the eastern nose of Mr. Saksin and Lone Tree Hill had been at least partially occupied. At the same time, Patrick was informed that two battalions of the 163rd Regiment would be shipped to Biak to reinforce Fuller on June 1st, with General Krueger also preparing the 6th Division led by Major General Franklin Silbert  to be dispatched to Wakde to replace the 163rd. Yet before this could occur, Colonel Matsuyama crossed the Tementoe River and launched a surprise night attack against Toem. During pitch-black night at 8:30, an estimated 100 Japs struck 1st Battalion's area. Divided into small groups, but in two major commands, they carried grappling hooks, knives, grenades, knee-mortars, and rifles. Their grappling hooks had two prongs, like anchors and were attached to long ropes by which they could pull to explode booby traps harmlessly. A knee mortar barrage began the attack. While their mortars drove the men to ground, their grappling hooks caught booby trap wires and exploded attached grenades. They struck from southeast and southwest, two different commands about 150 yards apart. First command shouted wildly and threw grenades. They fired a light machine gun down A Company's street and holed up their tents. But this command's howling rush with grenades was just a feint to cause confusion. The second command, around 35-40,  made the main drive. Easily they broke through 1st Battalion's far-spread perimeter holes. An estimated 25 made the serious penetration. They were trying to reach the Regimental command post to kill the top officers. Some of the staff officers were actually cut off outside their holes in a tent and actually unarmed. Ten Japanese almost reached the command post before they were cut down. Such was the official report, but 163rd men said that they tried to blow up the motor poo, nearly 100 of them. From a slit trench, four blazing M-1s stopped them, from the motor pool chief Staff Sergeant Burton, Staff Sergeant Engbretson, T/4 Switzer, and T/5 Donakowski. They piled up 13 dead Japanese, the last just 20 feet away. On a whistle signal, all Matsuyama's men withdrew. The wild attack prompted Patrick to not to ship the 163rd towards Biak. The following morning, after another well-timed preliminary artillery bombardment, Herndon once again threw his forces against the Ilier Mountains, yet the result was the same as before. Nonetheless, his troops would be able to cover the amphibious arrival of two tanks to aid in further attacks; but with the situation soon becoming untenable because of strong Japanese counterattacks, all his companies ultimately had to withdraw to the Snaky River line. On May 29th, Krueger finally notified Patrick that the two battalions of the 163rd would have to leave for Biak the next day, so this would force Patrick to cease offensive action and withdraw the 1st Battalion, 158th Regiment back to Arare. Yet further Japanese counterattacks also forced Herndon to withdraw his remaining forces to the Maffin area as well, where he would form a new defensive line.  Patrick ultimately disagreed with Herndon's decision to retreat, judging the withdrawal to be unwarranted and would relieve Herndon of his command, replacing him with Colonel Earle Sandlin. Colonel Herndon's fears of attack along his line of communications had been well taken, for the Right Sector Force had begun flanking movements designed to recapture the entire Maffin Bay area. However, the combat engineers quickly proved their versatility by driving off the enemy force with rifle, carbine, and machine gun fire. Five of the engineers were killed. Enemy casualties could not be estimated since the Japanese removed their dead and wounded during the night. The remainder of the night was more quiet, and the next morning the defenses along the Tirfoam were improved. There were a couple of minor attacks during the afternoon and desultory rifle and 70-mm. or 75-mm. artillery fire was directed against all American units still west of the Tor. The 147th Field Artillery Battalion, withdrawing to the east bank of the Tor late in the afternoon, was struck by some of this enemy artillery fire and lost one man killed. A new defensive line along the Tirfoam was being developed on May 30th as the bulk of the 163rd Regiment would depart for Biak. This left Patrick's forces spread out over almost twelve miles of coastline, just as Colonel Yoshino was about to launch his night attack. After the difficult river crossing, the 223rd Regiment had spent three days moving into the jungle southwest of Arara, from where they launched a series of simultaneous attacks against some anti-aircraft positions along the beach.  A 6:05 on June 30th, a guard at B Battery's Position No 6 challenged two men in the jungle across the beach road. Other Japanese were moving west down the road. When they did not answer his challenge, he fired, and hit the ground. Instantly, Japanese machine guns, rifles, mortars, and even grenades hit the B-6 position. The anti-aircraft men killed 10 Japs, but one heavy machine gun jammed. The second gun became overheated and had to cease fire. The Japanese were hard to hit in the dark. They were heavily camouflaged with leaves and nets down to their hips. After one American was killed, the anti-aircraft men left their emplacement and fled 500 yards east on the beach road to Battery A's Position 7. Joined with the men of A-7 - they had already stopped one attack - the B-6 men helped fight about 15-25 Japanese. From 6:40 to 4:30 next day, the Japanese struck intermittently, but rifle and machine guns fire repelled them. About 500 yards west of the B-6 position where the first attack had occurred, Battery A-6 also endured harassment from Japanese mortar, rifle, and machine gun fire. At least twice, the gunners repulsed attacks. A fourth position, Battery B-8, which was 400 yards west of A-6, was assailed about 6:30 also. The anti-aircraft men's .50 multiple heavy machine gun became overheated and jammed. Rifle ammo was running out. Scurrying from the gun-pit, they took cover in the shore brush until the Japanese left at 4:30. All attacks began about the same time, about 8:30, and some men glimpsed a Jap officer with his saber who was giving orders. All Japanese dead had rolls of white gauze in their mouths, and the Japanese officer had completely covered his lower face. The Americans thought that they used these means to prevent them from shouting or screaming when they were wounded. While they attacked the anti-aircraft batteries, Yoshino's men also tried to storm 1st Battalion 158 Infantry protecting Task Force Headquarters and the supply dumps. About 7:00, rifle and machine gun fire began impacting 1st Battalion positions. A captured heavy machine gun fired also. At 10:00 came a furious suicidal attack against B Company - beaten off with rifles, grenades, bayonets, pistols, and even knives. They failed to fire the supply dumps with demolition charges and Molotov cocktails. In the end, the Americans miraculously only lost 12 killed and 10 wounded while inflicting heavy casualties on the enemy. But fearing more enemy attacks, Patrick would decide to reduce the number of separate perimeters along the beach, from 21 to only 8.  The bulk of the 158th had to withdraw behind the Tor, leaving only its 2nd Battalion west of the river to secure the bridgehead. Facing little resistance, the Japanese recaptured Maffin, though they would be unable to push Sandlin's troops behind the river. Yoshino and Matsuyama were unable to coordinate their efforts however, allowing the Americans to continue to strengthen their defenses for the next few days, with the Japanese only able to launch nightly raiding attacks that were easily repelled. On June 5, the first units of Major-General Franklin Sibert's 6th Division then began to arrive, freeing up the 158th to continue with its offensive.  Sandlin then launched an attack with his 1st and 2nd Battalions supported by tanks crossing the Tor to attack Maffin on June 8, meeting increasingly strong enemy resistance from a line of hastily-repaired bunkers and pillboxes. The tanks were able to reduce the Japanese defenses due to their strong firepower, but not before the Americans had to dig in by nightfall.  The night passed without incident and early on June 9th patrols began to probe westward toward the Tirfoam. Scouts reported that the Japanese were holding another defense line, including reoccupied bunkers, on a slight rise at the west bank of the river. About 10:00, tank-infantry teams began to destroy the Japanese-held positions along the new line. While tank 75-mm fire was destroying bunkers or forcing the Japanese to seek cover, infantrymen crept forward to toss grenades into bunker gun ports or shoot down Japanese who tried to escape from the area. While these tank-infantry team operations were taking place, the rest of the two infantry battalions rested. Japanese 75-mm. fire, from a weapon emplaced on the beach between the Snaky River and Lone Tree Hill, harassed the 1st Battalion for a while, but this fire was summarily stopped when a 155-mm howitzer of the 218th Field Artillery Battalion scored a direct hit on the enemy piece. By 11:30 the enemy defensive positions had been cleaned out and the 1st and 2nd Battalions resumed the advance westward. Aided by fire from the 147th Field Artillery, which had supplanted the 167th in the close support role, the two infantry units probed cautiously forward, and it was not until 3:30 that both reached the east bank of the Tirfoam. Opposition was scattered, but the American units lost 6 men killed and 6 wounded. It was estimated that 50 of the enemy had been killed and one was captured. At this point, the 158th would have to stop its advance because they received new orders from Krueger, who planned to employ the regiment for an assault on Noemfoor Island, 300 miles northwest of Sarmi, in late June or early July. As such, advances west of the Tirfoam would be postponed until a second combat team of the 6th Division could arrive in the area to relieve the 158th in mid-June.  General Sibert assumed command of the Tornado Task Force on June 12th. On 10 and 11th June the 158th Infantry limited its activities to patrolling, consolidating defensive positions, and driving Japanese outposts westward. One outpost, lying southeast of the 2nd Battalion, was manned by about a hundred Japanese and had to be cleared by tank fire and infantry assault. The Japanese, who were members of a 223rd Infantry company assigned to the Right Sector Force, fled toward Mr. Saksin, leaving behind 4 heavy machine guns, 1 light machine gun, 2 70-mm. howitzers, and 1 37-mm. antitank gun. On 14 June the 20th Infantry, 6th Division, relieved the 158th Infantry at the Tirfoam. The 158th recrossed the Tor and went into a defensive perimeter on the west bank of Tementoe Creek. Patrols sent south and east during the next week encountered a few stragglers from the Japanese garrison at Hollandia or from the Matsuyama Force. On the 22nd the entire regimental combat team was relieved of all combat responsibility in the Wakde-Sarmi area and began final preparations for the Noemfoor Island operation. During its operations in the Wakde-Sarmi area the 158th Regimental Combat Team lost 70 men killed, 257 wounded, and 4 missing. The unit took 11 Japanese prisoners and estimated that it killed 920 of the enemy. With their supply line compromised, Yoshino and Matsuyama would also decide to withdraw from their present positions about this time, which would allow the 36th Division to establish better defensive positions in the Ilier Mountains line. Yet that is all for Operation Tornado and Hurricane for now, as we now need to head over to the Imphal-Kohima front. By June, the situation at Manipur saw General Slim's 14th Army losing all of their advantages. Despite the extreme odds, with a slim chance of success, General Mutaguchi continued his wild attacks against Imphal. As it was, the two armies had been battling it out in difficult terrain and conditions. There were the steep and often jungle-covered hills, the heat for men not accustomed to it, the risk of tropical diseases like malaria and the leeches – not to mention the weeks and months of both physical and psychological strain from fighting a formidable enemy. The monsoon rains that began later in May only made matters worse. As the days passed by, the low-lying areas in the Imphal Valley would flood because of the downpours, while the streams and small rivers everywhere would become raging torrents. The water level of Loktak Lake would also rise, making it especially uncomfortable for the units of both sides dug in at some of the lakeside villages on the Tiddim Road. Dysentery and diarrhea became an ever-greater concern. Foot rot would start to set in for men in their flooded positions. The slopes in the hills became slippery and that much more treacherous to navigate. The incessant rains would dissolve stretches of ‘fairweather' roads and ‘jeepable' tracks into mud and slush everywhere, while triggering landslides in the hills. For the units on higher altitudes like the Shenam Saddle, Point 5846 and the Ukhrul area, the nights would become shockingly cold and damp, adding to their misery. Yet things were undoubtedly harder for the Japanese, who had carried few supplies and didn't expect to be strung out fighting for so long.  To the north, General Sato's 31st Division were withdrawing from Kohima towards Ukhrul, defying Mutaguchi's orders, with General Miyazaki providing rearguard at Viswema, whileGeneral Grover's 2nd Division pursued them. Miyazaki's men held out at Visweman until June 12th, before withdrawing to Maosongsang. Then they held out at Maosongsang until June 16, before retreating to the last holding position at Maram. Over to the south, General Brigg's 5th Division was engaging Colonel Matsumura's 60th Regiment, fighting brutally for control over the Imphal-Kohima road. The battered Japanese defenders were fighting tooth and nail to prevent the opening of this vital supply line.  The 9th and 123rd Brigades pushed on, they would only be able to capture the Zebra hill on June 7. The following day, the 3/14th Punjabis made a wide hook and arrived on the road behind Japanese lines by nightfall, where they would repel three heavy counterattacks. This would allow the 123rd to clear the hill positions near Modbung and link up with the Punjabis on June 11th. The 9th Brigade made great progress during these days, pushing on to Satarmaina by June 13th. General Gracey's 20th Division was also attacking towards the Ukhrul Road during this period, with the 80th Brigade advancing northwards from Kameng up the Iril River Valley on a wide encircling move towards Litan while the 100th Brigade attacked up the road towards Kasom. Though the 80th faced little resistance, the 100th would struggle to progress against the fierce counterattacks of the recently-arrived 67th Regiment. By mid-June, the 51st Regiment was also ordered to abandon its positions and support the 67th on the Ukhrul Road.  Over in the southwest front, the arrival of reinforcements in the form of the 2nd Battalion, under the command of Colonel Yanagisawa Kanji at the end of May, gave General Tanaka a gleam of hope that he could launch another offensive in early June. On June 6th, four battalions under Colonel Sasahara attacked the 63rd Brigade's hill positions, applying such great pressure, General Cowan was forced to withdraw his brigade to Bishenpur the following day. On June 7th, Tanaka ordered his recently-arrived reinforcements to clear Ningthoukhong and retake Potsangbam, yet their first coordinated attack would end in failure. The attack was almost single-handedly held by Sergeant Hanson Victor Turner of the 1st West Yorks. Defending his platoon's position on the perimeter, Turner grabbed some grenades and charged forward, throwing them at the Japanese. He did this five times, going back to gather grenades each time and returning to the attack in the face of Japanese grenade and small-arms fire. He was killed on the sixth occasion while throwing a grenade. For his bravery, Turner was posthumously awarded the Victoria Cross. The Japanese eventually captured some ground in North Ningthoukhong, but withdrew after being struck from the air and shelled. In the meantime, after the Japanese defeat at the Gibraltar Box, the Yamamoto Detachment would continue to harass the British-Indian positions from Nippon and Scraggy Hills in early June. On the evening of June 9, the Japanese put in their last major attack on Scraggy, starting with a heavy artillery bombardment. Artillery concentrations were directed at the Japanese and an airstrike was made on their part of Scraggy and Lynch. The Gurkhas followed up with an advance. Although some ground was recovered, the Japanese maintained their grip on Scraggy's crest. Having suffered many casualties and feeling that the Gurkhas' new position was sufficiently strong, General Roberts then decided to halt the counterattacks, thus leaving General Yamamoto in control of Scraggy up until the end of July. Concurrently, as a last hope to break through towards Imphal, Mutaguchi was planning to conduct a desperate offensive on Palel with some reinforcements that would fail to arrive in time. Due to these delays, he would end up sending some of Yamamoto's exhausted troops to recover Langgol and advance to the hill northeast of Palel. The Japanese managed to get beyond Langgol and attack some positions in the foothills near Palel Airfield, but were soon rebuffed. They finally sent in a commando raid on the airfield in early July, which succeeded in blowing up eight planes. Over in Ningthoukhong, Tanaka launched another heavy assault on June 12th. Though a salient on the other side was initially captured, a ferocious counterattack would ultimately evict them. This action was performed by units of the 48th Brigade, including reinforcements sent from Potsangbam.  Rifleman Ganju Lama of the 1/7th Gurkha Rifles who earned a Victoria Cross in this action. To the west, Tanaka ordered the newly-arrived 151st Regiment of Colonel Hashimoto Kumakoro to attack the British picquets overlooking the Silchar Track. After a wave of assaults, Water Picquet would fall on June 21; yet the 32nd Brigade would respond immediately with a series of counterattacks that developed into confused fighting as positions were won and lost by both sides.  On the night of 25 June, no less than a company of Japanese began attacking Mortar Bluff, a picquet position bereft of cover and a short distance away from Water Picquet. It was held by a small garrison of some 40-odd men of the 2/5th Royal Gurkha Rifles who had replaced the 7/10th Baluchis. In pouring rain, the Japanese first bombarded the position with mortars and guns at point-blank range. For the next few hours, the infantry repeatedly attacked the surrounded and dwindling garrison. Subedar Netra Bahadur Thapa defended the besieged position almost through the night, organizing counter-attacks with whatever ammunition and grenades his unit had left. The Japanese finally overran Mortar Bluff the next morning, with Netra Bahadur Thapa fighting to his death. He was posthumously awarded the Victoria Cross. A few hours later, a company of the same unit formed for a counterattack on Mortar Bluff. In the face of heavy fire, Naik Agan Singh Rai led his section in charging a Japanese machine-gun post and killing its crew. It then recaptured Mortar Bluff and neutralized a 37mm gun position and crew. Rai now advanced on a Japanese bunker and killed its occupants, after which his company also recovered Water Picquet. For his actions that day, Rai won the Victoria Cross, the second for the 2/5th Royal Gurkha Rifles the same day. Faced with such counter-attacks and intense artillery fire from Gun Box, the last throw of the Japanese 33rd Division around the Silchar Track ended in failure. This left Hashimoto and Tanaka empty-handed for all the losses they had suffered. Tanaka was forced to withdraw units before they were annihilated. On July 2st the 214th Infantry, with only 400 effectives remaining, completed its withdrawal to the area south of Nouyangtek and the 151st was directed to move back to Laimanai. Having been decimated by sickness and straggling en route to the front, the strength of the entire 151st Infantry Regiment was, at that time, less than 100 men. Back in the north, Briggs' units continued to struggle for control of the Satarmaina area. The struggle over the next week centered on the main feature east of the road, the hill named Liver. The 3/9th Jats attacked repeatedly to try to dislodge the Japanese from this feature. One such attempt was made on June 15th, when Hurribombers strafed the hill, followed by heavy artillery concentrations from 25-pdrs, 3.7in  howitzers and 3in  mortars. A Jat company climbed the hill, but had to withdraw some 100 meters from its objective because of heavy machine-gun fire. At the same time, the 1/17th Dogras were sent off on a wide hook left of the road and the 3/14th Punjabis were able to secure the Octopus position by June 20.  North of them, Grover's troops would also be able to break through Maram and continue south down the road on June 20, finally meeting the Dogras two days later. Beaten, Miyazaki had nonetheless fulfilled his task and could now withdraw east towards Ukhrul. Sato's rearguard fought determinedly. Often a few men with an artillery piece, grenades and a machine-gun would take up positions on the high ground above tracks, ambushing the British advance guards before melting away to repeat the performance a few km further back or, as was often the case, remaining obstinately in their positions until they were killed. Few were free from disease and fatigue, but surrender played no part in these men's vocabulary; they fought on till overtaken by a British bullet or bayonet or, more often, by starvation and exhaustion. But the 31st Division had literally fought itself to death. Exhausted men lay in pits unable to defend themselves, suicide squads with anti-tank mines tottered towards the advancing Lee Grants and Stuarts to be mown down by accompanying infantry, or obliterated by shellfire Although the battered 31st Division would manage to survive the Kohima disaster, General Sato would be relieved of his command as he had refused to carry Mutaguchi's orders numerous times. As a result, Miyazaki was promoted to Lt-General and given temporary command of the division by the end of June. Meanwhile, though his men had resisted like demons, Matsumura now had no choice but to abandon the road and retreat east towards Ukhrul with what remained of his command due to this new threat to the north. On June 21, the Liver position would fall at last. Again, the Japanese positions were bombed and strafed from the air, this time by three squadrons of Hurribombers for half an hour. The 4th and 28th Field Regiments, as well as a troop of the 8th Medium Regiment, fired a concentration on Liver that covered it in dust and smoke. Three companies of the Jats now went in, and yet this attack was also held by the Japanese on and around Liver. They had had enough, however, and by the next morning were found to have withdrawn from the feature. The Jats suffered around 150 casualties that week, including 33 killed. The 15th Division would adopt new defensive positions at Ukhrul to cover the withdrawal of Miyazaki and Matsumura. The main force of the 15th Division then went into defense positions in a line extending generally from Ukhrul through Tongou, Shongphel and Aishan to the 3524 Pass in order to be in position to cover and pick up the Right Assault Unit and the Miyazaki Detachment as they withdrew to the east. In order to hold the new defense positions, all available men, including all those in the rear service units, were thrown into the line. Finally the Imphal-Kohima road was reopened. Slim knew while the battle was not yet over, it had already been won. I would like to take this time to remind you all that this podcast is only made possible through the efforts of Kings and Generals over at Youtube. Please go subscribe to Kings and Generals over at Youtube and to continue helping us produce this content please check out www.patreon.com/kingsandgenerals. If you are still hungry after that, give my personal channel a look over at The Pacific War Channel at Youtube, it would mean a lot to me. The landings at Biak was another allied success. The first tank battle of the war in the Southwest Pacific Area saw the American Sherman's absolutely devastate Japanese Type-95's. Within the Burma front, General Slim had finally reopened the Imphal-Kohima road spelling doom for Mutaguchi's failed offensive.  

In this episode of The Real ResQ, guest Tombo Jones chats with host Jason Quinn. Jones is a former United States Army pilot and Coast Guard pilot, currently director of the Virginia Tech Mid-Atlantic Aviation Partnership. Jones shares his journey from the U.S. Army to the U.S.Coast Guard. His first duty station in the Coast Guard was Savannah, Georgia. He shares his first call out experience, a challenging and nerve-racking mission in heavy fog. At one point, he and his crew had to divert to make an emergency landing at Charleston International Airport due to low fuel and a reported fire on the initial runway. Jones then shares another humorous story out of Savannah about finding two boaters whose boat sank and having to leave them with a radio, then returning hours later for the rescue.  He speaks briefly about Mobile, Alabama, and then his twilight tour in Humboldt Bay, California. There, he recounts a specific medevac rescue mission on Feb. 6, 2015, which earned him a Letter of Commendation. He had to navigate severe weather and low visibility to save a patient's life. Jones reflects on the lessons learned from this mission and the importance of considering magnetic variation in flight planning. He also shares about a second rescue out of Humboldt Bay that earned him an Achievement Medal. Here, a distressed sailor was injured and needed an immediate medevac off the fishing vessel.   Jones discusses an embarrassing mistake that he made as a crew member and emphasizes the importance of sharing experiences and learning from mistakes. He also talks about the challenges of flying in difficult conditions and the differences between Federal Aviation Administration regulations and Coast Guard operations. Jones concludes by offering advice on making wise decisions in high-pressure situations. Enjoy!   This episode is powered by Vertical Helicasts. Thank you for sponsoring this episode of The Real ResQ: Breeze-Eastern and Axnes.Follow The Real ResQ on Facebook and Instagram and listen on Vertical Helicasts.

California's system of awarding water rights is anachronistic and out of touch with modern needs. Yet, we are still bound by it. The Humboldt Bay Municipal Water District is navigating these challenges. The District once provided a lot of water to the pulp mills of Humboldt Bay. When these shuttered, the District faced a challenge: without putting that water to “beneficial use,” the District could lose its water right. (And in the worst case scenario, some big water user could put their straw into our river and slurp that water away, like is done in the Trinity and Eel Rivers.)Now the District is proposing a new in-stream flow dedication to protect that water right. District Board Director Michelle Fuller joins the show to discuss the process to dedicate an in-stream flow right.Support the Show.

June 1944 was a month of allied invasion, both in Europe and the Pacific. James Holland and John McManus discuss Operation RECKLESS, the invasion of Hollandia (now New Guinea) on Humboldt Bay.   A Goalhanger Production Produced by Joey McCarthy Exec Producer: Tony Pastor Social: @WeHaveWaysPod Email: wehavewayspodcast@gmail.com Join our ‘Independent Company' to watch our livestreams, get earlybird tickets and our weekly newsletter - packed with deals. Membership Club: patreon.com/wehaveways Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Last time we spoke about the beginning of Operation Ichi-Go, the war in the Burma front and the war in New Guinea. Hundreds of thousands of IJA troops stormed countless areas in China. Chiang Kai-Shek was caught somewhat with his pants down, his best men were in Burma, there was little his defenders could do against such raw power. Xuchang fell and soon the Japanese were marching upon Luoyang. Over in Burma the British, Indian, American and Chinese alliance was continuing to both attack and defend. In the north Stilwell led the offensive, while Slim led the defensive in the south. The Chindits fought like lions to defend White City, but ultimately would give up strongholds to seek out new ones. Over in New Guinea the Japanese continued their frantic retreat under heavy pressure from the Australians. As bad as the situation was, the Japanese were in for another nasty surprise in Green Hell. This episode is the invasion of Western New Guinea Welcome to the Pacific War Podcast Week by Week, I am your dutiful host Craig Watson. But, before we start I want to also remind you this podcast is only made possible through the efforts of Kings and Generals over at Youtube. Perhaps you want to learn more about world war two? Kings and Generals have an assortment of episodes on world war two and much more  so go give them a look over on Youtube. So please subscribe to Kings and Generals over at Youtube and to continue helping us produce this content please check out www.patreon.com/kingsandgenerals. If you are still hungry for some more history related content, over on my channel, the Pacific War Channel you can find a few videos all the way from the Opium Wars of the 1800's until the end of the Pacific War in 1945.  Last week we saw the effective conclusion of the Eastern New Guinea Campaign. It was a colossal campaign beginning with the Australian defense along the Kokoda Track, then the blood battle of Buna-Gona, the drive upon Lae-Salamaua, the march north upon the Huon Peninsula and Finisterres, and after taking Madang it was finally over. Yet while the book was closing upon Eastern New Guinea, the book on Western New Guinea was just about to be opened.  The pace of the offensive against the Japanese in New Guinea accelerated greatly in the first half of 1944. This was primarily because General MacArthur feared unless he made quick progress he would lose the reins over where the allies would drive upon the Japanese home islands. MacArthur of course sought to advance upon the Philippines, while the Joint Chiefs favored the Navy's central thrust more so. Despite MacArthur's continuous war against his colleagues and superiors and his continuous complaining he lacked support, he had been provided the means to carry out numerous amphibious assaults that could lead to his ultimate goal. MacArthur's operations against New Britain, Saidor, Los Negros and Manus clearly indicated allied superiority over the Japanese in terms of men, ships and airpower. By April of 1944, MacArthur had nearly 750,000 men under his command. His major components were 6 US infantry divisions, one cavalry division, 3 separate regiment combat teams and 3 special brigades. The Australians were gradually being relegated into a secondary role, but could still provide 5 additional divisions and enough separate brigades to form another 2 divisions. General Kenney's air force had grown so large, they could now mount 200 aircraft raids against a variety of targets with little fear of Japanese retaliation. What MacArthur needed was more and more forward airfields so he could hurl fighters and bombers deeper into the Japanese inner perimeter. In a lot of respects, the Japanese position in New Guinea was all but hopeless. Although they still had more than 350,000 troops in the Southwest Pacific area, many were isolated with little chance of receiving reinforcements or supplies. There was also an enormous amount of confusion amongst the various commands, made difficult by enormous distance and the lack of effective naval power. Overall command of Japanese forces as far as Wewak was technically under Lt General Fusataro Tshima, whose HQ was at Manokwari on the Vogelkop Peninsula. It was Tshima who ordered General Adachi to withdraw his 18th Army over to the Hollandia area. Fortunately for MacArthur, Adachi procrastinated heavily, believing a landing would be made at Hansa Bay. All of the heavy bombing by the 5th air force against the coast near Wewak supported his beliefs. Not too long ago we spoke about Operations Reckless and Persecution, the invasion of Hollandia and Aitape. Admiral Barbey had already departed the staging points and rendezvous northwest of Manus Island by April 20th. The large convoys sailed west from the Admiralty Islands until dusk, whence they turned southwest towards Hollandia. Admiral Mitscher's Task Force 58 was providing escort while also launching strikes against Wakde, Sarmi and Sentani airfields on April 21st. Over the next three days the carrier aircraft neutralized the remaining airpower in the Wakde-Sarmi area. Early on the 22nd, the two task forces separated, with the Persecution Task Force heading southeast towards Aitape and the rest, designated Reckless Task Force, proceeded to a point 20 miles offshore between Humboldt and Tanahmerah Bay. Now the allied troops were ready to hit the beaches, but awaiting them was a large concentration of Japanese…however it was mostly a concentration of Japanese personnel rather than combat troops. While initial attention was focussed on the Geelvink Bay area, the 2nd Area Army command was also concerned over the weak condition of the defenses of Hollandia, which lay just east of the 140th meridian in the 8th Area Army zone of responsibility. An order to dispatch an element of the 36th Division to that sector was issued but was quickly revoked on the ground that it would weaken the defenses of Geelvink Bay without appreciably strengthening Hollandia. A large section of the New Guinea coast between Wewak and Sarmi thus remained practically undefended. General Anami promptly dispatched a staff mission to 8th Area Army headquarters at Rabaul to press for reinforcement of the Hollandia area, and a similar recommendation was communicated to Imperial General Headquarters during December. Two battalions of the 6th South Seas Detachment, temporarily stationed on Palau, were dispatched by the High Command. This force arrived in Hollandia on March 4, but numbered only 240 men, since approximately 1000 men, including the detachment commander, had been lost en route to submarine attacks. No other action was taken, however, since both 8th Area Army and 18th Army, after the loss of Finschhafen, were more immediately concerned with checking further enemy penetration of the Dampier Strait region. Thus roughly 10,000 IJA and 1000 IJN personnel were at Hollandia, most support units led by Major-General Kitazono Toyozo and aviation units from General Inada's 6th air division. When Tsihima ordered Adachi over to the Hollandia area and he procrastinated, this prompted the leader of the 2nd Area Army, General Korechika Anami over at Davao to become concerned. Anami sent his chief of staff over to Wewak to convince Adachi to pull out, but when Adachi finally began withdrawing, he only had two regiment on the trail by the time of the American landings against Hollandia and Aitape. Major General Toyozo Kitazono only arrived in the area 10 days before the invasion and for an unexplained reason never officially took command. This is why Tshima's appointed air officers, Inada ended up being thrown the command. Inada only really had 500 effective combat troops, mostly from the 6th South Seas Detachment. These units belonged to General Anami Korechika's 2nd Area Army, which had been transferred recently from Manchuria to oversee the defense of the eastern Dutch East Indies and western New Guinea, and for the projected and later canceled invasion of northern Australia. Random note, I recently made a Youtube short mocking that canceled australian invasion on my youtube channel, it was a wild idea. Thus Anami's command was now formally around the 2nd, 18th and 19th armies. Lt General Kitano Kenzo's 19th Army had been garrisoning Timor, the Lesser Sunda Islands, Sumbawa, the Banda Sea Islands and some key points in Northwestern New Guinea with their HQ located at Ambon. Lt General Tshima Fusutaro's 2nd Army as I had mentioned was assigned overall defense of Western New Guinea, with Lt General Tagami Hachiro's 36th Division landing at Sarmi and Biak in early March and Lt General Ikeda Shunkichi's 35th Division preparing to come to Manokwari. The 14th Division originally part of the 2nd Army was diverted to defender Palau. Furthermore, to further support  the 2nd Area Army was Vice-Admiral Endo Yoshikazu's 9th Fleet, three southern expeditionary fleets, and the 7th Air Division of Lt General Sudo Einosuke. At Hollandia, the headquarters of Admiral Endo and Generals Kitazono and Inada had arrived at the same time by mid April. Though General Adachi had placed Kitazono in formal command of all units there, the transport commander had no time, as to develop a comprehensive defense plan for Hollandia, thus as I previously mentioned, command really fell onto Inada and Endo. The Japanese would be woefully unprepared for what was to come.  Over at Aitape, meanwhile, there were only a handful of replacements from the 20th Division, along with some naval and support personnel, so the situation looked even wrose for the 1000-man garrison. Preceding the amphibious assaults, Admiral Crutchley's surface fleet was going shell the Tanahmerah Bay area while Admiral Mitscher's carrier planes bombed the waters off the Tanahmerah beaches to explode possible mines, also finishing off the Hollandia airstrips and the remaining aircraft there.  Crutchley's warships picked up their landmarks through the mist as best they could, and at 6sm the roar of 8-inch guns from the heavy cruisers HMAS Australia and HMAS Shropshire shattered the silence of the steaming tropical morning. To this din was added the sharper crack of 5-inch and 4.7-inch weapons from American and Australian destroyers. The fire continued until 6:45, by which time 600 rounds of 8-inch and 1,500 rounds of 5-inch and 4.7-inch ammunition had been expended. As for the aerial strikes, despite the unfavorable weather, Task Force 58 managed to maintain planes on air alert over the Hollandia area since dawn. No enemy aircraft flew up from the Hollandia fields, and the few apparently operational planes sighted on those strips were strafed. In general there were no indications that Japanese defenses or defenders existed in the Tanahmerah Bay area. Task Force 58's scheduled bombing and strafing missions for that region were therefore canceled. Meeting little opposition, LCVP's carrying the first wave of the 19th and 21st Regiment approached Red Beach 2. As the leading wave of LCVP's, approached RED Beach 2, which was obscured by smoke from the naval bombardment, a rocket barrage was laid on the landing area by one Seventh Fleet LCI and two landing craft,, of the 542nd Engineer Boat and Shore Regiment. Machine guns mounted aboard the leading LCVP's kept up a steady fire against the beach. There was no answer from the Japanese, and the only opposition to the landing was scattered small arms and light automatic weapons fire from points far on the flanks of the beach and from a small island in Tanahmerah Bay. This fire was so quickly silenced by supporting destroyers that the assault waves suffered no casualties before reaching shore. Thus tactical surprise was achieved in Tanahmerah Bay, as the Japanese had only a few lookouts in the sector. General Irving's 24th Division successfully landed and the 3rd Battalion, 19th Infantry, quickly secured the northern portion of the beachhead and immediately dispatched patrols east and north to probe suspected enemy positions. The 1st Battalion, following the 3rd ashore, went into an assembly area to act as local reserve and to make ready to aid in unloading supplies at the water's edge if that proved necessary. The 2nd Battalion, 21st Infantry, took the southern half of Red Beach 2 with similar ease. The 3rd Battalion of that regiment quickly followed the 2nd ashore and sent Company I south to look for the trail expected to connect with Red Beach 1 at Dépapré. Simultaneously, LVT's carrying Lt Colonel Thomas Cliffords 1st battalion, 21st Regiment crossed coral barrier reefs on their way to Red Beach 1. Cliffords men landed completely unopposed and would spend an hour trying to locate the road leading to Lake Sentani and her airfields. Clifford left A Company at the beach while the rest trekked it over the  Dépapré-Lake Sentani trail at 8:37am, still encountering no enemy opposition whatsoever.Moving through fire lanes down which no bullets flew and past pillboxes in early stages of construction, the battalion column reached the village of Mariboe at 1047 hours. Only a few scattered enemy rifle shots had been encountered during this march and the village was secured without opposition. Over three miles by trail inland from Dépapré, Mariboe was the 24th Division's first inland objective. It was evident from scattered Japanese equipment in and around Mariboe that the Japanese had recently evacuated the village not long before the 1st Battalion's arrival. Colonel Clifford  halted his men. Since radio communication with the division command post on Red Beach 2 had been lost, he sent messengers back over the tortuous trail to report progress to General Irving. At the same time patrols were sent toward Kantomé, nearly two miles southeast of Mariboe. They reported few signs of enemy activity along the trail beyond Mariboe. Colonel Clifford apparently did not wait to re-establish contact with higher headquarters but, acting on his patrols' reports, ordered the battalion to push on. Encountering little opposition along the main trail, the unit reached Kantomé about noon. When Irving arrived to Red Beach 2 at 9;30am, he found a major logistical problem had formed at his main beachhead. Behind the narrow beach, a wide, impassable swamp was discover, it covered most of the area that the men had planned to use for the bivouac and supply dump area. Thus supplies soon began to pile up on the beach. This was an especially serious circumstance, for the landing plans had called for moving almost all troops and supplies overland from Red Beach 2 to the road inland. Construction of a road between the two beaches was soon found impracticable and when, after a day and a half of hard work, engineers had succeeded in driving a few yards of road into the hills south toward Red Beach 1, the project was discontinued. The small completed stretch did serve some useful purpose. On D-Day two batteries of 105-mm. howitzers were dragged along the road as far as possible to a cramped position on a little ridge immediately south of Red Beach 2. From this site the howitzers could deliver some fire support for troops advancing inland from Red Beach 1, but the direction of this fire was limited by a number of hills nearby. The same stretch of road also provided dispersal space for a few of the many vehicles which had been unloaded at Red Beach 2 on D-Day. Additionally, a limited dispersal area, rendered inaccessible by a small stream and by an arm of the swamp, was discovered at the northern edge of the beach, and ultimately the 542nd Engineer Boat and Shore Regiment constructed a road into this space. Artillery, ashore within an hour after the initial landing, was emplaced there to deliver fire on inland targets. But the fill used to build this road stopped the flow of the little stream which had drained the swamp into Tanahmerah Bay. To prevent a rise in the swamp's water level, a drainage canal was cut directly through the center of the beach. This procedure speeded the outward flow of swamp water, lowered the water level a little, and created a small additional dry area behind the beach, but it did not provide sufficient dry land for dispersal of all the troops and supplies scheduled to land on Red Beach 2. Eventually Irvings men found some dry flat dispersal areas behind the beach, allowing the supply shuttles to continue their work uncongested. Colonel Cliffords battalion would make the main thrust for the division while the remainder of Colonel Charles Lyman's 21st Regiment moved over to Red Beach 1. Colonel Clifford possessed little or no knowledge of the situation to the rear other than the difficulties presented by terrain. Ahead, 10,000 Japanese were thought to be concentrated around the airfields. Jangkena was on flat, swampy ground and was not an easily defensible position. Should the 1st Battalion push on to Dazai, also on flat ground, Japanese troops might outflank the unit, cut its line of communications to Dépapré, and destroy it at leisure. If the Japanese bypassed the battalion they could cut off the advance of the rest of the 21st Infantry at any one of the many defiles over the first two or three miles of the trail inland from Dépapré. Colonel Clifford therefore decided to pull his men back to Kantomé for the night, leaving only outposts along the trail east of that village. Kantomé was located near the foot of the Takari Hills, which he thought would present a serious obstacle to any Japanese flanking maneuvers. It was a fortunate decision, as around midnight elements of the 22nd Airfield Battalion had advanced overland around his 1st battalions outposts, striking at their left flank. Meanwhile, General Heavey's landing craft carrying the leading waves of the 162nd and 186th Regiments, supported by rocket fire and by Rear-Admiral Russell Berkey's cruisers, likewise met no Japanese resistance as they landed General Fuller's troops on the White Beaches. Company A of Colonel Harold Haney's 162nd Regiment rapidly secured Cape Pie while Company I of Colonel Oliver Newman's 186th Regiment secured Cape Tjeweri. With Jautefa Bay in hand, Newman's 3rd Battalion was then landed on White Beach 4 in preparation for an advance towards Leimok Hill and Pim. The first objective, Leimok Hill, lay 1,800 yards northwest of Pim. Part of the battalion secured the hill by 1000, and other elements advanced southward toward Pim. That village and its usable jetty were secured, against light opposition, by 1645, while Suikerbrood Hill, on Jautefa Bay south of Pim, was cleared by 1800. The danger that enemy troops atop dominating heights near Pim might make White Beach 4 untenable was over. The 3rd Battalion then established a night perimeter at Pim, extending its defenses along a trail leading west from that village to the point at which the Pim-Hollandia track joined the main road inland to Lake Sentani, thus securing the roadhead from which movements to inland objectives had to begin. Over at White Beach 1, Haney's 3rd Battalion advanced quickly to take Pancake Hill at around 8am, only meeting sporadic rifle fire. After taking the hill, they began pushing up the shores of Humboldt Bay, encountering no resistance as they advanced upon Jarremoh Hill. It seemed clear to the Americans, the Japanese had been taken by complete surprise, not expecting an amphibious assault against Hollandia so quickly, so they had pulled back to the Sentani Lake Airfield sector. Now further south, Haney's 2nd Battalion were advancing to a track that connected Hollandia with Pim, trying to make contact with the 3rd Battalion over at Jarremoh Hill. Meanwhile Newman's 1st Batallion was advancing upon Leimok Hill. Though the men wanted to keep pushing towards Hollandia during the late afternoon, Fuller decided to dig in for the night while warships and artillery softened up the city. When General Anami over at his HQ in Manado heard of the invasion he immediately ordered the 23rd Air Flotilla of Rear-Admiral Ito Yoshiaki to toss whatever he could against the allied surface ships and force along the beaches. He also ordered the 18th army to break through Aitape to rush over and help the Hollandia garrison and for General Tshima to dispatch a regiment force as well to Hollandia. Thus General Tagami got his 224th regiment together for the advance to Hollandia, expecting to get there for early May, while General Nakai's 20th Division continued to close in on Aitape. Anami also wanted to send the main part of the 36th Division to perform a counterattack in Hollandia's direction as he thought it vitally important to delay the enemy as much as possible so a better defense of Western New Guinea could be organized. Yet General Terauchi Hisaichi of the Southern Army declined his request to do so on the basis a counteroffensive would simply denude the already weakened defenses of Western New Guinea. Meanwhile General Doe's Persecution Task Force was carrying out their landing against Aitape. The landings would be preceded by naval gunfire from Captain Albert Noble's Destroyer force, aerial bombardment from escort carriers of Rear Admiral Ralph Davisons Task Force 78 and from General Kenney's air force. Meeting zero resistance and under the cover of a rocket barrage, the LCPR's landed the men of Colonel Francis Mason's 163rd Regiment by 6:45. Despite the lack of resistance, an immense amount of smoke and poor visibility prevented the troops from landing at Beach Blue, and instead they came ashore at Wapil. Just like at Hollandia, they had achieved tactical surprise at Aitape as the Japanese fled in a panic under naval gunfire. Mason's got his 2nd Battalion to swing west and quickly seize the Waitanan Creek while the 1st battalion was being landed. Then the 2nd Battalion formed a defensive position at the Pro Mission while the 3rd Battalion sent patrols east to establish an outpost near the mouth of the Nigia River. Back over at the beaches, General Doe landed some Australian engineers who began repairing the Tadji Fighter airstrip. The No. 62 Works Wing, Royal Australian Air Force, had come ashore at Blue Beach during the morning and had been able to start work on Tadji Fighter Strip at 1:00pm. Repairs continued throughout the night under floodlights, the lack of Japanese opposition and the urgency of the task prompting General Doe to push the work. Although it had been hoped that the strip would be ready for use on D+1, terrain conditions were such that necessary repairs were not completed on schedule. Thus it was 9:00 on April 24th before the Australian engineers, who had worked without break for almost forty-eight hours, could announce that the airstrip was ready. At 4:30pm, 25 P-40s of No. 78 Wing, RAAF, landed on the field, and the balance of the wing arrived the next day. The ground on which the fighter strip was located was so poorly drained that it was not until April 28th, after steel matting had been placed on the field, that it could be used continuously. The works wing then moved to Tadji Bomber Strip to aid the 872nd and 875th Engineer Aviation Battalions. The latter two units passed to the operational control of Wing Commander William A. C. Dale of the RAAF, who, besides commanding the works wing, was Persecution Task Force Engineer. Extensive repairs were necessary at the bomber strip and that field was not ready for use by fighter and transport planes until May 27th and for bombers until early July. While the engineers worked, Colonel Merle Howe's 127th Regiment also landed, while Mason's man expanded the perimeter further west, securing the incomplete Tadji west airstrip and the mouth of the Raihu River by the end of the day. Simultaneously, Colonel Cliffords men continued their advance from Kantomé to Sabron, whereupon, Fuller finally decided to launch his assault on Hollandia, with Colonel Haney's 2nd and 3rd Battalions rapidly moving down the ridge to seize the abandoned town by 11:15am. To the south, Colonel Newman had his 1st Battalion pursue the fleeing enemy, and in the process rapidly secured Brinkman's Plantation and then repelled a very uncoordinated Japanese counterattackby the 6th South Seas Detachment and General Kitazono's 42nd independent motor car battalion. At 8:00am on the23rd the 1st Battalion left its night positions on Leimok Hill and started out over the main track, passing through the 3rd Battalion. The movement was supported by the 205th and 218th Field Artillery Battalions, set up near Cape Pie, and by aircraft from the carriers of Task Force 58. By 9am the 1st Battalion had reached Brinkman's Plantation, about 2,200 yards by trail southwest of Pim. So far, there had been no opposition. Now Companies A and C parted from the main body to patrol northwest up the Borgonjie River. Proceeding to a fork about 2,000 yards upstream, the two companies repulsed a series of unco-ordinated attacks which were launched against the right flank of the 186th Infantry during the afternoon by a Japanese force estimated at 150. The two companies remained at the stream-branching during the night of 23-24 of April, and on the latter day they moved overland southwest to rejoin the main force on the Pim-Lake Sentani trail. Meanwhile General Inada's aviation personnel already at the Sentani airfield alongside those currently retreating there were cut off from their ration and ammunition supplies which happened to be stored near the coast. Facing the hopeless situation of having to conduct a proper defense of the airfields with less than a week's worth of rations, little small arms and machine gun ammunition, no artillery at all and with two different enemy forces converging upon them, General Inada seized full command and led the weak garrison to retreat towards Genjem. Their rear guard was proved by General Kitazono's troops. During that same afternoon, two platoons of Cliffords Company B, leading the advance from Sabron, safely crossed a small stream but soon found themselves in the middle of a well-concealed Japanese ambush on the east bank. Rifle and heavy machine gun fire made the stream's steep banks untenable, and the forward platoons hurriedly withdrew to the west, leaving four dead men behind. In response to this, Irvings artillery and Admiral Mitscher's carrier aircraft began to bomb and strafe the area, but Cliffords B Company was nonetheless unable to break through. An artillery duel emerged during the night keeping the men of the 1st Battalion wide awake. They were also being supplies with great difficulty via hand-carry over the Dépapré-Lake Sentani trail. Fortunately the 24th Division's plans for the Hollandia operation had taken into consideration many of the potential logistic problems that might be encountered in the Tanahmerah Bay area. The division G-4 Section had made a detailed study which had shown that a full infantry regiment could be supplied by hand-carry from Red Beach 2 over the Dépapré-Lake Sentani trail inland as far as Jangkena. When no road connecting Red Beach 2 with Red Beach 1 had been found, the division moved the main supply point to Dépapré, from which the advance inland would be supported. With this change in plans, the G-4 Section undertook new computations and calculated that the hand-carry distance could be extended to Dazai. This conclusion was based on the assumption that adverse weather conditions would not make the Dépapré-Lake Sentani road nearly impassable. On 23 April heavy rains started to turn the road into a quagmire through which struggling men could scarcely carry their own equipment and food, to say nothing of extra supplies for the leading battalion. By evening on that day logistic support of the 21st Regiment had therefore become a major problem. There was no question but that the regiment would have to be supported by hand-carry, for it was estimated that at least two weeks' hard work by engineers would be required before the road from Dépapré as far as Mariboe could be made passable even for jeeps. But the 1st Battalion had already advanced east of Dazai, beyond which point, according to the G-4 estimates, support by hand-carry would be next to impossible. Because of the logistical issues, General Eichelberger decided to make the Humboldt Bay area the principal task force landing site, allowing the 41st division to drive further inland. On the 24th, Newman's 3rd Battalion passed through the 1st and seized the Koejaboe area, only stopping there until the 2nd battalion came over to reinforce the continued advance. During this action however, most of the Japanese continued their retreat towards Genjem unmolested. Over in the west, Irving ordered Clifford to consolidate his forward positions around Sabron and Dazai as he now realized the continued rapid advance inland was no long possible as a result of their hand-carry logistics scheme and the weather was taking quite a turn for the worse hampering air drops. Back over at Aitape, Mason's troops crossed the Raihu and by midday the 2nd Battalion secured the town. However General Doe was dissatisfied with the pace of the westward advance, and he therefore suggested to Alamo Force that the 163rd's commander, Mason be relieved. This step was approved by General Krueger, although the regimental commander remained in control of his unit until 9 May, only two days before the 163rd Infantry began loading for another operation. For the next few days, the 163rd patrolled further inland and would fall into a heavy engagement at Kamti on the 29th. At the Kapoam villages, about twelve miles up the Raihu, elements of the 3rd Battalion encountered the only signs of organized Japanese resistance found in the Aitape area to 4 May. At one of these villages, Kamti, some outpost troops of the 3rd Battalion were surrounded by an estimated 200 Japanese who made a number of harassing attacks on 28 and 29th. These skirmishes cost the battalion 3 men killed and 2 wounded, while it was estimated that the Japanese lost about 90 killed. On the 25th, Colonel Lymann's two forward battalion resumed their march, heading through some dense jungle being met by sporadic enemy small arm fire. They eventually dug in around the vicinity of Julianadorp. Meanwhile Colonel Newman had his 3rd battalion advancing west along the main road to Nefaar while some LVT's transported his 1st battalion over Lake Sentani to a point on the western shore of Nefaar. Neither force faced much opposition and together would perform some patrolling of the Cyclops Drome during the afternoon. Back over at Aitape, Colonel Howe's 127th Regiment finished their occupation of Tumleo, Seleo and the Ali Islands and now were beginning to send patrols east towards Afua. On the 26th, Colonel Newman had his 1st Battalion seize the Cyclops Drome while his 2nd Battalion took some LVTS to capture the Sentani Drome. Shortly after midday both Battalions rapidly secured the airdromes under light enemy resistance. Despite a serious supply situation, Lyman's 1st and 3rd Battalion resumed the advance, only encountering one enemy bunker at Ebeli Plantation. It had been impossible to drop supplies from the air on April 25 and even hand-carrying had been stopped late in the afternoon by heavy rains which had flooded many small streams. Parts of the Dépapré-Lake Sentani trail were now knee deep in water. The two forward battalions were low on ammunition, and they would have to go on half-rations if the supply situation were not quickly improved. But General Irving was again optimistic about the weather, believing that air supply would be successful on the 26th. Furthermore, he had received information which indicated that the Japanese were evacuating the airfield area. For these reasons he considered that a continuation of the advance would not be unduly hazardous. In ordering the advance, the division commander was knowingly pushing his men far beyond the limit at which they could be supplied by hand-carry. If the airdrop should again fail or if track conditions should not improve, one of the two forward battalions would probably have to be echeloned back along the trail to augment the carrying parties, and the advance would probably have to be halted. Should enemy opposition prove stubborn, the forward battalions might have to withdraw, perhaps as far as Dazai, to replenish their meager supplies of rations and ammunition. General Irving was taking a calculated risk which assumed the success of the airdrop and an absence of determined Japanese opposition. By the afternoon of the 26th, the Hollandia Drome was secured after a successful airdrop at Dazai. After this the objectives of Reckless had been achieved. Mop up operation would continue up until June 6th, as Fuller's 41st Division cleared out Cape Soedja and the Cyclops Mountain. They would end up flushing out Japanese on Hill 1000 and Irving's 24th Division sent out patrols west towards Marneda, Demta Bay and Gemjem. By 6 June the they had all killed 405 Japanese and had taken 64 prisoners in the Genjem-Demta region. Many more Japanese were found dead of starvation or disease along the trails in the same area. During the same time period, Eichelberger's task force would develop Hollandia into a major base from which future operations would be support. In the end casualties for Operation Reckless amounted to 124 deaths, 1057 wounded and 28 missing for the Americans. The Japanese suffered 3300 deaths, 661 captured. On April 30th, 7220 Japanese from Hollandia's garrison would assemble at Genjem where General Inada began a gradual withdrawal in 11 echelons towards Sarmi. By May 7th, all echelons departed Genjem for a very long march through some of the worst terrain in New Guinea. Two-thirds of the garrison reached the Tor River by June. It's estimated 93% of their strength would succumb to the deadly jungles, lack of provisions and rampant cases of malaria. Meanwhile to secure the Tadji airstrips against Japanese attacks from the direction of Wewak, Colonel Howe sent Company C by boat to Nyaparake on April 28th where they set up outposts further inland around Charov and Jalup. By May 4th, further patrolling by the 127th regiment had discovered no trace of organized enemy units, thus Operation Persecution was successfully completed. During the operation 525 Japanese were killed, 25 were captured while the Americans suffered 19 deaths and 40 wounded. That is all for the New Guinea front as we are now traveling over to New Britain. After the Battle of Talasea and the area was secured, Colonel Smith reached the conclusion that the enemy was withdrawing as rapidly as possible to Cape Hoskins. He decided to send patrols to Numundo Plantation. A reconnaissance patrol on March 10th found enemy positions at Bola and Santa Monica Plantation evacuated, but came upon entrenched enemy at Garilli. On 11th Captain Andrew Haldane's Company K left Bitokara with orders to proceed to Numundo on a three-day patrol, a time estimate that was to prove too optimistic. Company K reached Garilli to find it empty of the enemy, but just north of Patanga encountered Japanese small-arms, automatic-weapons and mortar fire. For four days the Marine patrol made slow progress, fighting an enemy who made a stand in the heavy vegetation approximately every 200 yards and then withdrew effectively before the advance guard flankers could close in. On the evening of the 16th the company entered Kilu where the Japanese made their final stand. While the two forces battled, a Marine landing craft appeared offshore and as it approached the beach the enemy diverted what apparently was a 75mm field gun from the ground action to the "naval force". In the boat was Lieutenant Colonel Deakin who had obtained permission from Colonel Smith to transport a section of 81mm mortars to Captain Haldane's assistance. Although the Japanese bracketed the craft, they failed to hit it and the weapons were landed without casualties. Shortly after the heavy mortars began lobbing shells toward the enemy, the Japanese broke contact and the Marines reached Numundo 48 hours later without finding the Terunuma Detachment again. The 1st Battalion also set up an ambush at Garu which was productive of enemy dead and prisoners for awhile. Company I replaced Company K at Numundo and in turn was replaced on 25 March by the 2nd Battalion. Inasmuch as the enemy continued to straggle eastward singly and in small groups with little or no communications, patrols were kept busy returning over and over again to the same villages and plantations in hopes of catching unwary Japanese. Such hopes frequently paid off. On the 30th the 2nd Battalion moved southeast from Numundo to San Remo Plantation, described by one Marine as "a very pleasant place." From that point patrols probed westward to the Kulu River and eastward into the Cape Hoskins area as far as Buluma. Overall the patrols saw 3 men killed with 8 wounded while accounting for 151 Japanese killed and 68 taken prisoner. Meanwhile, Matsuda, Komori and Terunuma;s Detachments all were performing withdrawals. Komori dispatched his force to the rendezvous point in successive echelons. He himself left Didmop with the rear guard, back on February 28th, reaching Augitni via Vakan on March 1st. The following morning he started his hospital patients along the evacuation route and sent a detail of 250 men to Bulawatni to help transport provisions. Yet the Marines at Iboki were becoming increasingly troublesome, though quite unaware that they faced anything more than starving stragglers. When Company A, 1st Marines entered Talawaga on the 5th, Colonel Sato felt the hot breath of pursuit on his neck and moved to the trail fork where he assumed command of the combined force. The next morning the Komori Group resumed its withdrawal in a northwesterly direction along the right prong of the trail fork, while Sato prepared to follow with his command on the 7th. At this point the ways of these two officers parted, and thenceforth each pursued his individual course toward the destiny that awaited him. On the 6th the Komori Group, with Major Tobuse's 1st Battalion, 141st Infantry in the lead, covered 16 km's on the trail running northeast from the fork toward the coast to reach what the Japanese called the "North Road." After the first day on the trail, Komori's progress becomes difficult to follow, owing to his use of place names occurring in no other reports or maps. It was slow and difficult at best, because of rain and mud, and the necessity for wide detours to find fords through deep streams and safe passages through or around extensive swamps. His immediate force numbered about 200, and on March 8th he recorded the Tobuse Battalion a half-day's march ahead. He sighted occasional enemy reconnaissance planes, and on the 12th U.S. landing craft fired upon his men as they attempted to cross the Kuhu River, obliging them to take to the jungle and swamps. The broad Via River stopped his force on the 14th. When improvised rafts refused to float, the major and 15 others swam across. The rest, through weakness or timidity, declined to follow this excellent example, and it took two days and a wide detour inland to get the whole group to the right bank. Then, on the 17th, provisions ran out. Thus the weakening men came by painful stages to Kometto (Eleanora Bay) and the welcome coconuts of Linga Linga Plantation on the 21st. But the wide Kapuluk River posed a formidable obstacle to further progress. They tried first to swim the Kapuluk near its mouth, but 18 men of the 2nd Company were swept away and 12 of them drowned, only the captain reaching the far bank safely. A patrol far upstream failed to find any fording point, so the troops spent the rest of the day building rafts. These managed to stay afloat, but broke apart so frequently that another two days were required for the passage. Then came the real heartbreaker on the 24th: they reached Kou only to find the provisioning post evacuated. On the 25th an officer patrol encountered a U.S. patrol, and once more the group had to detour. On the 26th Komori hired a native to guide him to Numundo Plantation, at the eastern base of the Willaumez Peninsula. But evidently the man had a change of heart, for the major recorded next day that, lacking a guide, "we advanced using a compass." They now entered a region of extensive swamps, intersected by another major obstacle: the two-pronged Kulu river. The column got across this stream on the 27th, but lost five more men in the swift current. The survivors emerged from the swamps on the 29th and followed the river southward. On the 31st Komori made his final diary entry, eloquent in its stark simplicity: "We are very tired and without food." Apparently at this point malaria laid the major low. Ordering his men to continue toward Cape Hoskins, he took refuge in a native village, accompanied only by his executive officer, his orderly and a corporal attached to his headquarters. For lack of further diary entries, obscurity shrouds the last week of his life. Most of the Japanese forces reached Malalia by the end of March, but Marine patrols were becoming increasingly troublesome. On the 11th, elements of the 1st Marines landed at Linga Linga, patrolling further inland. Company E landed at the Kulu River mouth at the base of Willaumez Peninsula. There the Marines encountered 4 enemy stragglers, killing three and taking one prisoner. Then they moved westward to Kandoka, where they were joined by two platoons of Company F, brought over by boat. There they established a roadblock, just in time to catch Sato's rear echelon. Second Lieutenant Richard B. Watkins was in command of the trail block. At 9am Watkins led his group inland from the village over some faint trails which he hoped the Japanese main body might be using. The Marines had proceeded about a mile and a half and were about to cross a stream in a sparsely wooded area when they sighted two Japanese standing with slung rifles, apparently resting. Watkins had about decided to dispose of these when they moved off in a northeasterly direction, followed almost immediately by a large body of their compatriots. Lying where the Japanese could easily have spotted them, the Marines counted the 73 enemy soldiers and noted the equipment cited above. Conspicuous among them was a tall, burly officer being carried on a litter. The Japanese were cutting fresh trail through the jungle, and fortunately were too intent on their work to discover the patrol. They made excruciatingly slow progress, however, and Watkins did not dare to move until the last man had disappeared. He then returned with all speed to Kandoka, sending a runner ahead with his report. At the village he met Major Brush who had come over from Yaluiai with one squad on what he had intended as merely a routine inspection. He promptly radioed his command post to send a rifle platoon and a 60mm mortar section to the scene and ordered Watkins to hold the trail block with one rifle squad, one machine-gun squad and two mortar squads while he himself set off with the rest of the troops available in an effort to overtake the Japanese from the rear. Before his own departure that morning, Watkins had sent a six-man patrol under Sergeant Frank Chliek to an inland village some two miles south of Kandoka, right where the Japanese appeared to be heading. The lieutenant promptly dispatched a native messenger there with a warning; then, when firing broke out in that direction, he surmised, correctly, that Chliek had become engaged and took the remaining rifle squad and hurried to his assistance. He arrived to find the sergeant and his men crouched on high ground by the east-west trail with dead Japanese all around them. The volume of fire was intense, the pattern not at all clear. As it turned out, Chliek had stumbled upon the column somewhere near its head and, taking advantage of his superior position, immediately opened fire. Major Brush's force, which had been closing rapidly, was on the opposite side of the valley at this time; hence, at sound of the first shots, had hastened to the scene and struck the Japanese column's other flank. In order to avoid becoming involved in a fire fight with that group, Watkins ordered Chliek's patrol back to Kandoka and followed with his own squad at a slower pace. Brush caught up with him shortly, whereat a counting of heads showed that, miraculously, the Marines had not sustained a single casualty. Here is the aftermath as Watkins recalls it: “On the following morning I took a 20 man patrol through the battle area. We counted 55 dead including 3 officers. It was quite easy to believe that perhaps 20 more died in scattered positions throughout the dense underbrush. The dead were all within a 100 yard stretch of trail. We encountered 2 more Japanese who had evidently just come upon the scene who were sitting side by side staring dazedly at the destruction and did not even turn their heads when we approached.” The burly officer previously observed on a litter proved to be Colonel Sato. Evidently Sergeant Chliek's patrol had struck the enemy column at precisely the point where he was being carried, for the colonel had only had time to leap to his feet and draw his sword to fight back before the Marines' fire riddled him. Seeing their leader fall, those Japanese farther forward took off in mad flight, while those behind were cut off by the converging of the two patrols. Thus perished one of the few Japanese to deserve much credit for the performance of the 65th Brigade on New Britain. Although the rear echelon attacked by the two patrols comprised less than half of Sato's total force, the group, as such, ceased to exist with the death of the leader who alone had held it together. Units split into components, these into smaller parties, straggling eastward over a variety of trails, often hacking their own way by compass azimuth.  Throughout April, the 17th Division continued their retreat towards Rabaul, managed to repel multiple marine patrol attacks around Cape Hoskins. General Sakai's survivors finally got to Rabaul between April 16th and May 15th, erecting the last bulwark of defense for the South Pacific. On April 6th, the journey of another Japanese commander came to an end. The body of the already deceased Major Komori was captured at the San Remo Plantation by the 2nd Battalion, 5th marines. They came upon the outpost, suddenly face to face with a group of four bedraggled Japanese. It was one of those abrupt encounters that allow little time for reflection or deliberation. The flurry of fire that followed killed three of the enemy and wounded the fourth, who promptly surrendered. Komori had apparently died of malaria along the way.  For the 5th Marines, too, was nearing its journey's end, so far as New Britain was concerned. With promotion of the regimental commander, Lieutenant Colonel Buse took over on an acting basis, and General Smith returned to Cape Gloucester to relieve General Shepherd as Assistant Division Commander. Units attached to the regiment followed, and representatives of the Army's 185th Infantry arrived to inspect positions preparatory to replacing the 5th, just as other 40th Infantry Division elements were doing in the Cape Gloucester area with a view toward relieving the entire 1st Marine Division. Last clash of the campaign occurred onthe 22nd of April, when a 2/5 patrol intercepted a party of Japanese, killing 20, including two officers, and suffering the regiment's last fatality on New Britain. Three days later the whole 185th RCT moved into Talasea and San Remo, and at 1530 command of the area formally passed to the Army. LCM's carrying the 1st and 3rd Battalions back to Borgen Bay cleared Talasea at 1630, followed by those carrying 2/5 from San Remo at 2000. The movement was reported complete at 1930 on the 26th, and men of the 5th learned that the 1st Marines had departed this island of evil memory the previous day and that they would follow as ships became available. Soon they would be relieved by Major-General Isaac Rapp Brush's 40th Division, which took responsibility for Cape Gloucester, Arawe and Talasea by the end of April.  I would like to take this time to remind you all that this podcast is only made possible through the efforts of Kings and Generals over at Youtube. Please go subscribe to Kings and Generals over at Youtube and to continue helping us produce this content please check out www.patreon.com/kingsandgenerals. If you are still hungry after that, give my personal channel a look over at The Pacific War Channel at Youtube, it would mean a lot to me. Thus Operation Reckless and Persecution were both successful. Now MacArthur had a strong foothold in Western New Guinea seeing the Japanese continued their frantic retreat wherever allied forces seemed to pop up. Over in New Britain, the Japanese were losing formidable commanders as they too were on the retreat, things were simply disastrous for the empire of the rising sun. 

Last time we spoke about Operation Thursday and the ferocious counteroffensive on Bougainville. The Chindits embarked on their second great raid, this time better equipped, better trained and more numerous than ever. With a literal armada of beasts of burden they marched through Burma, forded the Chindwin and began attacking and establishing strongholds. This was all done in coordination with Slim and Stilwell's forces, trying to break the Japanese and gradually seize back lost territory. Wingate had his work cut out for him as the Chindits were providing real results, yet unfortunately he would not have long to see them. Wingate was killed in a B-25 crash and it felt like the personality of the Chindits left with him. Over on Bougainville the Japanese tossed as much as they could to try and break through the Americans perimeter to hit the airfield, but it was all for naught.  This episode is the Bombing of Hollandia and Palau  Welcome to the Pacific War Podcast Week by Week, I am your dutiful host Craig Watson. But, before we start I want to also remind you this podcast is only made possible through the efforts of Kings and Generals over at Youtube. Perhaps you want to learn more about world war two? Kings and Generals have an assortment of episodes on world war two and much more  so go give them a look over on Youtube. So please subscribe to Kings and Generals over at Youtube and to continue helping us produce this content please check out www.patreon.com/kingsandgenerals. If you are still hungry for some more history related content, over on my channel, the Pacific War Channel you can find a few videos all the way from the Opium Wars of the 1800's until the end of the Pacific War in 1945.  Operation Brewer saw General MacArthur tossing cavalrymen against the eastern side of Los Negros. General Swift's 1st Cavalry Division successfully landed on Los Negros and managed to secure Seedler Harbor quickly. After this, General Chase's 1st Brigade was given the task of mopping up the island. By march 11th daily patrols had determined that the entire area from the Mokerang Peninsula to Southeast Point and as far west as Porlaka was generally free of the enemy. The 1st Squadron, 5th Cavalry pushed its perimeter at Momote west and south to the water barriers of Lemondrol Creek and Ihon Lagoon. The 12th Cavalry beachhead at Salami continuously patrolled into the interior and encountered so few Japanese that it was clear the enemy lacked sufficient numbers to harass the troops on the peninsula. West of Lemondrol Creek  was a completely different story. While the troops holding the beachheads from Lombrum to Papitalai waited for supply channels to be established, they probed to locate the center of enemy resistance. The 12th Cavalry was responsible for the beachheads at Papitalai Mission and Lombrum. The 2nd Squadron had captured Papitalai Mission and on the 11th the 1st Squadron took over Lombrum Point, relieving the 7th Cavalry so they could attack Manus Island. The 5th Cavalry held the Papitalai perimeter with Troop F. When that regiment extended its control over the area east of Lemondrol and Porharmenemen Creeks on the 11th, the 2nd Squadron moved into the Porlaka area while the 1st Squadron on the left flank was concentrated near Southeast Point. It was planned that the 12th Cavalry would do most of its fighting in the northern sector moving inland from the coastal positions to cut oil the Japanese hammered at by the 5th Cavalry as it pushed west on both sides of Lemondrol Creek. Since the 8th, every Troop F patrol from Papitalai had run into enemy resistance in the hilly country to the west. Although small patrols of squad size or slightly larger were held up day after day by resistance about 800 yards west of Papitalai, these first encounters did not reveal the full strength of the enemy pocket. When an attack by a platoon of Troop E, reinforced by two tanks, two bazookas, and flamethrowers, was repulsed on the 11th, the strength of the enemy strongpoint became clearer. The enemy was well dug in along the ridge, marked by a series of knobs, running west from Papitalai. The highest point, Hill 260, about 2,500 yards from Papitalai, not to be mistaken for Hill 260 on Bougainville by the way, this was probably the center of the enemies defense. However, on two knobs east of 260, well-defended outposts prevented any movement farther into the interior. The position 800 yards from Papitalai which had repulsed Troop E was defended by a platoon with knee mortars and at least 3 machine guns. The total enemy strength facing the 5th Cavalry was estimated at 150 to 200 Japanese.  Now that was the ongoings of Los Negros, but Brigadier General Verne Mudge's 2nd Brigade was now preparing to invade Manus island. American intelligence was unsure of the disposition of the enemy on Manus. A rough estimate was that 2700 Japanese were concentrated there and would most likely make a stand at Lorengau. The Americans expected the Japanese would put up a last losing fight. But because of the lack of knowledge of their numbers and disposition on the largest island of the Admiralties, this would require careful planning for the invasion. Fighting into the interior where the mountain range would provide defensive positions and through the swampy forests covering the rest of the island would not be easy. There were only 4 roads winding about the island and converging at Lorengau would be suitable for moving vehicles, and long stretches of these red-clay roads would be impassable in rainy weather. Surrounding jungle and swamps would confine any large-scale movement to the roads. Therefore, the plan was to pin the enemy to the coast where it was hoped he had concentrated his main strength. Mudge planned to land Troops A and C of the 8th cavalry regiment at the Yellow beaches of Lugos Mission. When the 8th Cavalry had secured a beachhead, including the Lugos Mission itself, each squadron would advance east, the 1st Squadron along the coast using the Number Three Road, and the 2nd along an inland road known as the Number One Road, to execute a wide sweep toward Lorengau. If a sizeable garrison was concentrated at fortified Lorengau, the inland arm of this attack would prevent the enemy from escaping along the only road leading west to the mountain areas. Prior to the assault, 3 patrols had been sent to Bear Point on Manus and on the islands of Butjo Luo and Hauwei. Mudge planned to deploy artillery at these places to aid in his assault. Bear Point was found to have no enemy, but unfortunately it was not a suitable place for artillery placement. The northern island of Butjo Luo was an excellent site for artillery and was found to be unoccupied. Hauwei would turn out to be another story. The American  patrol moved out from Salami on an LCV and a PT boat, landing without opposition on the western end of the island. Major Carter S. Vaden of the 99th Field Artillery Battalion, threw two grenades into a well camouflaged bunker about 10 yards from the beach and the party progressed inland. Immediately after the grenade explosions, a mortar shell landed on the beach in the rear of the party. From three sides, machine-gun, rifle, and mortar fire opened up. Fortunately, the grenades had evidently sprung a planned ambush prematurely and the party was not cut off from the rear. Using their submachine guns, the men of the patrol were able to hold back the enemy. They were aided by some supporting fire from the PT Boat and the .30-caliber machine gun of the LCV. After 2 and a half hours they managed to withdraw to the water's edge. The PT boat had returned to its tender after the commanding officer was wounded, and the coxswain of the LCV shouted and motioned for the cavalrymen to get on board, but only five of them reached the boat, as the others were engaged with the enemy on shore. The LCV had troubles of its own; enemy mortar and machine-gun fire found its range and wounded all on board except two. Then the LCV grounded on submerged coral and sank 200 yards offshore after receiving a direct hit from a mortar. The wounded men, put into lifejackets, floated about in the water. When the remaining members of the patrol on shore were wading out toward the LCV, 6 Japanese attempted to set up a machine gun on the beach. The men cut them down with their submachine guns. Still under fire, the cavalrymen swam out to the survivors of the LCV, making a group of 18 men out in the water. Failing to attract the notice of the destroyers nearby, the tired men had to stay in the water for 3 hours until a PT boat picked them up. At the same time a destroyer closed in to the island to draw hostile fire and bombard enemy positions on the western end. Hauwei was going to need extra help to be secured. The 2nd Squadron, 7th cavalry departed from Lombrum Point on the 11th and landed on Butjo Luo. The next day, Destroyer gunfire and rockets as well as 105-mm concentrations from the 61st Field Artillery Battalion at Mokerang point battered Hauwei. Then Kittyhawks of the 77th Pursuit Squadron at Momote airfield bombed and strafed the Hauwei. After all of this, the 2nd Squadron landed on Hauwei meeting slight resistance at the beach. They advanced 300 yards further inland where they became pinned down by heavy rifle, machine gun and mortar fire. The Japanese were firing upon them from some bunkers, prompting the 2nd Squadron to dig in and allow the artillery teams to hit them throughout the night. During the night the 61st Field Artillery Battalion from the north end of Mokerang Plantation fired 1,000 rounds to harass the enemy. This fire was directed so accurately and carefully that it was brought down on the enemy within 100 yards of the cavalrymen's positions without any casualties to our troops, and helped minimize enemy activity during the night.  At 10am on the 13th, with the support of a medium tank, the cavalrymen stormed the bunkers along the edges of the island. The Japanese put up a valiant fight, but they lacked anti-tank weaponry. By 12pm, the 2nd Squadron successfully mopped up the enemy, suffering 8 deaths and 46 wounded. They estimated they had killed 43 Japanese who were all naval personnel. Having secured the two islands, now one artillery battalion set up at Butjo Luo and two others upon Hauwei. The next day at 7:00am the 3 artillery battalions opened fire upon the Lorengau Township area. This target was chosen to divert the enemy's attention from the landing beaches around Lugos Mission. Meanwhile 4 destroyers bombarded Lorengau with their 5-inch guns. Then 18 B-25's from  Nadzab bombed and strafed the Lugos Mission and the beach areas until H - 5 minutes. Between 9:07 and 9:25, they dropped 81 500-pound bombs, strafed with more than 44,000 rounds of machine-gun fire, and cleared the target just as the troops were coming ashore.   The 8th cavalry departed Salami, heading for the Yellow Beaches covered by 3 rocket boats. The wave of buffaloes drew up to the beaches, and it appeared that they were going to make it without opposition until an enemy machine gun opened up from east of the landing beaches. Immediately the buffaloes responded with their own machine-gun fire, and two PT boats closed in to support. With 100 rounds from a flak boat added to this fire the machine gun was silenced. Two waves of landing craft followed the buffaloes to the shore in rapid succession and the narrow beaches, backed either by jungle or a high bluff, were soon congested with assault troops. On the eastern beach, Troop A began a vigorous drive toward Lugos Mission and the Number Three Road leading to the Lorengau airdrome. Captain Raymond J. Jennings, led the troops to storm the bluff where Lugos Mission was located and overran the mission before the few Japanese who had survived the bombardment could put up effective opposition. The men worked their way into the mission compound and cleared out the area with grenades. Troop A was soon on its way along Number Three Road leaving behind it, some 20 dead SNLF, without the loss of a single cavalryman. Meanwhile Troop C advanced west 800 yards to a ridge where they stopped and dug in, having accomplished their mission of establishing a defensive perimeter to protect the landing of successive elements. Other waves of the 1st and 2nd Squadrons began landing ashore as the 7th cavalry took up the beachhead. The 2nd squadron advanced over some ridges towards the Number One Road, while Troop A reduced enemy bunkers progressing roughly a mile from the beach. By 11:20am, they came across 3 mutually-supporting bunkers that halted their advance. It took Troop B's support alongside artillery and aerial bombardment to destroy the bunkers to they could advance. Meanwhile the 1st Squadron emerged out of the jungle into a clearing at 5pm, where they occupied a ridge overlooking the southern edge of the airdrome, where they would dig in. The 2nd Squadron reached Number One Road, where they ran into 3 bunkers. The following morning with tank support the squadron overran the bunkers and advanced northeast towards Lorengau. The cavalrymen would destroy 7 bunkers during their trek, before halting 100 yards before Lorengau. To the north, Troop A was clearing a coconut grove north of the airstrip, from which Japanese snipers were harassing them throughout the night. Troop C advanced along the southern edge near the airstip where they came across another pack of bunkers. Since the snipers north of the strip had been cleared out by noon, an attack could be made in the open. Troop B, supported by light tanks on their left advanced down the strip, followed by Troop D and the squadron HQ. Troop A advanced across the strip and then east along the north edge. By 1:00pm Troop C managed to destroy two bunkers using grenades, forcing the Japanese inhabitants to flee out into the open where they were cut down. Troop C then was about to dash across the airstrip when they suddenly became pinned down by friendly fire from Troop B who were trying to disengage the enemy before them. The 1st squadron suffered 9 deaths and 19 wounded during the action. Mudge then ordered them to relieve Troop C, who were holding some high ground south of the airstrip.  On the morning of the 17th after extensive naval and artillery bombardment, Mudge launched a coordinated attack with the 2nd Squadron advancing south of the airstrip and the 1st Squadron assaulting the bunkers that had held up the 8th cavalry's advance. The bombardments had nearly annihilated the bunkers, allowing the 1st squadron to face only slight resistance. They soon attacked a secondary Japanese position further east upon a ridge. This position was also met with artillery and mortar fire and would fall by 11:30am. After this the cavalrymen were able to obliterate the remaining pillboxes and advance across the pulverized airstrip. Meanwhile the 2nd Squadron of the 7th and 8th cavalry regiments linked up along the Number One Road near Lorengau. The 8th Cavalry had encountered little resistance on the road, destroying whatever bunkers were encountered with the aid of fire from medium tanks. The light tank accompanying the squadron had a track blown off by the first Japanese anti tank mine encountered in the operation. By 1pm, all the front-line troops around the airstrip to Number one Road linked up forming a general advance. By this point the backbone of the enemies resistance had been broken, leaving little to resistance them. For the next 1,500 yards to the river, it took them  2 hours because the Japanese had hurriedly put in large quantities of anti-tank and anti-personnel mines. They had been emplaced, however, with no prepared plan, and many were poorly camouflaged or left lying completely on the surface. The Japanese had also dug holes and refilled them without emplacing any mines. As the cavalrymen slowly made their way to the river, they suffered a few casualties from the mines. The 7th cavalry reached the Lorengau River by 3pm, from there they dispatched a reconnaissance platoon who quickly came under fire from bunkers atop some hills overlooking Lorengau. Lorengau was sheltered in a valley surrounded by jungle-covered hills rising to 400 feet. The Japanese believed an attack would come from the sea, thus many of their defenses were sited to cover the shoreline. The offshore approaches and the three roads entering the settlement from the east, south, and north were also covered by defensive positions. From the position held by the 2nd Brigade, the only approach to the town was over a sandbar at the mouth of the Lorengau River, a slow-moving stream 20 yards wide and 10 to 20 feet deep, except at the sandbar. The beach area, which the troops would then have to cross, was heavily protected. Naval demolition mines, containing 20 pounds of black powder and detonated by a master switch located in a control bunker up the hillside, covered the beach. About 100 yards inland from the beach a series of rifle pits and gun emplacements were constructed on the side of a dike which paralleled the shore. On the hills surrounding the harbor, beach, and town about a dozen heavy bunkers were used to reinforce the fires of beach defenses and to add depth to the position. As usual these bunkers were carefully camouflaged, although the concentration of naval and artillery fire as well as repeated bombings had disclosed the location of several. Mudge ordered the men to dig in for the night on the west bank of the river and establish a perimeter defense against some expected counterattacks that would not develop in the end. The next morning, after a mortar and artillery bombardment, the 2nd Squadron, 8th Cavalry advanced down from its ridge positions to the mouth of the broad river, with its Reconnaissance Platoon leading. Upon fording the river, the cavalrymen only faced a handful of machine-guns. Facing almost no opposition, the squadron was thus able to secure Lorengau, counting 87 dead Japanese in the remains of the town.  Colonel Ezaki seemed to have disappeared during the battle over Papitalai leaving his men leaderless. The Japanese naval troops in desperation began retreating towards Rossum, with American patrols hot on their trail. There would be a furious fight down the Rossum Road. 1st Lt. James M. Concannon captured an enemy map of the area during his patrol to which he exclaimed, "Well, here goes Concannon to get himself a Purple Heart!" Lt. Concannon's platoon had been ordered to go along Number Two Road which went to Rossum and from there to Kelaua Harbor, through the heart of the Japanese defenses indicated on the captured map. Hardly had the platoon crossed the outpost line still held by Troop E along Number Two Road when it came under fire from a pair of bunkers sited to cover the track. Lieutenant Concannon and one of his men were wounded. The platoon sergeant assumed command and attempted to flank the position. When the attempt was not successful, the sergeant decided to withdraw and report, as his mission was one of reconnaissance. Upon receiving the information that the enemy was in position not 200 yards from the outpost line, Colonel Bradley directed Major Shore to send Troop A back up the track to neutralize the enemy position. The troop was reinforced with machine guns and two 37-mm antitank guns.  Troop A of the 8th cavalry were ordered to deal with the newly discovered enemy bunkers. Corporal Peter J. Armstrong and Armando V. Valencia set their heavy machine-gun in position at a range of 30 yards from one of the bunkers. Having disclosed his position by laying a continuous burst of fire on the bunker, Corporal Armstrong was wounded by sniper fire. Armstrong continued firing until a grenade knocked him unconscious. Although the gun had been hit in several places and was leaking a steady stream from its water jacket, Corporal Valencia took over and continued firing at the bunker slits until the machine-gun froze; then he fired with his submachine-gun until it was knocked out of his hands by an enemy bullet. In the meantime the mortars had obtained four direct hits on the bunkers, and the anti-tank guns had made two. Corporals Armstrong and Valencia were later awarded the Distinguished Service Cross, and for its action during the day Troop A was given a unit citation.  After taking out the stubborn position, Troop A advanced along the road under heavy sniper fire, until they were relieved by Troop C. Troop C immediately was met with a heavy Japanese counterattack shortly after nightfall. The counterattack was launched by 8 Japanese using rifle grenades and small arms. Considering the size of the attacking force, the casualties of the troop were heavy: 2 killed and 10 wounded. All the Japanese were killed, largely due to a quick adjustment by the forward observer of the 61st Field Artillery Battalion followed by four volleys fired for effect. By this point the Americans had achieved all their objectives for the Admiralty Islands campaign, the only thing left to do was mop up the islands. The remaining IJA troops were now withdrawing across the Loniu Passage over to Manus. The 8th cavalry were soon given the task of clearing the eastern end of Manus, while the 7th cavalry would clear out the Rossum Road. Yet that is all for this campaign as we are now heading over to New Guinea. General MacArthur was planning his new Western New Guinea offensive. After the directives given on March 12th, Admiral Nimitz had been instructed to provide support for his Hollandia operation. The Japanese began their occupation of Hollandia  early in April of 1942 but paid little attention to the region for a year. Then  Allied air reconnaissance disclosed that the enemy was constructing airfields on the Lake Sentani Plain. This development progressed slowly until late 1943, by which time successive reverses in the air and on the ground in eastern New Guinea and the Bismarck Archipelago, together with increasing shipping losses in the same region, began to demonstrate to the Japanese the vulnerability of their air and supply bases east of Hollandia. In late 1943 and early 1944, the Japanese  built 3 airfields on the Lake Sentani Plain and started a fourth at Tami, on the seacoast east of Humboldt Bay. In addition, because of shipping losses east of Hollandia, the Japanese began to develop Humboldt Bay into a major supply base and transshipment point. Large ships would unload at Hollandia, whence cargo would be carried by barge to points southeast along the coast of New Guinea as far as Wewak over 215 miles away. Much of the cargo of the large ships remained at Hollandia to build up the base there. Admiral Nimitz decided to dispatch two fast carrier groups of Admiral Mitscher's Task Force 58 to conduct fighter sweeps against Hollandia and the Wakde-Sarmi area in order to keep their airfields neutralized. MacArthur south for the carries to support the troops for 8 days after the landings. But Nimitz believed this would put the carriers in risk, because the Japanese would be able to launch aircraft from all over the Dutch East Indies or even the Philippines. It was decided Task Force 58 would remain in the Hollandia region for only 3 days after the landings were made. As a result MacArthur opted to supplement using land-based aircraft against Hollandia. To obtain this he would need to capture an airfield in Northern New Guinea, just east of the main objective. He chose an Aitape, it was a lightly guarded area and already partially developed by the Japanese, such as the incomplete airfields around the Tadji Plantation. Once the men landed ashore at Aitape, allied forces could provide flank protection for Haollandia against any westward actions by the Japanese 18th Army. For the assault against Aitape, MacArthur planned to use the 8 escort carriers of Task Force 78 under the command of Rear Admiral Ralph E. Daviso. Now for the amphibious assault, Admiral Kinkaid gave the job to Admiral Barbey's task force 77 who were divided into 3 attack groups. They would bring over General Eichelberger's 1st corp who would perform the Hollandia operation, codenamed Operation Reckless. I think it is a pretty suitable name for a MacArthur operation. For the Hollandia part of the operation, the 19th and 21st regiments of Major General Frederick Irving's 24th division would land at Tanahmerah Bay; the 162nd and 186th regiments of General Fuller's 41st division would land at Humboldt Bay. For the operation against Aitape, codenamed Persecution, the 163rd regiment of the 41st division led by General Doe would perform the initial landings. To soften up the enemy, General Kenny's air forces began bombing Wewak and Hansa in mid March, then in early April they began neutralizing the airfields to try and deceive General Adachi into believing they were the next allied target. Additionally, MacArthur asked Admiral Spruance to perform a carrier raid against the Palau Islands, codenamed Operation Desecrate One, followed by strikes on Yap and Woleai in the eastern Carolines, in order to prevent the Japanese from reinforcing Western New Guinea. Admiral Mitscher's carriers departed Majuro on the 22nd of March and made their way around the Carolines, trying to sneak past Truk undetected. Despite their best efforts, Japanese search planes from Truk managed to spot them on their 3rd day at sea. This prompted Admiral Spruance to advance the day of the raid from April 1st to March 30th. Meanwhile after sighting the allied naval forces, Admiral Koga ordered an evacuation of Palau, seeing a large number of warships and merchant shipping flee the area for Tawi-Tawi. The US submarines Gar, Blackfish, Tang and Archerfish were stationed to operate against the withdrawing ships and as plane guards. On the 23rd, Tunny sank the Japanese submarine I-42 and damaged the 14,850-ton tanker Iro. To the north of Palau, during an attack on the 26th, Tullibee was hit and sunk by her own circling torpedo. Bashaw torpedoed a 4,317-ton freighter escorted by the destroyers Minazuki and Yuzuki. On the 29th, the super battleship Musashi departed Palau under cover of darkness to avoid an expected air raid, and encountered Tunny, which fired six torpedoes at the battleship; five of them missed, but the sixth blew a hole 5.8 meters in diameter near the bow, flooding her with 3000 tonnes of water. The torpedo hit killed 7 crewmen and wounded another 11. After temporary repairs, Musashi sailed for Japan later that night and arrived at Kure Naval Arsenal on April 3.  On the 30th, Task Force 58 reached its assembly point 90 miles south of the Palau Islands. The Task Force was met with a Japanese air strike consisting of mostly Betty's and Oscars who were easily swept aside. Then fast carriers Enterprise, Bunker Hill, Hornet, Yorktown and Lexington launched their first air strikes against Palaus. For the next day and a half, the Americans flew hundreds of sorties over these islands, striking the airfields and shooting down all planes they could find. The attacks saw 40 Japanese ships at Palau and Angaur sunk, another 4 were badly damaged. 93 aerial victories would be won over Palau and Avengers from Lexington, Bunker Hill and Hornet laid extensive mines around the channels and approaches to Palau. This was the first tactical aerial mining of the Pacific War performed by carrier aircraft. In response, Admiral Koga asked for help from neighboring islands. He received 9 B6N torpedo bombers from Yap who attempted a night attack against Task Force 58 on the 31st. Unfortunately for the Japanese, 4 Hellcats from Cabot managed to intercept them, successfully shooting all of them down. Koga certainly had a lot on his plate. Due to the recent attacks against Truk and now Palau, Koga decided to transfer his HQ from the Musashi to Davao on March 31st. Most of his senior staff and cryptographers boarded 3 H8K flying boats enroute to Mindanao from Palau. All 3 of the flying boats ran straight into a typhoon just off of Cebu, two of them got lost. These flying boats were carrying Admiral Koga and Vice Admiral Fukudome Shigeru, his chief of staff. Koga's plan would end up crashing enroute to Davao, killing all aboard. Thus another commander in chief of the IJN forces had met his end to a plane crash. The other plane carrying Fukudome crashed off the coast of Cebu. Fukudome had a harrowing experience, but escaped the aircraft and began swimming to the island. To make matters even worse, while swimming Fukudome was grabbed by Filipino guerillas who brought him over to Lt Colonel James Cushing. Cushing was a former engineer in the Philippines who helped organize a resistance movement. Now captured Fukudome was certainly a large prize, yet a even bigger one came on April 3rd. A Filipino shopkeeper named Pedro Gantuangoko spotted a box floating offshore on the 3rd and picked it up in his fishing boat. The box contained a red leather briefcase carrying the Z plan. Fukudome had assumed the box sank with the aircraft, but in a twist of fate it did not. Now while this was going on, Lt Colonel Seiiti Ohnisi had dispatched troops to search for survivors of the aircraft crash and for the box containing the Z plan. Ohnisi hundreds of Filipino villagers interrogated, tortured and killed, entire Filipino villages were burnt to the ground. Eventually Ohnisi cornered Cushing and they struck a deal. On April 10th, with Japanese forces on Cebu hot on the heels of the guerillas, the American commander, Lt-Colonel Cushing, arranged to return Fukudome and the other prisoners to the Japanese in return for a cessation of the massacre of Filipino civilians. Three days later, the Filipinos who had found the box containing Plan Z and the code book when it washed ashore, turned them over to Cushing. The codebook was recognized for what it was when the guerillas discovered the Japanese were offering a 50000 peso reward for its return. On April 27, Cushing arranged for the items to be picked up by the submarine Crevalle. Traveling mostly on the surface for speed, and diving only when needed, the submarine survived depth charging twice, finally arriving at Darwin on May 19. From there, the documents were flown to Brisbane later that day. Allied codebreakers looked forward with anticipation to the arrival of the codebook, since they had been stymied by changes to the IJN code since the summer of 1942 and had not “read the enemy's mail” in any detail since the week before the Battle of Midway. The documents outlined the new strategy for the defense of the inner perimeter islands around Japan with the intention of drawing the US fleet in for a decisive showdown. The documents were sent to Admiral Nimitz and would prove extremely valuable during the Battle of the Philippines Sea. The documents were so vital, the Americans performed a covert operation sending them back to the Philippines by submarine and placed near the wreckage of the flying boat by American divers. It was one of the greatest intelligence coups of WW2. Thus Admiral Koga was dead, the Z plan fell into allied hands and the IJN was now leaderless. Koga's death would not be announced until May and he was replaced by Admiral Toyoda Soemu. Koga was promoted to Marshal Admiral posthumously and granted a state funeral. According to pilot Nagatsuka Ryuji: “The death of Admiral Koga, successor to Admiral Yamamoto, had been another shock for the Japanese nation. These distressing circumstances had forced the naval and military Chiefs of Staff to resign. They had been replaced by General Tojo and Admiral Shimada.”  Now back to the invasion, on April 1st Rear-Admiral John Reeves' carriers launched  airstrikes against Yap and Ulithi, with the three task groups then attacking Woleai. 25 American aircraft were lost, with 26 out of 44 aircrews rescued thanks to submarine Harder. Meanwhile, the fleet's Hellcats win 111 aerial victories and destroy 46 grounded aircraft on the three atolls. With this, Task Force 58 successfully removed Palau as a threat to the Hollandia-Aitape operation. Alongside this South and Southwest Pacific land-based aircraft from bases in eastern New Guinea and the Admiralties, bombed islands in the eastern Carolines and undertook many long reconnaissance missions. Meanwhile Kenney's air forces were busy neutralizing enemy air bases in Western New Guinea and the eastern islands of the Dutch East Indies. Most of the strategic support missions flown to western New Guinea were undertaken by US 5th Air Force while the Royal Australian Air Forces Command took responsibility for the majority of the strikes against the islands in the eastern Dutch East Indies. The operations were intensified roughly 6 weeks before the landings at Hollandia and Aitape.    On March 30th, Kenney shifted the weight of his attacks from the Wewak area to Hollandia, where the Japanese 6th Air Division had recently retreated from Wewak and received strong reinforcements. The airforces also performed a full aerial reconnaissance taking photos of Hollandia's 3 airdromes on March. Added to this were radio intercepts and intelligence ereports, allowing the allies to estimate the Japanese had around 351 aircraft there. With this information at hand, Kenney launched Liberators armed with small 20 pound fragmentation bombs to perform a concentrated bombing against the enemy airfield. Since the Allies hoped to rehabilitate the Hollandia strips as quickly as possible, hits on the runways with heavy ordnance would be avoided. Fighter cover would be provided by long-range P-38's, which would escort the bombers over the target, and by shorter-range P-47's, which would meet the bombers near Aitape, beat off pursuing fighters, and shepherd them home. Medium and light bombers would continue attacks on the airfields at Wewak to prevent their use by Japanese fighters. The Liberators with their P-38 and P-47 escorts would smash the anti-aircraft defenses while the medium and light bombers would drench the area with bombs. On March 30th, 7 B-24's hit Hollandia dispersals as 75 Liberators of the 43rd bombardment group and 59 P-38s of the 80th, 431st and 432nd Fighter Squadrons swept over Hollandia's airstrips and dropped nearly 6000 bombs. To make matters worse for the Japanese, they suffered from insufficient radar warning, many of their aircraft would be on the ground refueling after some morning patrols. The 5th Air Force found countless enemy aircraft parked wing tip to wing tip along the runways, a lethargic anti-aircraft reaction. 25 or more fighters made "eager" passes against the 65th Bombardment Squadron, whose gunners claimed two destroyed. The 80th Fighter Squadron engaged a reported 35 to 40 hostile fighters, destroying 7 of them. The 431st Fighter Squadron claimed one Tony damaged, but the 432d encountered no enemy fighters. Japanese interception seemed badly disorganized. The planes milled about with little evident formation, and most of the pilots appeared to have little desire for a fight. Over 100 aircraft were destroyed as the Japanese were caught completely unprepared. Japanese prisoners-of-war and captured documents later revealed that the reason the bombing operation was so successful was because the Japanese high command erroneously transported too many airplanes to Hollandia from the Philippines and the Dutch East Indies but did not transport more pilots and maintenance crews with the airplanes. There was no way for them to build appropriate defensive shelters to protect all 400 aircraft and also there were not enough trained pilots who could fly all of those airplanes at the same time so many perfectly operational aircraft were left sitting there with no aircrew to maintain them. The morale at Hollandia airbase was very low during the bombing operation, with many Japanese soldiers and airmen hiding in bunkers instead of manning anti-aircraft artillery and getting airplanes into the air. Most of these Hollandia soldiers and airmen were rear-echelon and not combat-oriented at all because most of the combat-trained divisions from the 18th Army were recently sent further east towards Wewak in anticipation of amphibious landings that would never come thanks to the deception and feints carried out by General Kenney. The P-38s then withdrew to Nadzab as soon as the bombers cleared their targets; and the P-47s, meeting the Liberators near Aitape, convoyed them home without incident. So successful was this first raid that one squadron reported that “Hollandia had really been Wewaked”. The next day, Kenney launched a nearly identical mission, with 7 Liberators and 52 P-38s bombing the dispersal at Hollandia, Cyclops and Sentani airdromes. 153 tons of 100 pound demos, frags and incendiary bombs were dropped. The Japanese anti-aircraft fire was more accurate this time around and 56 Japanese fighters gave the allies a fight. However the pilots were inexperienced and unaggressive. The Americans estimated 14 aircraft were shot down while they suffered the loss of one P-38. After the air strike, the total number of destroyed aircraft on the ground reached 199. At this point the Japanese scrambled to withdraw their remaining serviceable aircraft out of Hollandia. On April 3, Kenney sent his heaviest air attack to date. 66 B-24s escorted by 21 P-38s dropped 492 1000-pound bombs on anti-aircraft defenses. An estimated 30 Japanese Tonys and Oscars attempted without success to break up the bomb runs, and B-24 gunners claimed 2 fighters destroyed, while the 21 escorting P-38's of the 80th Squadron claimed downing ten. Then, 96 A-20s escorted by 17 P-38s strafed and dropped 100-pound para-demolition bombs over grounded aircraft, stores, and other targets of opportunity. The 432nd Squadron, covering the A-20's with 17 P-38's, encountered about 20 Japanese fighters and claimed 12 definitely destroyed, against the loss of one P-38. Finally, 76 B-25s escorted by 36 P-38s swept the strips at noon, scattering parafrags and parademos and strafing everything in sight. Only 3 Japanese fighters were encountered in this last attack, which were all shot down. After the end of the raid, Hollandia was so badly mauled that it could no longer be considered a major air installation. A Japanese seaman after hearing of the Allied mission of April 3rd against Hollandia, although seemingly confused as to imperial folklore, correctly assessed the Allied victory: "Yesterday, the anniversary of the birthday of Emperor Meiji, we received from the enemy, greetings, which amount to the annihilation of our Army Air Force in New Guinea." After April 3rd, the 5th Air Force virtually owned the air over Hollandia. I would like to take this time to remind you all that this podcast is only made possible through the efforts of Kings and Generals over at Youtube. Please go subscribe to Kings and Generals over at Youtube and to continue helping us produce this content please check out www.patreon.com/kingsandgenerals. If you are still hungry after that, give my personal channel a look over at The Pacific War Channel at Youtube, it would mean a lot to me. The Admiralty Islands campaign was coming to a swift close, seeing MacArthur secure the valuable islands like Los Negros and Manus. MacArthurs new campaign to hit Western New Guinea and the Dutch East Indies, certainly began with a bang as General Kenney's air forces had basically claimed air supremacy, the Japanese were in full panic mode. 

The industrial legacy of the 20th Century left many contaminated sites around Humboldt Bay. Our second special episode on communities at risk from sea level rise features local residents talking about several of the most vulnerable sites, including Tuluwat Island, Butcher Slough in Arcata, and the nuclear waste storage site above King Salmon. Many thanks to Hilanea Wilkinson, Adam Canter, Jerry Rohde, Nate Faith, and to Jessie Eden, who produced this episode with funding provided by the California Coastal Commission Whale Tail Grant Program.   For more info:The 44 Feet Project Cal Poly Humboldt Sea Level Rise InstituteHumboldt Bay Shoreline, North Eureka to South Arcata: A History of Cultural Influences - Jerry RohdeHumboldt Bay King Tide Photo Project - Humboldt WaterkeeperSupport the show

Join us for the first in a special series on communities at risk from sea level rise featuring local residents who share their thoughts on the challenges and potential solutions facing our region. Many thanks to Marnie Atkins, Jerry Rohde, Nate Faith, Troy Nicolini, Adam Canter, and to Jessie Eden, who produced this episode with funding provided by the California Coastal Commission Whale Tail Grant Program.  For more info: Cal Poly Humboldt Sea Level Rise InstituteCommunities at Risk: King Salmon, Fields Landing, Fairhaven and Finntown - Aldaron LairdHumboldt Bay Shoreline, North Eureka to South Arcata: A History of Cultural Influences - Jerry RohdeHumboldt Bay King Tide Photo Project - Humboldt WaterkeeperSupport the show

The Humboldt Bay Harbor District has been in the news a lot this year. The Harbor District has committed to a "green terminal" strategy that commits the District to a goal of a zero emission terminal capable of building offshore wind turbines. And Congressman Huffman helped to deliver $426m in federal funding for the construction of this new green terminal. What does building a green terminal look like? Maddy Hunt and Ysabelle Yrad, fellows at the Blue Lake Rancheria, have produced a new white paper on the state of port electrification that offers insights into what a green terminal in Humboldt might look like. Support the show

Have you ever wondered what exactly the Humboldt Bay Harbor, Recreation, and Conservation District does, who runs it, and how on earth did they manage to get a $426 million federal grant for a Heavy Lift Terminal for building offshore wind turbines? Tune in for a conversation with Chris Mikkelsen, the District's new Executive Director.For more info: Humboldt Bay Offshore Wind Heavy Lift Marine Terminal ProjectThe Biggest Federal Grant in Humboldt History?Support the show

Are there Coho salmon in small urban streams like Jolly Giant and Janes Creek? If so, how often, and how far upstream do they go? Our guests, fisheries biologists Colton Dixon and Darrren Ward, are studying these streams and have some answers that might come as a surprise. Tune in to learn more about these streams and the fish that call them home for a fairly brief but critical time in their life cycle.For more fascinating info on the fish in our local streams and rivers and the people who study them, you can follow Colton Dixon on Instagram and TikTok @colt.j.dixon.Also check out Humboldt Outdoor's Tour of Jolly Giant Creek - Part 2, which follows the part of Arcata's ~4 mile long Jolly Giant Creek as it flows through Arcata's urban downtown area. A tour of the upper half of the Creek can be seen in Jolly Giant Creek - Part 1. Support the show

Tune in for an interview with Sebastian Elrite of AquaRodeo Farms and Humboldt Bay Provisions to learn about Humboldt Bay oysters. Sebastian tells us all about how they are grown, why they're good for you, the importance of water quality, and how ocean acidification has led to a boom in the local oyster "seed" industry. Support the show

This week, Cal Poly Humboldt Assistant Professor Jennifer Marlow and Graduate Research Assistant Alec Brown join Jen Kalt of Humboldt Waterkeeper to talk about the 44 Feet Project, which is focused on the future risk of climate and coastal hazards to Humboldt Bay's spent nuclear fuel site above the town of King Salmon. The first privately-owned nuclear plant in the U.S, the Humboldt Bay Power Plant produced electricity from 1963 to 1976, leaving 37 tons of spent nuclear fuel to be stored indefinitely 115 feet from the edge of an eroding bluff just 44 feet above current sea level.Two recent developments will be of particular interest to residents of King Salmon and other Humboldt Bay communities. In June, the Humboldt County Civil Grand Jury made recommendations for improving disaster planning and emergency preparedness in response to "any Independent Spent Fuel Storage Installation-related emergencies." In September, the California Public Utilities Commission recently issued a Final Decision in which PG&E agreed to update the tsunami hazard assessment for the spent fuel storage site. For more info:The climate threat to California's stored nuclear waste - Yale Climate Connections, Oct. 2023Spent nuclear fuel sits on a crumbling California coastline. So what to do? - Boyce Upholt, California Sea Grant News, July 2023.Humboldt County Emergency Preparedness: Ready or Not? - Humboldt County Civil Grand Jury Report, June 202344 Feet Project websiteSupport the show

Sea level rise could eventually erode a Humboldt Bay bluff where 37 tons of nuclear waste are stored underground. Learn more at https://www.yaleclimateconnections.org/

Anyone who's traveled between Arcata and Eureka lately has seen a whole lot of construction going on. Humboldt County Supervisor and Coastal Commissioner Mike Wilson joins co-hosts Jen Kalt (Humboldt Waterkeeper) and Colin Fiske (Coalition for Responsible Transportation Priorities) to talk about several projects that have been in the works for many years. Once the Indianola Interchange is built, CalTrans will close all the medians, meaning no more left turns across oncoming traffic. The final four miles of Humboldt Bay Trail will be finished by next fall, completing a decades-old goal: a continuous section of California Coast Trail connecting the two largest cities in the County! Other topics include sea level rise, billboard removal, why those Eucalyptus trees had to go, and what's in store for the former lumber mill at Brainard.Support the show

David George Gordon, author of the new book, Heaven of the Half Shell, joins the show to discuss all things oysters. The oyster has long been an integral part of local diets and has helped to shape our history. Now, climate change and invasive species put  oysters at risk. Tune in to learn more about this lovely mollusk! David will be in town for an oyster-filled weekend the second weekend in September  The first event will be held Friday, September 8 at 7pm at Northtown Books and the second event (featuring oysters!) will be on Sunday, September 10th at 4pm at Wrangletown Cider in Arcata.  Support the show

Offshore wind energy can be thought of as three distinct projects: the construction of offshore wind turbines, the actual operation and generation of electricity, and the transmission of that electricity across California. The Humboldt Bay Harbor, Recreation, and Conservation District is poised to play a major role in offshore wind turbine construction and is planning improvements to create a port designed specifically to build these large floating turbines. The Harbor District has released a "Notice of Preparation"—the initial step in the CEQA process for analyzing environmental impacts from the port redevelopment. Luis Neuner of EPIC, Jen Kalt of Humboldt Baykeeper, and Caroline Griffith of the Northcoast Environmental Center join the show to discuss their thoughts on the initial designs. More info:The Harbor District's Notice of Preparation of Draft Environmental Impact Report is the earliest phase of environmental review in which the public can raise issues to be analyzed. Written comments are due by 5 pm on Aug. 3. Submit via email to Rob Holmlund at districtplanner@humboldtbay.org.Humboldt Harbor District Officials Talk Port Development As Offshore Wind Efforts Ramp Up by Isabella Vanderheiden, Lost Coast OutpostSupport the show

Reno cartographer and outdoorsman Aaron Taveras on why he started making his own trail maps, “taking [his] sweet time” to create a hyper-detailed monochrome 4x5' map of Nevada landforms, beginning a map with the raster data, an inspiring backcountry ski atlas, teaching cartography by disassembling National Park maps, and the beauty of low-amenity public lands. See Aaron's maps at cartografix.co Kalmiopsis Wilderness trail map Grand Teton map “Imitation is the sincerest of flattery.” Taveras' 2012 Humboldt Bay map My 2014 Bay Area map My 2015 Kiribati map Taveras' 2016 Kiribati map Eduard shaded relief generator Avenza MAPublisher Avenza Geographic Imager Natural Scene Designer QGIS ESRI ArcGIS Pro U.S. Forest Service GIS data clearinghouse U.S. Geological Survey: The National Map National Land Cover Dataset National Park Service's Adobe Illustrator files Bernhard Jenny Alex McPhee (see ep. 6) Tom Patterson Eduard Imhof Mike Hall (see ep. 3) Joost Grootens Geodetic Institute of Slovenia Raven Maps & Images Helvetic Backcountry Atlas NACIS conference Need maps for your org's reports, decks, walls and events? ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠The Map Consultancy makes real nice maps, real fast.⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ See what good maps can do for you at themapconsultancy.com I have three words for you: Big. Glowing. Maps. Depending on how that makes you feel, you might like two more words: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Radiant Maps⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. See ultra-detailed backlit maps at radiantmaps.co Time for some map gifts: get 15% off woven map blankets and backlit map decor with code 15OFF, everything ships free – ⁠https://www.etsy.com/shop/RadiantMaps?coupon=15OFF⁠

Local environmental groups have gotten very good at saying “no” to developments, whether it is a Liquid Natural Gas export facility on Humboldt Bay or cutting and paving over redwood roots at Richardson Grove State Park.But some development is socially necessary and desirable, such as affordable housing projects. On this week's episodes, leaders from Humboldt Baykeeper, the Northcoast Environmental Center, Coalition for Responsible Transportation Priorities, and EPIC talk about the recent baseless lawsuit from “Citizens for a Better Eureka” that seeks to stop affordable housing development.Support the show

A McKinleyville man was freed after being held hostage for over six years, players alleged a toxic culture created by Cal Poly Humboldt's men's basketball coach, drag queen Ultran Payne is Eureka's artist of the year, our first Star Wars-themed Forest Moon Festival is happening June 2 and 3, Klamath River work begins on the world's all-time most significant dam removal project, a man pleaded guilty to attempted murder after shooting at cops in Eureka in 2022, a former child-custody mediator has officially been charged with secretly recording women under their clothes, a 28-year-old man from SoHum was arrested on suspicion of child porn and sex abuse, ex-Crab James Outman made the opening-day lineup for the LA Dodgers, a judge's recommendation is forthcoming about Arcata's earth flag measure, Eureka is planning a trail that'll go from Humboldt Bay to the Sequoia Park Zoo, talk of extending the Humboldt Bay Trail down to College of the Redwoods, Arcata's upcoming Open Door health care center has some perks for employee retention, another dog attack in Trinidad has people calling for stricter laws, a look at student-body growth plans for Cal Poly Humboldt, the new High School gym in Eureka, a restraining order was granted against former Arcata official Brett Watson, a murderer at Pelican Bay was allegedly killed by fellow inmates, Sourdough and Co. in Eureka, catchy local Singer Lisa Marie has Gwen Stefani and Lorde vibes, and more. Humboldt Last Week is Humboldt County's news podcast in collaboration with Primal Decor (tattoos and piercings), STIL (headshop), Belle Starr Clothing, North Coast Co-op, Bongo Boy Studio, Photography by Shi, North Coast Journal, RHBB, and KJNY. Via Apple, Spotify, humboldtlastweek.com, or wherever else you get podcasts. Humboldt Last Week (new/alt/indie) Radio with no commercials resides at humboldtlastweek.com/radio The station is also available via the RadioKing app.

A teenage killer was released several years earlier than expected, the drug dealer from the largest bust in local task force history will spend six years in county jail, Supervisor Rex Bohn apologized for a sexualized comment, alleged child molesters are reported and analyzed, the movie theater in Fortuna remains closed following December's 6.4 earthquake, a teenager walking in McKinleyville reported being followed by a man before she screamed and ran, limited local resources for our homeless population on cold nights, commentary on criminal recidivism, PTSD woes after earthquakes, a weighed-down gun was discovered in Humboldt Bay, an inmate working in southern Humboldt walked away and was quickly caught, community love, event suggestions, and more. Humboldt Last Week is Humboldt County's news podcast in collaboration with Primal Decor (tattoos and piercings), STIL (headshop), Belle Starr Clothing, North Coast Co-op, Bongo Boy Studio, Photography by Shi, North Coast Journal, RHBB, and KJNY. Subscribe via Apple, Spotify, or wherever else you get podcasts. Humboldt Last Week (new/alt/indie) Radio (with no commercials) humboldtlastweek.com/radio Also available via RadioKing app. Contact: myles@humboldtlastweek.com humboldtlastweek.com

A member of Humboldt's Board of Supervisors makes a bold public statement in an attempt to hold another board member accountable for sexual comments made at a recent public event, plus some video of a guy shredding guitar by Humboldt Bay for some reason, A CORRECTION, and more in today's newscast with John Kennedy O'Connor.

Fresh crab will be hitting the docks this weekend, after the Dungeness crab season opened on the North Coast with historically low prices. Fishermen will be selling at $2.25 a pound, which is less than half of last year's price. Lauren Schmitt, of KMUD news, spoke with Harrison Ibach, President of the Humboldt Fishermen's Marketing Association as he was setting pots on Tuesday. While crab boats contended with rough weather in the Humboldt Bay this week, residents at Creekside Cabins, a community on privately-owned land north of Willits, are still living with the aftermath of the most recent winter storms. Code enforcement declared a public nuisance at the property last week, due to a sinkhole that blocked vehicle access to the property. County social workers are scheduled to be on site today to advise residents. According to a county press release, an exit-only temporary bridge is due to be installed next week. The only vehicles that will be allowed to enter the property will be those that are there to remove things. The press release states that “At this time there is no existing plan for permanent access to the site, so this will seriously compromise the ability of sewer, garbage and emergency response to provide service to the site.” And OptumServe, a state-provided covid testing service that has also offered covid treatment, is ending its services in Mendocino County. The site at the Ukiah fairgrounds closed yesterday, while the site at the Veterans Services building in Fort Bragg is scheduled to close next Tuesday.

We're back to our roots with this one as we dive into the heroics of this Humboldt Bay aircrew. We have LCDR Shea Quinn, LT Jonathan Thomas, AST1 Nick Kemp, and AET3 Reed Schneider join us for part one of their amazing story. Decision-making, CRM, an excellent training program, and supreme airmanship are all on display with this one! We know you'll enoy it. We plan to release shows on a bi-weekly basis. On Fridays of course! Hosts: LCDR Kenny Ingram, LCDR Sam Hafensteiner Producer/Creator: LT Ryan Vandehei Technical Director & Editor: Chuck Seay Disclaimer: The views, information, or opinions expressed during the Flight Suit Friday podcast series are solely those of the individuals involved and do not represent those of the United States Coast Guard or any other government agency. The primary purpose of this podcast series is to educate and inform. This podcast does not constitute or replace official policy guidance from the speakers nor the United States Coast Guard.

The recent lease auction for the Humboldt Wind Energy Areas shows that wind energy developers are excited about the potential for floating offshore wind off of Humboldt's coast. Where will these floating turbines be built? The Humboldt Bay Harbor, Recreation, and Conservation District is visioning how they can be built locally, with family-wage blue collar jobs building our renewable energy future. Larry Oetker, Executive Director of the Harbor District, joins Gang Green to discuss port redevelopment plans and what Humboldt Bay may look like in ten years time.Support the show

November 16, 2022--Host Mari Rodin has an in-depth discussion about next steps for the buildout of the Great Redwood Trail, Senator Mike McGuire's proposed 320-mile, world class, multi-use rail-to-trail project connecting San Francisco to Humboldt Bay. Guests are Caryl Hart, Chair of the Great Redwood Trail Agency, Karyn Gear, of the California State Coastal Conservancy, and Neil Davis from the City of Ukiah.

The Reese Bullen Gallery at Cal Poly-Humboldt currently features the exhibition "My Black Is...," which presents artwork from nine artists in the Humboldt Bay area. The art show is a joint venture of the gallery and Black Humboldt. Mo Harper-Desir, one of the artists, gives us an overview of the show.

October 21, 2022 — The Great Redwood Trail overcame a major hurdle late yesterday afternoon, when a federal regulator turned down the Skunk Train's offer to buy 13 miles of track north of Willits. The Great Redwood Trail Agency, which owns the track, had asked the Surface Transportation Board, which regulates railroads, to allow it to abandon the track so it could start the process of converting it into a trail. The Board approved the abandonment, effective on June 19, unless it received a formal notice from an entity intending to buy part or all of the line. The Skunk Train, also known as Mendocino Railway, did so. Last Saturday,it filed its bid, known as an Offer of Financial Assistance, which the Board rejected within the five-day legal timeframe. The Board also lifted the hold on its authorization to abandon the line, which means that as of Tuesday, October 25, the entire 176 miles of track from Willits to just outside Eureka is officially an abandoned railway. There is no appeals process, and the Board will take up further issues around converting the railway into a trail in the next few days. The Great Redwood Trail Agency is working closely with Senator Mike McGuire, the California Coastal Commission, and environmental groups including Friends of the Eel River, to build a 320-mile trail alongside or on top of the railroad line from Marin to the Humboldt Bay. The Agency also holds the deed to the Willits yard, or depot on Commercial Street, which is a critical part of the Skunk Train's infrastructure. Last month, Robert Pinoli, the President and CEO of Mendocino Railway, told a judge he feared that if the line were abandoned, his company would no longer be able to use the yard. Pinoli was the only witness in a three-and-a-half day eminent domain trial, where Mendocino Railway is suing a landowner just outside of Willits, claiming that short lines like the Skunk Train are a vital element of the nation's infrastructure. As such, Pinoli argued, the Skunk should be authorized to take the property because its use of it would serve the most public benefit. The eminent domain trial seemed to conclude about a week before the Great Redwood Trail Agency signed the deed to the Willits yard, but it's since been reopened. It will start up again on November third. The process of converting the railway into a trail appeared to be threatened over the summer, when an anonymous “Coal Train” interest based in Wyoming declared its intent to purchase all 176 miles of the track and use it to carry coal from the midwest and ship it overseas from the port in Humboldt Bay. That plan was scuttled when badly redacted bank statements showed that the company was flat broke. The Skunk Train's challenge remained, though. On Saturday, it made good on its stated intent to buy the track from Willits to Longvale. In a 271-page Offer of Financial Assistance, the company argued that the Great Redwood Trail Agency had grossly overestimated the maintenance and rehabilitation costs of the line; that the Skunk Train had a potential client for its freight shipping services; and that it has the financial wherewithal to purchase the track for about five and a half million dollars. The company estimated that rebuilding the track would cost an additional seven to nine million dollars. The Great Redwood Trail Agency's attorney, Charles Montange, argued that “In order to show financial responsibility, MR (Mendocino Railway) must show available assets sufficient to cover purchase price and rehabilitation and other costs of sustaining the initial two years of operation.” The Agency calculated that the purchase price, rehabilitation costs, and the two years operation and maintenance would come out to a little over $39 million. The entire northern portion of the line is so unsafe that in 1998, the Federal Railroad Administration embargoed it, meaning that it is illegal to use the line. And a tunnel on the Mendocino Railway line between Willits and Fort Bragg has collapsed multiple times. There is no connection between the Mendocino Railway short line and the national rail network. Pinoli testified last month that to his knowledge, the last time Mendocino Railway interchanged a freight train with another train was the day before Thanksgiving of 1998. He did not know the last time a freight train left Mendocino County. Mendocino Railway did not include its assets or the name of its potential shipping client in the public filing of its Offer of Financial Assistance. The Surface Transportation Board did have access to that information, and it found that the Railway “failed to demonstrate…that it has, or within a reasonable amount of time will have, the funds necessary to not only acquire the 13-mile rail segment, but to rehabilitate, maintain, and operate it as well.” The Great Redwood Trail Agency hired Marie Jones, a Fort Bragg consultant, to conduct a market analysis of Mendocino Railway from Longvale to Willits. She wrote that, “As an abandoned community, (Longvale) will not provide a market for the rail-based transport of any finished goods, manufactured goods, or commuting traffic, and on its face, is not a tourist destination for excursion train use. Aggregates, gravel and sand are the only realistic potential freight from this area.” She calculated that permitted operations in the area allow for a maximum of 79,100 tons of gravel extraction per year. With competitive transportation costs in the Willits market, she concluded, “There is no space within the market for non-competitive transportation pricing.” Jones is dubious that any potential shipper would pay the higher rates she believes Mendocino Railway would have to charge to be profitable, especially since trucking is so much cheaper. According to Jones, for the train to compete with trucks, it should charge $211 per railcar. But Jones concluded that “the total capitalized cost for acquisition, construction, and operating costs for the Longvale to Willits rail line would be $3,767/railcar, which is an order of magnitude higher than the average trucking cost of $211 for 80 tons of aggregate delivery.” Montange summed up Jones' findings: “The only shipper that could possibly be served on the Longvale to Willits segment is Wylatti dba Geo Aggregates, which has previously been identified by MR (Mendocino Railway) as the only shipper in the Longvale vicinity, and which is also present in Fort Bragg. GRTA (the Great Redwood Trail Agency) retained Marie Jones to examine rail need and feasibility for all the shippers identified by MR, and the transportation market generally from Longvale to Fort Bragg. Suffice it to say that Ms. Jones shows in her resulting report (attached to Jones Verified Statement, exhibit 4) not only that Wylatti is being served by trucks but also that that trucks are cheaper than rail to satisfy all current or expected transportation needs. If trucks are cheaper, then freight rail is not feasible or needed.” The Board agreed that Mendocino Railway “has not demonstrated financial responsibility.” Meanwhile, the Great Redwood Trail Agency has released its “Feasibility, Governance, and Railbanking Report,” which McGuire refers to as the “Master Plan.” He anticipates it will take two to three years to get through the details of construction, fire safety, and community engagement before trail building begins. There will be a virtual town hall about the master plan on Monday night at 6:30 p.m.

In this episode of The Real ResQ, we are joined by Ian Heikkila, USCG Flight Mech/Hoist Operator.  Ian and I reconnected again since working together in Humboldt Bay, CA., with the USCG.  Ian talks about when he came into the USCG and his first unit on a buoy tender, in Cordova, AK.  He had his very first rescue on that boat, which took 48 hours to even get on scene. While stationed on the buoy tender, he was sent out for work task via helicopter which was then diverted for a SAR call.  From that point on, Ian was going to be an aviator!  After a couple years in Humboldt, CA, he was on his way out of the USCG when he ended up in New Orleans for Hurricane Katrina. A slight change of plans from that event kept Ian in the USCG for a few more years and quite a few more rescues.  He recaps some of those rescues with us.  Since then, Ian has moved on to Columbia Helicopters flying on a Vertol 107, logging, firefighting, and now, hoist rescue. Enjoy!   https://therealresq.com/home https://www.facebook.com/therealresq https://www.instagram.com/therealresq   Thank you for sponsoring this episode of The Real ResQ; Breeze-Eastern, https://www.breeze-eastern.com/ Axnes, https://www.axnes.com/ SR3 Rescue Concepts, https://sr3rescueconcepts.com Airwaav, https://airwaav.com/

Before 2022, you may have thought that nuclear weapons were blasé — that's so 20th Century — but Russian nuclear sabre rattling in Ukraine may have you practicing your dunk-and-cover drills. Where should you turn for expert thought on nuclear proliferation in the modern age? The Which Way the Wind Festival, starting this week!The third-annual Which Way the Wind Festival tackles the problems of nuclear weapons in our modern age and the risk of sea level rise through a mixture of arts and education. Learn about sea level rise through a ride on the Madaket with Aldaron Laird, Jerry Rohde and Marnie Atkins. Muse on the absurdity of war and deterrence strategies through burlesque. Engage with some of the deepest thinks on the subject in panel discussions. Jack Irvine, Chairman of the Festival, joins Gang Green to talk about this year's lineup and the prospects of nuclear nonproliferation.For the full lineup of events and tickets, visit the festival's web page.Support the show

June 3, 2022 — Senator Mike McGuire may have taken his victory lap a little too soon at a town hall about the Great Redwood Trail on Wednesday night. “Tonight we are able to announce — and this is late breaking,” he declared; “We have finally put a nail in the coffin of Big Coal. We have beat back Big Coal and the toxic coal train.” The nail may be in the coffin, but there's no train in it yet. McGuire was exulting about what he thought was the extinguished threat of an anonymous coal interest, registered in Wyoming, that was planning to buy the railroad from Willits to Eureka and use it to ship coal to Asia out of the Humboldt Bay. That would put an end to years of effort to turn the railroad into a recreational trail all the way from one Bay Area to the next, from Marin, through the Eel River canyon to Eureka. Sections of the trail have already been built in some communities alongside the tracks. But McGuire and trail advocates were looking forward to railbanking, or filling up the tracks with dirt and gravel, so the trail could be on top of the ready-made line. In order to do that, the federal Surface Board of Transportation would have to declare the tracks abandoned, and grant McGuire and his allies permission to railbank. Anyone who wanted to prevent that from happening was supposed to file their intent to buy the tracks with the Surface Transportation Board by May 31. But the next day, possibly while McGuire was thanking supporters for beating back Big Coal, the North Coast Railroad Company announced its intention to buy the entire 176 miles of track from Willits to Eureka, including appurtenant branch lines. Congressman Jared Huffman issued a statement Thursday, saying “their late application should disqualify them for further consideration. If not, the coalition of community opposition and their lack of transparency certainly will.” The only name associated with the Wyoming-based LLC is Robert A. Wimbish, the attorney, who apologized for his tardiness by explaining that it was “due to unforeseen vacation travel delays.” At a hearing last month, Huffman asked the Surface Board of Transportation Chair, Martin Oberman, where he stood on demanding transparency. “Would the Board require that entity to engage with the community and the public in an open and transparent way,” he began; “in other words, if they're secretive about who they are, about where their funding comes from, is that a factor that you would consider?” Oberman replied, “that's not a factor that's come before us. But I generally believe in full disclosure, and when we get those kinds of applications, we have the ability to insist on a more fulsome application of the facts, which would include revealing the basic financial structure of the entity and so forth. So the general answer to your question is yes, but it's very much case-specific.” But North Coast Railroad isn't the only company trying to buy part of the track. McGuire is also worried about another application, by Mendocino Railway, the parent company to the Skunk Train. Mendocino Railway wants to take over 13 miles of track from mile marker 139.5 to 152.5, from Willits to just past Highway 162, in order to ship gravel from Outlet Creek to Willits or Fort Bragg. However, there is a tunnel on that stretch of the track that long been out of operation due to a landslide. “So right now, if there was a rail company operating on this line, they couldn't even get to the coast because of this massive landslide that's blocking the track,” McGuire said. He added that he does “have some concerns with this application…number one, it's going to create a huge hole right in the heart of the Great Redwood Trail.” In addition, he estimated that, while the cost of railbanking could be $12,000 to $15,000 a mile, repairing the damaged track and the tunnel would cost tens of millions of dollars. Oberman told Huffman the Surface Board of Transportation doesn't concern itself too much with financial details. “You know, we generally are mandated by statute to make it easy for rail lines to come into existence,” he said. “That's one of our jobs. “There's a spectrum on how much we look at financial viability. Generally speaking, we take the view that the market will determine whether a rail line is viable.” Two other train-track oriented interests filed their intent to buy sections of the track, as well. The Timber Heritage Association, a non-profit organization dedicated to preserving the timber history of Humboldt County, wants to buy 18.5 miles from Eureka to Samoa, to offer excursion rides on restored timber crew cars. Pete Johnston, the Association's president, assured the Surface Board of Transportation that “Designation of this portion of the right of way is not in conflict with the larger Great Redwood Trail Agency's trail mission;” and he is willing to negotiate with the Agency “on any dual access or potential conflicts emerging to preserve corridor usage for both parties.” And Rail Runners Humboldt Bay in Arcata operates what it calls “a recreation concession for passengers to experience a pedal-powered rail vehicle for an excursion along Humboldt Bay.” In 2019, the Humboldt County Board of Supervisors, the mayor of Eureka, and the Humboldt Bay Harbor Recreation and Conservation District, all wrote letters in support of the concession. The owners demonstrated their financial viability by taking out a line of credit on their home and putting up part of a retirement account to buy 5.5 miles of line in Eureka and Samoa. In his remarks to Surface Transportation Board Chair Oberman, Huffman characterized the coal train as, “very unlikely to happen, certainly is at odds with the climate policies expressed by the Administration and Secretary Buttigieg. So I just hope these factors will be on your mind as you discharge your responsibility.”

Two weeks ago, the federal Surface Transportation Board made some important decisions about the future of trails in our region. Tune in to hear about the latest developments including what's in store for the Annie and Mary Trail and what comes next in determining the future for the Great Redwood Trail. Will it be a spectacular 300-mile trail connecting communities from San Francisco to Humboldt Bay, or will rail entities succeed in taking the right-of-way from the public and using it to poison our future?Learn more at nocoalhumboldt.orgSupport the show

April 19, 2022 — The license for the Potter Valley Project expired on Thursday, April 14. By Friday, a coalition of environmentalists and fishermen had filed a 60-day notice of intent to sue PG&E, the project owner, under the Endangered Species Act. The main complaint is that the fish passage facility at Cape Horn Dam in Potter Valley causes unauthorized harm to endangered fish, by preventing their passage when the facility is clogged, or making them vulnerable to predators as they try to climb the ladder. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, which has authority over the project because its stated purpose is generating hydropower, has not yet declared if it will order PG&E to surrender and decommission the project, or if it will allow the utility to continue operating it on a year-to-year basis, as the company has said it plans to do while it recoups the cost of an expensive piece of replacement equipment. Redgie Collins, the Legal and Policy Director for CalTrout, one of the groups intending to sue PG&E, says that, with the expiration of the license, “PG&E no longer has take coverage for listed species, meaning that they can no longer harm, harass, directly kill or injure salmon (or) steelhead at their project site. The current fish passage operation is functionally broken and leads to take. It's time for PG&E to realize that this project does in fact take fish.” Last month, the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) wrote a letter to FERC, saying that the Project is causing take of fish on the endangered species list, in a manner not anticipated in that agency's 2002 biological opinion. The biological opinion allowed the project to operate if it met certain conditions. Collins added that, “Along with the license, NMFS' biological protections also expire with that license, meaning that PG&E is now vulnerable to litigation we are bringing.” PG&E said in a statement that, “The potential claims described in the notice are without merit. PG&E is strongly committed to environmental responsibility, and we are operating the Potter Valley Project in full compliance with the National Marine Fisheries Services' (NMFS) Biological Opinion (BiOp) and its incidental take statement, which is incorporated into the Potter Valley license. Upon expiration of a license, the Federal Power Act requires FERC to issue an annual license, which renews automatically, with the same terms and conditions for the project, until it's relicensed, transferred or decommissioned. That means PG&E will continue to own and operate the Potter Valley Project safely under the existing license conditions until the project is transferred or FERC issues a final license surrender and decommissioning order.” The project is currently unable to produce power because of a damaged transformer, which could take two years to rebuild. Alicia Hamann, the Executive Director of Friends of the Eel River, which has been at the forefront of the fight to remove the dams, describes the Eel as “a river of opportunity,” with 280 miles of habitat for genetically diverse fish that haven't made it to the ocean since 1922, when Scott Dam was built. She's not entirely opposed to a continued diversion of water from the Eel into the Russian River. “The genetics for summer steelhead live on in rainbow trout that are trapped behind Scott Dam,” she said. “This means that there's potential for the offspring of those trout to essentially become summer steelhead once again, if they could just reach the ocean…there's still an opportunity for an ecologically appropriate diversion. By that, I mean one that operates without a dam and runs during the wet season, when the Eel has water supplies to spare. At this point, it's up to Russian River water users to decide how much they want to continue the diversion, and to come together to fund and implement a plan.” That might be easier said than done. On the day the license expired, Janet Pauli, of the Potter Valley Irrigation District, reported on the results of early surveys to the Inland Water and Power Commission. The IWPC had hired a consultant who polled Russian River water users. “It ended up being a polling base of about 23,000 people,” Paulie said. “I think they did nearly 400 polls of individuals. “The goal was to see if people had an understanding of their water supply, where it comes from, potential vulnerability with regard to the Potter Valley Project, how they felt water supply was being managed, or if they even knew. At the end of that poll, it was determined that to get a two-thirds vote for a parcel tax would be tough. Might not be successful. And would not, in all likelihood, generate the kind of funding that we believe we're going to need moving forward in this next phase of the project license.” It's impossible to be unaware of water conditions in the Eel River basin, according to Adam Canter, the Director of Natural Resources for the Wiyot Tribe at the Table Mountain Bluff Reservation in Humboldt Bay. The tribe is not party to the intent to sue PG&E, but is not taking the option of a lawsuit off the table. “We're excited that the license is expired,” Canter acknowledged; “but that doesn't necessarily mean that we can celebrate and walk away and not have to continue to put pressure on PG&E and FERC to move forward with actual decommissioning and dam removal…it's been really bad the last five or ten years, and I think it's hard to ignore, just the reduction in flows, the toxic algae blooms, the reduction in the number of fish returning to the river. It's just more visible on the Eel River basin side.” The uncertainty over what FERC will do next is not the only mystery surrounding the Potter Valley Project, which is FERC docket number 77. One day before the license expired, Antonio Manfredini, an agent for a business called PVP 77 LLC at PO Box 777 in Roseville, filed an application for the license. They missed the 2019 deadline to file a notice of intent, and Manfredini and PVP 77 don't show up on an international database of businesses. No one answered the phone number listed on the application. Photo credit: Scott Dam, Kyle Schwartz, CalTrout

One of the first nuclear power plants in the US was built on a bluff overlooking the Humboldt Bay entrance and the town of King Salmon. Shut down in 1976 and recently decommissioned, the site - located 115 feet away from the bay, on a bluff 44 feet above sea level - continues to serve as storage for 37 tons of spent fuel and other radioactive waste. The underground casks are relatively safe for the next 50 years, but rising sea level and ongoing bluff erosion raise questions about long-term safety in the absence of a federal repository. Our guests this week are Michael Welch, an activist who has watchdogged the nuclear plant since it was still operating, and Professor Jennifer Marlow of Humboldt State University, who is working to facilitate inclusive community conversations about the future of the nuclear waste site. Required Reading:44 Feet: Sea-Level Rise Risk to a Spent Nuclear Fuel Site on Humboldt BayPG&E completes decommissioning process, ends nuclear facility license - Isabella Vanderheiden, Eureka Times-Standard, Oct. 30, 2021Dancing on the Hum Nuke's Grave is Strictly Prohibited - J.A. Savage, North Coast Journal, Nov. 4, 2021The Atomic Priesthood, Giant Rutabagas and What's Next for Humboldt's Decommissioned Nuke Plant - J.A. Savage, North Coast Journal, Dec. 16, 2021Crucial Antarctic Glacier Likely to Collapse Much Earlier than Expected - Lily Roberts, Columbia Climate School, Dec. 17, 2021Support the show (https://www.humboldtbaykeeper.org/get-involved/donate)

December 1, 2021 — Senator Mike McGuire's dream of a 320-mile Great Redwood Trail from the San Francisco Bay to the Humboldt Bay is a few million dollars closer than ever to becoming a reality. At a town hall on Tuesday night, he exulted over the funds he plans to tap to bring the project to fruition. “We now have funding to be able to move the Great Redwood Trail forward,” he told listeners, elaborating that this year's budget act included several items significant to the trail. One, he said, is that it appropriated enough money to pay off the remaining debt from the North Coast Railroad Authority, which owned and operated the northern portion of the railroad to be converted into the trail. Another is $10.5 million to pay for the master planning process, an intricate, years'-long procedure that will lay out the operations and management of the trail. But McGuire's victory laps alternated with bouts of alarm over the coal train, which he assured listeners will never happen, though it must be taken seriously. The application for the outdoor recreational paradise he's envisioned for years will be in direct competition with an application by out-of-state business interests to revitalize the railroad and run 800 loads of coal per day through the Eel River Canyon and the Humboldt Bay to overseas markets. McGuire said that the Eel River Canyon contains some of the most geologically fragile areas in North America, and reminded listeners that there are still train cars in the water from a massive landslide that covered the tracks in 1989. It wasn't the first time. Shortly after the turn of the last century, McGuire said, “the first day that a train was on it, a massive landslide came down over the tracks.” He said the federal government shut down operations after the 1989 landslide. “You will never see a freight train going north through the Eel River Canyon,” he assured listeners. “You can't make it work financially.” Still, he worries that the threat of the coal train could “tie up the Great Redwood Trail for years on end, saying that they're going to be able to get this started. The bottom line is, you will ever get a damn train through the Eel River Canyon...and the last thing that we would want to see anyway is an 800-car coal train coming through the Eel River,” or the Russian River, which, between the two of them, supply drinking water to over a million people. Plans to railbank most of the northern segments still need approval from the federal government. Railbanking is building the trail on top of the tracks, which does make it possible to revert the railroad to its original purpose. McGuire said that has only happened on about 20 miles of the 25,000 miles of railroad that have been converted to trails across the country. The southern portion of the trail, from the Mendocino/Sonoma County line to Marin, will run alongside the railroad tracks, which are owned and operated by SMART, the Sonoma Marin Area Rail Transit. The northern portion has been under the purview of the North Coast Railroad Authority. But in September, Governor Gavin Newsom signed SB 69, a bill written by McGuire. Under the new law, as of March first, the North Coast Railroad Authority will be known as the Great Redwood Trail Agency. And starting in July, the State Coastal Conservancy will take over the management of the organization. Several segments of the trail have already been built. But details about how to build the trail in the backcountry, where to put restrooms, how to maintain fire safety, and numerous other concerns, will be outlined in a master plan which is scheduled to get going next year and take three to four years to complete. Karen Geier of the Coastal Conservancy indicated that figuring out what to do about tunnels could be some of the trickier aspects of the master plan. “If there are places where it's just astronomically expensive to redo the tunnel and a reroute is feasible and makes sense, it's something we should pursue,” she said. “We also need to look at the tunnels that are still open to make sure they're still safe, and do a little bit more of an engineering analysis on the safety of the existing tunnels that are open. We'll see how far we get with that in this master planning process.” Geier and McGuire agreed that current trail-building projects are not in conflict with the master plan. Many jurisdictions are already building trails along the route, including Ukiah, Willits, Arcata, Healdsburg, and Marin and Sonoma Counties. “We certainly don't want this planning effort to get in the way of trail projects that are already moving forward,” Geier emphasized. “It's exciting that we are already seeing trails constructed, and we want those to proceed alongside the master planning process that's going to be happening.”

The City of Eureka's wastewater treatment facility releases its treated wastewater into Humboldt Bay near its facility by the Elk River. Nearby, surfers play at Stinky Beach and Humboldt Bay residents collect seafood. The City had been operating on the assumption that the treated sewage discharged from its Elk River Wastewater Treatment plant washes out to sea, but a 2014 study determined that much more of the treated sewage remains in Humboldt Bay than was previously understood. In 2016, the City was ordered by the North Coast Regional Water Quality Control Board to “cease and desist” discharging into Humboldt Bay and move to an ocean discharge by 2030. The City is instead asking for an exemption to existing water quality rules so it can continue pumping up to 12 million gallons of treated sewage into the bay near the Elk River Spit. Surfrider Foundation and Humboldt Baykeeper are asking the City to thoroughly examine the feasibility of moving to an ocean discharge or to commit to significant upgrades that will improve water quality in Humboldt Bay and that they hold at least one public workshop on the matter. Jen Kalt of Humboldt Baykeeper and Delia Bense-Kang of the Surfrider Foundation join the show to talk about where your waste goes when you flush and the impacts to Humboldt Bay.Read More:City of Eureka Seeks to Allow Sewage to Stay in Humboldt Bay2021 Humboldt Bay Symposium, Sept. 28-30Support the show (https://www.humboldtbaykeeper.org/get-involved/donate)

A shadowy shell corporation is threatening our future with an apparent proposal to purchase the Northwestern Pacific rail line, kill the dream of the Great Redwood Trail, and ultimately export coal to Asia from Humboldt Bay. Tune in to hear your friends from Friends of the Eel River, Humboldt Baykeeper, and EPIC discuss the details of how such an absurd proposal is even possible, and why we must take this threat seriously and fight it with everything we've got!Support the show (https://www.humboldtbaykeeper.org/get-involved/donate)

September 10, 2021--Alicia Bales talks with Lost Coast Outpost reporter Ryan Burns, who broke the huge story last week about the mysterious company that wants to run a coal train on the old North Coast Rail line, which would kill plans for The Great Redwood Trail from the SF Bay Area through Mendocino County to Humboldt Bay. The second half of the show features an interview with Peter Pomerantsev, who studies the role of disinformation and propaganda in society. He's the author of Nothing is True, Everything is Possible, which explores the development and use of Tactical disinformation campaigns in Russia, and his latest book This is NOT Propaganda, looking at the expansion of information warfare around the world. They talk about how disinformation works to sow confusion and mistrust, and why people are vulnerable to it.

Offshore wind has a lot to offer: Humboldt's wind resources are virtually unmatched in North America and we have the potential to produce gigawatts of low-carbon power off our coast and Humboldt Bay is one of the few ports on the West Coast capable of assembling the monster 600+ foot tall turbines, creating the potential that Humboldt Bay could become the American center of offshore wind technology. But the technology offers risks to the environment and the severity of these risks is hard to gauge because the technology has not been deployed in our ocean environments before.The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management is close to opening up the coast for competitive bids for development. What is in store for Humboldt County? Matthew Marshall from the Redwood Coast Energy Authority joins Gang Green to discuss.REQUIRED READING:“Redwood Coast Offshore Wind,” Redwood Coast Energy Authority.Schatz Energy Research Center's offshore wind energy page features 24 reports (and that's just the first set!), recordings of panel discussions from Fall 2020, and more. Support the show (https://www.humboldtbaykeeper.org/get-involved/donate)

In this episode of The Real ResQ, we are joined by Graham McGinnis, USCG Rescue Swimmer #869. Throughout this conversation, we get a glimpse at what a diverse career you can have in the Coast Guard.  As a current RS serving in the USCG, Graham brings us through cases beginning with his first station in New Orleans and through to his current station in Humboldt Bay.  We talk about hurricanes, powerlines, animals, wildfires and much more during this engaging episode. Earning an Air Medal and a Distinguished Flying Cross, Graham has had and continues to have an impressive career. Enjoy! https://www.facebook.com/therealresq https://www.instagram.com/therealresq   Thank you for sponsoring this episode of The Real ResQ; SR3 Rescue Concepts, https://sr3rescueconcepts.com/ Life Saving Systems Corp., https://lifesavingsystems.com/ Breeze-Eastern, https://www.breeze-eastern.com/

California and the U.S. government have agreed to allow massive wind energy farms off the state's central and northern coasts. The pact announced last week would float hundreds of turbines off the California coasts of Morro Bay and Humboldt Bay and has been promoted as a breakthrough to eventually power 1.6 million homes. The announcement is part of President Joe Biden’s plan to create 30 gigawatts of offshore wind energy by 2030. But what do all these developments and changes mean for Califorians? How do these new ocean wind farms factor into both the state’s overall climate goals and the country’s as a whole? With files from the Associated Press  Guests:  Sammy Roth, energy reporter for the LA Times; he tweets @Sammy_Roth Danielle Osborn Mills, California director of the American Wind Energy Association David Hochschild, chair of the California Energy Commission

Is a massive land-based fish factory the best next chapter for a former pulp mill nestled between Humboldt Bay and the Pacific Ocean? Tune in to hear local environmental leaders discuss Humboldt County's assessment of the impacts Nordic AquaFarms proposed fish factory might have on the bay, ocean, wildlife and climate – and ways to avoid or mitigate them. Surfrider Foundation's California Policy Manager Jennifer Savage and Colin Fiske of Coalition for Transportation Priorities join co-hosts Tom Wheeler of EPIC, Larry Glass of NEC, and Jen Kalt of Humboldt Baykeeper for a discussion of what is proposed and top issues of concern as we gear up to submit comments on May 24.REQUIRED READING:Nordic Aquafarms Initial Study/Mitigated Negative Declaration: As Lead Agency, Humboldt County released this environmental review document for public review and comment. Comments are due May 24, and a public hearing is on the County Planning Commission agenda for Thursday, June 3 at 6pm. Background studies and reports are posted on Humboldt County's Major Projects webpage.The Regional Water Board released its draft ocean discharge permit for the project. Comments are due June 4.The California Coastal Commission will also have a role in permitting the ocean discharge and the bay intake in the near future.You can submit comments on Humboldt County's environmental assessment of this proposed project until May 24 via email to: Planningclerk@co.humboldt.ca.us.Support the show (https://www.humboldtbaykeeper.org/get-involved/donate)

Humboldt Bay is extremely vulnerable to sea level rise, with much of the land around the bay protected by low sea walls. According to projections, many of these sea walls will be breached in the next 50 years. How will Humboldt adapt?A suite of bills are before the California legislature will shape Humboldt's approach. Jennifer Savage, California Policy Manager at the Surfrider Foundation joins Gang Green to discuss what is before the legislature and how California—and Humboldt—should respond to this threat.Required reading: Rising Seas, Shrinking BeachesCalifornia Coast & Ocean Legislation 2021Support the show (https://www.humboldtbaykeeper.org/get-involved/donate)

95 Belleview Podcast ∙ Season 1 Episode 3 ∙ Who are you taking to lunch? - Co-hosts Sage & Jen talk about food, coffee, oh 100%, "and whatever" before digging into the concept of identifying the people who influence and shape them. Grab a snack and some Humboldt Bay coffee, let's chat! - Keep up with us on our social media - Instagram // @95belleviewpodcast Email us // 95belleviewpodcast@gmail.com

It’s been around a decade since Libby Tonning left her New Mexico home to venture west to Humboldt State University to major in marine fisheries. She ultimately obtained her degree, but it was her desire to work on boats in Humboldt Bay that led her to the role she enjoys now. “I went down to the marina here at Woodley Island and just kind of hung out on the docks bugging random fishermen, asking for work,” Tonning told the Outpost. “I got laughed at a lot.” On this week’s episode of Humboldt Holding Up, LoCO’s good enough podcast, we trace the story of how Tonning earned the attention of ubiquitous local mariner Leroy Zerlang — who would go on to bestow her with her more well-known moniker, “Captain Zippo” — to obtaining her captain’s license at age 27, to eventually going on to helm the MV Madaket, Humboldt’s historic pleasure cruiser. Obviously, due to COVID concerns, the Madaket took 2020 off, but as Tonning explains preparations are underway to get her back on the water for this season. Stay tuned.

February 23, 2021 — As the pandemic drags on, the public demand for outdoor recreation has surged. At a town hall last week, Senator Mike McGuire invited panelists to talk about how they believe the Great Redwood Trail from Marin County to the Humboldt Bay will enhance outdoor recreation in the coming years. Some segments are already built, and some are underway. Some, like the one in Ukiah, will be built next to the abandoned railroad, while others will be built on top, if applications for a technique called railbanking, to preserve and recycle the railbed, are approved. The nuts and bolts of building the trail and funding it will come out in a master plan, which itself will need to be funded. McGuire’s newly introduced Senate Bill 69 would require that SMART, Sonoma Marin Area Rail Transit district, create and manage the trail from the Mendocino-Sonoma county line to its southern end. If the bill is written into law, the bankrupt North Coast Railroad Authority, or NCRA, will become the Great Redwood Trail Agency, responsible for the northern portion of the trail. NCRA just put in a federal application on Thursday morning for railbanking from Willits to Samoa in Humboldt county.

Brainy thing:   23:21     Behind the Redwood Curtain: 28:43   What We're Learning from Our Knitting. Catherine is giving away hats at the dog park. Socky Slouchy Hat: https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/socky-slouchy-hat. by Lauren Sanchez: https://www.ravelry.com/designers/lauren-sanchez Margaret finished her ADVENTure Gnome: https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/adventure-gnome by Sarah Schira: https://www.ravelry.com/designers/sarah-schira and offers a list of points for finding an instructional knitting video for best learning.   Brainy Thing: Catherine reports on The Brain Booth at Humboldt State University which could be a model for any school, institution or business. https://libguides.humboldt.edu/brainbooth   Behind the Redwood Curtain: Margaret talks about oyster farming in Humboldt Bay and the currently virtual yearly Oyster Festival in Arcata the 3rd week of June. Aqua Rodeo. https://aqua-rodeofarms.com/ Hog Island Oyster. https://hogislandoysters.com/oysters/farming. Coast Seafood https://www.northcoastjournal.com/humboldt/coast-seafoods-co/Location?oid=2182300 Peg House: http://thepeghouse.com/ Oyster Festival: https://arcatamainstreet.com/oyster-festival       Welcome to Episode 121 of Teaching Your Brain to Knit where Catherine reports on the Brain Booth at Humboldt State University that offers a wealth of different strategies to support brain growth and decrease stress. It could be a model for any school, institution or business; Catherine and Margaret talk about their knitting: hats and gnomes and Margaret shares some guidelines on instructional videos, particularly for knitting that best help learning. And Margaret dips into oyster farming in Humboldt Bay. Your can subscribe to Teaching Your Brain to Knit anywhere you listen to podcasts and our shownotes are on Libsyn, Ravelry and on some podcast servers when you listen.                                          

Friends of the Dunes Executive Director Mike Cipra joins us to talk about new national recognition of the importance of  Lanphere and Ma-le'l Dunes in the northwest corner of Humboldt Bay. On January 19, these unique public lands were designated as one of three new National Natural Landmarks by outgoing Secretary of the Interior David H. Bernhardt.   These lands are being recognized by the National Park Service for their outstanding variety of sand dunes ecosystems, from coastal dunes to beaches.  Now managed by the Humboldt Bay National Wildlife Refuge and Bureau of Land Management, these dunes are important cultural sites to the Wiyot Tribe. They are remarkable for a diversity of native plants, habitats, and pollinator, in large part due to 40 years of restoration work to remove European beachgrass, iceplant, and yellow bush lupine to restore natural dune movement.  No access rules are changing as a result, and the designation may help prioritize the area for  funding to continue ongoing restoration work that has relied heavily on volunteers for decades.More InfoLanphere and Ma-le'l Dunes Designated National Natural Landmarks by U.S. Department of the Interior - Ryan Burns, LoCoFriends of the Dunes website has area maps as well as a map of wild places you can explore with your dogBLM: Ma-le'l Dunes CMA maps, equestrian access, etc.HBNWR on Dune Restoration and Wildlife & HabitatNational Natural Landmarks DirectoryDeja vu in the Dunes, by Jerry Martien Support the show (https://www.humboldtbaykeeper.org/get-involved/donate)

When people think of waterfowl habitats in California, places such as Humboldt Bay and San Francisco Bay probably aren’t the first that come to mind. However, these areas provide valuable habitat for hundreds of thousands of wintering waterfowl annually. On this episode, we visit with DU Regional Biologist, Dr. Renee Spenst, to learn about DU’s wetland conservation priorities, unique restoration opportunities, and a diverse supporter base along the California coast. Please subscribe, rate, and review the DU Podcast and contact the DU Podcast via email at DUPodcast@ducks.org with recommendations or questions. www.ducks.org/DUPodcast    

Rolling PSPS strikes again, and again, and aga....just.my.opinion.podcast2020@gmail.com(update: as of September 8, 2020 The Humboldt Bay power  plant is "islanding" to allow the majority of the county residents to keep their electricity)listen, subscribe and shareSupport the show (https://cash.app/$justmyopinion2020)

Cassandra has had this dream many times before: Alien robots launch a seismic attack, beginning with Humboldt Bay. But there's something different about it this time. Someone who's never been in this dream before. Featuring No Way, by Sue and the Namies, from their album, Songs From The Great Pacific Garbage Patch, available now on Band Camp.Support House of Fantods on Patreon!Support the show

In this episode: A trial is expected to begin next month for a Crescent City man suspected of murdering his wife and leaving her body in a closet for several weeks, that state effort to legalize psychedelic mushrooms has a sort-of local tie, a theft victim whose valuables were tracked down pays it forward, a possible target shooting ban for Samoa and beyond, Eureka has some tough competition for that HGTV makeover, a local lawyer is among those charged with drug and gun-related crimes, a pilot is OK after crash-landing into Humboldt Bay, a listener will win a pair of tickets to see Grammy-winning reggae band Steel Pulse on Feb. 15 at the Mateel, pop culture appearances, crime updates, the Humboldt-shot movie of the week, and more. Humboldt Last Week episode 160 partners: STIL, Brick & Fire Bistro, Belle Starr Clothing, Bongo Boy Studio, Trinidad Vacation Rental, North Coast Journal, Photography by Shi, Redheaded Blackbelt, 99.1 KISS FM Please consider joining the HLW community on Apple, Spotify, Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook. - Myles humboldtlastweek.com

Today we celebrate the King whose dream castle incorporated 1,200 varieties of tulips and the man who is regarded as the greatest channeler of the English rural landscape. We'll learn about the mathematician who wrote a book inspired by the Oxford Botanic Garden and the relatively young Botanic Garden that was started in the 90s for the Northern California region. Today’s Unearthed Words feature a beloved American poet who wrote a poem about Flowers in Winter. We Grow That Garden Library™ with a book that dives deep into the behind-the-scenes of Sissinghurst - sharing all of Vita’s plant choices and how she created her masterpiece. I'll talk about a garden item that can help you keep your phone clean and useable during the garden season - no more dirty or smudged screens! And then we’ll wrap things up with the anniversary of an important antibiotic discovery from a soil sample taken in the great state of Indiana. But first, let's catch up on a few recent events.   Subscribe Apple | Google | Spotify | Stitcher | iHeart   Curated Articles Moths And Butterflies Shift Their Symmetry To Improve Camouflage - Discover Wildlife Using predation experiments and image analysis, this new study provides insights into how camouflaged prey have evolved. A symmetrical midline makes the animal more noticeable to predators who can compare closer symmetrical patterns more easily.   For The Love Of Peat - By John Walker Peat-free compost for carnivorous plants..."David Morris now grows his cobra lilies and sarracenias successfully in a basic mix of equal parts of Melcourt Growbark Pine, perlite and lime-free grit." (from John's article).   Now, if you'd like to check out these curated articles for yourself, you're in luck, because I share all of it with the Listener Community in the Free Facebook Group - The Daily Gardener Community. There’s no need to take notes or search for links - the next time you're on Facebook, search for Daily Gardener Community and request to join. I'd love to meet you in the group.   Important Events 1679 Today is the birthday of German King Karl Wilhelm von Baden-Durlach. In 1715, Karl founded the city Karl’s Ruhe or Charles’ Repose after he actually had a dream about building the city. At Karl’s castle in Durlach, there was a large flower garden with nearly 1,200 varieties of tulips. He also had over 7,000 orange trees. In 1738, Karl  died while he was working in his tulip bed. After his death, The Karlsruhe Pyramid was installed between 1823–1825 over his grave.   1805 Today is the birthday of the English painter, etcher, and printmaker Samuel Palmer. Samuel Palmer is regarded as the greatest artist of the English rural landscape. Palmer’s landscapes exude a strong connection with the land and nature. Samuel was one of the lead members of an artist group called The Ancients who followed the visionary artist William Blake in the final years before his death in 1827. The Ancients often expressed their work with a mystical view of nature. For instance, Palmer painted trees with as if they had individual personalities. It was Samuel Palmer who said, “The visions of the soul, being perfect, are the only true standard by which nature must be tried.” With regard to the garden, Palmer built a studio in for himself in his garden. He would access it by exiting the house through a secret door that looked like a bookcase.   1832 Today is the birthday of the English mathematician and writer Charles Lutwidge Dodgson also known as Lewis Carroll. Lewis had worked as a librarian at Christ Church College in Oxford. His office window had a view of the Dean's Garden. Lewis wrote in his diary on the 25th of April in 1856 that he had visited the Deanery Garden, where he was planning to take pictures of the cathedral. Instead, he ended up taking pictures of children in the garden. The children were allowed in the Deanery Garden But not in the Cathedral Garden, which was connected to the Deanery Garden by a door. The Oxford Botanic Garden inspired Lewis Carroll to write Alice in Wonderland. The same garden also inspired the authors JRR Tolkien and Philip Pullman. In Lewis Caroll’s Through the Looking-Glass is this favorite passage among gardeners: “In most gardens," the Tiger-lily said, "they make the beds too soft-so that the flowers are always asleep.”   1888 Today the National Geographic Society was officially incorporated. The National Geographic Society was founded by a group of elite scholars, explorers, and scientists. National Geographic celebrates the power of science, exploration, education, and storytelling. It was founded to “increase and diffuse geographic knowledge while promoting the conservation of the world's cultural, historical, and natural resources." “Only if we understand, will we care. Only if we care, will we help. Only if we help, shall all be saved.” –Jane Goodall   1992 The Humboldt Botanical Garden was incorporated in the State of California. Organized by a small group of volunteers, the goal was to create an educational botanical garden for the Northern California region. The Gardens are constructed on a 44.5 -acre site south of Eureka near the Humboldt Bay adjacent to the College of the Redwoods.   Unearthed Words Here’s a poem from the American poet John Greenleaf Whittier called Flowers in Winter. Whittier was a Quaker. He was a staunch abolitionist and a great lover of nature.   How strange to greet, this frosty morn, In graceful counterfeit of flowers,         These children of the meadows, born Of sunshine and of showers!         — A wizard of the Merrimac,         So old ancestral legends say,         Could call green leaf and blossom back         To frosted stem and spray. —         The settler saw his oaken flail Take bud, and bloom before his eyes; From frozen pools, he saw the pale,         Sweet summer lilies rise.         The beechen platter sprouted wild,         The pipkin wore its old-time green         The cradle o’er the sleeping child Became a leafy screen.          — And, while the dew on leaf and flower         Glistened in moonlight clear and still, Learned the dusk wizard’s spell of power,         And caught his trick of skill. — The one, with bridal blush of rose,         And sweetest breath of woodland balm,         And one whose matron lips unclose In smiles of saintly calm.         Fill soft and deep, O winter snow!         The sweet azalea’s oaken dells, And hide the bank where roses blow, And swing the azure bells! Overlay the amber violet’s leaves,         The purple aster’s brookside home,         Guard all the flowers her pencil gives A life beyond their bloom.         And she, when spring comes round again By greening slope and singing flood         Shall wander, seeking, not in vain,         Her darlings of the wood. — John Greenleaf Whittier, Flowers in Winter   Grow That Garden Library Sissinghurst by Vita Sackville-West and Sarah Raven The subtitle to this book is Vita Sackville-West and the Creation of a Garden. The British poet and writer Vita Sackville-West wrote a weekly column in The Observer, where she shared her life at Sissinghurst. Who better than Sarah Raven,  who happens to be married to Vita's grandson Adam Nicholson,  to write this extraordinary book and to share with us Vitas love of flowers and gardening. Every year, gardeners and non-gardeners alike visit Sissinghurst for inspiration and enjoyment. In fact, Sissinghurst remains one of the most visited gardens in the world. Sarah's book is loaded with beautiful photographs and drawings that help convey the triumph of this special place for gardeners and lovers of beauty. Gardeners will especially appreciate the level of detail regarding almost every plant in the garden - why they were chosen and Vita’s personal take on each plant. Vita’s plant lists are part of her legacy and gift to gardeners who want to model her gorgeous plant combinations. You can get a used copy of Sissinghurst by Vita Sackville-West and Sarah Raven and support the show, using the Amazon Link in today's Show Notes for under $12 . Great Gifts for Gardeners LIBERRWAY Stylus Pen 10 Pack of Pink Purple Black Green Silver Stylus Universal Touch Screen Capacitive Stylus for Kindle Touch iPad iPhone 6/6s 6Plus 6s Plus Samsung S5 S6 S7 Edge S8 Plus Note $6.98   Here’s a great little item for your garden tote - it’s a ten pack of stylus pens. Slip them into your garden apron, put them in your shed or garage. Keep one in your purse, pocket, or in your truck. Now when you need to use your phone and your working in the garden, you won’t need to remove your gloves to use your phone. NO MORE BIG FINGERS - A stylus has a better touchpoint than the tip of your finger, giving better accuracy to little touch focuses like keys on the console. No more big finger troubles. ANTI-SCRATCH TIP - The stylus tip is made of soft, and scratch-resistant rubber. Fingerprint resistant and anti-stick screen tip, great for drawing writing, etc. EASY TO CARRY - It is very light and compact. The clip design is great for clipping in your pocket, iPad, diary, etc. SHARE THEM TO YOUR FRIENDS - Get 10 of the stylus with an unbeatable price instead of a high-priced apple pencil or Samsung pencil. You can share a stylus pen with your friends or family and still have plenty left for you. 1 YEAR WARRANTY! - This stylus fits for all kinds of touch screens, like iPhone 4S 5S 6/6s 6Plus 6s Plus/ iPad Samsung S7 S7 Edge S6 Edge Plus S5 Note 2 3 4 5/ Kindle 2/3/4/ Kindle Fire.   Today’s Botanic Spark 1950 Science magazine announced a brand new antibiotic made by Charles Pfizer & Company, and it was called Terramycin. Pfizer & Co. Was a small chemical company that was based in Brooklyn, New York. The company developed an expertise in fermentation with citric acid. The method allowed them to mass-produce drugs. When Pfizer scientists discovered an antibiotic in a soil sample from Indiana, their deep-tank fermentation method allowed them to mass-produce Terramycin. Pfizer had been searching through soil samples from around the world - isolating bacteria-fighting organisms when they stumbled on Terramycin - found to be effective against pneumonia, dysentery, and other infections. Later in 1950, it was approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. The name Terramycin is created from the two Latin words: terra for earth and mycin, which means fungus. - thus earth fungus. Terramycin was the first mass-marketed product by a pharmaceutical company. Pfizer spent twice as much marketing Terramycin as it did on R&D for Terramycin. The gamble paid off; Terramycin, earth fungus, made Pfizer a pharmaceutical powerhouse.

You may have noticed it: the bay seems particularly high this time of year. The extreme high tides of winter have a name: King Tides. And they can help illustrate the effects of rising sea levels. Volunteers are needed to document the high tides and the way sea level rise will impact our bay. Sign up for Humboldt Baykeeper's King Tides Photo Initiative! And for more info on sea level rise in the Humboldt Bay area, visit Humboldt Baykeeper's website.Support the show (https://www.humboldtbaykeeper.org/get-involved/donate)

What 1919 (The Year That Changed America) Tells Us About 2019 (0:36)Guest: Martin Sandler, historian, Emmy-winning TV writer, author of “1919: The Year That Changed America” (2019 National Book Award for Young People's Literature)As 2019 winds down, maybe you're feeling a little winded. A lot has happened –is happening –in America. At moments like these, a little perspective is useful. A hundred years ago, America was turning the page on a year that changed the nation in fundamental ways. Some have called 1919 “the year our world began.” Historian Martin Sandler's book about the parallels between 1919 and 2019 just won the National Book Award for Young People's Literature.  How the Siege of Mecca Shaped America's Complicated Relationship with Saudi Arabia (30:36)Guest: Yaroslav Trofimov, Chief Foreign-Affairs Correspondent, The Wall Street Journal and Author of “The Siege of Mecca: The Forgotten Uprising in Islam's Holiest Shrine and the Birth of Al Qaeda”The exact motive behind a shooting at the Naval Air Station in Pensacola, Florida two weeks ago is still unclear. But officials are treating it as an act of terror. The shooter was a member of the Saudi Air Force receiving flight training from the US military. He killed three people and injured eight others. There's some evidence he held extremist views. If you're surprised that a Saudi pilot would be in the US for military training, there are actually hundreds of such students here right now. Saudi Arabia has been a close military ally of the United States in the global war on terror. But it's a tricky relationship, because Al Qaeda and ISIS can both trace the inspiration for their extreme views back to Saudi Arabia. Fifteen of the nineteen 9-11 hi-jackers were Saudi. These terrorists trace their inspiration, in particular, to a siege that happened 40 years ago in the Holy City of Mecca. The Apple Seed (50:38)Guest: Sam Payne, The Apple Seed, BYUradioSam Payne from The Apple Seed looks back at Y2K.  Return Ancestral Lands to Native Americans. Eureka, California Leads Out. (59:28)Guest: Cutcha Risling Baldy-Assistant Professor and Department Chair of Native American Studies at Humboldt State UniversityThrough centuries of America's history, indigenous people were murdered and forced off their ancestral land with the approval of federal, state and local governments. How do we right those wrongs? Perhaps a formal apology like California Governor Gavin Newsom gave this year. What about giving back the land that was taken? That's what the city of Eureka in Northern California just did. Tuluwat Island, in Humboldt Bay, once again belongs to the Wiyat people, who consider it the spiritual and physical center of the universe. It's a highly unusual move and one Cutcha Risling Baldy hopes to see more of. Family Stories Are Powerful. Make Time to Tell Some This Holiday. (1:16:58)Guest: Robyn Fivush, Professor of Psychology and Director of Emory University's Institute for Liberal ArtsWhen the feasting is done, does your family linger around the table and reminisce? Eavesdropping on the stories my parents and grandparents shared after holiday meals is where I learned that my grandpa barely missed getting sent into combat during World War II. And where I learned my grandma had on a pink sweater that caught grandpa's eye the day they met. I also heard stories about some of the childhood experiences that shaped my mom. In turn, those stories shaped my idea of what it means to be a part of this particular family –who we are, what we care about. The Family Narratives Lab at Emory University has actually measured the power of this kind of family storytelling. Kristen Chenoweth Urges Suffers of Chronic Pain (Like Her) to Speak Out (1:30:41)Guest: Kristen Chenoweth, Tony and Emmy-winning actress and singer; Mandy Francis, DNP, Pain SpecialistIn her Tony winning stage performances and Emmy-winning screen performances Kristen Chenoweth is known for that voice and magnetic energy. Few fans would suspect that Chenoweth lives with chronic pain. She's a spokesperson for a new campaign to dispel the stigma around pain.

(12:38) Blackouts have made alternative energy appear more attractive as the Planning Commission is deciding on Terra-Gen’s proposed wind energy project near Rio Dell. At the same time, the project’s dependence on PG&E’s grid and other concerns are being raised. (10:09) You've likely heard contributing host Eric Black on local terrestrial radio and have seen some of his video news projects. This week he looks into differing perspectives on possibly restricting cars along the Arcata Plaza, as well as possible signal improvements for Verizon customers in Eureka. Also: An outside firm is investigating HSU’s police chief, PG&E appears able to run their Humboldt Bay plant in “island mode” but for some reason chose not to during recent outages, a man left Arcata and died fighting ISIS with Kurds, the locally-shot movie of the week, event suggestions for the week, and so much more. Humboldt Last Week episode 149 partners: North Coast Co-op - Northcoast Horticulture Supply - Ferndale Music Company, Bongo Boy Studio, Trinidad Vacation Rental, North Coast Journal, Photography by Shi

On this week's show, the Green Gang interviews author Jon Humboldt Gates about his new book “Firestorm,” the true life account of living through the 2017 Tubbs Fire. Gates is also the author of Falk's Claim (about the historic lumber town of Falk) and Night Crossings, tales of historical mishaps involving Humboldt Bay.Support the show (https://www.humboldtbaykeeper.org/get-involved/donate)

On this week's episode, the Green Gang investigates mercury in Humboldt Bay and the Eel River. (Could they be connected?) Support the show (https://www.humboldtbaykeeper.org/get-involved/donate)

In the new episode: A call to like the Instagram page of an artist whose Eureka mural was vandalized, former Humboldt State University star Alex Cappa is officially an NFL starter, Jared Huffman’s critique of an oath to God during congressional testimony spawns what he called a “ballistic” response on FOX News, a look at the local foster care system, Guy Fieri parties with Nickelback, an app will soon map local instances of bias, a smelly cleanup in Fortuna, a bit of perspective on the nuclear waste near Humboldt Bay, an amusing interaction with a former political hopeful spawns a call for a respectful local election season, win tickets to Women and Whiskey, thankfully nobody was hurt in another incident involving police and a kid with a pellet gun, and so much more. Plus event picks and the attraction of the week. You can also check out Humboldt Last Week Alternative Radio (HLW altRADIO). It’s a curated radio station with new and nostalgia alternative music -- mostly leaning toward rock -- and quick community stories. The sets are long, the community content is prompt, and the library is vast. The most hearted artists of last week? Radiohead and The Strokes. Adds this week? Foals “The Runner,” The Raconteurs “Only Child,” City and Colour “Living In Lightning,” Sharon Van Etten “Comeback Kid,” and 45ACIDBABIES “Ri Ri Ride.” Humboldt Last Week episode 141 partners: Medieval Festival of Courage Oct. 5 and 6 - Women and Whiskey Sept. 13 - Ferndale Music Company - Bongo Boy Studio - Trinidad Vacation Rental - North Coast Journal - Brick & Fire Bistro - Photography by Shi Humboldt Last Week is available at: humboldtlastweek.com - kymkemp.com - northcoastjournal.com - 99.1 FM Mondays

(132): CNBC covered a former local whose profitable music label just celebrated 20 years, a sasquatch-sized beer garden an taproom could be open in McKinleyville as early as August, an HSU export could have a career NFL season, the county’s satellite mapping system reportedly stressed out some non-cannabis farmers, Eureka is revising its panhandling ordinance, Reggae on the River 2019 is cancelled, first responders deserve props, an accused episcopalian threatener pleads not guilty, body cams for jail officers, a woman is convicted of drunkenly killing Hoopa teenagers, logging protesters, Humboldt Bay love, and other topics currently being discussed in Humboldt County. Plus! Event picks, the Humboldt Attraction of the Week, and HLW Alt Radio with new and nostalgia songs. Humboldt Last Week partners: Brick & Fire Bistro - Sip of Summer - Bongo Boy Studio - Eel River Organics - Northtown Coffee - Trinidad Vacation Rental

Zachary Stocks, from Grays Harbor Historical Seaport up in Washington, talks with KHUM about the Hawaiian Chieftain which will be making her way to Humboldt Bay this weekend. You can tour the Hawaiian Chieftain or even set sail with the crew while they're in town this weekend. Tune in to learn more and to hear Zachary's favorite Sea Shanty.

Guy Fieri continues his rockstar hangouts, Sara Bareilles does it again with the charts, airtime offered to KHSU talent, an event marked two years since the uncharged Lawson homicide, a wind energy report, pushback continues against sexually violent predator, a big Arcata housing project needs to be redrawn again, drafty drama, heady sweaties, National Geographic covered wildlife-killing pesticides used in illegal farms here, the entrance into Humboldt Bay for boaters is being made safer, and other stories currently being discussed throughout the county. Humboldt Last Week also has the Humboldt attraction of the week, event picks of the week, lightheartedness, and crime updates. On 99.1 KISS FM Mondays, kymkemp.com, and always on Humboldt Last Week Alternative Radio (HLW Alt Radio). Humboldt Last Week partners: Northtown Coffee - Summer Arts and Music Fest - Ferndale Music Company - Primal Decor Tattoo and Piercing - Bongo Boy Studio

My guests are Joe Tyburczy and Aldaron Laird, coordinators of the Humboldt Bay Symposium , which will be held on April 11 and 12 at the Wharfinger Building in Eureka. The symposium will feature sessions on sea level rise, ecological restoration, ocean science, and economic development in and around Humboldt Bay. The symposium will provide the public an opportunity to engage directly with scientists, managers, and local experts and learn about the latest developments on a variety of current issues related to Humboldt Bay. Click HERE for the full program.

My guest is Jasmin Segura, Baykeeper’s Bay Tours Coordinator since 2014, discussing the upcoming tour season, which will begin with an Earth Day paddle and cleanup on Indian Island with the Wiyot Tribe and Coast Seafoods Company. Most of our Humboldt Bay tours are private charter tours aboard the Madaket, and are coordinated with various partner organizations to provide opportunities for underserved groups to get out on the water at no cost, with support from the California Coastal Conservancy. Participants include English Express ESL students and their families, the City of Eureka’s Camp Cooper summer youth day camp, at-risk teens, the Humboldt County library’s Summer Reading Program , and the Studio and Canvas + Clay Gallery .

Testing an alternative music station with quick local stories here and there (humboldtlastweek.com), HSU students describe their worst mind-altering highs, an alleged teenage choker was arrested after an attempted carjacking at the beach, Humboldt’s homeless count results, Arcata’s longtime McKinley statue is headed to Ohio, an alarming incident with shots fired out of Trinidad, depth-extending work needs to be done on Humboldt Bay so people can still bring us stuff, stealing cookies from babies, a petition is going around for HSU to do away with its “lumberjack” mascot, a deceased mom’s estranged husband was arrested for murder after a manhunt up north, an HSU alum has been exemplary in a new pro football league, crews have been searching for a missing man, and other stories currently being discussed throughout the county. Episode partners: Ferndale Music Company - Primal Decor Tattoo and Piercing - Bongo Boy Studio - Belle Starr clothing

Oysters! Oysters! Oyster! Alanna sits down with "Business of the Month" winner, Captain Sebastian from Humboldt Bay Provisions. Sit back and enjoy the conversation between Alanna and the Captain as they discuss humble beginnings, tourism, the bay, and oysters of course! www.humboldtbayprovisions.com www.humboldtmade.com  

Brainy thing:  20:25                   Behind the Redwood Curtain:  32:27   What We’re Learning from Our Knitting: Margaret is exploring new approaches to knitted birds with Nicky Filakowska’s aptly named book Knitted Birds .  These birds  are knitted in pieces and then assembled and stuffed. Catherine is realizing the importance of gauge with a seemingly simple dishcloth pattern —  the Quadrant dishcloth/washcloth by Jenny Konopinski https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/quadrant-dishcloth   Brainy Thing:   The Matilda Effect Women not only were prohibited from getting advanced education and entering fields like science and medicine; but also when they did, their work was often overlooked.   Catherine introduces the phenomenon named after Matilda Joslyn Gage this week http://www.matildajoslyngage.org/ Women’s work, the first 20,000 years  www.amazon.com/Womens-Work-First-Years-Society/dp/0393313484/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1533162658&sr=1-1&keywords=women%27s+work+the+first+20+000+years   Behind the Redwood Curtain:  The Madaket We talk about touring Eureka from the Bay:  Harbor Tours on the Madaket:  https://www.humboldtbaymaritimemuseum.com/madaketmainpage.html   Give Away: Don’t miss out on the Book Give Away.     Links:    Today on Teaching Your Brain to Knit we introduce the Matilda Effect —Overlooking Accomplishments of Women Scientists;  Catherine searches for gauge on a simple but elegant dishcloth;  Margaret learns techniques and discovers biases that are for the birds;  She also    shares information and experiences on two Madaket Harbor Cruises and we have another book giveaway.      

Show outline, Ft. Bragg albacore, Ft. Bragg salmon and rockfish, Eureka salmon, Klamath River steelhead, Humboldt Bay halibut, Bodega Bay salmon, S.F. Bay stripers & halibut, water politics

Aldaron Laird is a local environmental planner who has spent years thinking about how best to prepare the Humboldt Bay area for flooding, erosion, and higher groundwater levels that are projected in the next several decades as sea level rises. On August 7, he will lead a public workshop focusing on King Salmon and Fields Landing, which will be among the first local communities to face the effects of rising sea level.

Today's Topics: Stampede Kokanee, Lake Almanor Rainbows and Salmon, Berryessa and Folsom Salmon, More San Francisco Salmon, Davis Lake Trout, Klamath River Salmon, Humboldt Bay and Eagle Lake Trout

Brainy thing:   14:25            Behind the Redwood Curtain  25:16   What We’re Learning from our Knitting Margaret is playing around with Embellishing Birds from Arne’s and Carlos’ book Field Guide to Knitted Birds. arne and carlos  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=scnTbAFiwtc embellish   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Zcc5JhkT5Q Judy’s magic cast on  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lhBIS0AhhQY Catherine is continuing her adventure with knitted beads and lace with Knitting Boo’s Heaven Scene shawl.  https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/heaven-scent   Brainy Thing: Contrary to some beliefs, we have lot of evidence — hard evidence— that knitting and other handcrafts, particularly for charity — helps people’s health in many ways:  reduces stress, reduces blood pressures, reduces depression and many other issues.     www.knitforpeace.org.uk/   Behind the Redwood Curtain Catherine appreciates the Egret rookery on Indian Island (Duluwat for the Wiyots) https://www.northcoastjournal.com/humboldt/the-egrets-of-indian-island/Content?oid=2132126     Podcast Facebook:  Also, join our Facebook Group  https://www.facebook.com/Teachingyourbraintoknitpodcast/?ref=aymt_homepage_panel Ravelry Group  http://www.ravelry.com/groups/teaching-your-brain-to-knit website https://teachingyourbraintoknit.com/ for show notes, photos of our knitting and crochet projects, Behind the Redwood Curtain places and things and anything else we decide to post. Instagram:   Margaret Kelso for Margaret and MagicWombat1 for Catherine     Today on Teaching Your Brain to Knit we outline the bounty of hard scientific evidence of the benefits of knitting listed in The Knit for Peace Report plus the added benefits of knitting for Charity;  Catherine continues her adventures in Lace and bead knitting;  Margaret plays with embellishing knitted birds;  and Catherine shares the story of the egret rookery on Indian Island or Duluwat Island in Eureka.            

Godwit Days is an annual festival celebrating spring bird migration in and around Humboldt Bay, an important stop on the Pacific Flyway for thousands of shorebirds, waterfowl, hawks, owls, songbirds. My guest is Godwit Days Media Liaison, Sue Leskiw.

Nearly 300 years of European exploration of the present day California coast fell short of finding the elusive Humboldt Bay. On May 13th, 1950, a settlement was founded on its shore. They called it “Eureka,” a Greek word meaning “I have found it!” Conflict, violence, ghosts, and a historically seedy underbelly, Eureka is now a lively seaport town brimming with interesting stories. Listen to the episode to learn more. Interview with Pro Tem Mayor, Kim Bergel. Songs include: Love Song - Sara Bareilles Love or Money - The Wackers Find us on itunes or wherever you find your podcasts. Just search "Small Town America."

Have you wondered whether it is safe to eat fish from Humboldt Bay? Humboldt Baykeeper has been testing mercury levels in local fish with today’s guest, fisheries consultant Ross Taylor.

We're hitting the high seas this week on Huell's Gold! Chris and Allan join Huell as he visits some characters from California's nautical past. First we head north to Trinidad on Humboldt Bay to do some redwood canoeing with Axle and Haus. Then down to Oakland to visit one of the last remaining Lightships, it's a floating Lighthouse!! WE wrap it up in Aptos near Santa Cruz to revisit the USS Palo Alto and find out that concrete ships can indeed float! We set a course for California's Gold, and we found it!   Video: California's Gold Episode 210: Ships Trinidad Museum (with the canoe carved by Axle on display!) United States Lightouse Society page for the Relief More Information on the U.S.S. Palo Alto Huell's Gold Facebook Huell's Gold Instagram Huell's Gold Twitter

Grace Brosnahan from North Bay Shellfish talks about raising oysters in Humboldt Bay. Produced and hosted by Jennifer Bell, khsu.org

Brainy thing:  12:46              Behind the Redwood Curtain: 26:38 What We’re Learning from Our Knitting:   Twice Margaret made the ribbed brim of the Top Down lace beanie from lion brand http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/lace-beanie-70177 too tight.  She tells how Lori’s Twisty bind off https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rWS77BKk5NQ saved the day.  She used Plymouth Kudo yarn in cotton and silk.  And Catherine enjoys the pile of washcloths that she received from her Ravelry washcloth exchange — all in cotton yarn she’s never used before.   Brainy Thing: We’ve probably all  heard of the left brain/right brain concept what about the top brain/bottom brain paradigm?  Take the quiz here:  http://www.gwaynemiller.com/test.html#.WC4GXls5yPU.  Look into the theory at:  http://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052702304410204579139423079198270   Behind the Redwood Curtain. Catherine shares how Humboldt Bay clams not only star in the 7th best Food Festival in the country but also help clean up the bay.   Knitting Tip: Catherine finds an answer to an annoying (for her) Knit Three Together stitch from Barbara Walker and speculates that just about any problem you’re having with your knitting, someone else has too and has found a solution and shared it.   Facebook:  Also, join our Facebook Group  https://www.facebook.com/Teachingyourbraintoknitpodcast/?ref=aymt_homepage_panel Ravelry Group  http://www.ravelry.com/groups/teaching-your-brain-to-knit website https://teachingyourbraintoknit.com/ for show notes, photos of our knitting and crochet projects, Behind the Redwood Curtain places and things and anything else we decide to post.  

Brainy Thing:    22:00                                Behind the Redwood Curtain:  38:45   What we learned from our knitting: Margaret played with  crocheted hearts from  DIY Wedding by Jennifer E. Ryan either in Interweave Crochet Summer 2015 or as a special collection on the Interweave Website.  They were cute, quick and fun. They are called Guest Lapel Pins on Ravelry. http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/guest-lapel-pins   Catherine shares Towashis  she received from her swap. One was made of a  worsted cotton, the second from sugar and cream and the third was sugar and cream with a portion from the specialized yarn, Sugar and Cream Scrubby  which is more specialized Catherine continues to knit baby socks for Afghans for Afghans.   She modified the Kate Atherly Baby Sock http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/baby-socks-23   to have ribbing on the top of the foot.   Brainy Thing:  New Research Finds Way to Speed up Muscle Memory Learning John Hopkins’ researchers find keys to speeding up learning for patients with neurological conditions, including post stroke.   Could these techniques work for knitters and crochets? http://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/news/media/releases/want_to_learn_a_new_skill_faster_change_up_your_practice_sessions   Behind the Redwood Curtain:  38:45 Margaret talks about the “scientific” and the oral  history of the native tribes still thriving in the Humboldt Bay area. Much of her research is based on  Two Peoples, One Place by Ray Raphael and Freeman House.  http://www.amazon.com/Peoples-Place-Freeman-House-Raphael/dp/1883254019.   Podcast Business: The incentive for joining the Ravelry group  Teaching Your Brain to Knit  http://www.ravelry.com/groups/teaching-your-brain-to-knit  and the contest for Knitting Tips continue.  

Brainy thing:   21:40  Redwood Curtain 31:40  What We’re Learning from our Knitting: Margaret does realize that the Forgetting Curve threw her a curve on the Fish Lip Kiss heel.  She made a sparkly pair of blue socks out of Knit Circus Pixie Dust fingering  weight  merino/silk/nylon/polyamide/metallic yarn.   Years ago she got a similar yarn as a kit from Knit Circus for Jaala Spiro’s half circle Coirrina Shawl (http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/corrina-shawl) in the Casseopeia  color way.   When she ran out (she didn’t do a gauge swatch—for shame)  Jaala dyed a skein that would especially go with the older color way.  So she had quite a bit of the yarn leftover. Catherine continues making socks for the Afghans for Afghans organization.  This time she use Kate Atherly’s Baby Socks pattern (http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/baby-socks-23).   She also made Lee Burstein’s Organic Cotton Heirloom Baby Hat (http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/organic-cotton-heirloom-baby-hat), but out of wool instead of cotton.   Brainy Thing:   The Forgetting Curve Baffled by her botched attempt at the Fish Kiss Lips Heel (she did it once and she thought she remembered it) Margaret delves into the world of forgetting and meets our old friend Hermann Ebbinghaus who first described the Forgetting Curve.  Elizabeth Loftus, a cognitive psychologist, describes different types of forgetting. Behind the Redwood Curtain: Catherine tells us about an icon of the Humboldt Bay, the statue of “The Fisherman” by Dick Crane.  He and his wife Sally own Dancing Crane Studios. Knitting Tip:   Listener Kate Pricey offers a tip about making knitting into the Backward Loop Cast-on easier — go through the back loop.  Knitting Tip Contest: Five back issues of Pom Pom magazine is the prize for a randomly selected winner from our Knitting Tip thread of on our group on Ravelry. Podcast Business: We continue to have an on-going incentive prize for each 100 people who join our Teaching Your Brain to Knit podcast group on Ravelry.  (http://www.ravelry.com/groups/teaching-your-brain-to-knit) 

In Part 2 of a 2-part interview, JoAnn Olson talks about fungi and foraging. Produced and hosted by Jennifer Bell, khsu.org

In Part 1 of a 2-part interview, JoAnn Olson talks about fungi and foraging. Produced and hosted by Jennifer Bell, khsu.org

Sebastian Elrite talks about Aqua Rodeo, farming oysters in Humboldt Bay, and his new enterprise offering guided oyster tours. Produced and hosted by Jennifer Bell, khsu.org

Kathryn Vanderpool of the fishing vessel Pursuit talks about fishing out of Humboldt Bay in Part 2 of a 2-part interview. Produced and hosted by Jennifer Bell, khsu.org

In the second of a two-part interview, Greg Dale from Coast Seafoods talks about raising Oysters in Humboldt Bay. (Part 1 aired April 8, 2011.) Produced and hosted by Jennifer Bell, khsu.org

Greg Dale from Coast Seafood talks about raising oysters in Humboldt Bay. Produced and hosted by Jennifer Bell, khsu.org

Johnny Gary and Heather Plaza talk about their farm Organic Matters and the crops they raise in the Humboldt Bay region. Produced and hosted by Jennifer Bell, khsu.org