Podcasts about Nauru

Last time we spoke about the Japanese counteroffensive against the Marine beachhead on Bougainville. Things were looking bad for the Japanese before they got even worse. The Japanese had underestimated the amount of Marines on Bougainville and sent Major Mitsuhiro with his special units to try and hit the marine left flank, later to join up with the Iwasa detachment. Mitsuhiro's men were in for a hell of a surprise when they attacked a larger force than expected. They took heavy losses before pulling back into the interior of the island to search for Iwasa. Meanwhile Iwasa also bit off more than he could chew with a counteroffensive targeting the Piva trail. In the end the marines not only repelled the attacks, but also greatly expanded their perimeter. We also spoke about the battle of Changde seeing the forces of Yokoyama crush multiple Chinese armies and unleash chemical and biological warfare in the area. This episode is the Battle of Sattelberg 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.  Vice Admiral John Henry Towers the commander of pacific air force circled a plan to recapture Wake island and use it as a springboard to latte assault the Marshalls that were around 500 miles south. Admiral Spruance favored opening a new campaign much father southeast, where the fleet could count on more land base air support in the south pacific. Spruance wanted to launch an offensive into the Gilbert Islands, some 600 miles southeast of the Marshalls. Admiral Nimitz was swapped by this and in turn twisted King's arm. And thus was born Operation Galvanic, the simultaneous capture of the Ellice islands, the Gilbert Islands and Nauru set for November 15th. Since his victorious return from the battle of Midway a year earlier, Admiral Raymond Spruance had privately longed for a major command at sea. But it was an admirals way to lobby for a job and he would not be surprised when Nimitz told him one morning in May of 1943  “There are going to be some changes in the high command of the fleet. I would like to let you go, but unfortunately for you I need you here” Spruance replied “Well, the war is an important thing. I personally would like to have another crack at the Japs, but if you need me here, this is where I should be.” The next day the two met again and Nimitz said “I have been thinking this over during the night. Spruance, you are lucky. I've decided that I am going to let you go, after all.” Nimitz reported to King the new assignment during their meeting in San Francisco a month later. On May 30th, Spruance received the rank of vice admiral and shortly after was detached from the CINCPAC staff and placed in command of the Central Pacific Force, later to be designated the 5th Fleet. It would be the largest seagoing command in the history of the US Navy.  Spruance would have little more than four months to plan the largest and most complex amphibious operation yet attempted. Naval forces and landing troops would be taken from far flung parts of the south pacific and USA mainland. His key commanders had not yet been identified. Spruance immediately recruited a chief of staff with a lot of experience and initiative, his old friend and shipmate, Captain Charles “Carl” Moore. Moore had been serving in Washington as a member of Admiral King's war planning staff. Spruance asked Moore to select other key staff officers, poaching many from naval HQ. Moore would arrive to Pearl Harbor on August 5th and took up a spare bedroom in Nimitz and Spruance house atop Makalapa Hill. Now Spruance was the type of manager that delegated everything possible, he once said “Looking at myself objectively, I think I am a good judge of men; and I know that I tend to be lazy about many things, so I do not try to do anything that I can pass down the line to someone more competent than I am to do it.” Moore was perfectly fine with this philosophy. Some would say Spruance was a bit lazy, the man did seem to bore rather easily and was a compulsive walker, often spent days just walking, grabbing staff with him. Moore wrote about such an instance once that occurred a few days after he arrived to Hawaii  “Raymond is up to his tricks already, and yesterday took me on an eight mile hike in the foothills. It was hot and a hard pull at times, and particularly so as we carried on a lively conversation all the way which kept me completely winded.” On this occasion Moore tried to talk to Spruance about operation Galvanic, but Spruance kept changing subjects. A few days later Moore would write to his wife “Yesterday Raymond stepped up the pace and the distance and we covered over 10 miles in three hours. My right leg caught up with my left and both were wrecked by the time I got back. . . . If he can get me burned to a crisp or crippled from walking he will be completely happy.” Spruance wanted Kelly Turner to command his amphibious fleet. Turner at that point held a year of hard experience in the South Pacific. He was the navy's preeminent amphibious specialist. Spruance knew the man well both at sea and at the Naval War College. Spruance told Nimitz in Juen“I would like to get Admiral Kelly Turner from Admiral Halsey, if I can steal him,” However with the northern Solomons campaign in high gear, Halsey was not too keen to release Turner. Nimitz sent a personal note to Hasley explaining that he had been ordered to wage a new offensive in the central Pacific: “This means I must have Turner report to me as soon as possible.” Unfortunately for Hasley, Turner also took some of their best staff officers with him. Major General Holland Smith would command the invasion troops, designated the 5th amphibious corps or ‘VAC”. Smith was one of the pioneers of amphibious warfare. He had persuaded the navy to adopt Andrew Higgen's shallow draft boats as landing craft and successfully trained several divisions in amphibious operations over at Camps Elliot and Pendleton in California. He fought hard to get combat command in the Pacific and was backed up by Secretary Knox and Admiral King. Nimitz did not know the man well, but Spruance had worked with him in the 1930's when they were both stationed in the Caribbean. Turner and Smith would make quite the combustible pair. Both men were aggressive, ambitious and quite overbearing. They were both used to running things without competition. Both were prone to fits of rage and this earned them the nicknames “terrible turner and Howlin'mad'smith”. At Guadalcanal Turner once offended General Vandegrift by infringing upon his command, this led Spruance to wonder “whether we could get the operation planned out before there was an explosion between them.” Smith had met Kelly Turner once in Washington and he found the admiral to be precise and courteous, describing him as “an exacting schoolmaster, affable in an academic manner. He could be plain ornery. He wasn't called ‘Terrible Turner' without reason.” For Operation Galvanic, Turner expected to be above Smith in the chain of command. This was consistent with how Operation Watchtower went about. But Smith wanted direct command of all amphibious troops throughout the operation, prior, during and after the landings, and he wanted to directly report to Spruance. Spruance wanted nothing to do with such arguments and because of his laissez-faire style this meant Moore would be acting as referee between Turner and Smith. Here is what Moore had to say of it “Holland Smith particularly complained about Kelly Turner. He was a whining, complaining type. He loved to complain. He loved to talk and loved to complain, and he would come and sit on my desk and growl about Turner. ‘All I want to do is kill some Japs. Just give me a rifle. I don't want to be a commanding general. Just give me a rifle, I'll go out there and shoot some Japs. . . . I'm not worried about anything else around here.' See, that kind of a line. I was trying to soothe him down, and Turner would come and complain about that blankety-blank Smith, couldn't get any cooperation out of him, and so forth.”Through these referee'd battles a compromise was met. Turner would be in command of the landing forces until the shore commander went ashore and assumed command of the troops. When turner was informed, all the troops ashore would fall under the command of the 5th amphibious corps and thus report to Smith. This model was accepted by both men and would remain in force throughout the Pacific War.  So at this point its important to note the US Navy had still not fully recovered from the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor, and was still in the process of building the largest fleets the world had ever seen. You have probably heard this phrase many times: “World War Two would be won through British brains, American brawn, and Russian blood.” As said at the Tehran conference of December 1943 by Joseph Stalin. That brawn was simply incredible. From the start of the war until the end of 1943, the US would commission 7 aircraft carriers, the Essex, Lexington, Yorktown, Bunker Hill, Intrepid, Wasp and Hornet. Of the new Essex-class, 9 light carriers would be commissioned the Independence, Princeton, Belleau Wood, Cowpens, Monterey, Cabot, Langley, Bataan and San Jacinto. Of the new Independence class there would be 35 escort carriers, no worries not going to list them all haha. There would also be 6 new battleships the South Dakota, Indiana, Massachusetts, Alabama, Iowa and New Jersey; 4 new heavy cruisers, the  Baltimore, Boston, Canberra and Quincy; 16 light cruisers, 212 destroyers, 234 destroyer escorts and 92 submarines. To match this in the same period, Japanese commissioned two aircraft carriers the Junyo and Hiyo; one light aircraft carrier the Ryuho; 4 escort carriers the  Unyo, Chuyo, Kaiyo and Shinyo; 2 superbattleships the Yamato and Musashi; 4 light cruisers the Agano, Oyodo, Noshiro and Yahagi; 22 destroyers, 15 destroyer escorts and 61 submarines. Thus it was absolutely clear, the Americans had a significant advantage in naval production.  On September 4th, the 5th amphibious corps of Smith were officially established. Smith proceeded to train and control the units assigned to operation Galvanic which included Major General Julian Smith's 2nd Marine division and Major General Ralph Smith's 27th division, that's a lot of Smiths. As the 5th amphibious force and corps were still undergoing organization during the planning phase of the Gilberts operations, much of the burden for tacticaling planning fell initially onto the staffs of the two divisions involved. Julian Smith was informed in august his job was to capture the Tarawa and Apamama atolls. Ralph Smith was told he was to invade Nauru, but Holland Smith believed Nauru offered too many problems. Nauru was 390 miles west of the Gilberts and would place strain on available shipping. Simultaneous landings in the two places would further widen the dispersal of supporting fleet element, a dangerous division of forces in view of the presumed possibility of a Japanese naval counterattack. Finally, the terrain on Nauru would make an amphibious assault and the land fighting extremely costly to be warranted by the strategic advantages to be gained. Makin Atoll was considered no less suitable than Nauru as an air base for operations against the Marshalls and was thought to be considerably less well defended. Makin was also only about 105 miles north of Tarawa making it possible to concentrate the supporting fleet in one area and thus avoid the danger of excessive dispersion. So in early October, Spruance and Nimitz made the decision to invade Makin Atoll instead. Unfortunately the Americans did not have great intelligence on the Gilberts, so they had to do some photographic coverage of Tarawa and Makin between July and October 1943. The USS Nautilus contributed a lot to the intelligence effort by obtaining hydrographic and each conditions for both atolls, such as their surfs, reefs, beaches, lagoon entrance, current data, tidal data and so forth. The unsexy logistical stuff no one talks about. If you want to invade a beach, you have to know about said beach. During September and October a total of 16 former residents and travelers of the islands were attached to Turners staff to help out. Many of these were Australian, New Zealanders, Fijian naval reserve officers, officials of the Western pacific high commission, Australian army reserve officers and enlisted men and a few civilians. Another source of information was given by Lt Colonel James Roosevelt who had taken part in the raid upon Makin. For the landings at Makin, Turner's task for 54 and 53. He would have at his disposal 4 destroyer transports, one Cargoship, one LSD and 9 LSTS to transport the reinforced 165th regiment of Colonel Gardiner Conroy. He would be supported by the 7th army defense battalion, detachments of the 105th infantry regiment, 27th division, units of the 193rd tank battalion, 152nd engineer battalion, coastal artillery and anti-aircraft batteries of the 98th and 93rd Coastal artillery battalions, a platoon from the 5th Amphibious corps reconnaissance company, sundry medical, signal, ordnance, quartermaster and bomb disposal detachments. Their screening force would be 4 older battleships, 4 heavy cruisers, 13 destroyers and 3 escort carriers. The Tarawa force would be given one destroyer transport, 1 attack transport, 12 Destroyer transports, 3 AKA's, one LSD and 12 LST's under Rear Admiral Harry Hill, screened by 3 battleships, 3 heavy cruisers, 3 light cruisers, 21 destroyers and 5 escort carriers. Turner would also make a legendary decision. He appointed Colonel Eareckson, the veteran of the Aleutian Islands campaign to be commander of the support Aircraft, thus establishing a centralized system of ground control for support aircraft in amphibious operations. Eareckson became famous for his innovative tactics such as using radar equipped B-17's to guide P-38's to attack Kawanishi flying boats during the Aleutian islands campaign. He also pioneered low level bombing raids through the brutal aleutian weather. Aerial support, both at the tactical and strategic level would be provided by Rear admiral Charles Pownalls carrier task force 50 formed around 6 lage and 5 small carriers and by Rear admiral John Hoovers shore based aircraft; consisting of task groups 57.2/3/4. Both forces had to destroyer aircraft and air/harbor facilities at Tarawa, Mille, Jaluit, Makin and Nauru while simultaneously providing air support. Hoover also was responsible for conducting photographic reconnaissance over the Marshalls. After the air strikes and naval bombardment obliterated the Japanese defenses and installations, Turner planned to assault the beaches with the troops ferried using amphibian tractors, followed up by LCVPS and medium tanks in LCMS. For Tarawa, Ralph Smith's plan was a bit more elaborate and extreme, he was going to attempt something never done before. The amphibious assault of Tarawa had unique problems. There was no immediate means of achieving depth of deployment. The landing forces would initially be pinned down on a long narrow beach. The island offered basically no room for flank maneuvers and the aerial and naval bombardments would do little. Ralph assigned a major role to troops of a different regiment than the one that made up the main landing force. Detachments X and Y, of the 3rd Battalion, 105th Infantry and 193rd Tank Battalion,  led by Maj. Edward T. Bradt would be the first to land on the west coast of Butaritari, designated Red Beaches. This would be followed up quickly by the 1st and 3rd Battalions. On the right, the 3rd Battalion Landing Team would land on Red Beach 2 and seize the right half of the division beachhead to about 1,600 yards inland. Then they would move right to clear the area around Ukiangong Village and Ukiangong Point. Over on the left, the 1st Battalion Landing Team would land on Red Beach 1, seize the division beachhead in its zone of action and move left to capture the area from the north end of Red Beach to Flink Point. Meanwhile the reinforced 2nd Platoon of Company G, 165th Regiment, and 19 marines of the 4th Platoon of the 5th Amphibious Corps Reconnaissance Company were going to land on Kotabu island, lying just north of Flink point. This would secure the seward approaches into the lagoon. After two hours while the troops consolidated their beachhead the Z detachment of the 105th regiment led by Captain William Ferns would land on Yellow beach 2 on the north side of the island between On Chong's and King's Wharfs. The detachment would split into two groups, one heading east to clear Kings wharf the other west to clear On Chong's wharf. After this a wave of the 165th battalion would advance west. Comparing the two, Julian's plan was a lot more simple, it called for the landing at Betio of 3 battalions; the 2nd battalion, 8th marines, 2nd battalion and the  2nd and 3rd battalions 2nd marines. Colonel David Shoup and Colonel Elmer Hall would lead the 3 battalions.The 1st battalion, 2nd marines would be held in reserve. The corps reserve for Tarawa, Makin or Apamama would be Colonel Maurice Holmes 6th marines. Once the beachhead was secured, troops would advance across the island to the south, seizing the airfield and mopping up enemy positions along the major beaches To further prepare for Operation Galvanic, Admiral Pownall led three carriers, the Lexington, Princeton and Belleau Wood to strike the Gilberts on September 18th. Supported by 38 Liberators flying out of Canton, Funafuti and Guadalcanal, Pownall made 6 separate and unopposed air strikes against Tarawa. A ton of fuel and ammunition was destroyed, several buildings were wrecked and a small freighter was sunk. Attacks on Makin saw three flying boats lit on fire with some damage done to shore installations. What was more important than these strikes was the photographic coverage that accompanied them. Zero fighter interception was found at either, though two Japanese medium bombers were shot down northwest of Makin. According to the diary of a Japanese laborer, 28 laborers were killed during a strike on Makin, most likely from a direct bomb hit to a shelter. On Beito they hit a runway, though it would be quickly repaired. Pownall tried to keep the strikes going but now saw an interception from 18 zeros which shot down 5 of his aircraft.  To follow up the raid on the Gilberts, Admiral Montgomery hit Wake with one of the largest carrie strike forces to date. The Essex, Lexington, Yorktown, Cowpens, Independence and Belleau Wood with support from land based aircraft hit Wake on October 5th and 6th. Over 67 Japanese planes were reported to be destroyed in the air and on the ground. Shore installations were also battered heavily. Then beginning on november 13th, land-based bombers of Admiral Hoover made nightly raids against Tarawa, Makin, Nauru and some central Marshall islands. Meanwhile between November 13-17th, Major General Willis Hale's 7th air force's heavy bombers flew 141 bombing sorties against the Gilberts and Marshalls. They dropped over 173 tons of bombs, destroying at least 5 Japanese aircraft and inflicting heavy damage to their facilities and installations. Against the Americans, the Japanese forces in the area initially were that of Rear Admiral Abe Koso's 6th base force operating on Kwajalein. Koso commanded the 61st guard unit on Kwajalian, 62nd guard unit on Jaluit, 63rd guard unit on Taroa, 64th guard unit at Wotje,  65th guard unit at Wake, 43rd guard unit at Nauru, a detachment of the 63rd guard unit at Ocean island and another detachment of the 51st guard unit on Makin. For the Marshalls he had the 22nd air flotilla consisting of 46 Zeros, 40 kates, 3 vals, 5 flying boats and 11 reconnaissance aircraft. The raid of Makin back in 1942 alerted the Japanese to its significance so they sent the 6th Yokosuka SNLF to help occupy the Gilberts. During the spring of 1943, the IJN created the 3rd special base force of Rear-Admiral Shibazaki Keiji who would defend Tarawa, Makin, Apamama, Nauru and Ocean island. The Sasebo 7th SNLF would be sent to Tarawa, the 2nd Yokosuka SNLF to Nauru. The Japanese went to work on Makin and Tarawa constructing concrete and log emplacements for guns of all sizes. They used coconut tree logs to build tank barricade, tank pits, laid underwatch obstacles and dugouts for riflemen and machine gunners. On Makin the airbase was expanded and by july 1943 was able to take land based bombers. The Marshalls, Marianas and Carolines alongside other islands would be reinforced in preparation for expected American offensives. Four new south sea detachments were formed and tow mobile amphibious brigades that would be used for counterlandings. The Japanese were outmanned and outgunned, but they would make the Americans pay in blood for every inch of land, island by island. Now it is time for us to travel back to Green Hell as the allies were preparing to hit Sattelberg. By November 9th, the Australians knew the Japanese had two out posts west of Jivevaneng, at Green and Coconut ridges with another strong patrol base at Steeple Tree Hill. Whitehead decided to deploy the 2/24th battalion on the right to guard the enemy along the Palanko road; the 2/48th would take up the center advancing along the sattelberg road supported by the 1st tank battalion and the 2/23rd would take the left advancing along Sisi. Major General Frank Berryman would be appointed the new commander of the 2nd corps, as General Morshead was appointed commander of the New Guinea Force. The date for the new offensive was set for November 17th. A preliminary advance was made by a company along the sattelberg road to seize the enemy held Green Ridge. Under the support of heavy machine gun and artillery fire.    At 8:20am two batteries and the company of the 2/2nd machine gun battalion fired upon Green Ridge. Captain Isaksson's company of the 2/48th then moved up, but were unable to properly follow up the bombardment. The men advanced at a slow rate up the ridge because of thick bamboo. Both the nearby near and far features were strongly defended and would only be captured by 10 and 12:4-pm respectfully. The capture of the Far feature took the machine gunners 26,000 rounds to keep the enemy heads down for the infantry to storm their positions. Captain Brocksopp's company occupied Green Ridge, Isakssons took White Trunk Tree lying on the junction of Sattelberg road and the Sisi track by 1:40pm. 5 men were killed in the process, 18 Japanese died on Green Ridge. At first light on November 17th, four Matilda tanks led by Major Samuel Hordern led the way to the start line converted under the noise of a deadly rocket barrage. Beginning at 6:30am  rocket propelled bombs were fired from jeeps. These 30 pound bombs had a maximum range of 1200 yards. Several of them ended up being duds, but those that did explode had a very lethal effect, killing within a radius of 50 yards. On top of this came artillery and mortar bombardments, until Horderns tanks began smashing Coconut ridge with the infantry close behind them. A company of the 2/23rd would find Sisi unoccupied and continued north to help defend Green Ridge. Around 50 yards up the track the Australians found the first signs of opposition, a heavy machine gun post. The tanks fired blindly at the enemy defenses, mostly pillboxes and foxholes. Despite the terrifying attack, the Japanese held their ground and replied using machine guns, mortars and grenades, until the tanks blew them and their defenses to pieces. Halfway to Coconut ridge, the Matilada's had to halt to refill their ammunition. Within all of the excitement, the tank crews had run out of ammunition for their Besa guns. The Besa's had been firing bursts of around 50 rounds when they could have been firing 10s. Three deeps loaded with ammunition at Jivevaneng rushed forward as the tanks backed up some 60 yards to protect their approach. All of this was coordinated using walkie talkies, an absolutely crucial technology of the war. Meanwhile the 2/24th continued north to attack Japanese positions along the Palank road and to the south the 2/23rd met resistance halfway to Steeple Tree. At 10:20am, Horderns tanks were resuming their advance, eliminating pockets of resistance one by one. Upon reaching the Kunai Knoll on the southern Coconuts, two Matilda's became disabled. Upon seeing the halting tanks, the Japanese unleashed as much firepower as they could pinning down the infantry alongside their tanks. Lt Colonel Robert Ainslie ordered the men to advance on without the tanks. The men stormed the slopes of the Kunai Knoll, forced to crawl forward under heavy fire. It became a fierce battle, the Australians were unable to make much ground and forced to dig in for the night. Two companies dug in on the slopes of the Kunai Knoll while a third dug in near White Trunk Tree. Despite the terrifying tank attack, the Japanese did not flinch and fought throughout the day to halt the Australian advance. However during the night the Australians unleashed an artillery bombardment forcing the Japanese to abandon the ridge. The next morning, the Australians found the ridge abandoned and went to work repairing the two disabled tanks so they could continue the advance. Three more Matildas wielding 2 pounders and 3 inch Howitzers were brought up. The 2/2rd now advanced towards Mararuo, pushing the Japanese up a spur. The tanks advanced again, allowing the Australians to go another 250 yards until they were met again with heavy resistance. The Japanese held very strong positions upon the 2600 foot Steeple Tree Hill. Their system of defense was to have positions at every possible line of approach near bamboo obstacles. The Japanese would wait to fire until the infantry were just a few yards away to cause maximum damage. Armed with 37mm anti-tank guns the Japanese did all they could to neutralize the tank menace. By nightfall the attackers were forced to pull back to Coconut ridge and during the night the Japanese launched counter attacks using grenades and small arms.  The next morning at 8am the Australians resumed their advance. The tanks led the way, but they were met with extremely fast and well coordinated anti-tank measures. At around 100 yards from the start line, the advance was halted by an anti-tank ditch 6 feet wide and 4 feet deep. Major Moodie's engineers of the 2/13th field company were able to dislodge the tanks and soon the tanks were overrun an 81mm mortar position. The tanks ran havoc upon a Woodpecker and two light machine gun positions, then after another 150 yards ran into another tank ditch around 10am. Lt Farquhars platoon charged past the tanks to give the engineers room to dislodge them only to see the tanks hit another ditch when they came forward again. The men fashioned two fougasses out of 4 gallon drums filled with petrol to hit the defenders of one of the slopes later to be named Fougasse Corner. A fougasse by the way is a projectile weapon, typically using a 40 gallon drum with a flammable substance like petrol. They would be inclined and when triggered using an explosive charge, shot a flame going perhaps 10 feet up, 3 feet wide for about 30 yards. Picture a really big flamethrower burst. This was unleashed on the slope causing roughly 20 casualties. The Japanese would leave 46 of their dead abandoning the slope when the Australians charged into them. The Japanese then launched a counterattack against the Fougasse Corner leading to more casualties, but were repelled. To the north, the 2/24th launched an attack on a knoll near the summit of the 2200 Feature. After an artillery bombardment, Lt Caples platoon took the unoccupied knoll, but soon the Japanese began encircling them. They fought until 2:30pm when the Australians finally established a secure position on the knoll. Meanwhile, General Katagiri was preparing to send the 79th regiment to attack the mouth of the Song River. Katagiri was facing a dire supply situation. Although 2-3 barges came up daily to bring supplies to Kanimi and Lakona, once the supplies landed they had to be carried overland and that was the crux of the problem. The main roads, Kanimi to Ago to Lakona to Wario to Sattelberg and secondary roads leading to Zageheme and Merikeo were all steep and mountainous, taking 5 days to traverse. This led the supply line to the front lines to be inconsistent. From the Diary entry of an unknown Japanese infantry man at Sattelberg October 15th "I eat potatoes and live in a hole and cannot speak in a loud voice. I live the life of a mud rat or similar creature" At the same time the 2/15th battalion had sent a diversionary force led by Major Newcomb with orders to "in conjunction with the opening of the attack towards Sattelberg… you are to command a diversionary force, broaden the apparent front of the attack on Sattelberg by simulating a new threat towards Wareo" The 2/15th set out on November 17th and reached Garabow the next day. They began bombarding it to  cause the distraction. This was done to support Whiteheads offensive while in the east Brigadier Porter was going to cut the enemy's main supply line by attacking along the coast. Porter sent the 2/32nd battalion to take some high ground at Pabu. On November 19th, the 2/32nd were able to seize Pabu, avoiding any enemy, finding the hill unoccupied. The next morning the 2/32nd began patrolling and found large numbers of Japanese 500 yards to their west, and that said enemy then found them. Katagiri feared a possible attack upon Bonga so he decided to launch a secondary counteroffensive on November 21st. Meanwhile the 2/48th resumed their advance, this time without Horderns tanks who could not traverse past 250 yards because of bamboo obstacles. By 9:30am the tanks were able to bypass the obstacles and caught up to the infantry. At 10am, Whitehead gave the order “Go ahead as fast as possible” and 50 minutes later the skirmishing began upon the first enemy positions. The Australians pushed on slowly in a sluggish battle but were able to capture Steeple Tree by the late afternoon. At the same time the 2/23rd were trying to drive the enemy away from the southern approaches to Steeple Tree, gradually linking up with the 2/48th.  To the north the 2/24th once again found themselves halted. The Japanese had created strong bamboo obstacles along the slopes that were difficult to traverse. In an attempt to force the issue, Wootten committed another troop of tanks to assist the 2/24th, but it would take a lot of time before the Matildas could climb the 2200 Feature. But the Japanese were caught between two enemy forces and were forced to pull back to Sattelberg during the night. The next morning the 2/48th resumed their advance while the 2/23rd patrolled towards Mararuo. Meeting no opposition the troops moved ahead quickly. At 4:35pm the enemy unleashed machine gun fire at point blank range upon them. The 2/48th tossed mortars and their tank support who crushed the enemy defenses, rapidly overwhelming the enemy, sending them scattering. But on November 22nd, Katagiri finally launched his counterattack using the bulk of the 79th regiment against Porters positions along the Song. Katagiri also sent the Fujii detachment led by Lt Colonel Fujii to attack Pabu. It just so happened Davies Company  had left Pabu to search for the main Japanese supply road, and they came across Horace's Hoof in the afternoon. A company sized force of the Fujii detachment began their attack forcing Davies company back towards Pabu. But that is it for New Guinea as we now need to travel over to Bougainville. Generals Geiger and Turnage ordered a group of naval and marine engineers with construction personnel led by Civil Engineer corps officer Commander William Painter to construct airfields in the interior of the island. They were escorted by units of the 21st marines and used aerial photographs to find an area about 3 miles inland, roughly 1 mile beyond the defensive perimeter where suitable sites were located for two airstrips to be made. Unable to expand the perimeter properly because of the swamps around them, Turnage directed the 21st marines to establish a strong outpost at the junction of the East-West and Numa Numa trails to cover the new airfield sites. On November 13th, the inexperienced 2nd battalion, 21st marines of Lt Colonel Eustace Smoak set out with E company in the lead. Unbeknownst to them, Colonel Hamanoue had just realized the tactical value of said junction and sent a battalion to occupy Coconut Grove the previous day. The men had managed to establish a solid defensive perimeter.  At 11:05 Company E ran right into an ambush. The Japanese unleashed machine gun and mortar fire with sniper support from the treelines. E companies commander sent a report back to Colonel Smoak, one of many panicked and incoherent reports he would receive from said company. This was the first combat experience for the 2nd battalion, 21st marines. Smoak rushed forward and established his command post close to the action. He ordered F company to relieve E company who had suffered heavy casualties. F company however, advanced too far to the right and suffered a lot of casualties in a disorganized manner. Unable to get artillery support, Smoak ordered his units to begin digging in for the night. The next morning, 5 light tanks of the 1st battalion, 21st regiment came up to support Smoak. While Smoak organized his forces, a air strike hit the Coconut grove area at 9:05am consisting of around 20 Avengers carrying 100lb bombs using 1 second delay fuses. The marines then performed an artillery barrage before resuming their advance upon the grove. The Japanese fired upon the tanks, managing to disable two of them. At this point Smoak ordered the disorganized assault to halt and began regrouping his men to attack again. This time they were able to break the Japanese resistance and by late afternoon established a perimeter around the Coconut Grove. The marines found 40 dead Japanese, the baptism under fire for the 2nd battalions, 21st marines cost them 20 dead men and 39 wounded. 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. Operation Galvanic was being prepared and in the meanwhile, a large number of air raids were hitting numerous places in the central pacific. The advance to sattelberg was getting closer day by day, the boys on Bougainville were finding inhospitable Japanese around every corner. 

Last time we spoke about the planning for operation Galvanic and the battle of Sattelberg. The Americans were finally going to make their thrust into the central pacific with operation Galvanic. Admiral Raymond Spruance was given command of the Central Pacific Force and began building his war machine. The Americans would be employing a arsenal of new toys to hit the Gilbert Islands. Meanwhile the Japanese did everything they could to fortify the Gilberts, Marshalls and Carolines for the incoming American offensives, they would make them pay with blood for every island. Over in Green Hell the Australians were advancing up the Sattelberg road seizing Green Ridge, Coconut Ridge and other features. General Katagiri was once again on the defensive and it was only a matter of time before Sattelberg was under siege. Today we are going to cover all of this and more! This episode is The Bloody Invasion of the Gilberts 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 went through in depth the planning behind Operation Galvanic. The time had finally come to invade the Gilberts islands. To soften up the islands, carrier-borne airstrikes were made against the Gilberts and Marshalls. One of the major impacts of the raids in September and October was the evacuation of aircraft from Tarawa. Just before the raids there had been three air installations in the 3rd Special Base Force area; two airfields at Nauru and one at Tara, with a seaplane base at Makin. One of the duties assigned to these installations was to maintain patrols in the southeast corner of the Central Pacific. Patrols from Nauru covered the area south of the island, patrols from Kain covered the east and patrols from Tarawa the southeast between the other two. Yet after the removal of so many aircraft from Tarawa, now Makin had to assume full responsibility for patrolling the Gilberts area. By November there were only four amphibious reconnaissance planes left at Makin and even worse they had the dual mission of reconnaissance and anti-submarine patrol. Thus in other words there were not enough eyes on lookout. On November 10th, Admiral Spruance led out his Central Pacific force from Hawaii enroute for Tarawa aboard his flagship the heavy cruises Indianapolis. The Northern attack force, northern carrier group and interceptor carrier group all departed from the Hawaiian islands simultaneously, but they would not be traveling together. The two carrier groups moved in a parallel course followed by the Northern attack force at around 300 miles to their northwest. The two routes of approach would change around 800 miles east of the Gilberts with the Northern attack force turning to meet them. As the force made its way, Spruance warned “If … a major portion of the Japanese fleet were to attempt to interfere with Galvanic, it is obvious that the defeat of the enemy fleet would at once become paramount … the destruction of a considerable portion of the Japanese naval strength would … go far towards winning the war …” Even within the Navy there were critics of Operation Galvanic. While Spruance was taking the 5th fleet along with 30,000 marines, Vice Admiral John Towers grumbled “Spruance wants a sledgehammer to drive a tack.” The battle for Tarawa would be one of the most controversial engagements of the Pacific war.  Over at Efate, Admiral Hill's Southern force departed on November 13th to rendezvous with Turner by the 18th. On November 15th, the Relief carrier force consisting of two carriers, 3 cruisers and 4 destroyers departed Espirtu Santo and the New Hebrides. They were a last minute add-on, heading towards Nauru. Thus the southern carrier group and southern attack force moved parallel to another to rendezvous with the rest by the 18th. During the two days before the landings, both the navy and army aircraft delivered last minute airstrikes. At 3am on the 18th, Admiral Pownalls task force launched 18 fighters, followed 3 hour later by 20 more fighters then at intervals of 2-3 hours, dive bombers, torpedo bombers and more fighters. All day long these aircraft strafed and bombed Nauru. By the end of the day, 90 tons of bombs had been dropped. The pilots claimed the installations on the island were in ruins, a Japanese ship was a burning wreck and 3-4 medium bombers were destroyed on the ground. The next day saw the same carrier attack with the help of land based planes from the 7th air force bombers. The airfields on Nauru were hit, shipping as well and Nauru was thought to be neutralized. On the 19th, the interceptor carrier group of Admiral Pownalls task force launched a series of air strikes against Jaluit and Mille. Over 130 tons of bombs were dropped on them. Power stations at both atolls were destroyed, hangers burned down, buildings in ruins. The runways looked unserviceable at Mille and 3 vessels in her lagoon were heavily damaged, alongside 7 grounded aircraft destroyed. On that same day, 19 b-24's from Nukufetau and Funafuti dropped 10 tons of bombs on Tarawa causing fires and damaging her airfields. 12 more B-24s from Nanomea dropped 23 tons of bombs on Makin. Aircraft from the Northern and southern carrier groups added 95 tons of bombs on Makin and 69 tons on Betio island. One enemy plane was shot down and 3 were hit on the ground near Tarawa. Before noon on the 19th, Southern Carrier groups cruisers destroyers moved in closer to Tarawa to bombard the ground forces between the air strikes. One of the most important effects of the heavy air raids was getting the Japanese to waste a considerable amount of their ammunition against the aircraft. At Tarawa the Japanese expended an estimated 1437 rounds of 127mm AA, 1312 75mm, 51160 13mm, 46 8 inch and 104 14cm ammunition. At Makin it was perhaps nearly 10,000 rounds of 13mm. The loss of the 13mm machine gun ammunition would hurt the Japanese particularly hard since it was the base weapon for the ground defenses. Shortly before 11:30pm on the 19th the convoy entered the 17 mile wide channel between Maiana and Tarawa Atolls. The ships assumed positions west of Betio. Transports took up their debarkation positions and fire support ships moved into shore for another massive bombardment.  At dawn on 20 November, the USS Maryland and Colorado, sister dreadnoughts from  World War I of the Colorado Class, laid down a barrage of fire upon the defenders of Betio. It provided a measure of revenge for the USS Maryland, which had been damaged during the attack on Pearl Harbor. Their combined fire power of sixteen 16-inch guns was able to quickly knock out three of the four 8-inch guns defending Betio both from the lagoon-side to the north and the open sea to the south and west. A fortunate hit on one of the Japanese guns' ordnance stores sent up a massive fireball. Rear Admiral Howard Kingman, responsible for planning the bombardment of Tarawa, would tell the press aboard his ship, “Gentlemen, it is not our intention to wreck the island. We do not intend to destroy it. Gentlemen … we will obliterate it.” The air and naval barrage of the island would last 3 hours. Aboard the USS Ashland an officer boasted “They'll [the Marines] go in standing up. There aren't fifty Japs left alive on the island.” Lt Colonel Herbert Amey leading the 2nd battalion, 2nd marines boasted to his staff “As we hit the beach the planes will be strafing very close in front of you to keep the Nips down until you get in there and knock off what's left of them. I think we ought to have every Jap off the island—the live ones —by the night of D-Day.” Despite the incredible firepower, Colonel David Shoup leading the assault troops shared some concerns with Robert Sherrod working for the Time and Life magazine “What worries me more than anything is that our boats may not be able to get over that coral shelf that sticks out about 500 yards. We may have to wade in.” Colonel ‘Red Mike' Edsons went on to say of the upcoming battle “The enemy must endeavor to hold it and make sure its capture is as costly to us as possible. This will be the first attempt to defend an atoll … as it is our endeavor at seizing one.”  Before dawn the Marines woke up to a last meal of steak and eggs with fried potatoes and coffee. They all gave a final check of their combat kits, their M-1 Garand's, bayonets, 3 days of rations, water, the bedding, grenades, 125 bullets, gas masks, toiletry items, 3 pairs of socks and underwear, their entrenching tool, first aid kits and the most important item, their cigarettes. As the marines moved to their debarkation stations, military chaplains passed through the troops offering last minute homilies. “God Bless you—and go out there and bring glory to our Corps,” . Father Francis Kelley from Philadelphia and veteran of Guadalcanal ended his service with, “God Bless you and God have mercy on the Japanese.” At 6:03am the transports began lowering their boats. At 6:15am the carrier borne Hellcat fighters, Avenger and Dauntless from the USS Essex and Bunker Hill began to strafed and bomb the western beaches. At 6:40 the aircraft began departing as the battleships, cruisers and destroyers opened fire. The damage from the aerial and naval bombardments was considerable. In the immediate region of the main beaches and eastward side, little real damage was inflicted. Coconut trees, native hurts and dummy gun positions took a lot of the hits. In the area of the west tank barrier, neither the ditches nor log barricades took much damage. Just east of the main tank trap was a trench system running to the beach, this area was smashed up pretty good. One trench received a direct hit from a 2000-pound bomb which, in the words of Admiral Turner, "considerably scrambled the trench, Japs and trees for some distance." 62 enemy dead were later counted in this one area, most of whom were the victims of a combination of concussion and air bursts. In the area south of Yellow Beach and east to the East Tank Barrier all buildings were reported destroyed. Three 80-mm. antiaircraft positions at the base of King's Wharf and two light tanks revetted to act as pillboxes were severely damaged. 41 enemy dead were counted, of whom 25 were apparently killed by concussion from heavy bombs. At 8:25 the naval bombardment ended and more aircraft came in strafing. While the aircraft strafed, the 165th regiment began loading onto LCVPS and amphibian tractors carried men of the 105th regiment. At 8:15 the tractors started to head for the beach while firing rockets and machine guns against what they assumed were enemy positions. At 8:31 the tractors hit the beach and the men began to scramble ashore. Beach red 1 and 2 were quickly occupied forming the first beachhead. Following the tractors were the first three waves of landing craft at about 5 minute intervals. They were met with unfriendly studded reefs and coral boulders about 40 yards offshore. Some of the landing craft were unable to slip past the larger boulders, some were broached, stranded or forced to pull back out to sea. The failures of these landings would lead Rear Admiral Richmond Turner to create the Underwater Demolition Teams (UDT) a precursor to the US Navy Seals. The tanks were waterproofed for the landings, and managed to roll off the ramps into water.  The men struggled in swells sometimes over their heads and sought cover at the edge of the beach. At best, only three boats could be landed at one time, and the fifth wave was not able to get ashore until 10:00, over an hour behind schedule. Facing the marines was 798 men led by Lt Seizo Ishikawa, the commander of the 3rd Special Base force Makin detachment. 284 of his men were from his detachment, alongside them were 100 air personnel, 138 men from the 11th construction unit and 276 men of the 4th fleet construction department detachment made up mostly of Korean laborers. They had established 3 defensive areas. The aviation personnel took up the east, the 3rd special base men the middle and the Korean laborers the west. Thus only 284 combat troops with the rest being support staff would face the onslaught. Ishikawa had established a perimeter defense around the seaplane base on the lagoon shore. They had three dual purpose 8cm guns at King's wharf with a few machine guns. Running from the lagoon to the beach were two anti tank barriers. They were wide ditches with coconut log barriers going around 13 feet wide and 5 feet deep. Numerous anti tank guns were around them, behind were concrete pillboxes, machine gun positions, rifle pits and trenches. There were also trip wires with booby traps laid everywhere someone might creep up. Luckily for General Smith, Ishikawa's defensive positions were between the two tank barriers as the Japanese had predicted the invasion of the island would be made there. Over on Betio island were 4836 men led by Admiral Keiji Shibazaki. 1122 men were from the 3rd special base force, 1247 from the 111th construction unit, 970 of the 4th fleet construction department detachment and 1497 Sasebo 7th SNLF. The Sasebo 7th were known as the Rikusentai, elite marine paratroopers modeled on the German Luftwaffe paratroop brigades. During the Pacific war, 50,0000 Rikusentai troops were deployed. They work dark green uniforms modeled on the German paratrooper counterpart, dark-brown belts and harnesses with white anchor patches. Recruits were forced to learn by heart Emperor Meiji's 1882 Imperial rescript to soldiers. The war song Umi Yukaba was also their prophetic line “Across the sea, corpses in the water … I shall die for the Emperor.” As Marine historian, Colonel Joseph Alexander concluded in his work, Utmost Savagery, three days of Tarawa in 1995 “American expeditionary forces would not encounter a more sophisticated series of defensive positions on any subsequent island until they reached Iwo Jima in 1945. Yard for yard, Betio was the toughest fortified position the Marines would ever face.” The Americans were about to see Japan's “water edge” strategy. The directive was simply “concentrate all fires on the enemy's landing point and destroy him at the water's edge.” Rear Admiral Keiji Shibazai was an aggressive young officer who demanded his troops build defenses to “withstand assault by a million men for a hundred years.” Yet it was his predecessor Rear Admiral Sichero who had 50 pillboxes and bunkers constructed across an island that was just 800 yards at its widest points and two miles in length. Shibazaki added kettle mines to impede landing boats or direct them to his kill zones. Double barbed wire fences were dug into coral shallows encircling the island 50 to 100 yards from the shore. Yet as noted by Warrant Officer Kiyosha Ota the only Japanese officer to survive the battle for Tarawa, rear admiral Shibazaki could not get a cargo ship to bring over cement and steel to reinforce to build his planned 4500 tetrahedrons to surrounded the island nor reinforce countless pillboxes. Nonetheless Betio was bristling with a armada of guns. Betio held 4 8 inch guns, 4 14cm, 4 12.7cm, 6 8cm, 10 75mm mountain guns, 6 70mm howitzers, 8 7cm dual purpose guns, 9 37mm field guns, 27 12mm guns, 4 13 mm guns and 7 tanks with 37mm guns. Betio was a fortress full of steel, concrete and coconut log emplacements, the entire island was organized for battle. Within their defensive positions the Japanese had bombproof ammunition and personnel shelters in depth. The allies would be facing beach guns, anti-tank ditches, beach barrices, numerous obstacles and booby traps. Tarawa would be the most heavily defended atoll ever invaded by allied forces in the Pacific.  H hour, the landing of the first wave had been scheduled for 8am on November 20th, but Admiral Hill's transports had run into some problems. They arrived to the scene around 5:50am and began lowering their boats, but it turned out they were too far south and in range of the enemy's coastal guns. The Japanese opened fire on them forcing them back to the designated positions at the lagoon entrance. American warships meanwhile began bombarding the Japanese coastal guns and positions. The airstrikes arrived a bit late to the scene to add their payloads to the mix. Meanwhile two minesweepers the Pursuit and Requisite and two destroyers, Ringgold and Dashiell fought their way into the Tarawa lagoon to sweep for mines. The Japanese coastal guns fired upon them, seeing Ringgold suffering moderate damage from 5 inch gunfire. The choppy seas delayed the arrival of the amphibian tractors, thus H hour was moved to 9am. In the meantime at least one 8 inch coastal gun and two 120mm anti-aircraft batteries had been neutralized by the naval gunfire, and just about everything above ground or in open pits, like personnel, bombs, trucks and munitions were mostly likely destroyed. The camouflage screens over dugouts were wiped away and Shibasaki's network of telephone wire, most laid above ground was obliterated, thus his system of communication was paralyzed. Despite all of this the damage was not nearly enough. Along the beaches were rows of pillboxes, some concrete, steel and coconut made. At Red beaches 2 and 3 there were at least 5 machine guns pointing towards where the troops would land over a reef towards the shore. As Admiral Hill put it, "that was five too many."  By 8:55am the tractors were still late, but Hill ceased all naval gunfire anyway allowing them to begin their approach. The volume of intensity of fire grew as the boats motored in towards the landing beaches. Shibasaki's 75mm field guns and 37mm anti-tank guns were positioned perfectly to hit the incoming boats. Neither the amtracs nor the Higgin boats had enough armor to stop the shells. William Rogal's boat took a 37mm shell to her bow and Rogal recalled “the force of the explosion threw his body to the rear of the amtrac, showering everyone on the port side with blood and brains.” As Lt Lillibridges boat came under similar fire, the shells pierced their starboard and port sides simultaneously forcing the men to toss themselves on the flat bottom. Light mortars showered them all sending shrapnel into several marines. Most of the first wave boats headed towards Red beach 1, in a cove tucked between the pier and northwestern point of the island. The approached to red beach 1 held a significant amount of crossfire by weapons of various calibers. The men began to hit the beach at 9:10am. Landing ashore was the 3rd battalion, 2nd marines who were met with tremendous fire. The marines quickly ran into a log barricade. Some of their tractors were smashed up and burning dead in the water. If those inside them were still alive they climbed over the sides to try and wade ashore. The vehicles that made it onto land soon were halted by the log barricade seen marines jump over under machine gun fire. K Company took so many casualties they were unable to move past the log barricade and now had to lie in an exposed area under constant fire. By 11am K company would push a few men over the coconut barrier, but by this point the two leading companies had suffered 50% casualty rates. Reserve company L led by Major Michael P Ryan were just landing to the east and would lose 35% of their strength before even touching the each. A platoon of M4 Shermans attached to the 3rd battalion were tossed into the water but 4 of them got stuck in potholes in the coral reef and drowned out, only 2 tanks actually made it to the beach. Meanwhile at 9:22 the 2nd battalion, 2nd marines also landed in chaos and confusion at Red Beach 2. Company F was to hit the left while company E took the right and company G would act in support. Similar to Red Beach 1, a 4 foot high log barricade had been constructed to form a sea wall. Most of the barricade lay 20 yards from the waters edge, leaving a narrow open strip of deep coral sand for the marines to traverse. Numerous pillboxes and shelters lay around the barricade in intervals. Rogal's amtrac headed to Red beach 2 through mortar bursts that showered his men with shrapnel. When the boat grounded on the sand Rogal shouted “Lets go!” and the men went over the side through machine gun fire. Rogal rushed forward and could see above the seawall to the left a machine gun emplacement, it was one of the major strong points and it would kill roughly 300 marines that day. The amtracs drove onto the beaches and lowered their ramps with most of the first wave units making it to the seawall providing some shield from enemy fire. However going any further was near suicide, a few brave souls climbed over and were shot or wounded. Men sat crouched around the wall with their heads down waiting for tanks and air support. The volume of Japanese mortar, artillery and automatic fire was tremendous. F company was decimated, but managed to grab the left half of the beach near the pier, digging in on the coral sand. E Company suffered heavy casualties and the reserve G company landed in the center and immediately pinned down. As the men were huddled along the coconut barrier they began systematically eliminating enemy positions that jutted out onto the beach. Further to the east, at 9;17am the 2nd battalion, 8th marines of Major Henry Crowe began landing at red beach 3. They were backed up by 4 medium tanks of the 2nd tank battalion, 3 of the tanks would be put out of action within 2 hours. The marines at red beach 3 enjoyed more success than the other thanks to additional naval bombardment support that had lasted just until 7 minutes of their landing. They suffered just 25 casualties as the rapidly burst through the coconut barricade by driving LVTs through it. Company E led the way continuing as far inland as the triangle formed by the main airstrip and taxiways.    Colonel David Shoups 2nd marines were in dire trouble at Red Beach 2 and had to commit the reserve 1st battalion who landed there and were ordered to work their way west towards red beach 1in the hopes of aiding the 3rd battalion. By 11am, two companies in amphibious tractors came over and suffered the same fire that had decimated the other waves, but managed to get their men ashore. When General Smith heard about Shoups call for reinforcements he also sent the reserve 3rd battalion, 8th marines to relief their right flank. Boated over in LCVPs, the battalion were halted by the reef line and forced to wade ashore under heavy fire during the afternoon. Supply barges were unable to reach the beaches, forcing the reserve troops to carry the most vital supplies. Colonel Shoup had radioed the transported intermittently throughout the day asking for more ammunition ,water and medical supplies, but these calls just caused more confusion amongst the shipping. The transport commanders had been tossing boat after boat carrying supplies, but they had no real picture of the situation between their boats and the beach. Captain Henry Knowles would end up sending Major Ben Weatherwax ashore just to determine what the supply situation was. It would literally take until dawn to get a complete picture, that picture being that Shoup had received virtually none of the supplies supposed to be dispatched to him. Additionally two M4 shermans were brought up to help the battered 3rd battalion, 2nd marines who were driving across the island towards the south shore. The marines hit shelter to shelter making steady progress. The tanks got within 300 yards of the south shore when 40mm gunfire knocked them both out. The progress allowed Major Michael Ryan to discover that part of Green Beach, on the western coast of Betio was available for landing reserves. Unable to relay this to Shoup, he ultimately had to pull out and dig in to form a defensive position. While the Americans were suffering communication problems, the Japanese had a much worse one. The naval bombardment had destroyed their communications lines to the Japanese HQ, preventing Rear Admiral Shibazaki to lead, but that problem was soon solved. It was solved when a 5 inch air burst shell fired from either RInggold or Dashiell hit his HQ killing him and all the senior officers. The last message Shibazaki received before his death was from Emperor Hirohito “you have all fought gallantly. May you continue to fight to the death. Banzai”. Shibazaki had planned to launch a counterattack, but now his forces were for the first critical two days of the battle leaderless, demoralized and uncoordinated.  Concurrently the 8th marines were fighting to hold the triangle position they acquired under heavy attacks from the Japanese. F Company was in a brutal fight around the Burns-Philp Wharf facing a Japanese counterattack supported by tanks. The buildings were all ablaze as tanks and flamethrowers were firing upon everything they could. By nightfall the Japanese counterattack failed. To their right Shoups 2nd marines were unable to organize a proper attack because their forces were all over the place. They held a pinned down toehold around the beach, but many units had penetrated some 125 yards inland and no pockets were fighting all over. Throughout the night, men were frantically carrying supplies ashore, but few supplies were actually reaching the beaches. There was an enormous failure in communications. Aboard the USS Maryland, the only information General Julian Smith was receiving came from reports of observers in planes, intercepted radio messages and a few direct reports from Colonel Shoup. By 1:43pm Smith ordered General Hermle to go to the end of the pier and get an estimation of the situation ashore. At 3:10 Hermle tried the best he could to relay the information but couldn't get through. Hermle recommended the 1st battalion, 8th marines be committed to Red Beach 2, but this message never made it to Smith. Meanwhile Smith ordered Hermle to take command of the troops ashore, but this message never reached him. At 4:25 Smith ordered Colonel Hall, command of the 8th marines to land on the eastern beaches, but he also never received the message so most of his men spent the night floating. Luckily by 8:19pm Colonel Hall received a message and landed at Red Beach 2, whereupon he didn't receive any further orders. Over at Makin, Admiral Turner landed the 1st and 3rd battalions, 165th regiment. General Ralph Smiths plan called for the rapid capture of Flink point and Ukiangong Point, along with the occupation of the area east of Red Beaches to the first beachhead line around 1300 yards inland. The 1st battalion would hit Flink Point and the left half of the beachhead line. The 3rd battalion would hit Ukiangong village and Point and was responsible for the right half of the beachhead line. The 1st battalion advanced, overcoming some barbed wire, log barricades and an undefended observation tower. The3rd battalion made equal progress finding little resistance. By 10:30am the beachhead line was secured, Company A and Detachment Y had been dispatched northward to occupy Flink Point, L company with Detachment X were turning south to take Ukiengong Village and to clear the point beyond it. General SMith expected some resistance at Ukiangong, but it with the point were taken unopposed. Therefor Smith elected to establish artillery positions there. Flink Point was taken by 12:40, marking the operation quite an easy success. After receiving word at 8am that the Kotabu detachment had taken the island without opposition, Turner decided to go ahead with the landings on Yellow Beach. At 10:05am the landing forces advances towards Yellow Beach. The destroyers MacDonough and Phelps began a bombardment using their 5 inch guns. The first wave of 16 amphibian tractors began approaching as they fired rockets against the beach. Following up would in a minute was the second wave of 8 LCMS carrying medium tanks, followed two minutes later by the third wave, 7 LCMs carrying medium tanks, then another 2 minutes after was the fourth wave carrying two LCVPS with troops and 4 LCMS with light tanks. The next four waves would consist of LCVPS carrying the bulk of the assault troops and a bulldozer. At 10:25 the tractors were around 600 yards off the beach when the two destroyers ceased their firing to allow a last minute strafing run by carrier planes. As the approached, the men in the tractors crouched low to avoid the rain of bullets that began at around 500 yards. At 10:41 they hit the beaches and one amphtrack ran up the seaplane ramp on Kings Wharf. Enemy shellfire struck two amphtracks killing 5 men and wounding 12. One lone tractor lost control and drove straight across the island toward the ocean shore, directly through the main Japanese defenses. It ended up in a shell crater with two of its crew killed by enemy machine gun fire, but the others managed to jump into the brush. Upon jumping out of their tractors the Americans made their way inland by crawling along the western slope of the causeway. The pier was captured quickly, Detachment Z then divided into two groups, one to take King's Wharf, the other On Chong's Wharf. Kings Wharf was taken unopposed, but On Chong's Wharf would offer some tough resistance. The 105th regiment fought their way through dugouts and bomb proof shelters to get to the Wharf by dusk. They then began mass throwing grenades into the Wharf emplacements killing many Japanese. 35 Prisoners would soon be captured and by noon On Chong's Wharf was secured. Back over at the beach, 15 medium tanks landed on the beach with two becoming stuck in shell holes in the reef. The other tanks split up advancing east and west against the two tank barriers. Unfortunately they were not very well coordinated and began operating independently. Behind the tanks was the 2nd battalion, 165th regiment whose LCVPS grounded themselves on the reef. The landing troops had little to no opportunity to locate the incessant fire being poured upon them from the right flank. At the offset they believed the fire was coming from two battered and scuttled hulks resting near On Chong's Wharf. Their first effort to knock these out was made by a LCVP commanded by Joseph Kasper. The boat mounted three of its guns on the starboard side and ran for the hulks while firing all at once. Kasper was fatally wounded during the run and one of the guns jammed. The incessant fire was halting the men so at 11:25 and 12:50 carrier planes bombed and strafed the hulks. Alongside this the destroyer Dewey bombarded them scoring numerous hits, but by 12:07 was ordered to cease fire because a few hits hit friendlys. Finally at 12:57 Major Dennis Claire ordered a stop to the bombardments so he could lead E company to hit the eastern tank barrier. They met light resistance until they came to the area of Kings Wharf. There they ran into concealed pillboxes that would halt their advance for over 4 hours. The men tried rifle grenades, bazookas, artillery barrages, but the pillboxes kept returning fire. Then they tried a daring encirclement maneuver under artillery support. The men crawled and crept in a wide circle reaching the pill boxes 40 yards or so away. They attempted to use flamethrowers, but the defenders still fired back. Then some engineers brought over TNT which was tossed into the pillboxes and exploded just before some light tanks rolled up to fire using 37mm rounds. By 4pm the pill boxes finally ceased firing, 8 Americans had been killed taking them. E company advanced a bit before digging in for the night. F Company advanced across the atoll west to attack the west tank barrier. They did not encounter resistance, excluding the incredibly difficult jungle. By noon the reached the ocean shore where they reorganized their lines and made their way south alongside 5 Sherman tanks to assault the west tank barrier. F Company and the tanks ran into a tanktrap with underground shelters full of Japanese defenders. Some labor troops were also there armed with knives and a few rifles. F Company proceeded to use TNT pole charges to blow up the shelters and flame throwers which quickly became the preferred weapon to face Japanese underground defenses. During the fight F Company had 8 deaths and 6 wounded. By 1:30pm they reached the barrier. The 3rd Platoon of F Company were attacking a section due south of On Chong's Wharf where an enemy air raid shelter was. The shelter was around 30 feet long with blast proof entrances on either side. When they tossed hand grenades into the shelter the grenades were tossed right back at them. A sherman tank came up and started firing 75mm shells, but had no success. Then a flamethrower unit crept up and tried to fire, but the equipment was soaked from the landing and was not functioning. Thus they resorted to a TNT pole charge. The explosion did not collapse the shelter, but it killed all 12 Japanese inside it. Meanwhile countless units were dealing with machine gun positions aided by 3 shermans. The tanks gradually pierced the barrier and proceeded.  Meanwhile the 1st battalion was advancing from the west passing Joan Lake by 2pm. From there they ran into some strong machine gun posts 150 yards west of the barrier. B Company of the 1st battalion rushed over to help F company from the east side of the west tank barrier. At this point the regimental commander, Colonel Conroy had taken a shot to the head and was dead leaving Lt Colonel Gerard Kelley, the commander of the 1st battalion in charge. Kelley's first orders were for C company to bypass the pocket in the front, while A company would reinforce B company. The Japanese defenders were now trapped in the center being gradually eliminated by the 4 shermans. By 5:55pm F Company finally destroyed the last of the enemy in the center of the line and contact was made between the two battalions.  After suffering 25 deaths and 62 wounded, the 27th division had gained a good foothold on Butaritari; the West Tank Barrier had been reduced; but the enemy forces in the east still needed to be cleared. The night was a very uncomfortable one. Japanese snipers harassed the Americans the entire time; Japanese infiltrators were up to their old tricks calling out in english, throwing firecrackers and trying to jump into foxholes with knives in hand. Trigger happy Americans fired away indiscriminately, causing chaos. A man of the 152nd engineered ran along the lagoon shore at daybreak from the direction of On Chong's Wharf toward the 2nd battalions command post screaming “theres a hundred and fifty Japs in the trees!”. This caused a wave of hysteria. That morning Kelley ordered his 1st battalion to clear the remaining enemy pockets west of the barrier while the rear of the west tank barrier area was finally mopped up. To the east an air bombardment smashed the area before the eastward advance commenced. Supported by 10 shermans the Americans advanced slowly against stiff resistance, successfully overran every enemy position. Between 12-2pm they were fighting through one of the most heavily defended areas on the island. Machine gun emplacements supported by rifle pits with double apron barbed wire running back and forth were everywhere they looked. By 5pm they advanced 1000 yards at the cost of 18 deaths and 15 wounded. The next day starting at 6am the 3rd battalion advanced along the island highway towards Yellow Beach. As they reached Yellow Beach 13 medium and light tanks with some engineers fell in line with them and together they advanced towards Ukiangong Point. At 7am artillery bombarded Ukiangong Point, first targeting the east tank barrier. Until 8:20 the artillery fired nearly 900 rounds then the 3rd battalion began their assault upon forward defenses that had been abandoned during the night. By 9;15 the men seized the first 250 yards meeting only light resistance, after that it became fierce fighting. Meanwhile two detachments of the 105th regiment led by Major Herzog were dispatched to cut off the Japanese line of retreat. They performed an amphibious encirclement maneuver going through the lagoon. The men embarked on 6 LVTS and made a 3 mile dash across the lagoon to the northeastern point where they met up with friendly natives who notified them the Japanese were fleeing eastward across the reef to Kuma. They quickly seized Kuma and now the enemy on Butaritari was entirely cut off from their retreat. With artillery and tank support the 3rd battalion managed attacked the Stone Pier area. The tank commanders had learnt many lessons over the past two days and began using their big guns to reduce buildings ahead of them to infantry could toss grenades into the smaller shelters. Tank-infantry tactics were literally being developed ad hoc as the men learnt first hand lessons of war. Tanks opened up with 75mm shells knocking shelters and infantry stormed them with grenades. Soon the Stone Pier area was clear and now they began striking the east tank barrier. The east tank barrier was more heavily fortified than its western counterpart, yet the Japanese abandoned the barrier during the night. Only a few dead Japanese would be found, killed by earlier bombardments. The 3rd battalion continued past the barrier linking up with A company by 1:30pm finding no sign of the enemy. Together they advanced 2100 yards beyond the narrow neck of the island and dug in for the night. Each company created a separate defensive perimeter stretching across the width of the island in a line of about 300 yards in length. It was not long during the night when the Japanese got up to their old tricks. Following behind a group of friendly native guides, a group of Japanese infiltrators approached limiting the cries of babies. The ruse was recognized by a member of the engineer detachment who opened fire immediately killing 10 Japanese. For the rest of the night there was intermittent fire fights as infiltrators continuously attacked. The Japanese began to yell and sing songs, many sounding quite drunk.  It was not just there the Japanese attacked, over on Kuma Island at around midnight 10 Japanese attacked the defense line set up by Major Bradt's men. Although certainly shaken by the night terror, over 60 Japanese would be killed by the morning of the 23rd. This nearly wiped out the remaining survivors allowing the Americans to have firm control over Makin.  The Americans suffered 58 deaths, 152 wounded on Makin while the Japanese lost perhaps 800 men and the Americans captured 105 POW's. The Americans had held an unbelievable superiority during this battle. The ratio of American combat casualties to those of the Japanese though was remarkably high. With the battle concluded, most of the 27th division departed Makin on the 24th leaving Colonel CLesen Tenney to lead garrison forces. Tragedy hit that morning when the escort carrier Liscome Bay was sunk by the I-175 who had been hunting around Makin since the arrival of the Americans. This left the death toll at Makin 644, including Rear Admiral Henry Mullinnix. Back on Tarawa the marines were surprised the Japanese did not launch a major counterattack during the first night which was their typical strategy. General Smith landed his reserve 1st battalion, 8th marines on Red Beach 2, but they took some heavy casualties for this. Many of the men wading ashore were fired upon creating a scene of carnage. In central Betio Colonel Shoups marines unleashed a devastating artillery bombardment using delay fuzes in order to penetrate coral and log shelters to hit enemy positions around the triangle. A line just short of the taxiway on the airfield had formed, as the 1st battalion began to drive towards the south shore of Betio. The 1st battalion, 8th marines launched an attack against a strong defensive position at a juncture on the two right hand beaches to try and reestablish contact with the 3rd battalion 2nd marines. Other units of drove all the way across the island to secure Green Beach. The 8th marines were unable to make any progress against the strong Japanese positions. The major success of the day would be landing the reserve 1st and 2nd battalions, 6th marines at Green Beach and Bairiki island by the afternoon facing no opposition.  At this point Colonel Edson landed at Red Beach 2 and took command of the marine forces until General Smith landed. Colonel Edson spent his first night consulting with Shoup and Hall before ordering a coordinated attack the following morning. Edson noted, until then air and naval gunfire had been ineffective because they did not have acute knowledge of american and enemy positions. So Edson ordered spotters to get a better picture of the area and for the 2nd battalion, 10th marines artillery to come over. The next morning the 10th marines began an artillery bombardment to aid the attack. At 8am the 1st battalion, 6th marines advance eastwards down a narrow hundred yard strip of heavily fortified ground between the airfield and south shore. They rapidly progressed and by 11:00a would reach an area held by the 1st battalion, 2nd marines. It was estimated they killed 250 Japanese during this action. After completing this action new orders were issued to continue the advance east to the end of the airfield. They began advancing at 1pm and hit strong resistance. It would take until the late afternoon to clear the way over. During the afternoon the 3rd battalion, 6th marines landed at Green Beach and began advancing up the rear to aid in the assault. Elsewhere on Betio the 8th marines were making progress reducing the strong Burns-Philp Wharf position. The 18th marine engineers helped explode portions of steel pillboxes to let their colleagues storm them. One of the positions was a large blockhouse and when captured suddenly a large Japanese counterattack emerged to retake it. The 1st battalion, 8th marines on the western beaches proceeded slowly with fighting going on well into the night. Colonel Maurice Holmes 6th marines then relieved the 8th marines on the frontlines. By nightfall on the third day of the battle, the Americans now possessed all of the western end of Betio, going as far east as the eastern end of the airfield, except for some pockets between Red Beach 1 and 2. General Julian Smith finally came ashore on Green Beach just before noon assuming command. Despite the substantial gains, it was estimated that at least 5 more days of heavy fighting remaining before Betio was subdued. Smith gave Holmes the command for the final drive to the eastern tip of Betio. With the new daunting task at hand, Colonel Holmes prepared his forces for the brutal final drive, when all of a sudden 50 Japanese launched a counterattack. By the night of the 22nd, most of the remaining Japanese, roughly 1000 men were squeezed on the eastern narrow tail of the island. At 7:30 a group of 50 Japanese began attacking American positions recently just established. The 1st battalion, 6th marines had just assumed responsibility for the whole cross island line and the Japanese managed to find a small gap in the line. The Japanese used grenades and bayonets trying to break through, but the Americans were able to quickly encircle and annihilate them. Thus the Japanese were forced to launch a second probing attack later that night bringing their artillery 75 yards near the Marine front lines in an effort to screen their charges. The second attack was a two pronged movement hitting B company on the right and A company on the left. Both Japanese groups were obliterated in what became a wild frenzy of hand to hand fighting. Then after this the heaviest counterattack was launched at around 3am. The Japanese made a frontal assault for over an hour. 300 Japanese troops hit both A and B companies and like their other comrades were obliterated come the morning. These three attacks were in effect banzai charges, last ditch efforts to break the Americans, it cost the entire Japanese garrison. Holmes plans would be unnecessary to reach the eastern tip of Betio island as little opposition was found. By 10am the 1st battalion, 8th marines and 3rd battalion 2nd marines joined together to form a semicircular attack upon the last enemy pocket. They were supported by 75mm guns that unleashed carnage upon the pillboxes before marines grabbed prisoners through burst open holes from their shelters. Tarawa saw an estimated 4690 Japanese and Korean killed, with 17 Japanese and 129 Koreans POWs captured. The Marines suffered 1009 deaths, 2101 wounded and 191 missing in action. Vandegrift would tell the New York Times on December 27th "Tarawa was an assault from beginning to end. We must steel ourselves now to pay that price". November 24th would see the rest of the Tarawa atoll get mopped up and by the 29th, Abaiang, Marakei and the Maiana atolls were occupied. On the 21st the 5th amphibious corp reconnaissance company landed on Apamama under naval gunfire support from their submarine and escorting destroyer. They would encounter resistance from 23 Japanese whom they neutralized by the next day. With this Operation Galvanic has successfully been accomplished. The operation as we will see in the future weeks provided dire lessons to the allies about what the rest of the war would look like. As Vandegrift would later remark “Tarawa was the first example in history of a sea-borne assault against a heavily defended coral atoll … In the final analysis … success at Tarawa depended upon the discipline, courage, and fighting ability of the individual Marine. Seldom has anyone been called upon to fight a battle under more difficult circumstances.” It was under these circumstances, where the de facto practice of taking no prisoners would easily become the norm. The Japanese soldiers were faking deaths, hiding grenades to take allied men down with them. Suicide attacks were increasing exponentially. Thus the age of phrase would be adopted by the marines “shoot first and ask questions later”. 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. Operation Galvanic had finally been accomplished. It cost countless lives and would be one of the major bitter lessons learnt by the Americans during the Pacific War. The enemy was going to defend every single inch of their territory until the last man. Would America have the stomach to drive it home? 

U.S make commitments to Pacific youth on global issues; A man associated with what is viewed as an extreme left party in Tonga has been arrested after threatening to kill a political rival on social media; Tonga's Prime Minister is adamant Nauru's Baron Waqa 'misunderstanding' is smoothed over; The 17th Pacific Games officially opened in Solomon Islands with a colourful celebration; The longest mural in the South Pacific is finally complete.

Tensions have been running high at the Pacific Island's Forum being held in the Cook Islands. Nauru's president David Adeang walked out of a leaders' meeting in Rarotonga and did not attend the Leaders Retreat today in Aitutaki instead returning home early this morning. It's understood he left after questions were raised about the nomination of Nauru's former president Baron Waqa to be the Forum's next Secretary-General. Joining us to discuss this year's Pacific Islands Forum is Dr Anna Powles, from Massey University's Centre for Defence and Security. [embed] https://players.brightcove.net/6093072280001/default_default/index.html?videoId=6340842699112

Nauru president a 'no show' in Aitutaki for Pacific leaders retreat.

Fallout after Nauru walks out of a Pacific Islands Forum plenary meeting; the federal government considers the implications of a High Court ruling on indefinite detention; and in the A-League, Sydney FC's new manager says he is confident the team can return to their winnings ways.

Listen to the top news from Australia and India in Hindi.

What does the guilty verdict of Sam Bankman-Fried tell us about crypto and the dangers of its economic and political influence. Also, why did Sam try and buy the island of Nauru? An interview with Jacob Silverman, author of "Easy Money: Cryptocurrency, Casino Capitalism, and the Golden Age of Fraud". A clip from the Bonus Bish on November 3rd. Become a patron to listen to the full interview: www.patreon.com/bitchuationroom. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Nauru president David Adeang walked out of the Pacific Islands Forum on Thursday and is a no show at a leaders retreat on Aitutaki. The walkout came after Samoa's Prime Minister Fiame Naomi Matafa raised concerns over the process in which ex-Nauru president Baron Waqa had been elected to become the next secretary-general of the Pacific Islands Forum and wanted that to be discussed during the retreat. RNZ Pacific's Lydia Lewis spoke to Ingrid Hipkiss.

It's Ramere, Friday, November the 10th Today on RNZ National... Work to form the next Government has taken a big leap forward, with the ACT and New Zealand First leaders meeting at Parliament. A progress report on new health authority Te Whatu Ora has found major shortfalls, 16 months into its rollout Overseas, mass evacuations are underway from North Gaza as fighting between Israel and Hamas intensifies The Nauru president has walked out of the Pacific Islands Forum .. We'll have the details on why The Black Caps have done all they can to qualify for the Cricket World Cup semifinals, beating Sri Lanka overnight

What does the guilty verdict of Sam Bankman-Fried tell us about crypto and the dangers of its economic and political influence. Also, why did Sam try and buy the island of Nauru? An interview with Jacob Silverman, author of "Easy Money: Cryptocurrency, Casino Capitalism, and the Golden Age of Fraud". A clip from the Bonus Bish on November 3rd. Become a patron to listen to the full interview: www.patreon.com/bitchuationroom. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Old wounds are re-opened at the Pacific Islands forum; Nauru's president a 'no show' at Pacific leaders retreat in Aitutaki ;Pro-choice advocates in Guam are elated over the US territory's supreme court's recent decision.

The wounds of last year's rift at the Pacific Island's forum have re-opened.

Former Nauru president Baron Waqa unfazed over his critics.

Schools in Vanuatu grapple with damages and disruptions following Lola; NZ health and defence force tests emergency response; Zero Pacific representation in NZ's next govt; Tonga set for a long drought; Veteran politician takes the top job in Nauru; and Solomon Islands prepare to welcome thousands of athletes for Pacific Games

NZ health and defence force tests emergency response. Bougainville woman wins seat in PNG parliament. Fiji's military continued intervention in govt affairs 'concerning' - Political expert. Nauru crowns new beauty pageant winner.

Nauru crowns new beauty pageant winner.

Welcome back to another riveting episode of ‘The Adams Archive,' where your host, Austin Adams, takes you on an enthralling journey through today's most pressing and controversial topics. Today's episode is a rollercoaster of emotions, insights, and expert commentary that you won't want to miss! First on our agenda is a jaw-dropping scandal from the world of competitive Jiu Jitsu, involving a male competitor disguising himself to compete in a women's grappling event. As a seasoned purple belt, Austin dissects the situation with precision, applauding NAGA's swift response and commitment to ensuring fairness and integrity in the sport. Next, we transition to the ice, delving into a tragic incident in the European hockey league that has sparked widespread debate and misinformation. With 18 years of hockey experience under his belt, Austin provides a rare and necessary expert perspective, debunking myths and bringing clarity to the horrific event. In a somber turn, Austin reflects on the sudden passing of Matthew Perry, beloved actor from the hit TV show 'Friends'. Navigate through the web of conspiracy and pay respects to a star gone too soon, as Austin provides a balanced and respectful commentary on this sad affair. Lastly, we plunge into the complex and ever-evolving Israel-Palestine conflict, analyzing recent statements from Netanyahu and the controversial actions of various world powers. Austin leaves no stone unturned, offering a comprehensive and critical examination of the events and their potential implications. But it's not all heavy topics on 'The Adams Archive.' Austin ensures to sprinkle in positivity, humor, and his signature charismatic commentary throughout the episode, keeping you engaged and enlightened from start to finish. So, hit that subscribe button, leave a glowing five-star review, and join Austin in this intellectual adventure. Whether you're a long-time listener or new to the show, your support means the world, and it's listeners like you that make ‘The Adams Archive' a thriving community of curious minds and critical thinkers. Let's dive in and unravel the mysteries of today's most captivating stories together!     All the Links: https://linktr.ee/theaustinjadams Substack: Https://austinadams.substack.com ----more---- Full Transcription  Adams Archive. Hello, you beautiful people and welcome to the Adams Archive. My name is Austin Adams and thank you so much for listening today. On today's episode, we are going to discuss some pretty crazy current events, starting with the North American Grappling Association, also known as NAGA, which is a very well known jiu jitsu Competitive platform for people like myself who basically are, uh, What they're under fire for was the fact that there was a woman Not a woman, a man pretending to be a woman wearing woman face who went and competed against actual women in a grappling competition, a martial arts, a, uh, you know, a literal fight and one, obviously, because It's a man, spoiler alert, uh, so I can actually speak to that. I'm a purple belt in jiu jitsu myself, I've been practicing since 2012. So, we will get into that and why it's so crazy. But, positive note, silver lining here, is that Naga came out and made a statement saying this will never happen again. And they outlined the reasons why and how they're going to ensure that that happens. So, I am... proud of you, Naga. Thank you so much for making it so that I don't have to go compete at other organizations and boycott your shit because I would have. Now, the next thing that we're going to talk about is not too often that two of the things I'm most able to speak to come together and intersect into this platform. Like usually, the things I'm talking about, yeah, I've done a lot of research on them. And I try to give my most non biased opinion on them. But When it comes to two of these things, like jiu jitsu and hockey, I actually have... Much more of an expert opinion than most people. So, uh, hockey, there was a situation that happened in the European hockey league, which was a horrific incident. Now this guy, um, Adam Johnson, I believe it was basically was skating across the ice, had a guy, um, who basically ran into another guy, clipped his leg, his leg went up and sliced his neck. And he ended up dying, which is horrific. It's terrible. Um, It's, it's horrific to see, uh, so we'll get into that and why there's a lot of people, like, a lot of large conservative influencers coming out acting like they're experts in hockey now who are saying, like, some horrific things about the guy who did this, saying that he did it on purpose, that it was murder and this and that, and so we'll talk about that because I don't think that was the case. I watched the footage. Again, played hockey for 18 years, um, very high level hockey, and, uh, I'll give you a little bit of that background, but we'll jump into that. After that, we will get into the next current event, which is about Matthew Perry from Friends Dying. Which is again, terrible. Not trying to start your day off like this. If you're listening to this in the morning, I'll put some positive spins on it for you. Sprinkle some, uh, some, I don't know, some, some, some, some positivity into your day throughout this But there's some weird little conspiracy things that people have pointed out about this that we will talk about as well now, obviously respected guys death and all of that. But there's some shady shit. And we'll get into it. After that, we're going to jump Back into the Israel and Palestine conflict with some stuff coming out of there, including a conversation by Netanyahu, where he says, this is everybody's war. This isn't just my war. This is all of you, because if you don't stop this now and give me your tax money, it's going to come to your doorstep. Tomorrow. So we'll look at that as well as his son skating the essential kind of the draft that's going on over there Where they called all these reservists we'll also discuss the un general assembly Asking for a gaza resolution calling for an immediate and sustained humanitarian truce in which there was only 14 countries who denied it out of almost 140 120 Who agreed with it and 45 who abstained? But guess who was in those 14 countries? Hmm. The United States of America. So we'll look at why that might've been. And then we'll talk about the information blackout, the cutting off of the internet in Gaza and why that might be as well as Mr. Elon Musk coming in with Starlink to save the day and Israel saying there might blow up his satellites or some shit like that. So all of that more. But first I need you to hit that subscribe button, leave a five star review. If this is your first time here today, I appreciate you. You were awesome. Thank you so much from the bottom of my heart. I love doing this for you. Every single week we have conversations like this, sometimes multiple times a week, depending on my schedule. And, uh, I give you my takes on everything that's going on throughout the world, whether it be politics, religion, history, conspiracies, philosophy. All that shit. So make sure you subscribe, stick with me here, leave a five star review. If you've been here with me, it's about the only thing that you can do in your day today to get some good karma. So leave that five star review. Again, I would appreciate it. You're my buddy. You're my pal hanging out with me here every single week. So do something for me. It takes five seconds, hit that five star review, whether you're on Spotify, Apple podcasts, or whatever obscure ass podcast, Software, you're listening to this on go ahead and leave a five star review and then write something nice. I don't care what it is. Tell me your favorite recipe for Thanksgiving. Who cares? Just write something nice. All right, and without further ado, let's jump into it. The Addams Archive All right, let's jump into it on the very first article that we're going to talk about today is going to be the North American Grappling Association had a transgender man, woman. Man, man, woman, who a man who thought they were a woman who competed in the women's bracket in jiu jitsu now This is horrible out of all the sports that we've talked about whether it be Leah Thomas with swimming or the dudes that were dominating women's Sprints to I don't know all of the crazy things that were going on even chess tournaments like guys were getting in the number insert crazy, ridiculously high ranked person here. And then they went into chess and just obliterated women in chess. It's like, just let the women do their thing, dude, what's wrong with you? Anyways, this is probably one of the worst of them outside of MMA, right? There was a guy who was sitting there gloating on social media, like I need to pull up the posts of this. Because this guy When in, as a biological man dominated these women, I would actually really be interested to see some of the footage because they would have been just amazing if one of these women almost had was able to, because there's some, uh, like I said, so let me give you my background. I've, I've practiced jujitsu since 2012 when I was in the military, there was a sergeant who posted a poster on the wall. And it was a competition that was happening on base at my air traffic control, uh, tech training that I was doing in the air force. And so when I saw that I was like, super interested at the time I had watched, you know, I watched a little bit of Joe Rogan and was really interested in Eddie Bravo and watch some jujitsu at the time, liked the MMA culture. Wrestled a little bit in high school, but like wasn't super good or anything, gotten a lot of fights in hockey. And so I thought I was tough. And so I went to this jujitsu competition with a couple of my friends that was, uh, at the base gym in like a back room where they had all these mats laid out. And I go up to the guy who was staff Sergeant Hawk, shout out to staff Sergeant Hawk. And he's like. You know, I was pretty good shape at the time. I was lifting a lot. All I had to do was lift in the outside of tech training. And so I went up to Sergeant Hawk to sign up and he's like, Hey, man, how you doing? And shook my hand is super nice guy. Love staff Sergeant Hawk. And he basically like looked me up and down. I was like, so you have any training you ever done any wrestling, anything like that. And I told him I did a little bit in high school, maybe two or three years. I wasn't really good or anything, but you know, so he ended up putting me in the advanced bracket. There was a beginner's bracket and an advanced bracket, and maybe there was six, seven guys in each bracket. And just because I had watched some Jiu Jitsu YouTube footage and knew a little bit about every Eddie Bravo and did a little bit of wrestling, I ended up actually winning the advanced bracket. That I had no business being in, uh, but really, to be fair, in 2012, like nobody really knew about Jiu Jitsu. So, um, I ended up winning the bracket, won the tournament, got my very first gi from that tournament. And from then on, I started training, uh, under Staff Sergeant Hawk and out of Dixon's dungeon, which was under the John Dixon in Biloxi, Mississippi, who was fought in the very first pride fights. I actually used to run like a mile and a half, two miles every single day. from base to Dixon's Dungeon right outside of Biloxi, Mississippi. And so, I know a little bit about Jiu Jitsu. I still currently train. I did a tournament, uh, a competition like three months ago. And, uh, it wasn't a Naga tournament. It was a Grappling Industries tournament. Um, but I'm active. I train several times a week. I compete jiu jitsu is like, that's my hobby. That's what I do. That's my thing. So I know a little bit about this shit, right? So when it comes to like a man doing jiu jitsu with a woman, there's a certain level of like, respect that you go into and being you know, in any gym, you're going to roll with women. decently consistently, right? And there's such an obvious disparity in strength. Now, that's not to say that there's not some women out there that will just kick the shit out of most men. And by most men, I even mean men who train jujitsu. Like there's a there's real high level Jiu Jitsu black belt females who will just fuck up a guy even if they train consistently like I've gone with some girls who are just like, you know, would definitely like black belt females that are high level competitors will definitely, I've definitely gone with some women who could Like, very likely beat me in jujitsu, maybe not like, you know, a hundred percent, but like, there's, this is nothing against women's jujitsu. There's some bad ass females out there right now who would just trash me. Um, so when we talk about this, it's like, The way the jiu jitsu tournaments work is there's, you know, there's, especially if you're talking no gi, which is what this would look like, there's like gi, which is where you wear the kimono kind of looking thing, and then there's no gi. No gi is where you kind of just wear shorts and a t shirt, it looks a lot more like wrestling, that kind of deal, so it's just straight grappling. This was no gi. And so when you talk about no gi, usually it's not specifically belt based, where there's like white belt, blue belt, purple belt, brown belt, black belt. In no gi, it's beginner bracket. Intermediate bracket and advanced and beginner is like, you've been doing it for one to two years. Intermediate is you've been doing it for like two to five years, six years, seven years and advanced bracket is like you're a black belt or a brown belt. Um, so I'm somewhere in between there. I'm in the intermediate bracket. As a purple belt, you know, like I said, I started training in 2012 fell off for a little bit, started training back about five, six years ago, been training consistently ever since. Um, but when we're talking about male against female, there's such a, it's astounding how much of a difference when it comes to size, strength, um, agility, like, and, and there's a reason that there's brackets, right? Like for a, and, and, and so in the area that I live in, there's several prominent gyms. One of the prominent gyms that I don't train at, there is a. There is a transgender, uh, man, woman, guy who, male, who is identifying as a woman who is just the biggest, most jacked person you've ever seen in your life. And that individual, like all respect to them, competes, I'm pretty sure, in the male bracket because it would just be so unbelievably unfair. They are just, just jacked. Like, so, this, this situation to me is just such, so indicative of where we are as a culture that this even was able to slip in under the radar. Now, Naga came out because there was such an immense amount of pushback as a result of this. Naga came out and made a statement. And here is... That statement that I'm going to pull up for you. Just give me one second while I do. And Naga said... Let's see if I can... Drag this over to my screen here. All right. So Naga statement around this was, I am Kip Kolar, president of Naga. And I would like to address the controversial issue of transgender athletes competing in Naga events, decisions that involve conflicting rights and needs between different groups are inherently difficult. That said, maintaining fairness for female athletes in our paramount is our paramount priority due to the legacy effects of being. Born male through puberty in parallel with the policy of FINA, the world governing body for swimming, world rugby, and numerous other global sports organizations, male to female transgender athletes who have gone through male puberty are excluded from competing in the female division at Naga events. This position is of course, even more important given the heightened. Potential for injury when grappling. All right. Now, let me read the rest of that for you that I'll pull up from my phone here. So we don't have to mess with this. And it says, cause I reposted this on my story and Naga actually liked it. So again, shout out to Naga. It says, Implementing this policy poses challenges. The registration system used by most grappling events, including Naga, SmoothComp, unfortunately only allows users to choose between male and female genders when registering. It does not provide an option to register as transgender. Ideally, there should be an option in the registration process to declare yourself as transgender. Transgender. We have requested that this change be made in short order. We are a dish. We are adding additional text to the event and rules page of our website, which I'll show you in a second here because they've already done so. And our smooth comp event pages to help inform transgender females which division they need to enter. We feel these additional steps will help to make sure all competitors are in their correct division. If a competitor is discovered to be in an incorrect division, they will be contacted and provided with the option to move to the correct division Or receive a refund just as we do. If there, we were notified that a D one wrestler was in the beginner division. Yeah, because that D one register, uh, D one athlete, uh, wrestler would just smash every single white belt in the division. Now this says moving forward, we will be guided by the science around male advantage and physical performance. Good on them for using the word science. Which will inevitably develop the coming over the coming years as further evidence becomes available. We will review our position, but we believe the integrity of the female category and athletics is one of the most as is the most of the most profound importance. Thank you. Kip Kohler, President, North American Grappling Association. On Naga for making sure that women don't just get absolutely destroyed now like when we're talking about sports when we're talking about swimming it doesn't it's not a matter of life and death right everybody wants to look at you just do it like there's all the there's this category of people with jujitsu is like oh it's not a fight it's not a fight It's a fight. Like this is not, this is not a regular sport because if there is not a ref intervening, when somebody is choking you unconscious and you're tapping and they decide to just keep that choke, what happens you die that you go to sleep and you don't wake up. What happens when there's no ref to intervene when you are in an arm bar and somebody is ripping your limb apart and they shatter your arm or your knee or your shoulder, like. It is absolutely a fight. Like when we talk about hockey, yes, it's a sport. The end result of hockey is a goal, right? Is a winning position within the overall game. It's a game. This is a sport. When we talk about football, the overall win is based on a scoreboard. Right. But when if there is not a ref to intervene, especially when you talk about like Nogi submission only grappling, the only outcome if there is no ref is essentially death. So it's absolutely a fight, right? Like there's no, there's no logical argument to me that Jiu Jitsu is not fighting. Sure. It's fighting without punches just as much as boxing is fighting without submissions. Right. There's only one, then there's only one category that you can call fighting in this MMA. And even at that case, you can't bite each other. You can't hit them in the balls. You can't do all this. You can't even go from a six to 12 elbow strike. So it's like, oh, is that not a fight now either? It's, it's such a silly argument. So anyways, I digress. The idea is that when you go into a fight, it is absolutely unfair for a man to fight a woman based on. biology. We all know that by now, right? When we go even like, even in sports like swimming and running, we've decided that it's unfair. So when you talk about a actual combat sport, where the there is actual consequences where you are going to be choked, unconscious. Or have your knee ripped apart, or your shoulder, or your arms, or your, like, ankle. Like, there's so much that can go wrong here. There's a reason there's weight categories. There's a reason there's male and female categories. There's a reason there's belt categories. You have to maintain the safety of this. And to not do so is absolutely, like, it would be horrific. To not make this an egregious act that is completely condemned by NAGA. It would set such a precedence in the grappling world. And so I am so happy that NAGA spoke out about this. You know you'd never see this in like the larger organizations like ADCC or WNO or like who's number one or anything on flow grappling that you would see. So, to know that There's, there's, there's barely, there's only a few safe communities and it happens to be like the martial arts community is absolutely one of those communities that would just never let this happen. So good on Naga, happy to be a part of a industry, a sport, a hobby, a, a passion that would not allow women to just get absolutely trampled by men because they feel a little. Demasculated today. Alright, so, there's that. Pretty crazy. Glad Naga spoke out about it. Next up is going to be that... So, there was a situation. It was a guy named Adam Johnson. Who recently passed away just over the weekend now. He was a 29 year old hockey player for the Nottingham Panthers. He originally played in the NHL. Um, I've actually been familiar with his name and I, you know, I was looking at his, um, prospect I forget the name of it, but it's like hockey prospects is where you can look up a lot of guys who played where, you know, like growing up. So let's, let's talk, just talk real quickly about my background with hockey. So I grew up playing hockey since I was three years old. I am in an area, a state that is a very prominent hockey state. I played at a very high level up until I was 18 years old, right before I went in the military, um, I went to play, uh, a, in a junior's league, and the day before I was flying out to, uh, a team in Texas, uh, I shattered or destroyed my ACL on a stupid little, uh, basketball game. So, um. Retour my ACL and or in meniscus the day before I was supposed to fly to Texas to go to the main camp for the team that I was going to play for. Um, so again, I played triple A hockey in Michigan, um, all, you know, growing up, played since I was three years old, have a very long standing background playing hockey three, five, six, seven times a week. I was out. Whether it was at the rink, whether it was behind my house on the canal, um, during the winter in Michigan grew up from the time that I was little. The only thing I ever wanted to do was play in the NHL. All right. And I was pretty fucking good. All right. I played for a very, very well known triple a team here in Michigan. You know, one of the best teams in the world. Um, I'm well versed, I'm way better at hockey than I was at jiu jitsu, starting off, so if that tells you anything, right? Even especially if you wanted to like list out the priority of people in the world. So, my opinion on hockey actually has some merit, right? Now, we had all of these conservative influencers, whether it was DC Drano, whether it was, uh, the, the, um, Tick tocks of, or liberals of tick tock, whether it was end wokeness, whether it was, uh, Robert star bucks or whatever his name is, all of these conservative influencers seem to have a very vehement, very serious opinion about this situation that happened in the ECHL, which is the European hockey league. And so this guy, Adam Johnson, again, played in the NHL, played for the Pittsburgh Penguins. For some time in the EIHL, I'm sorry, not the ECHL, the EIHL for the Nottingham Panthers, and let's read this article. It says Adam Johnson, a 29 year old hockey player for the Nottingham Panthers, died in a tragic freak accident on the ice rink while playing against the Sheffield Steelers on Saturday in the UK. Johnson, who played for the NHL's Pittsburgh Penguins before transferring to the elite ice hockey league in August, suffering, suffered a fatal neck injury when he collided with a player from the opposing team midway through the second period. The BBC reports that the injury was reportedly caused by a split or escape blade to the neck. Now, one thing I'd like to point out about this is that the people who were posting this, whether it was, uh, the TikToks or liberals of TikTok, or whether it was, um, DC underscore Drano, just never We're so tone deaf to the situation where it was so disgusting and so gross the way that DC Underscore Drano and liberals of tick tock posted about this guy Dying like they literally slapped the video DC Drano did slapped the video at the very beginning of his Uh, his reels or his, his post and like, it was like, Oh, graphic warning. It's like, yeah, dude, don't post the guy fucking bleeding out on the ice, spilling blood all over the ice. If you respect them, you don't respect them. This dude was just looking for clicks. Drano went about this post. So. They go on there, and, and, and, there's, here's the video here, and I'll, I'll, I, I don't even like watching this shit personally, like, it doesn't, I just don't. Um, but to me, you know, I'll break it down for you, I'm not gonna go very much past it, where you, you literally see him, like, holding his neck as blood is just pouring out of it onto the white ice. I, I, it's just not my thing, dude, like, I'll watch the beginning of it with you and break it down for you. So. Nope, that wasn't it. So they're probably not even going to show it on this post here, but DC Drano did and so I'll kind of walk you through it as I pull it up on my phone. And so DC Drano posted this along with like six or seven other posts that were related to this from other conservative type of influencers. So the guy goes across the ice. There's a two on two going down past the red line right past the blue line and right as he goes down the ice. Uh. The one guy clips legs with one of the other players that are next to him as he goes to to hit him. So there's, um, he misses the, the, like close to the first guy. And sorry, I keep kind of messing this up here on this. I'm watching it. Um, so two guys going on a two on two, the first guy crosses starting to cross at the blue line. And the defenseman goes over and crosses paths with one guy to hit the guy with the park, right as they cross the blue line, which was it. It looked to me like offsides to begin with. Not sure why that wasn't offsides and the ref calls it off. But the, the defenseman, the offside defenseman, um, crosses right across the blue line past the guy that he's next to on the two on two. And let me see if I can, I'm going to actually even just like record this and watch it. Let's see if I can break it down to a little bit of a slower pace. Okay. So I just recorded that. I'm going to pull it over and watch it from there. Cause then I can go frame by frame. So, two on two, two guys in red, they just cross over the red line, not sure why that wasn't off sides, because the guy in white in front of the guy with the puck crosses over the blue line, it looks like, before him, um, he goes to try and, uh, like skate down the blue line as the defenseman comes over and crosses. And he runs what looks like into, let me see if I can zoom in. He actually doesn't make much contact with him, but cross pass with him connects with the first forward. There's not a ton of contact, but the guy's leg comes straight up and gets the forward right in the neck. And when he does this, the guy goes straight to the ice, grabs his neck. And that's where I'm going to stop it. So all of these conservative influencers making these claims that this was intentional, that it was murder, that it was manslaughter, that it was whatever, you have to understand how fast a hockey game is actually Right. So when DC Drano gets on here and he says Adam Johnson was an NHL player who was killed while playing in England at the age of 29, another player's blade hit his neck, slicing an artery media called the incident, a freak accident, but replays show Matt Peck grave intentionally. So I just cannot see an angle here, right? And I don't think there was a ton of contact. Like originally when I looked at this, it was pretty far away. So when I break it down and go slower and zoom in on that, there's not a ton of contact even despite that. I just don't see any single scenario. If you're a player, he could have easily hip checked him. He could have easily just laid his hips out and stopped him like that. He's not gonna fucking karate kick him in the throat with his skate. I wish I could show you guys what I'm looking at here and maybe let me see if I can send this but anyways, there's just no way this was an intentional kick to the throat. I just don't see it. There's not nearly as much contact as I would have thought there was originally, and I'm going back and forth watching this kick. I just don't see it. I don't see how any situation would have caused this to be intentional. So what you're seeing is a bunch of people who don't play hockey, who don't understand how fast the game moves, who don't realize that these split microsecond decisions are the difference between your leg being Three inches lower or three inches higher or you clipping this guy's hip ends up with your it just the game moves so fast. It's the fastest game there is there's no other sport that moves faster than hockey. So you get all these people who don't know how the actual sport works. Or, or even understand the logistics of the game coming out, saying that this is murder, right? Coming out saying that this is manslaughter. And it's it to me, frankly, that wasn't even the grossest part. The grossest part was you have all these people. And when you look at like the libs of tick tock post on this, and now this I will, I will share because this was just like the most egregious thing was libs of tick tock posted this, uh, This meme that they created that said where is it? They must have taken it down. They must have taken it down. Yeah libs of tick tock took that posted down because it was so Disgusting they posted the meme of Petgrave with his leg up saying that what was it was something around along the lines of like Um, that kick wasn't dirty, the kick, and then it had him with his leg straight out and his blade sticking straight up. So they actually deleted it because it was so disgusting. Now I posted on that and said, just talked about my experience in hockey and said that like, this is just disgusting how, you know, it's absolutely not intentional. And like, let's see if that one even went away. Yeah. Wow. Dang. Who'd have thought that lives of tick tock would, would have taken that down because they realized how disgusting they were for posting that gross meme about this dude who just got his throat slit that you saw bleed out in front of the world on the ice. And you're posting a meme with his leg up saying the kick like, Oh, really? He is that. Is that. That's entertainment to you. That's what the people that you, your, your target audience want to see. Wow. At least they took it. At least they had the decency to take it down. Because that to me was probably the most disgusting was. One was, you know, DC Drano actually posting it was disgusting. But them actually, actually, uh, you know, having a silly, gross meme about it was probably the worst thing. So. I don't think it was intentional. I think things happened at a very, very quick pace in hockey. I think that there's a hundred different reasons that that happened, none of which had to do with premeditated or purposeful manslaughter. Okay, and anybody who tells you differently just doesn't understand the sport of hockey, has never touched ice, never played at a high level, never, never found themselves crossing the ice to try and hit some guy crossing the blue line at that pace, like you just, you just don't get it. Um, so. I digress. Let's move on. That to me was very disgusting. And the more that like I'm finding myself distancing myself more and more from like, as we get post COVID, the straight, strict, conservative influencers, because the things that they're keep doing, whether it's about Israel versus Palestine, whether it's about this here that we're seeing, like, I'm just starting to see some of the clickbait, some of the grossness that is coming out of like the strict. traditional conservative movement that I just don't it just does not vibe with me. And so honestly, I've always said that I've always said I'm not just your average, you know, person leaning left or leaning right, I have my own opinions about Basically everything. It just so happens that a lot of it aligns with a certain side at a certain point. And as we get further and further from COVID, as we get further and further from lockdowns, as we get further and further from even Ukraine and Russia, and we see what the, the, the war machine beating the drum is all the conservatives are calling for war against, uh, Palestine and Hamas and calling for us troops to go intervene there. It's like, nah, not me. So let's move on here. There was a conspiracy that came out. So Matthew Perry, the Friends star, uh, Chandler passed away suddenly and horrifically. And so what you saw about that was that basically he died in his hot tub. They said there was no, he had been pretty well known for recently over the past few years of having some type of like drug addiction. Um, and so there was. There was questions around that and the police came out and said no, no, no, there was no drugs found on the scene. There was no foul play reported, all of that. Now what we're seeing here, and again, my condolences to his family, my condolences to everybody that knew him. It's a horrific, public, tragic incident, just as the last one that we talked about. But in this case, there's actually some more deeper questions to be had. So there was something very strange about meth. Matthew Perry's death. The first one being that for a very long time, he hasn't been posting on social media. So I'm going to pull up his social media here. So I can kind of walk you through the timeline of events, but on his social media, he had been posting until seven days ago, very, very little. Now, seven days ago, he started posting. A post a day, essentially seven posts within just a few days. And every single one of these posts had a strange thing about them being the Batman symbol. Now, when you think of the Batman symbol, when you look in the sky and you see the Batman symbol, or you go watch the movies and you see it being displayed, what do you, what do you think when you see the Batman symbol? Well, normally when you see the Batman symbol, you, when you see the Batman symbol, you normally think. It's a sign of distress. So when Matthew Perry essentially posts the Batman symbol seven times over seven days, it starts to raise some questions for people right now. In one of his last posts, in an eerie, uh, is an eerie hand drop, uh, dropping some of what seems to be cranberries on the table with the caption saying, This is what I've had to eat today. I'm Mat Man. And it also says that it's worth, worth mentioning that the lead of the group of the cranberries died by drowning? That's a weird one. So let's see here. I don't know if I see that post with he's talking about here is me. Yeah, this is some super weird obscure posts. It's also noted that the very last chapter of his book was called. Batman. So maybe he just has some weird obsession with Batman. Maybe you know, maybe he was cast in the next Batman. Maybe that's it. But to make things more interesting, his third to last post has again, the Batman symbol with the caption saying, do you know what I mean? So let's, let's like look at this full timeline. April was the last time he posts before the most more consistent posts. The one after that is October 11th, where he said, why can Elon Musk send a woman to the moon and not be able to invent a silent leaf blower? Okay. Super obscure, weird, probably just a random post. Although most of his posts before that seemed like Somebody else is doing them like they're all not off the cuff weird things like that Anyways, he posts himself what looks like picking up leaves. The next post says here is me and my father John both holding a beverage Okay, super tragic to see his dad knowing what just occurred Anyways, the next one says, no need to worry everybody, I've got the streets tonight. This was October 17th. With the Batman up on three different, Batman, like this Batman background up on three different TVs, like one of the Batman movies. Why do you have three TVs in your room? Um, the next one says, sleep well, everybody. I've got the city tonight, Matt man, and it's a post of the Batman symbol. The next one is. Says WTF with a picture that says Batman plays pickleball. Oh, and here's the cranberry one It's literally just a video of him dropping three cranberries on a table and said this is what I've had to eat today I'm Matt man, huh? Interesting in a week ago. Somebody says is his account hacked something feels off his next post after that being October 22nd was a A batman carved pumpkin, which said, do you know what I mean? And again, if you go into the comments of this, a week ago, said, do you want us to send help? Is this your signal? Somebody else said, so Matt, you do know there are a few of us who are a little concerned about you right now. I am hoping you're just having a little silly fun and you're hinting at a new project. Your fans adore you and want you to be happy and healthy. Please take care of yourself. Thanks. The next person said, what's with the Batman obsession? Is nobody going to talk about Bruce Wayne faking his death to live a peaceful life? Somebody said that two days ago. So after he died, um, somebody else said, he said in his book, the day he needs help, he will send a bat signal and no one was listening. Wow. A week ago, you're trying to tell us something. Hmm. A week ago. I feel like you were trying to tell us something. A week ago. Is this some kind of hint? Wow. A week ago? SOS? Wow. This is super weird. Alright, so somebody posted on that and said, If anybody is confused, here's a little information about the conspiracy theories we have. If you have read his book, you may have remembered that he wrote, If I need help, I'll put a Batman symbol or something similar. His last post, a week before his death, yesterday, were all Batman posts. He even posted a picture on his jacuzzi with a red Batman logo on it. We think that Matthew is signaling for help. He was warning us about what was going to happen. His last posts were on Instagram where a picture of him in his jacuzzi. If you don't know, Matthew allegedly died in his jacuzzi. Investigators believe it was a drowning because he didn't find any intoxication in his body. There is a lot of more investigation going on so we will just have to wait. He was struggling. He needed help. He's in a beautiful place now where he doesn't have to hurt anymore. May his beautiful soul rest in peace. Okay, I'm convinced that this was not just the weird suicide that everybody was talking about after reading all of that. This is crazy. So, Matthew Perry, seemingly, was calling for help a week before his death, before his alleged suicide, with the very same messaging that he said that he would give if he needed help. And maybe that means... I need help because I'm dealing with mental health issues. Maybe that means I need help because, I don't know, some obscure entity is coming after me and wants me dead. Maybe it's, I don't know, and maybe the former seems much more likely than the latter, obviously. What a tragedy, right? And so you go into the last post or last two posts. The second last post says, Do you understand what I'm trying to tell you? I'm A week ago are you okay? Should we send for help? A week ago are you trying to give us a hint or something? A week ago, I hope you are doing well. I've always absolutely adored you and saw you, your struggles, and sometimes your sadness. I love your laughter and I'm always rooting for you. I know you won't see this, but I see you, and hope you are happy and living a beautiful life. Somebody else said, I can see the signs six days ago. Somebody else said, I've listened to your podcast so many times to know that this is a subliminal message. Keep up the good fight, bro. Wow. So there was so much, so much leading up to the death of Matthew Perry that it's Pretty crazy that nobody and a ton of the commenters did say that like we see this like we we know that this is an issue We know that you've said this before We see you and we love you. We're here for you like Somebody said don't relapse. Somebody else said the man was sacrificed by the elite. Although many people think this is a lie, it is reality. He already knew what was going to happen to him. Wow. This is probably one of the craziest conspiracy theories that I've seen play out in real time. Ever. Like, this... Matthew Perry died in like the single most horrific ways and his very last Instagram post he posted from the hot tub that he died in and said, Oh, so warm water swirling all around you makes you feel good. Question mark. I'm Matt, man. Damn. Wow. I'm trying to see if there's any posts here like the other ones, but man That's got to be just one of the Craziest. Oh Man, that's a rough one, right? And so There, it says there are only two options here. Yes, he could have been trying to hint at a new appearance in an upcoming Batman movie, or it was something else, something that may have gone right over the heads of those who needed to interpret it. My theory is that in the last few days, this says Matthew has been calling for help in a subtle way that hopefully his friends and family would have caught on to. Unfortunately, he dies. A week later, it's worth mentioning that in one of the comments the last chapter of his recent book is titled Batman this seems to be adding up all too. Well, wow, so He also commented on one of his posts rest easy. I'm on a tall building Hmm. Somebody else said planned suicide That's fair, right? Um, somebody else is my best guess based off of nothing but pure speculation. In the background in behavioral health, Matthew was going through a manic phase, which led to an increase in social media posts. This mania may have caused him to relapse on substances, which hot water and drugs is a very dangerous. It also says from another person that read to understand the last chapter of Matt's incredibly personal book is called Batman. It had his life photos in it. It's the most essential chapter regarding his life. Batman has repeated multiple times in his book as his pickleball, because he started that sport after he almost died from opiate use. He says something along the lines of when things are bad and you can't find yourself, just ask what would Batman. Do. Batman also is a single man with no children, which Matthew spoke about a lot in a matter that resembles depression type speaking. I think he relapsed and started posting weird from the day he says he's having a drink with his father. As in the book, he also speaks on his father in an incredibly emotional, hmm, very interesting. Somebody else said, who took that last pic of him? He's pretty far from the camera. Hmm, interesting. Wow. Pretty crazy. stuff. Um, it also said, I'm not sure if it was a cry for help. He signs off Matt man as in Batman as in he is the Batman Batman's whole theme is justice over vengeance. He fights crime to ensure no one would suffer like he did. What's that all about? The last picture is all is also pretty much Almost literal foreshadowing of his own death as if it was planned exactly like that. It feels a little bit sacrificial, like he needed to die to protect something. Mmmh, that seems like a stretch. Alright. Terrible, horrible. My heart goes out to the family, the loved ones, the friends. You know, no pun intended, uh, but pretty wild conspiracy theory, cause I don't think I've seen one happen like, see that play out like that in a long time, and again, maybe it's just foreshadowing his own death, and maybe it was a planned suicide, and that probably makes the most sense, but even so, such a, such a tragedy. Alright, we're going to switch gears now, um, and go into some of the Palestine, uh, situation with Israel, but first, What I need you to do go ahead and hit that subscribe button leave a five star review I appreciate it from the bottom of my heart. I told you already if you didn't leave a review All you gotta do is leave a review, and then when I bring it up in the middle of the episode, you have to go, Oh my gosh, he already mentioned this, and I haven't done it yet, and now you have that little feeling in the stomach that just makes you feel like, Ah, man, I should have done that already. And now I don't feel good. But you can feel good right now! I'm giving you the opportunity, I for give you all you got to do is hit that subscribe button and leave a five star review. All right, then next time we're sitting here talking and you're going to be like, hearing me talk about five star reviews and you're just every time from then on, you're going to get a dopamine hit because you're like, yeah, bitch, I already did that. So go ahead and do it right now. Then you'll feel good. Every single time from here on out, knowing that you left a five star review. All right, that's what I got. Let's jump back into it. The very first thing that we're going to discuss today is some of the remarks that came from Benjamin Netanyahu as he delivered his remarks in Tel Aviv on 10 30, 2023, which is. Today. All right. So here it was his statement, some of which I was highly concerned about. I'm not sure we'll get to all of them, but I'm going to start this, uh, as he speaks in English for some of it and then transfers over. So let's listen to it right now. And if you are on YouTube, You'll be able to follow along as I just pulled up with you and you can watch it along with me. If you are listening on the podcast, great. I appreciate you. But also you can watch it. You can see my beautiful face. You can watch my crazy expressions. You can see it all. Just join the YouTube and subscribe there as well. All right. The Adams archive. Here we go. Here is what enabled us to move. Until recently, many believed. That the promise of progress in the 21st century would enable us to move beyond the barbaric horrors of the past towards a better and brilliant future. Many believe that we could go about our comfortable lives and that evil will simply pass us by. It will not. The horrors that Hamas perpetrated on October 7th remind us that That we will not realize the promise of a better future unless we, the civilized world, are willing to fight the barbarians. Because the barbarians are willing to fight us. And their goal is clear. Shatter that promising future. Destroy all that we cherish. And usher in a world of fear and darkness. Ladies and gentlemen, this is a turning point. A turning point for leaders and nations. It is time for all of us to decide if we are willing to fight for a future of hope and promise. Or surrender to tyranny and terror. Now rest assured, Israel will fight. Since October 7th, Israel has been at war. Israel did not start this war. Israel did not want this war. But Israel will win this war. Hamas launched this war by perpetrating the worst savagery our people have seen since the Holocaust. Hamas murdered children in front of their parents. Murdered parents in front of their children. They burned people alive. They raped women. They beheaded men. They tortured Holocaust survivors. They kidnapped babies. They committed the most horrific crimes imaginable. Now I, one thing I'd like to point out, and this doesn't take away from and detract from anything that he just said that was horrible. Obviously, everything you just talked about was horrible. But something that was the most egregious act that every single person was unbelievably disgusted by in this war was the idea that there was And it hurts just to say the words. But there was the idea that there was 40 or whatever, there was 44 or whatever number they threw out. It was something like that. 44 babies that were beheaded. He specifically just used the word beheaded, but did not say babies. If there was babies that were beheaded, and again, I just like, Oh, it crushes my soul to even have those words around each other. But if that was the case, don't you think he would have just said it? Like, all the propaganda that we're seeing come out about this and like, all the emotional strings that they're trying to pull with this propaganda, like, if that was the case, he absolutely 100 percent would have just stated that, that was a fact. But it didn't. You want to know why? Because it's unfounded claims. Something that they cannot validate. Something without the ability, and he hasn't the whole time because he knew that it wasn't something that was founded in fact. It wasn't something that they could. Come out and say to be true because, and again, from my standpoint and from every, the standpoint of the, you know, the same, um, uh, news organizations who called it wrong on that hospital in Gaza. called it wrong on this, right? If that was the case, they, he would have absolutely 100 percent said it because it's true. And they know, and it's one of the most egregious things that they could point to and say, they did that to our people. And here's why you should support us. But he can't do that because it was not factual. Transcribed by https: otter. ai And again, that's not to support Hamas. It's just saying that that wasn't the truth and that was propaganda. And you need to don't to know when you're looking at anything in this war, that there's such a, such a fog around every single statement that made is like, it's either big enough to make headlines and you find out it wasn't true 48 hours later, or it's not big enough to make the largest of headlines and nobody remembers it the next day. Like that's just. how it generally has played out. Right. But the 7, 000 people, and we'll get to that in a minute, 7, 400 or so people that it, that Palestine has said, including women and children and everything, like all of this is just horrible. Right? So when he's sitting here saying, Oh, we're the good guys. And like, he'll get to that. Biblical conversation here in just a second where he says, we're the good guys and they're the bad guys and there's right and there's wrong. And we're the good ones who get to murder in the name of rightness, righteousness. And, and they're the bad people who murder in the name of, you know, badness. It's like. Anytime somebody tries to sell you the idea of good versus bad without a nuanced conversation between what went wrong between the two groups like, yeah, there's inherently bad people for sure and we know that, but very much more often than not, it's a much more deep conversation to be had and maybe that's not something as a culture that we've been ready to discuss for a very long time. There's always been good guys and there's always been bad guys, right? Right. But in the, in this case, it's like, yeah, you are bombing children and women too. If you go look at some of the footage that is coming out. It's not like, and, and the only reason that I have to say this is because the, the propaganda machine is propping up Israel unbelievably. Right. Like if they were saying, oh, Hamas did it. All right? Hamas is the good guys. Hamas this, Hamas that like support Hamas, like I would be condemning them consistently too. And I do condemn the acts that they've taken. But they're not the ones in the mainstream media that they're propping up with, you know, this type of propaganda campaign. So I, it goes without saying that what they're doing is wrong, right? And what Israel is doing is wrong is being sugar coated as fucking unicorn f Farts. Like, it's like, Oh, I know we did that wrong thing, but everything that we do is in the name of righteousness. It's like, no, it's not. No, it's not. You're bombing children. And actually, like they have called to bomb hospitals at certain points. They're like, Oh, they're hiding their stuff in hospitals. If you don't evacuate, we will bomb you. It's like, Okay, no, that's not how the Geneva Convention works. You don't just get to bomb whoever you want, whenever you want, because there's allegedly weapons or people within there that are persons of interest. You just can't do that. I want you to find any single situation where the U. S. bombed a mosque or bombed a hospital or bombed an elementary school. You can't find it because we followed the Geneva Convention, right? But Israel is not doing that. So let's continue listening to what he has to say. And they're part of the axis of evil that Iran has formed. An axis of terror that works by arming, training, and financing Hamas in Gaza. All right. Now listen to this. I'll go back a minute just so you can hear that from the very beginning, but we talked about this with Iran, right? When, when we bomb, I ran back groups. We're not bombing. I ran back groups. We're sending a message to Iran, right? We didn't bomb Hamas because that would have caused this just crazy domino effect of large superpowers coming in. But what we did do was a strategic message to Iran saying, stop it, right? Even the, the, the message from Kamala Harris to Palestine and Hamas, she literally gets on the camera and goes, don't. They asked her in an interview, and I should pull it up here, but, um, I did, I didn't have it ready to go, but it says they asked, they asked Kamala Harris, what is your message to Hamas and to, or I'm sorry, they asked Kamala Harris, what is your message to Iran? And she said, don't. That was her message because they know the likelihood of them retaliating against us when we. Do offensive attacks against their backed militias is high because they know the message that they just sent to Iran. So they look back at Iran and go, you better not jump in while I beat the shit out of your friend here. You better not jump in because if you do, then we're going to war too. Don't. Right. So Kamala Harris sent a clear message to Iran. This is nothing but a message to Iran. This was not a message to whatever obscure terrorist organization that sent a drone to our, our military, uh, uh, operating bases and, and hurt 24 people and I say hurt because they were at work the next three days after and the only person who really got hurt had a, uh, a heart issue that likely stemmed from some sort of vaccine and not the drone attacks that drone attacks don't cause heart attacks. Right? So it's like I want you to pay attention to his next statement, which is a statement to Iran. Just as the question to Kamala Harris is not, what is your statement to these militias? It was, what is your statement to Iran? Just as we talked about. Here we go. And they're part of the axis of evil that Iran has formed, an axis of terror that works by arming, training and financing Hamas in Gaza, Hezbollah in Lebanon, the Houthis in Yemen and other terror proxies throughout the Middle East and beyond the Middle East. In fighting Hamas and the Iranian Axis of Terror, Israel is fighting the enemies of civilization itself. Victory over these enemies begins with moral clarity. It begins with knowing the difference between good and evil, between right and wrong. There you have it. It means making a moral distinction between the deliberate murder of the innocent And the unintentional casualties that accompany every legitimate war, even the most just war. So there you have it. He just said the intentional deaths of, what did he say? Let's just go listen to his own words. Netanyahu just said the thing out loud that when they kill civilians, they're the bad people. But when we do it, it's just a casualty of war. Don't blame us. Blame them. Company every year of the year. He's making a moral distinction between the deliberate murder of the innocent And the unintentional ca casualties that accompany every legitimate war, even the most just war. It means holding Hamas responsible. They are trying to gaslight us into thinking that civilian casualties, the death of women and children should be normalized in the name of what's right and what's wrong. When they kill, when, when, when they kill. Women and children, they're the bad people. But when we do it, it's just a casualty of war. Don't mind us. Definitely don't condemn us. We're the good guys. Guess what? Good guys don't kill women and children. Good guys don't level entire cities. Good guys don't don't destroy entire Entire cities filled with non violent individuals, right? When they do it, they're the bad guys. But, you know, people make a moral distinction between when they deliberately target civilians and when we deliberately target civilians and also maybe kill some bad guys, quote unquote. Jeez. And the unintentional casual I'm just going to play that for you one more time. Between right and wrong. It means making a moral distinction between the deliberate murder of the innocent and the unintentional casualties that accompany every legitimate war, even the most just war. It means holding Hamas responsible for the double war crime it commits every day by deliberately targeting Israeli civilians while deliberately using Palestinian civilians as human shields. It means making clear The use of human shields is not only an immoral tactic of terror, but also an ineffective one because as long as Hamas' use of Palestinian human shields result in the international community blaming Israel, Hamas will continue to use it as a tool of terror and so will others. So when they use their human shields and we shoot women and children, whether you saw it or didn't see it. Right? It's like, that's something I remember about the Iraq war, and the war in Afghanistan, and ISIS, and like, there was always the human shield element. Right? Like, how many instances were people actually using human shields? We don't know. It's just a narrative. It's just something that's spoken that goes, they're the bad guys, and we're the good guys, and they use human shields, and we don't, and when they target women and children, they're doing it for bad reasons, and when we do it, we're doing it for good reasons. I just, anybody who's on this train of Israel is just so baffling to me, and I'm not on the train of anybody, by the way, I'll keep reiterating that. There's no good train here guys. It's all bad. It's all bad. Now whether or not the acts on October 7th, right, they're trying to make into their 9 11 whether or not that which is the the EDM concert that the the Hamas state or the the terrorists went into and killed all those people whether that that was You know, there's still questions around that because there's people who say that they knew there's questions about people who said that they were informed about this just weeks ahead of time, days ahead of time, consistently over and over again by Egyptian intelligence officers. So it's like, okay, but maybe they were just waiting for a reason, and who's to say they didn't let this happen, and who's to say they didn't make it happen in order to conduct this attack on Gaza and retake over this land for this holy war, quote unquote, that they said they've deserved for thousands of years. Hamas will continue to use the basements in Gaza's hospitals as the command posts of its vast terror tunnel network. It will continue to use mosques as fortified military positions and weapon depots. It will continue to steal fuel and humanitarian assistance from UN facilities. While Israel is doing everything to get Palestinian civilians out of harm's way, Hamas is doing everything to keep Palestinian civilians in harm's way. Israel urges Palestinian civilians to leave the areas of armed conflict. While Hamas prevents those civilians from leaving those areas. Hamas is also preventing foreign nationals from leaving Gaza altogether. And most despicably, Hamas is holding over 200 Israeli hostages, including 33 children. Holding them, terrorizing them, keeping them as hostages. Every civilized nation should stand with Israel in demanding that these hostages be freed immediately and freed unconditionally. I want to make clear Israel's position regarding a ceasefire. Just as the United States would not agree to a ceasefire after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, or after the terrorist attack of 9 11, Israel will not agree to a cessation of hostilities with Hamas after the horrific attacks of October 7th. Calls for a ceasefire are calls for Israel to surrender to Hamas, to surrender to terrorism, to surrender to barbarism. That will not happen. Ladies and gentlemen, the Bible says that there is a time for peace and a time for war. This is a time for war. A war for our common future. Today we draw a line between the forces of civilization and the forces of barbarism. It is a time for everyone to decide where they stand. Israel will stand against the forces of barbarism until victory. I hope and pray that civilized nations everywhere will back this fight. Because Israel's fight is your fight. Because if Hamas and Iran's axis of evil win, you will be their next target. That's why Israel's victory will be your victory. But make no mistake, regardless of who stands with Israel, Israel will fight until this battle is won. And Israel will prevail. May God bless Israel, and may God bless all those who stand with Israel. No, thank you, sir. Let's go back and listen to a couple of those closing statements, which is that our fight is your fight. Regardless of who stands with Israel, Israel will fight until this battle is won. Iran's axis of evil win. You will be their next target. We'll back this fight. Because Israel's fight is your fight. Because if Hamas and Iran's Axis of Evil win, you will be their next target. Excuse me, sir. Israel's fight is not my fight. Israel's fight is not my children's fight. Israel's fight is not my friend's fight. Israel's fight is Israel's fight. Israel is 7, 000 miles away from the United States. Israel is its own nation with its own capable military with the most advanced. Uh, the most advanced, one of the most advanced militaries and intelligence organizations in the world. Why in the hell would you need my money? Or my son's blood? Or my blood? I'm fighting age, still. No thank you, I'm not fighting your war, send your son. Oh, but wait, you won't send your son, your son sitting at a beach in Miami because of the 350, 000 reservists that you just recalled of the men across the globe that are from Israel. You forgot your own son, the coward sitting here in the United States today who won't go and fight your war for you just as much as you don't believe it. And he doesn't believe it. Because if you were going to believe in this war, if you were going to truly believe in this fight, go send your son to do it. You're not going to send mine. You're not going to send me. Especially if you're not going to send your own son. And that's a fact. Let's pull this up here, which is the fact that during the same exact time that he's talking about this here, during the same exact time here, which is an article from the Daily Mail states, where is Netanyahu's son, Israeli soldiers blast Benjamin Netanyahu's son, Yair, 32, for abandoning them by staying in Miami. While 360, 000 reservists are called up to fight against Hamas. But you sell me. You tell my family members. You tell my friends that your war is our war. And that we should go fight it for you. But you won't send your own son. That's disgusting. You believe in your war? Send your son. Send yourself. Don't send mine. Don't spend my tax dollars. Don't spend my son's blood. Don't send, spend my blood on your war. You, you decided to engage in this conflict. You of 140 countries decided that a ceasefire wasn't worth it. So why would I send my son? Why would I sell and send myself? To a war that you're not even willing to sacrifice. You're not even willing to send your own son to fight. Here's what the article says. The son of Israel's Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has been blasted for staying in Miami while reservists returned home to fight Hamas. Yair Netanyahu, 32 years old, has been in Florida since last April after his father told him to stop making inflammatory posts on social media, which saw him sued for defamation multiple times. Meanwhile, an unprecedented 360, 000 reservists have been called up, many of them dropping everything to fly back to Israel, even abandoning honeymoons. And there's some links on there, but yeah, a year has remained in Miami. To the irritation of many troops, Yair is enjoying his life at Miami Beach while I'm on the front lines, one soldier, a volunteer, serving on Israel's northern front, told the Times. It's us who are leaving our work, our families, our kids, to protect our families back home, in the country, not the people who are responsible for the situation. Our brothers, our fathers, sons are all going to the front line, but Yair is still not here. It does not help build

Veteran politician takes the top job in Nauru

Schools in Vanuatu grapple with damages and disruptions in the aftermath of Lola; Cyclone Lola: Tikopia in urgent need for food and medical supplies; David Adeang becomes Nauru's fourth president in the past four years; Pasifika health leader opens up about living with breast cancer

This is Garrison Hardie with your CrossPolitic Daily News Brief for Tuesday, October 31st, 2023. Happy reformation day everyone! Pub Membership Plug Elevate your cultural and political conversations with CrossPolitic's Pub Memberships! Join our passionate community of thinkers, debaters, and action-takers. Gain exclusive access to premium content, live events, and engaging discussions on faith, politics, and culture. Become a CrossPolitic Pub Member today! For more information, head on over to fightlaughfeast.com to join our rowdy pub - that’s fightlaughfeast.com We start off with world news today… https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/policy/defense-national-security/iran-proxies-strikes-against-us-troops-middle-east-israel Iranian proxies continue attacks against US troops in Middle East following US strikes Iranian proxy forces have continued conducting attacks against U.S. troops in Syria and Iraq following last week's U.S. strikes against two facilities linked to Iranian forces in Syria. From Oct. 17 to Oct. 30, U.S. and coalition forces have been attacked at least 14 times at al Asad Air Base in Iraq and nine times at al Tanf garrison in Syria via a mix of one-way attack drones and rockets for a total of 23 attacks to date, a senior defense official told reporters on Monday. The total demonstrated an increase from late last week. "Many of these attacks were successfully disrupted by our military," the official said. "Most failed to reach their targets thanks to our robust defenses." The U.S. military in eastern Syria targeted two facilities used by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps last Thursday. “The President has no higher priority than the safety of U.S. personnel, and he directed today’s action to make clear that the United States will not tolerate such attacks and will defend itself, its personnel, and its interests,” Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin said in a statement. One of the facilities the U.S. targeted was a "weapons storage area," while the other was "an ammunition storage area," according to a senior military official. Twenty-one U.S. service members were injured, albeit not severely, at the two air bases between Oct. 17 and Oct. 18. A U.S. contractor died after suffering cardiac arrest when an early warning system detected another possible threat, leading to people scrambling for shelter. U.S. leaders, President Joe Biden included, have urged Iran not to escalate or involve itself with Israel's war with Hamas. Hamas, which is a U.S.-designated Iran-supported terrorist organization based in Gaza, carried out an unprecedented terrorist attack on Oct. 7 that killed roughly 1,400 people, the vast majority of whom were civilians. The carnage included families being butchered, civilians burned alive, torture, sexual violence, and more. Iran has forcefully spoken out against Israel's military response in Gaza, threatening to get involved in the conflict. The Iranian Foreign Minister spoke in New York at the United Nations last week, where he warned the U.S. of "uncontrollable consequences" regarding its support for Israel. Biden has reinforced the country's presence in the Middle East to attempt to deter Iranian aggression, though the continued attacks indicate that their bolstered presence may not be having the impact the president had hoped. https://redstate.com/nick-arama/2023/10/29/lynch-mob-storms-airport-in-russia-searching-for-jews-reportedly-arriving-from-tel-aviv-n2165671 'Lynch Mob' Storms Airport in Russia Searching for Jews Arriving From Tel Aviv There is some scary news coming out of Dagestan, Russia, right now. There was what reports have described as a "lynch mob" storming the airport in Dagestan and chanting "Allahu Akbar," waving Palestinian flags and looking for Jews who they believed had arrived on a plane from Tel Aviv, Israel. Dagestan is a Muslim area. There were also reports that the mob stopped police cars in front searching for Jews, as well as a bus full of children that they assumed were Israeli children. In videos shared on X, you can see them storm the terminal, and even make their way out onto the Tar-Mac, and demanded to know if any Jews were on planes on the Tar-Mac. The airport employee in the vest and green hat says there are no passengers on that plane. The mob started grilling people as to whether they were Jews and asking for passports. A poor gentleman in one of the videos insisted he wasn't Jewish—that he was Uzbek—but they didn't believe him and demanded that he show his passport. They were also allegedly looking for Jews in the cars around the airport and this footage allegedly shows them trying to flip a police car that dared to get in their way: According to Ria Novosti, the Ministry of Internal Affairs is warning the mob they are on video, that order will be established and they will be identified and "face criminal liability." The Jerusalem Post said that the plane they were looking for was diverted to another airport, but the rioters went there as well. According to N12, the pilots were warned of the mob and rerouted the plane to land at a nearby airport. The rioters reached that one as well. The flight staff ordered the locking of all aircraft exits, while security forces closed the area off. Russian aviation authority said all aircraft were diverted to other airports. A security source said that a small number of Israelis and Jews were secured in the airport, and were set to be evacuated to Moscow "at the earliest convenience." This is happening as antisemitism is on the rise in Russia, as evidenced by a Jewish cultural center that was set on fire in the neighboring republic of Nalchik and graffitied with the inscription "Death to the Jews." https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2023/10/29/czech-defence-minister-calls-for-country-to-leave-u-n-for-cheering-hamas-terrorists/ Czech Defence Minister Calls for Country to Leave U.N. for ‘Cheering’ Hamas Terrorists Czech Defence Minister Jana Černochová has called for her country to leave the United Nations in response to the international body’s failure to condemn Hamas terrorists for the slaughter of civilians in Israel on the October 7th attacks. This week, the United Nations General Assembly overwhelmingly voted to demand a “ceasefire” between Israel and Hamas as Jerusalem was preparing for its invasion of Gaza to root out the Islamist terror organisation. Just 14 nations opposed the measure, including Austria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Fiji, Guatemala, Hungary, Israel, the Marshall Islands, Micronesia, Nauru, Papua New Guinea, Paraguay, Tonga and the United States. Meanwhile, multiple attempts from the United States and others to pass a resolution to condemn the Hamas attacks were thwarted at the U.N. by China and Russia, who used their veto power as permanent members of the Security Council to block the condemnation of the terrorist group. Responding to the apparent anti-Israel bias at the U.N. on Saturday, Czech Defence Minister Jana Černochová said: “In my opinion, the Czech Republic has no place in an organisation that cheers on terrorists and does not respect the fundamental right to self-defence,” declaring: “Let’s get out.” “Exactly three weeks ago, Hamas murdered over 1,400 Israelis, more victims for their population than the militant Islamist organisation al-Qaeda murdered in the US on 9/11. And only 14 countries, including ours, have spoken out clearly and understandably against this unprecedented terrorist attack perpetrated by Hamas terrorists! I am ashamed of the U.N.,” Černochová continued. The Czech Defence Minister doubled down on her condemnations of the United Nations on Sunday, writing that the presence of hostile nations such as Iran and Russia, as well as states which violate human rights such as Afghanistan, North Korea and Syria, undermines the U.N. charter and therefore the very purpose of the institution itself. With China and Russia having a veto over expelling any nation from the international body, the process is meaningless, Černochová argued. “What is the use of an organisation that cannot use even the few principles and possibilities it has and cannot apply them without the consent of the dictators?” she questioned. The conservative politician said that if the U.N. is incapable of making reforms to be able to condemn terrorists or expel rogue nations “it has lost its role as a peacemaker”. Therefore, she said, the world needs “a new international organisation” based upon on “modern principles” such as the elimination of veto powers granted to dictatorships and the end of “sponsoring terrorists.” The Czech defence chief concluded by saying that she had “often wondered” about how the world refused to believe the horrors committed in concentration camps by Nazi Germany during World War II but said that perhaps “it wasn’t the case at all,” saying that rather than refusing to believe the atrocities “a part of society apparently wanted to get rid of the Jews.” “Anti-Semitism has spread deeply throughout the world, including the United Nations. They trust terrorists, but they don’t trust the country that has been protecting our Western civilisation’s ass for many years in the Middle East. Absurd world,” Černochová said. “It is completely incomprehensible to me that no one is calling for a fundamental reform of the organisation, which long ago turned from a peacemaker into a hammer against Israel.” https://www.theepochtimes.com/us/californias-gun-ban-allowed-to-continue-by-appeals-court-5518977?utm_source=partner&utm_campaign=BonginoReport California’s Gun Ban Allowed to Continue by Appeals Court A U.S. appeals court has allowed California’s ban on certain types of semi-automatic rifles, so-called assault weapons, to remain in effect, reversing an earlier lower court decision to stay the law. Semi-automatic rifles have been restricted in the state since 1989, with the law updated multiple times to keep the ban in effect. On Oct. 19, U.S. District Judge Roger Benitez in San Diego ruled that the ban was a violation of Second Amendment rights and issued an injunction that blocked its enforcement in the state. An appeal against the ruling was filed by California Attorney General Rob Bonta. On Oct. 28, a panel of three judges from the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals blocked the injunction issued by Judge Benitez, thereby allowing the weapon ban to take effect in the state. By a 2–1 majority, the 9th Circuit panel stayed the judge's order, citing the full appeals court's finding in a similar case that the attorney general was likely to succeed on the merits and had shown that “California would be irreparably harmed absent a stay.” Mr. Bonta, a Democrat who called Judge Benitez's decision “dangerous and misguided,” welcomed the Oct. 28 9th Circuit order. “Weapons of war do not belong on our streets,” Mr. Bonta said, pointing to the mass shooting on Oct. 25 in Lewiston, Maine, that claimed 18 lives and left 13 people wounded. In 1989, California became the first U.S. state to ban semi-automatic rifles, acting in the wake of a school shooting that killed five children, then toughened the law the following year. Since then, California has restricted the manufacture, distribution, transportation, importation, sale, or possession of firearms that qualify under the law as “assault weapons.” Judge Benitez declared the same law unconstitutional in 2021. But the San Francisco-based 9th U.S. Circuit last year vacated his order and directed him to review the matter further. Judge Benitez, in September, also ruled California's ban on high-capacity ammunition magazines unconstitutional. But the 9th Circuit subsequently allowed that statute to remain in effect while the state appeals. In a post on Facebook, nonprofit civil rights advocate Firearms Policy Coalition (FPC) stated that even though the 9th Circuit has “temporarily blocked our District Court victory, [the] good news is that the State’s appeal has been expedited and it is likely that the merits panel, which hears the appeal, will be made up of different judges.” “Once all briefs are filed, it is possible that the merits panel may order additional oral arguments,” the group stated in the post. In the Oct. 19 ruling, Judge Benitez wrote that the U.S. Constitution made it clear that Americans have the right to decide what firearms they use for self-defense. He pointed out that the banned rifles use the same ammunition, perform the same functions, and fire at the same rate as rifles that haven't been prohibited. The legislators selected which firearms to ban based on how the guns looked, he wrote. “Falling back on an old, recycled justification, the State says that its ban should stand because a person can have as many other rifles, shotguns, and pistols as one wants,” Judge Benitez wrote in the ruling. "[However,] this is not the way American Constitutional rights work. It is not permissible for a state to ban some books simply because there are other books to read. “In their normal configurations, the so-called ‘assault weapons’ ... are modern firearms commonly owned by law-abiding citizens for lawful purposes across the nation.” California Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, had criticized Judge Benitez’s ruling, insisting that the judge is “hellbent on making it more dangerous for our kids to go to school, for families to go to the mall, or to attend a place of worship,” according to an Oct. 19 statement. The 9th Circuit’s ruling to allow California’s weapon ban to remain in effect comes as the Biden administration is pushing for stronger gun control regulations. Following the mass shooting in Maine that killed 18 people, President Biden said in an Oct. 26 statement that while his administration has “made progress on gun safety,” such measures are “simply not enough.”

This is Garrison Hardie with your CrossPolitic Daily News Brief for Tuesday, October 31st, 2023. Happy reformation day everyone! Pub Membership Plug Elevate your cultural and political conversations with CrossPolitic's Pub Memberships! Join our passionate community of thinkers, debaters, and action-takers. Gain exclusive access to premium content, live events, and engaging discussions on faith, politics, and culture. Become a CrossPolitic Pub Member today! For more information, head on over to fightlaughfeast.com to join our rowdy pub - that’s fightlaughfeast.com We start off with world news today… https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/policy/defense-national-security/iran-proxies-strikes-against-us-troops-middle-east-israel Iranian proxies continue attacks against US troops in Middle East following US strikes Iranian proxy forces have continued conducting attacks against U.S. troops in Syria and Iraq following last week's U.S. strikes against two facilities linked to Iranian forces in Syria. From Oct. 17 to Oct. 30, U.S. and coalition forces have been attacked at least 14 times at al Asad Air Base in Iraq and nine times at al Tanf garrison in Syria via a mix of one-way attack drones and rockets for a total of 23 attacks to date, a senior defense official told reporters on Monday. The total demonstrated an increase from late last week. "Many of these attacks were successfully disrupted by our military," the official said. "Most failed to reach their targets thanks to our robust defenses." The U.S. military in eastern Syria targeted two facilities used by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps last Thursday. “The President has no higher priority than the safety of U.S. personnel, and he directed today’s action to make clear that the United States will not tolerate such attacks and will defend itself, its personnel, and its interests,” Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin said in a statement. One of the facilities the U.S. targeted was a "weapons storage area," while the other was "an ammunition storage area," according to a senior military official. Twenty-one U.S. service members were injured, albeit not severely, at the two air bases between Oct. 17 and Oct. 18. A U.S. contractor died after suffering cardiac arrest when an early warning system detected another possible threat, leading to people scrambling for shelter. U.S. leaders, President Joe Biden included, have urged Iran not to escalate or involve itself with Israel's war with Hamas. Hamas, which is a U.S.-designated Iran-supported terrorist organization based in Gaza, carried out an unprecedented terrorist attack on Oct. 7 that killed roughly 1,400 people, the vast majority of whom were civilians. The carnage included families being butchered, civilians burned alive, torture, sexual violence, and more. Iran has forcefully spoken out against Israel's military response in Gaza, threatening to get involved in the conflict. The Iranian Foreign Minister spoke in New York at the United Nations last week, where he warned the U.S. of "uncontrollable consequences" regarding its support for Israel. Biden has reinforced the country's presence in the Middle East to attempt to deter Iranian aggression, though the continued attacks indicate that their bolstered presence may not be having the impact the president had hoped. https://redstate.com/nick-arama/2023/10/29/lynch-mob-storms-airport-in-russia-searching-for-jews-reportedly-arriving-from-tel-aviv-n2165671 'Lynch Mob' Storms Airport in Russia Searching for Jews Arriving From Tel Aviv There is some scary news coming out of Dagestan, Russia, right now. There was what reports have described as a "lynch mob" storming the airport in Dagestan and chanting "Allahu Akbar," waving Palestinian flags and looking for Jews who they believed had arrived on a plane from Tel Aviv, Israel. Dagestan is a Muslim area. There were also reports that the mob stopped police cars in front searching for Jews, as well as a bus full of children that they assumed were Israeli children. In videos shared on X, you can see them storm the terminal, and even make their way out onto the Tar-Mac, and demanded to know if any Jews were on planes on the Tar-Mac. The airport employee in the vest and green hat says there are no passengers on that plane. The mob started grilling people as to whether they were Jews and asking for passports. A poor gentleman in one of the videos insisted he wasn't Jewish—that he was Uzbek—but they didn't believe him and demanded that he show his passport. They were also allegedly looking for Jews in the cars around the airport and this footage allegedly shows them trying to flip a police car that dared to get in their way: According to Ria Novosti, the Ministry of Internal Affairs is warning the mob they are on video, that order will be established and they will be identified and "face criminal liability." The Jerusalem Post said that the plane they were looking for was diverted to another airport, but the rioters went there as well. According to N12, the pilots were warned of the mob and rerouted the plane to land at a nearby airport. The rioters reached that one as well. The flight staff ordered the locking of all aircraft exits, while security forces closed the area off. Russian aviation authority said all aircraft were diverted to other airports. A security source said that a small number of Israelis and Jews were secured in the airport, and were set to be evacuated to Moscow "at the earliest convenience." This is happening as antisemitism is on the rise in Russia, as evidenced by a Jewish cultural center that was set on fire in the neighboring republic of Nalchik and graffitied with the inscription "Death to the Jews." https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2023/10/29/czech-defence-minister-calls-for-country-to-leave-u-n-for-cheering-hamas-terrorists/ Czech Defence Minister Calls for Country to Leave U.N. for ‘Cheering’ Hamas Terrorists Czech Defence Minister Jana Černochová has called for her country to leave the United Nations in response to the international body’s failure to condemn Hamas terrorists for the slaughter of civilians in Israel on the October 7th attacks. This week, the United Nations General Assembly overwhelmingly voted to demand a “ceasefire” between Israel and Hamas as Jerusalem was preparing for its invasion of Gaza to root out the Islamist terror organisation. Just 14 nations opposed the measure, including Austria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Fiji, Guatemala, Hungary, Israel, the Marshall Islands, Micronesia, Nauru, Papua New Guinea, Paraguay, Tonga and the United States. Meanwhile, multiple attempts from the United States and others to pass a resolution to condemn the Hamas attacks were thwarted at the U.N. by China and Russia, who used their veto power as permanent members of the Security Council to block the condemnation of the terrorist group. Responding to the apparent anti-Israel bias at the U.N. on Saturday, Czech Defence Minister Jana Černochová said: “In my opinion, the Czech Republic has no place in an organisation that cheers on terrorists and does not respect the fundamental right to self-defence,” declaring: “Let’s get out.” “Exactly three weeks ago, Hamas murdered over 1,400 Israelis, more victims for their population than the militant Islamist organisation al-Qaeda murdered in the US on 9/11. And only 14 countries, including ours, have spoken out clearly and understandably against this unprecedented terrorist attack perpetrated by Hamas terrorists! I am ashamed of the U.N.,” Černochová continued. The Czech Defence Minister doubled down on her condemnations of the United Nations on Sunday, writing that the presence of hostile nations such as Iran and Russia, as well as states which violate human rights such as Afghanistan, North Korea and Syria, undermines the U.N. charter and therefore the very purpose of the institution itself. With China and Russia having a veto over expelling any nation from the international body, the process is meaningless, Černochová argued. “What is the use of an organisation that cannot use even the few principles and possibilities it has and cannot apply them without the consent of the dictators?” she questioned. The conservative politician said that if the U.N. is incapable of making reforms to be able to condemn terrorists or expel rogue nations “it has lost its role as a peacemaker”. Therefore, she said, the world needs “a new international organisation” based upon on “modern principles” such as the elimination of veto powers granted to dictatorships and the end of “sponsoring terrorists.” The Czech defence chief concluded by saying that she had “often wondered” about how the world refused to believe the horrors committed in concentration camps by Nazi Germany during World War II but said that perhaps “it wasn’t the case at all,” saying that rather than refusing to believe the atrocities “a part of society apparently wanted to get rid of the Jews.” “Anti-Semitism has spread deeply throughout the world, including the United Nations. They trust terrorists, but they don’t trust the country that has been protecting our Western civilisation’s ass for many years in the Middle East. Absurd world,” Černochová said. “It is completely incomprehensible to me that no one is calling for a fundamental reform of the organisation, which long ago turned from a peacemaker into a hammer against Israel.” https://www.theepochtimes.com/us/californias-gun-ban-allowed-to-continue-by-appeals-court-5518977?utm_source=partner&utm_campaign=BonginoReport California’s Gun Ban Allowed to Continue by Appeals Court A U.S. appeals court has allowed California’s ban on certain types of semi-automatic rifles, so-called assault weapons, to remain in effect, reversing an earlier lower court decision to stay the law. Semi-automatic rifles have been restricted in the state since 1989, with the law updated multiple times to keep the ban in effect. On Oct. 19, U.S. District Judge Roger Benitez in San Diego ruled that the ban was a violation of Second Amendment rights and issued an injunction that blocked its enforcement in the state. An appeal against the ruling was filed by California Attorney General Rob Bonta. On Oct. 28, a panel of three judges from the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals blocked the injunction issued by Judge Benitez, thereby allowing the weapon ban to take effect in the state. By a 2–1 majority, the 9th Circuit panel stayed the judge's order, citing the full appeals court's finding in a similar case that the attorney general was likely to succeed on the merits and had shown that “California would be irreparably harmed absent a stay.” Mr. Bonta, a Democrat who called Judge Benitez's decision “dangerous and misguided,” welcomed the Oct. 28 9th Circuit order. “Weapons of war do not belong on our streets,” Mr. Bonta said, pointing to the mass shooting on Oct. 25 in Lewiston, Maine, that claimed 18 lives and left 13 people wounded. In 1989, California became the first U.S. state to ban semi-automatic rifles, acting in the wake of a school shooting that killed five children, then toughened the law the following year. Since then, California has restricted the manufacture, distribution, transportation, importation, sale, or possession of firearms that qualify under the law as “assault weapons.” Judge Benitez declared the same law unconstitutional in 2021. But the San Francisco-based 9th U.S. Circuit last year vacated his order and directed him to review the matter further. Judge Benitez, in September, also ruled California's ban on high-capacity ammunition magazines unconstitutional. But the 9th Circuit subsequently allowed that statute to remain in effect while the state appeals. In a post on Facebook, nonprofit civil rights advocate Firearms Policy Coalition (FPC) stated that even though the 9th Circuit has “temporarily blocked our District Court victory, [the] good news is that the State’s appeal has been expedited and it is likely that the merits panel, which hears the appeal, will be made up of different judges.” “Once all briefs are filed, it is possible that the merits panel may order additional oral arguments,” the group stated in the post. In the Oct. 19 ruling, Judge Benitez wrote that the U.S. Constitution made it clear that Americans have the right to decide what firearms they use for self-defense. He pointed out that the banned rifles use the same ammunition, perform the same functions, and fire at the same rate as rifles that haven't been prohibited. The legislators selected which firearms to ban based on how the guns looked, he wrote. “Falling back on an old, recycled justification, the State says that its ban should stand because a person can have as many other rifles, shotguns, and pistols as one wants,” Judge Benitez wrote in the ruling. "[However,] this is not the way American Constitutional rights work. It is not permissible for a state to ban some books simply because there are other books to read. “In their normal configurations, the so-called ‘assault weapons’ ... are modern firearms commonly owned by law-abiding citizens for lawful purposes across the nation.” California Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, had criticized Judge Benitez’s ruling, insisting that the judge is “hellbent on making it more dangerous for our kids to go to school, for families to go to the mall, or to attend a place of worship,” according to an Oct. 19 statement. The 9th Circuit’s ruling to allow California’s weapon ban to remain in effect comes as the Biden administration is pushing for stronger gun control regulations. Following the mass shooting in Maine that killed 18 people, President Biden said in an Oct. 26 statement that while his administration has “made progress on gun safety,” such measures are “simply not enough.”

Pacific states voting against a UN resoltion for a ceasefire in Gaza has been called hypocritical; Last week's cyclone claims two lives in Vanuatu; Refugee advocate in Australia says Nauru's new president is the 'preferred choice'; New Cal pro-independence groups urges France to stop 'recolonising'

Refugee advocate says Nauru's new president is the 'preferred choice'.

Every day healthcare workers face a lot of stressful and emotionally challenging situations at work. Moreover the long drawn pandemic has had its impact on healthcare workers. Numerous deaths, making difficult choices due to resource constraints and overstretched days are some of the challenges that have affected health workers mentally and emotionally. With daily work demands being constant many of them are left with these issues unresolved. How then can we care for our caregivers who support the health and quality of life of their patients and their relatives? This is a taster of a program that uses large group learnings, small group sharing, peer-to-peer interactions and role-plays. This session will also provide an overview of the program that provides healthcare teams a platform to address their unaddressed pain, and emotional as well as psychological hurts Using a structured and sustained approach the program provides the supportive environment, caring community and appropriate skills for the healing of healthcare workers and equips them to go on to become better careers in the workplace. https://bit.ly/gmhc2022_mathewmulavelil_caringforthecaregiver