[Featured image: Pvt. Franklin E. Sigler – one of two Marines to earn the Medal of Honor on this date in 1945.]
1945: A Royal Air Force Avro Lancaster bomber drops the first “Grand Slam” bomb, targeting a railway viaduct in Schildesche, Germany. After being released, the 22,000-lb. earthquake bomb would reach near-supersonic speeds, then penetrate several feet into the ground, destroying hardened targets like submarine pens or ruining the foundation underneath bridges – similar to modern-day “bunker buster” bombs.
A Royal Air Force Avro Lancaster B Mark I of No. 617 Squadron releases a Grand Slam bomb over Arnsberg, Germany on March 15, 1945. (Imperial War Museum photo)
The Grand Slam is so big that it remained the most powerful conventional (non-nuclear) air-dropped bomb until the U.S. Air Force dropped the 21,000-lb. “Mother of All Bombs” in Afghanistan in 2017.
That same day on Iwo Jima, Pvt. Franklin E Sigler leads his squad on an assault against a Japanese machine gun nest that had been holding up his company for several days. Sigler reaches the position first and neutralizes it with grenades. As additional enemy troops begin firing from tunnels and caves near his location, he keeps pressing the attack. Despite his own painful wounds and heavy incoming fire, Sigler carries three of his wounded Marines to safety before returning to the fight.
Pvt. Sigler will be awarded the Medal of Honor for his actions, as will fellow Marine, Pvt. George Philips, who leapt on an enemy grenade to shield his comrades from the deadly blast – sacrificing his life.
1951: For the second time during the Korean War, United Nations forces recapture the South Korean capital of Seoul – this time under the command of U.S. Army Gen. Matthew B. Ridgway.
1965: U.S. and South Vietnamese forces launch the second bombing wave of Operation ROLLING THUNDER, targeting facilities on Tiger Island, off the North Vietnamese coast, and the ammunition depot at Phu Qui, 100 miles south of Hanoi.
Dr. Norman Thagard (former Capt., USMC) in his sleep station aboard the Core Module of Russia’s Mir Space Station. (NASA photo)
1995: Norman E. Thagard, a Marine fighter pilot that flew 163 combat missions during the Vietnam War before becoming an astronaut, blasts off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan becoming the first American cosmonaut. Capt. Thagard was a veteran of four Space Shuttle missions prior to his mission to the Soviet-built Mir Space Station.
