Adm Liitjens: lost with Bismarck, 1941
Eugen. Bismarck sank battlecruiser HMS Hood and damaged Battleship Prince of Wales, but was hunted down and sunk; Liitjens and most of his men were lost. CJWICD.
Liitzow. (1) German Derfflinger-class battlecruiser sunk at Jutland, 1916. (2) In 1940, the pocket battleship Deutschland was renamed Liitzow. In action off Norway (1940) and in the Barents Sea
(1942). Damaged in air raids and scuttled in 1945.
Luzon campaign (1945). Following the Leyte campaign, Gen MacAr-thur’s next step in the reconquest of the Philippines was the invasion of Luzon Island. Air bases to support the invasion were gained, December 15-20 1944, by unopposed amphibious landings on lightly-garrisoned Mindoro Island. In spite of US air superiority. Rear Adm Oldendorfs bombardment force suffered heavy kamikaze air attack, January 4-7 1945, en route from Leyte to Luzon.
On January 9 1945, some 68,000 men of I Corps (Maj Gen Innis Swift) and XIV Corps (Maj Gen Oscar Griswold), the vanguard of Lt Gen Krueger’s Sixth Army, were landed at Lingayen Gulf, western Luzon. Although Gen Yamashita deployed some 260,000 men of Fourteenth Area Army in defence of Luzon, he was ill-supplied and had few aircraft. He therefore did not oppose the landings, but deployed in three groups — Shobu Group, 152,000-strong, under Yamashita himself, in northern Luzon; Kembu Group (30,000 men; Maj Gen Rikichi Tsu-kada) defending the west-central airfields; Shimbu Group (80,000 men; Lt Gen Shizuo Yokoyama), northeast of Manila - hoping by prolonged resistance to delay the invasion of Japan.
By early February, aided by secondary landings by US Eighth Army (Lt Gen Eichelberger) on the southwest coast, US forces had secured the western airfields, driving the survivors of Kembu Group into the central highlands, isolated the Bataan Peninsula and were advancing on Manila from north and southwest. Yamashita’s order that Manila should not be defended was disobeyed by Iwabuchi, whose 19,000 troops waged a savage house-to-house battle, laying the city in ruins and killing some
100,000 civilians, until March 3, when they were wiped out.
In March-May a US offensive north of Manila - virtually des-
US troops advance on Luzon, Philippines
Troyed Shimbu Group and secured central Luzon, while to the south the Bicol Peninsula was cleared, April 1-14. Yamashita, with some
65,000 men, withdrew from his hq at Baguio (fell April 27) into the northern mountains, where his determined resistance tied up a considerable part of US Sixth Army until the war’s end. US losses on Luzon were around 8,000 killed and 33,000 wounded; Japanese dead exceeded 190,000. RO’N.
LVG CV (German, WWI). Two-seat reconnaissance. Prototype flew December 1916; by August 31 1917, 98 were with operational units. In service proved dependable and popular; progressively superseded by LVG C VI from June 1918. A few LVG C Vs used operationally by Polish units 1919—20. Production: total ordered 1,250, some delivered as C Vis. One 200/220hp Benz Bz IV/IVU engine; max. speed 103mph (166kph); two 7.92mm machine guns, 2501b (112kg) bombs.
Lyautey, Marshal Louis Hubert Gonzalve (1854-1934). Fr. Lyautey served in Algeria, Indochina and Madagascar (18801902). Sent as Resident-General to Morocco on its annexation in 1912, Lyautey successfully applied a policy of quadrillage: the pacification of a chosen zone, followed by outward extension (the tache d’huile, “oil stain”) of the pacified area, introducing economic and social reforms but respecting local institutions and customs. During World War I, he kept the peace in Morocco with minimum force, but his last proconsular years were shadowed by the Riffian War, 1921-26. Disliking Petain’s draconic measures against Abd el-Krim’s nationalists, he resigned in September 1925. RO'N.
Lynch, Lt Col Thomas J (1916-44). US. One of the leading usaaf fighter pilots in the Southwest Pacific, Lynch flew with the US 35th Fighter Group, scoring 20 victories before he was shot down off New Guinea in March 1944.
Lynx. Westland/Aerospatiale. General-purpose helicopter in service with AAC as Lynx AHl. Fitted with eight tow missiles in the anti-tank role, it can also be used as a battlefield troop lifter and general combat support aircraft. See also army air corps.
Lys, Battle of the see march
OFFENSIVE, GERMAN (l9is).
Lysander, Westland P8 (Br, WWII). Two-seat army-cooperation/special duties. Prototype flew June 15 1936; first deliveries to squadron June 1938. Fully slotted and flapped for slow flying and stol; 174 Lysanders went to France September 1939-May 1940. Some air-sea rescue work 1940—41, then supply and agent-dropping missions Occupied France. Production 1,652. One 870/890hp Bristol Mercury or 905hp Bristol Perseus engine; max. speed 230mph (368kph); three/four 0.303in machine guns, 5001b (225kg) bombs.
World History
