On December 7, 1941 USS Maryland was moored inboard of USS Oklahoma. The ship’s guns responded to the attack almost immediately. From their vantage point, the men witnessed the attacks that critically damaged Maryland’s sisters along battleship row, and faced attacks so fierce that the Japanese reported her sunk. They were wrong, and the “fighting Mary” would come back to haunt the empire of the rising sun, and feel the fury of the dreaded Kamikazes.
By September of 1944, the Western Allies had broken out of the Normandy beachehead, and suddenly and quickly moved across northern France . By September 7th, the 90th division was stretched across the northern sector on Patton’s Third Army’s left, advancing slowly northeast. As they did so the German defenders made a risky attack in an effort to spoil the allied advance, cutting through Allied lines in a surprise action at the small town of Mairy-Mannville.