Talk:Battle of Alcatraz

"shelled by mortars" ?

I know nothing about this topic but I somehow doubt that the marines would have used "mortars", which produce relatively inaccurate plunging fire. Unless they were trying to reduce the building to rubble, that's not a good choice. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 72.129.71.68 (talk) 02:37, 8 September 2012 (UTC)

Halsey?

The "Takeover" section says, " Coy thus managed to spread the bars and squeeze through the widened gap (Coy starved himself in order to fit through the space between the widened bars, which was still relatively narrow) into the temporarily vacant gallery and to overpower and bind Halsey on his return." Who the heck is "Halsey"? Is that supposed to be "Burch"? IAmNitpicking (talk) 14:55, 2 August 2018 (UTC)

Comments

I had to find the plan of the cellhouse because I was under the impression there were 4 different buildings housing the inmates. Following the narrative with this plan, the series of events are simply less clear. And I am left with questions.

• In the section "Failed escape attempt" one paragraph begins "At about 18:00, a squad of armed officers entering the gun cage were shot at by the convicts." -- Is this "gun cage" the same as the gun galleries? Further, from the plan of the main cellhouse (which can be found at Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary), it appears that there were two gun galleries, one on the east side of the cellhouse & one on the west. It is unclear which was meant in different parts of the narrative.
• Again, looking at the plan of the cellhouse, it appears all of the cells open out into the main corridors -- which would deny them protection from attacks, yet somehow the rebellious prisoners were able to move around & return fire when authorities attempted to enter the cellhouse.
• It appears their munitions were very limited: a rifle, & maybe only one handgun. Maybe 20 rounds of ammunition total. Didn't the authorities suspect this, & when the rebellious run out of ammunition rush them?
• "When the last officer reached safety, the officers opened a massive barrage from machine guns, mortars, and grenades on the prisoners within D Block, where the prison authorities erroneously thought one of the armed convicts was holed up. They eventually figured out that the rebellious prisoners were confined to the main cellhouse and ceased their attack until further tactics were worked out." -- Uh, yes. All 4 cellbocks are within the main cellhouse, & none of the inmates could get out without the authorities consent. Was there another intended point to these sentences?
• What happened to the other, uninvolved, convicts both in cellblocks C & D, as well as A & B (which appear to be outside where the fighting transpired)? Did they just cower in their cells? Were there any casualties amongst them? At one point the Marines called to support the guards in recovering control of the cellhouse "drilled holes in the prison roof and dropped grenades into areas where they believed the convicts were to force them into a utility corridor where they could be cornered." I find it hard to accept none of the other convicts escaped injury during this.

That section needs to be expanded to better explain what happened. -- llywrch (talk) 18:17, 11 December 2020 (UTC)

One of the first statements is "Two Federal Bureau of Prisons officers—William A. Miller and Harold Stites—were killed (Miller by one of the inmates who attempted escape, Joseph Cretzer, and Stites by friendly fire)" The wording is confusing, as it seems to list 3 names for officers killed, but it was previously established that only two officers were killed.

Perhaps the wording in the brackets should read something like (Miller by Joseph Cretzer, one of the inmates who attempted escape, and Stites by friendly fire) 2601:CF:300:4B70:A4FA:D111:63EC:B22D (talk) 21:01, 27 December 2021 (UTC)