Ostensibly exploring the practice of law before the internet. Heck, before good highways for that matter.
Sunday, February 25, 2024
Monday, February 25, 1924. One life. Who was "Miss Anne O'Connell"?
Thursday, January 25, 2024
Tuesday, January 25, 1944. Shaggy Ridge.
The Australian Army captured Shaggy Ridge in New Guinea.
From Sarah Sundin's blog:
Today in World War II History—January 25, 1944: Soviets surround 60,000 German troops in Korsun-Cherkassy pocket in Ukraine. US II Corps successfully crosses the Rapido River north of Cassino in Italy.
The USS Ponape sank the destroyer Suzukaze
Parts of the world experienced an eclipse.
Friday, November 24, 2023
Wednesday, November 24, 1943. The sinking of the Liscome Bay.
The USS Liscome Bay was torpedoed at 05:10 by the Japanese submarine I-175. 644 men were killed in the initial explosion or the rapid 23 minute sinking. The aircraft carrier had been supporting the landings on Makin Island in the Gilberts. The losses due to the attack far outstripped the US losses in the ground operation.
Most of the naval task force supporting the landing had withdrawn, as the operation had successfully completed, but the Liscome Bay had remained in support of ongoing operations. Japanese submarines had been rushed to the area, withdrawn from other areas of the Pacific, in a near panic by the Japanese Navy, which had been caught off guard by the landings. Included amongst those losses were the commander of the ship and Navy Cross winner Doris Miller. It was the deadliest attack on an aircraft carrier in the history of the U.S. Navy.
The shock of Tarawa and Makin was in part because the US had simply chosen to leap up into the Central Pacific without completing operations in the Southern Pacific. Indeed, operations on Bougainville, where the Japanese mounted a small counter-attack on this day, never concluded.
In San Francisco, Leopold Stokowski conducted an all-Russian concert with the San Francisco Symphony.
Saturday, October 21, 2023
Wednesday, October 21, 1943. Indian declaration.
The Provisional Government of Azad Hind ("Free India") was declared with Subhas Chandra as president. Its territory, such as it was, were those portions of Indian occupied by Japan.
It immediately declared it was entering the war on the Japanese side, an example of really not grasping the direction things were headed in, and in fact already well advanced towards.
On the same day, Japan began drafting high school and university students.
The Germans began liquidating the Minsk Ghetto as they were retreating from Belarus.
The RAF made a highly destructive raid on Kassel.
Algerian Jews, 140,000 in number were restored French citizenship, which had been restricted, along with the same for Algerian Arabs, on March 17, 1942 by Gen. Henri Giraud. Arabs had to apply for restoration of their French citizenship.
Saturday, October 7, 2023
October 7, 1943. Murder
The Germans murdered 1,313 Jewish former residents of the Bialystok Ghetto at Auschwitz. Most of them were children. Bialystok's ghetto had seen a failed uprising.
Over 100 people, mostly Italian civilians, were killed when a bomb planted by the Germans went off at the post office in Naples.
The Japanese murdered 97 American civilians who had been held on Wake Island under the orders of Japanese naval commander Shigematsu Sakaibara (酒井原 繁松). He'd be sentenced to death for the event after the war.
Sakaibara believed an American landing was imminent, which would not justify in any fashion the murders. It was, however, what led him to give the order. After at first denying the murders had occured, he would ultimately confess to them and express regret, but also maintain that the Allies had no authority to try him and that his sentence was unjust following the American use of nuclear weapons.
The New Georgia Campaign came to an end with an Allied victory.
Lassie Come Home, the first Lassie film, was released.
Sunday, October 1, 2023
Friday, October 1, 1943. The Germans depart, and destroy, Naples.
The U.S. 5th Army entered Naples. The Germans burned the University of Naples and the Teatro di San Carlo on the way out.
Today in World War II History—October 1, 1943: In Italy, US Fifth Army and British X Corps enter Naples. US Third War Loan Drive ends, raising $19 billion (quota $15 billion).
W. Averll Harriman was named Ambassador to the USSR
Monday, September 18, 2023
Saturday, September 18, 1943. German evacuations and atrocities.
The Germans executed Plan Asche, evacuating 25,800 German troops from Sardinia to Corsica.
This yielded the island's important airfields to the Allies.
The Germans began mass deportation of Jews from Paris and the liquidation of Jews in Minsk commenced.
The British occupied the Aegean islands of Simi, Stampalia and Icaria.
The Red Army took Soviet forces capture Priluki, Lubny and Romodan Pavlograd, Krasnograd, Pologi and Nogaysk.
Sarah Sundin, on her blog, notes:
Today in World War II History—September 18, 1943: US opens Central Pacific offensive as Seventh Air Force Navy Task Force 15 aircraft begin bombing Tarawa, Makin, and Apemama in the Gilbert Islands.
Thursday, September 7, 2023
Tuesday, September 7, 1943. Verbrannte Erde
Heinrich Himmler issued his "scorched earth" order requiring that German forces completely denude areas in the East they were retreating from in every sense.
Scorched early orders are surprisingly common in warfare, and are designed to prevent an advancing army from using a conquered area's resources. More than most armies of World War Two, both the Germans and the Soviets depended on local resources. For some areas in the East this would be the second time they'd been subjected to this during the war, as the Soviets also practiced it, and for Ukraine, it was part of an ongoing series of disasters afflicting residents of the region.
Sarah Sundin notes for this day:
Today in World War II History—September 7, 1943: German 17th Army begins evacuating the Kuban bridgehead in southern Russia as the Soviets advance. Actor Orson Welles marries actress Rita Hayworth.
I honestly didn't know that Welles and Hayworth had ever been married.
Saturday, August 26, 2023
Thursday, August 26, 1943. War bond baseball.
The event also featured entertainment from James Cagney, Ethel Merman, Cab Calloway, Milton Berle, Joe E. Lewis, Carole Landis and Ralph Bellamy.
Babe Ruth hit his last home run during the game, more of which can be read about here:
1943 All Pacific Recreation Fund – Service All-Stars vs Los Angeles & Hollywood
The 800 million dollars was equivalent to over 10.7 billion dollars in current funds.
The Germans occupied the Alpine passes with Italy in anticipation of the Italians surrendering.
The USSR recognized Egypt.
The US, Canada and British governments give limited recognition to the Free French Committee of National Liberation.
Tuesday, August 22, 2023
Sunday, August 22, 1943. Gertie from Berlin.
Sarah Sundin reports, on her blog:
Today in World War II History—August 22, 1943: German 10th Army is activated in southern Italy under Gen. Heinrich von Vietinghoff.
In the Mediterranean, all fighter groups and medium bomb groups in the US Ninth Air Force are transferred to the Twelfth Air Force.
The Germans began to withdraw from Kharkiv to avoid encirclement.
Andrei Gromyko was named Ambassador to the United States, replacing Maxim Litvinov who had returned to the Soviet Union under Stalin's orders in May. Gromyko was Belarusian.
US forces occupied islands in the Gilbert and Ellice Islands including Nukufetau and Namumea without opposition.
George S. Patton thanked the troops of his Army for their efforts in Sicily, noting:
As a result of this combined effort, you have killed or captured 113,350 enemy troops. You have destroyed 265 of his tanks, 2324 vehicles, and 1162 large guns, and, in addition, have collected a mass of military booty running into hundreds of tons.
English language German radio propagandist "Gertie from Berlin" was revealed to be Gertrude Hahn, a native of Pittsburgh who had gone to Germany in 1938 when her family returned to their native country.
The United Islamic Society of America formed in Newark, New Jersey.
Monday, August 21, 2023
Saturday, August 21, 1943: Bob Hope and Patton.
John Curtin, Prime Minister of Australia, retained his position as the Australian Labor Party took 49 of 74 seats in the Australian House of Representatives and 19 out of 36 in the Australian Senate.
Australian troops on New Guinea took Komiatum, southwest of Salamaua.
Frankly Roosevelt and McKenzie King announced that U.S. and Canadian forces had retaken Kiska.
The recapture effectively put the continental United States and the Canadian provinces out of reach of Imperial Japanese forces.
Hal Block, Bob Hope, Barney Dean, Frances Langford and Tony Romano met General George S. Patton at a USO show in Sicily at which Patton asked Hope to tell his radio audience “that I love my men", perhaps hoping to counter the bad publicity that the slapping incident had caused.
You didn't see that in Patton.
From Sarah Sundin's blog:
Today in World War II History—August 21, 1943: First “UT” convoy sails from New York, heavily escorted convoys carrying troops to England in build-up for Operation Overlord (D-day).
Friday, August 18, 2023
Wednesday, August 18, 1943. Air Space.
President Roosevelt, via Executive Order, revoked deferments for striking defense plant workers.
The RAF hit Peenemünde with three waves of bombers in Operation Hydra. Damage was so extensive that Luftwaffe General Jeschonnek, charged with defense of the Reich's airspace and well ware of his failings in that regard, and further having an inwardly timid personalty masked by a harden affectation, killed himself the following day, leaving a note that stated; „Mit dem Reichsmarschall kann ich nicht mehr zusammenarbeiten. Es lebe der Führer!“ ("I can no longer work together with the Reichsmarschall. Long live the Führer!"). He left a further note excluding Ulrich Dieseing and Bernd von Brauchitsche from his funeral. A memorandum he left called upon Hitler to change leadership in the Luftwaffe, but was confiscated by Göring.
Ultimately, in some way, Jeschonnek was a victim of his personality, knowing internally that the air war was lost, but lacking the will to do something about it.
Sarah Sundin noted Jeschonnek's fate on her blog, and also noted the following:
Today in World War II History—August 18, 1943: Army Air Force barrage balloon battalions are inactivated in the US. Betty Smith’s bestselling novel A Tree Grows in Brooklyn is published.
The U.S. Navy bombarded Palmi and Gioai Taura in Italy.
The Allies prevailed in the Battle of Mount Tambu.
46,000 mostly Jewish Greeks arrived at Auschwitz.
Sunday, August 13, 2023
Friday, August 13, 1943. Resumption of bombing of Italy.
A two week Allied hiatus of bombing of Italian targets came to an end. Milan and Turin were struck by the RAF, which also struck Berlin for the first time since May 21. U.S. bombers began a heavier attack on Rome and a precision bombing attack on Italian rail yards at San Lorenzo and Vittorio. The US bombed an Austrian target for the first time.
Fr. Jakob Gapp, age 46, was executed by the Germans.
Fr. Gapp was an Austrian with outspoken anti-Nazi views and had gone into exile, first in France and then in Spain, as a result. He'd been kidnapped by German agents posing as refugees needing help to cross the Spanish border and sentenced to death. He was beatified on November 24, 1996.
In Natrona County, the high was 87.4 F and the low 52.3F.
Tuesday, August 8, 2023
Wednesday, August 2, 2023
Friday, July 28, 2023
Wednesday, July 28, 1943. Addressing Italy.
Gen. Dwight Eisenhower made a radio broadcast to now non Fascist, but not democratic, Italy, stating:
You can have peace immediately, and peace under the honorable conditions which our governments have already offered you," said Eisenhower. "We are coming to you as liberators ... As you have already seen in Sicily, our occupation will be mild and beneficient ... The ancient liberties and traditions of your country will be restored.
Franklin Roosevelt also addressed the American population on the Italian surrender in a fireside chat, stating:
We have started to make good on that promise.
The least to which they are entitled, it seems to me, is something like this:
And finally (6.), sufficient pensions for disabled members of the armed forces.
Of course, both extremes -- of optimism and pessimism -- are wrong.
"Are you working full time on your job?"
"Are you growing all the food you can?"
"Are you buying your limit of war bonds?"
"Because -- if your answer is 'No' -- then the war is going to last a lot longer than you think.
Over 30,000 residents of Hamburg were killed on the RAF night raid on Hamburg, which we already noted yesterday.
British Communist Party member Douglas Springhill was sentenced to seven years in prison for something akin to espionage. The presiding judge was careful not to suggest the Soviet Union as the client.
President Roosevelt ended the rationing of coffee.
Ingvar Kamprad, age 17, formed IKEA.
Addendum:
Shoot, I missed some big ones today that Sarah Sundin caught.
Today in World War II History—July 28, 1943
Palermo's harbor opened up for Allied shipping.
P-47s escorted US bombers all the way to Germany and back, the first time they'd done so and the first time Allied fighters had done so. Drop tanks made that possible.
Saturday, July 1, 2023
Sunday, July 1, 1923. Chinese exclusion and untimely death.
For those who may have followed yesterday's drama about a policeman (actually sheriff's officer) shooting into a car that refused to dim its headlights, the story plays out today:
The Chinese Immigration Act, which we posted about earlier, and which banned Chinese immigrants from entering Canada, save for a few exceptions, came into effect.
A Rin Tin Tin movie was released.
Saturday, June 17, 2023
Sunday, June 17, 1923. Dry Sunday
The Irish Free State saw its pubs swamped with visitors as Northern Ireland experienced its first "Dry Sunday", a day brought about due to a new law in Ulster.
Northern Ireland, reflecting its Presbyterian heritage, had a particularly notable set of Blue Laws. Soccer was banned on Sundays prior to 2008. Public playgrounds were closed on Sundays, and swings locked, in Belfast until 1965. Stores over 280 square meters in size are still restricted to the hours of 1 p.m. to 6 p.m. on Sundays.
Mount Etna erupted.
Released on this day in 1923. The plot involved a woman who is widowed at 38 and takes a job as a college librarian and starts dating over the objection of her children.
Wednesday, May 17, 2023
Monday, May 17, 1943. The Memphis Belle, and its crew, complete twenty-five missions.
The crew of the Memphis Belle became the first complete United States Army Air Force, 8th Air Force B-17 crew to complete twenty-five missions.
This is a somewhat confusing story and is often inaccurately portrayed.
The first bomber of the 8th Air Force to complete twenty-five missions was the B-17 Hell's Angels, which achieved that on May 13.
The Memphis Belle's crew was the first complete crew. I.e., nobody who completed that mission was s replacement.
It's not that this isn't remarkable, the odds were very much against it. It's just it isn't quite what is generally portrayed.
The US and UK entered into the BRUSA Agreement providing for the exchange of cryptanalysis personal between the US and the British Commonwealth forces.