Saturday, August 12, 2023

Thursday, August 12, 1943. German withdrawals, Polish and Albanian raids, German reports, Pacific staging.

The Germans, in one of the most successful withdrawals of the Second World War, carried on with day two of its evacuation of Axis forces from Sicily.

Franklin Roosevelt broadcast a message to the Filipino people, promising to establish full sovereignty for the nation upon liberation from the Japanese.  The scheduled date for that was already July 4, 1946.  As it was, liberation of the island would not come until July 1945 and the scheduled date was kept.

The Polish Home Army executed Operation Góral and recovered a massive amount of cash being taken out of the country by the Germans.  On the same day, the Albanian resistance ambushed a German convoy successfully in the Kurtës Ambush

The German Sicherheitsdienst, the SD reported on the attitude of young Germans. Among other things, it reported:

Most boys and girls have not the slightest interest in becoming a member of the NSDAP. All attempts by the relevant authorities to get them involved have been in vain. For the boys it's the Wehrmacht which is now the thing not the Party.

And: 

The reserve shown towards the Party is also encouraged by the unresolved Party-Church question. Since a large section of youth, and above all their parents, are still loyal to the Church, remarks aimed at the "sacred beliefs which they have held hitherto" by Party comrades, cadres and HJ leaders have a negative impact. This is particularly the case at the present time because, as a result of the current war situation, young people too notice that the Church pays great attention, for example, to caring for the relatives of those who have been killed, and that the priests give clear answers on questions concerning life and the present time. In addition, rumors about alleged positive remarks about the churches by leading personalities, soldiers who have been decorated etc. have a big impact.

The SD and related organizations carried on a lot of secret polling of this type during the war. 

Things were happening in the North Pacific. 

USS Tennessee (BB-43) at Adak, Aleutians, August 12, 1943, just before the Kiska landings.

On the Eastern Front, Luftwaffe Hptm Hans-Ulrich Rudel completed his 1300th mission and his tail gunner OFw Hentschel’s completed his 1000th.

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