German actor and comedian Robert Stampa (stage name Dorsay) age 39, was executed for "ongoing activity hostile to the Reich and serious undermining of the German defense effort".
Stampa had never been comfortable with the Nazis but had, like many Germans, tried to accommodate himself to them, even joining hte Nazi Party. He was expelled from the party in 1933 for failure to pay dues and didn't rejoin. He started losing film roles in 1939 due to his failure to cooperate with the party. He was drafted in 1943 and was a serviceman on lease at the time of his telling the fatal joke.
He had been overheard joking about the government and had described, in a private letter, the ongoing German war effort as "idiotic", which in fact, it was. More accurately, his letter stated, "When will this idiocy finally end?"
His execution demonstrated that by this point in the war, which had seen the increased repression of the Jews, repression was now turning in on the German people as well. To be executed for a joke was fairly phenomenal.
As part of that idiotic effort, the U-282 was sunk by the Royal Navy in the North Atlantic.
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The Red Army attacked the German 4th Army between Orsha and Vitebsk, but in doing so encountered forces commanded by Gen. Gotthard Heinrici, a master defensive tactician, and they failed to break through.
Heinrici was the eccentric son of a Lutheran minister. Indeed, a devout Lutheran as well, he was informed during the war that his best interest lay in discontinuing going to services, which he ignored. He refused to join the Nazi Party. His uniform was notably shabby, and he continued to wear a coat that he had acquired during World War One.
His wife was half Jewish.
Not a very personal man, he remains somewhat of a mystery. He ignored scorched early orders, but atrocities were committed, as with almost all Germany command, in his ares of operations. He died in 1971 and was buried with full military honors.
The British 13th Corps captured Cantalupo.
A couple of interesting things from Sarah Sundin:
Today in World War II History—October 29, 1943: Maj. Glenn Miller’s Army Air Force band records “St. Louis Blues March.” US War Production Board somewhat relaxes prohibition on use of aluminum.
Glenn Miller had a big impact on American military music, second only, in fact, to John Philip Sousa.
The St. Louis Blues was penned by legendary bluesman W. C. Handy. It's actually a very sad song, like many blues pieces, but with a very flowing nature which made it suitable for adaptation to other styles. Its lyrics are:
I hate to see that evening sun go down
I hate to see that evening sun go down
Cause my baby, he's gone left this town
Feelin' tomorrow like I feel today
If I'm feelin' tomorrow like I feel today
I'll pack my truck and make my give-a-way
St. Louis woman with her diamond ring
Pulls that man around by her, if it wasn't for her and her
That man I love would have gone nowhere, nowhere
I got the St. Louis blues, blues as I can be
That man's got a heart like a rock cast in the sea
Or else he wouldn't have gone so far from me
I love my baby like a school boy loves his pie
Like a Kentucky colonel loves his mint 'n rye
I love my man till the day I die
The tune was first published in 1914, and then made famous by the Bessie Smith edition released in 1925. Handy was inspired to write the song after meeting a distraught woman on the street in St. Louis, who said to him, regarding her husband's absence; "Ma man's got a heart like a rock cast in de sea" which became a line in the song.
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Handy outlived Miller, dying in 1958 at age 84, and was still an active musician during this time frame. He was so influential that he was sometimes called "the father of the blues", although nobody can really properly have that title, the blues having its roots in polyrhythmic African music.
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