Today in World War II History—February 3, 1944: 80 Years Ago—Feb. 3, 1944: In Italy, New Zealand Corps is formed under Lt.-Gen. Sir Bernard Freyberg, over New Zealand 2nd Division and Indian 4th Division.
Freyberg was born in the United Kingdom but raised in New Zealand. He was a championship swimmer when young, and was licensed as a dentist in New Zealand in 1911. He left New Zealand in 1914 to join the Villista's, and served as a Captain in those forces. He left the fighting in Mexico, however, in August of that year upon learning that World War One had broken out, taking time to win a swimming championship in Los Angeles, and having earned passage to the UK by boxing. He served first in a ground unit of the Royal Navy, and then transferred to the British Army. He remained in the British Army between the wars.
A controversial general outside of British circles, he's somewhat emblematic of the British Army of the period in that his nationality was pretty fluid, but always British. He was appointed Governor General of New Zealand after World War Two, and passed away in 1963.
The Germans sealed off the Anzio beachhead.
The U.S. prevailed at Kwajalein. Task Group 58 raided Eniwetok. US forces landed on Burton Island.
The Red Army encircled the Germans at the Korsun Pocket, where Hitler, on the same day, ordered them not to retreat. Manstein organized an armored force with the goal of relieving the pocket.
Off of the Solomon's, the Japanese sank the U.S. Navy light cruiser Juneau, which took 687 men with it, including five brothers of the Irish Catholic Sullivan family of Iowa.
It's commonly asserted that after this the U.S. military would not allow siblings to serve together, but in fact many siblings were already serving together in combat in North Africa as members of Federalized National Guard units. Entire towns would end up loosing huge numbers of their male citizens in the combat actions to come. There was a policy change, which relieved a sole survivor from military service, but it did not come until 1943, and was partially due to the deaths of the Borgstrom brothers of Utah as well. Indeed, the Navy already had a policy precluding siblings from serving on the same vessel, but they did not actively enforce it.
A sister of the Sullivan brothers remained in Navy service. Indeed, their enlistment in the Navy, or in once case a reenlistment, was to avenge the death of her boyfriend, who died at Peal Harbor.
The Sullivan family was not informed of the death of their sons until 1943, at which time their father was informed of all of their deaths at one time. The Navy would commission a ship in their honor during the war, and oddly enough, one of the sons of the one of the men lost would later serve as a post-war officer aboard it. That ship has been decommissioned, but a second The Sullivans was commissioned to take its place.
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The tragic story was also made into a patriotic movie during the war itself, which was released in 1944.
The Sullivan story was the inspiration for the film Saving Private Ryan, although it's obviously in a much different setting.
The Renunciation Act of 1944 made it possible for a US citizen to renounce their citizenship during time of war by applying to the US Attorney General. The hope was that interned Japanese Americans would do so, so that they could be deported to Japan.
It's doubtful that many would have ever exercised that option, but it should be noted that by this time of the war, the news was dealing with American advances in the Pacific nearly daily. Hard fighting was occurring, but the Japanese were losing and that was fairly obvious. Internees had full access to the news and to the extent that this tempted anyone, that surely would have reduced that desire.
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