Thursday, April 4, 2024

Holy Tuesday, April 4, 1944. Battle of Kohima commences, German counteroffensive, Photographing Auschwitz by accident, Bombing Bucharest, Italo-Yugoslav partisands, Charlie Chaplin not guilty.

The Battle of Kohima began around the town of Kohima in British India. The battle would prove to be the turning point in U-Go, and also prove to be long-running.

Japanese forces were depending on taking the town in order to resupply their provisions.  In their initial attacks they cut off all access to the town.

A German counterattack by the 4th Panzer Army retook Kovel, a city in pre-war Poland, which is now in Ukraine.   The attack blocked the Soviets from gaining a pass through the Carpathians.

The city had a large Jewish population before World War Two, and in fact had a large Ukrainian population that were members of the Communist Party. The Soviet invasion in 1939 had accordingly been largely welcomed.  The German invasion would, of course, prove tragic, with 18,000 Jewish residents of the city being murdered.  The city became a refuge for Poles escaping Ukrainian partisans late in the war.  After the war, the Polish population of the city was forcibly relocated to post-war Poland.

A de Havilland Mosquito from the SAAF 60 Photo-Recon Squadron, flying out of Foggia, Italy to photograph the IG Farben photographed Auschwitz as part of a filming overrun, the latter of which was a practice in photo recon missions.  It was the first instance of Auschwitz being photographed by the Allies from the air.

Six Valentine DD tanks sank in Exercise Smash I with the loss of their crews.


Forty-nine Axis aircraft were lost contesting an Allied raid, launched from forces in the Mediterranean, on Bucharest's marshalling yards.  Twelve to Twenty Allied aircraft were lost.  2,942 civilians were killed.

African Ameican soldiers Sgt. John C. Clark, Lorman, Miss., and S/Sgt. Ford M. Shaw, Tuscon, Arizona., members of the members of Co. E, 25th Combat Team, 93rd Div. (colored)  clean their rifles.  Bougainville, April 4, 1944.

Charles de Gaulle announced changes to the Committee of National Liberation in Algiers, including the appointment of two Communists.

In France, the resistance halts aircraft parts production at Bronzavaia.

The First Partisan battalion Pino Budicin in Yugoslavia, made up of Italian Communists was formed.

The Work Truck Blog: Caterpillar Crew.:  

Caterpillar Crew.

 

"When the "caterpillar" crew go out to clear road of snow, they live right on the spot. T/5 Floyd R. Worendorff, Vendrick, Idaho, relaxes in his house on wheels. Truck is fitted with bunks and stove, and supplies living quarters for six men. 4 April, 1944. Camilatella, Italy."

Note the stove in the truck.  I haven't experienced that.

Scary thing is, I've done the same thing, over 40 years later.

Charlie Chaplin was acquitted of violating the Mann Act.

The suit was somewhat ironic in that it stemmed from Joan Barry's pregnancy. While FBI files suggest that Barry aborted two children during her affair with Chaplin, which did occur, this child was not Chaplin's, as blood tests proved.  Chaplin, in a separate suit, would nonetheless be ordered to pay child support for the girl until age 21.

Moreover, Barry was 21 years old with her affair with 52-year-old Chaplin began.  Chaplin definitely fished in the shallower end of the pond, but Barry was of age, which at least one of his prior conquests, whom he married, was not.

Barry was sliding towards insanity, and after her affair with Chaplin ended, stocked him.  She'd end up being committed to a mental institution at age 33, by which time she had married and had two additional children.

Chaplin married Oona O'Neill in 1943, at which time the affair with Barry was over.  O'Neill, who would be his last spouse, was 18 years old at the time.

Related Threads:

November 29



Wednesday, June 16, 1943. Noor Inayat Khan inserted in France.

Last prior edition.

Holy Monday, April 3, 1944. Attack on the Tirpitz, Racist law in Texas struck down, Budapest hit, The death of Evelyn Sharp, Charles Lindbergh buys a New Testament.

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