The Vandals.

American democracy has several great weaknesses, the primary one being that Americans believe that we have a "two party system".

We don't.  We've just allowed two parties to take over and even fund their party elections, the primaries, with government funds, and tolerate the creation of bogus Congressional roles, such "Senate Majority Leader".

That needs reform desperately.

Amongst other weaknesses, however, is that Americans believe that we have a free enterprise economic system. We don't. We have corporate capitalism which allows businesses to escape the implications of their actions through the corporate business form.

Americans believe so strongly in "free enterprise" that they basically never vote with their wallets.  They'll let businesses absolutely screw them and keep supporting them.  On the rare occasions in which they actually will vote with their wallets and boycott a product it's when its something trivial and otherwise readily available, as in when sales of Bud Light dropped off over a transgender personality advertising it.

Lots of companies brew beer.

I note this as the illegitimate occupant of the White House, who has no real authority, is having the East Wing of the  White House destroyed for on oversized garden shed, aka, a ballroom.

The White House doesn't need a ballroom.  This isn't 1875.  What Donald Trump wants is something overblown and gaudy, which is his brand, so that hopefully people remember him after he departs this Earth for his final reward. It's much the same motivation that has him angling for the Nobel Peace Prize.  He's hoping to be remembered as a serious person, rather than as a real estate developer/serial polygamist.

Before we move on, we should note that the White House was originally designed as a house, and its been modified continually.  Frankly, it ought to flat out stop. The constant monkeying with the structure only encourages this sort of baloney, and the building isn't getting any better looking over time.  The East Wing only dates back to 1942 and to some degree was built as a cover for the construction of a bomb shelter underneath it.  I suppose you can argue the bomb shelter was a good addition, but this just goes on and on.

The West Wing has been modified a great deal over time, but basically dates back to 1902.  Theodore Roosevelt was President then, and his large family was busting at the seams of the White House.

This is different, however.

The West Wing was built as office space.  Basically it's an office space annexation. The East Wing, as noted, was originally added to cover the construction of a bomb shelter.  In later years, offices for correspondence, calligraphers and the social secretary were placed in the East Wing. It became the offices of the First Lady, with the First Lady requiring offices a fairly dubious proposition, quite frankly.

Trump wasn't supposed to really touch the East Wing Structure but a Volvo bucket is out destroying part of the facade now. The new structure will be, of course, a garden shed. . .um a ballroom.

Adding offices made sense.  Adding a bomb shelter in 1942 made sense, after all, German rocket technology brought the ICBM within reach during  World War Two and submarine launched aircraft actually did made land strikes on the West Coast during the war.

A ballroom, however, is a superficial structure for somebody who likes to entertain.

Trump is a superficial person who has been spending a lot of his time at the golf course.

Trump can't molest the structure unless the forces of capitalism dutifully line up to give him his dream. There was never any doubt that they would.  So, have you wondered who the Vandal hired by the illegitimate occupant of the White House/Real Estate Developer/Serial Polygamist to design and construct a giant garden shed is?

Well, wonder no more:

President Trump Hires National Civic Art Society Board Member to Design New White House Ballroom

James McCrery, a classical architect who is a co-founder of the National Civic Art Society and a member of our Board of Directors, has been chosen by President Donald Trump to design a new ballroom at the White House.

According to the administration, “The White House State Ballroom will be a much-needed and exquisite addition of approximately 90,000 total square feet of ornately designed and carefully crafted space, with a seated capacity of 650 people — a significant increase from the 200-person seated capacity in the East Room of the White House.”

McCrery, who is principal and founder of McCrery Architects in Washington, D.C., is associate professor at the Catholic University of America's School of Architecture. He was a commissioner on the U.S. Commission of Fine Arts, appointed by President Trump during his first term. McCrery served alongside NCAS President Justin Shubow, who was chairman of the Commission.

According  to Shubow, “The National Civic Art Society is ecstatic that President Trump selected James McCrery to design the new White  House ballroom. McCrery is one of the best architects in America, and he will  honor and respect one of the most beloved classical buildings in the United  States. Our organization has no doubt he’ll design a beautiful, fitting  addition. It was President Theodore Roosevelt who personally chose Beaux-Arts architect Charles  McKim to renovate the White House in his time. President Trump has made an  equally wise decision in hiring McCrery.”

Announcement from the National Civil Art Society.

The National Civil Art Society is an organization that sponsors the view that public buildings should be in a classic style.  It's a worthwhile goal, as there sure are a lot of ugly public buildings around.  And the architects firm, McCrery Architects, based on their website, designs a lot of nice classical buildings.  Frankly, choosing them was a really good move for a really bad building.  Things could have been a lot worse.

So should we rejoice?

Well, no, 

McCrery clearly has a lot of talent, as do the people on his staff, but this is still a huge oversized shed that looks ugly.  No matter, it'll go down on his resume, unless it turns out to be a national embarrassment, in which case it will be removed from his resume.

He's designed some beautiful buildings, including the Cathedral of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus in Knoxville, TN.  To go from that, to this . . what a waste.

The contractor for the abomination is heavy contractor Clark Construction, whose website declares "Building What Matters".

M'eh.

This structure doesn't matter.

It is, however, no doubt a major contract.  Nobody could blame them for bidding on it, as that's what they do.

Engineering was done by AECOM, whose website declares; "AECOM is the trusted global infrastructure leader committed to delivering a better world.".  

Well, this structure and the project makes the world just a little bit worse.  No matter, it's probably a big contract.

Funding for the project is not public.  The $200,000,000 to $250,000,0000 vandalization will cost is going to be born by Real Estate Developer Donald Trump and donors.  Donors include Google, Lockheed Martin, Palantir, Booz Allen Hamilton, and NextEra Energy, but there are a lot more.  Lockheed Martin is chipping in $10,000,000.

And there's the real question.  

Blogger, which this is published on, is a Google thing.  Google itself is darned near impossible to avoid, so even though I think they're chipping in is inexcusable, I'll continue to use Google's products, making me just as hypocritical as can be.  I don't buy anything from Lockheed, and I'm not a shareholder, but if I was I'd write in and complain.  

Why would outfits like these chip in?  Well, they're making a bet that King Donald will love them, or at least not hate them.  That's why.  And frankly, if some future administration wanted to build to whack it down, which will occur, and put up a Trump Hall of Shame, they'd contribute to that.

The overall shame, however, is that this is public property.  It's being vandalized.  And nobody can apparently do anything about it.

When this era is over, the country needs major reform.  Part of that reform needs to be an effort to reign the Oval Office into reason.  Another part needs to be to kick the dead asses in Congress back to work and require them to do their actual jobs.

As a final note, Hitler was fond of monumental projects too, planning on building a monumental Berlin after the Second World War.  Franco had the monumental Valley of the Fallen built, which at least commemorates something.  Fascist Italy had a bunch of monumental structures built, and of course Mussolini was in power for quite some time.  The Soviets had Lenin stuff in a mausoleum, the latter of which provides an idea.

Seeing as a modern White House doesn't need a ballroom, and given that Trump is really old and will pass from natural causes in the foreseeable future anyhow, perhaps AECOM can design this structure with hydraulic jacks and wheels so when that day comes this can just be jacked up, hooked up, and wheeled down the highway to Mar A Lago, which it can serve as the Trump Mausoleum and library (I serious doubt Trump has very many books that he's actually read, so the size won't be a problem).  Probably Google, Lockheed Martin, Palantir, Booz Allen Hamilton, and NextEra Energy will be willing to pay for it.

Saturday, October 3, 1925. The launch of the USS Lexington.

The USS Lexington was launched.  

She was damaged beyond repair on May 8, 1942.

Friday, May 8, 1942. Strategic victory at Coral Sea, Mutiny in the Cocos, World War One hero commissioned for the Second World War.

A conference opened in Buenos Aires to discuss constructing a Pan American Highway.

It was a Saturday.

And it was football season.

Last edition:

Friday, October 2, 1925. Television.

Labels: 1920s, 1925, Disaster, entertainment, Josephine Baker, Morocco, Railroads, Rif War, Spanish Army, technology, television, Virginia

Friday, August 3, 1945. The end for Japan in Burma.

The US announced the complete mining and hence blockade of Japanese and Korean harbors.

Organized Japanese resistance in Burma came to an end.

Germans and Hungarians in Czechoslovakia were stripped of their citizenship.

The French cruiser Strasbourg, scuttled in 1942, was refloated, but found to be beyond repair.

Last edition:

Thursday, August 2, 1945. Potsdam concludes.

Labels: 2020s, 2025, Economics, Government, The Second Trump Administration, Wyoming's boom and bust economy

Blog Mirror: This Day in History: WWII's Ice Cream Barges

 

This Day in History: WWII's Ice Cream Barges

First U.S. Armor Engagement of World War Two Display, National Museum of Military Vehicles.

 Last edition:

M3 Stuart Light Tanks. Outside Display. National Museum of Military Vehicles.

Labels: 1940s, Armor, Army, British Army, National Museum of Military Vehicles, North Africa, Tracked vehicles, United States Marine Corps, World War Two, Wyoming (Dubois)

Friday, April 28, 1944. Day Two of Execise Tiger.

USS LST-289. Arrives in Dartmouth Harbor, England, after being torpedoed in the stern by German MTBs during an invasion rehearsal off Slapton Sands, England, on 28 April 1944.

We've already discussed Exercise Tiger and won't repeat what we set out there, but we will note that while focus on Tiger tends to be on the American loss of life it caused, it very well may have resulted in avoiding disaster at Operation Overlord.  

In that sense, Exercise Tiger might be remembered justifiably in much the same way that the August 19,1942 Anglo Canadian raid at Dieppe can be, a disaster whose lessons were so significant that the event is sort of a Pyrrhic defeat.  That is, the lessons learned as a result of the disasters encountered there were so significant they served to avoid them occurring on the beaches in Operation Overlord.

British family moving from the Slapton Sands area when it was being taken over as an exercise area.

Secretary of the Navy Frank Knox died.

Knox had been ill for a while, having suffered a series of recent heart attacks.  He was 70 years old at the time of his death.

A Bostonian, he's served with the 1st U.S. Volunteer Cavalry, the "Rough Riders", during the Spanish American War.  After the war he had been a newspaper editor in Michigan, where he was also the state chairman of the Republican Party.  He supported Theodore Roosevelt for President in 1912 and had agitated for U.S. entry into the Great War, in which he went on to serve as an artilleryman.  He was a Vice Presidential candidate in the 1936 campaign, on the Landon Knox ticket.  Roosevelt appointed the Republican Secretary of the Navy in 1940.  After Pearl Harbor, Knox, while still Secretary of the Navy, was shunted aside to a significant degree in favor of Admiral Ernest J. King, that being somewhat of a tradition by that time.

1944  USS Crook County, LST-611, named after Crook counties Wyoming and Oregon, launched. She was a landing ship, tank.

USS Crook County at Inchon, 1950.

The ship was a LST that served in the Pacific during World War Two and then again during the Korean War.  She was decommissioned in 1956.

Related threads:

Wednesday, August 19, 2022. The Raid On Dieppe.

1940s, 1942, Canadian Army, Commandos, Dieppe France, Dieppe Raid, Espionage, Free French, Guadalcanal, Operation Jubilee, Royal Air Force, Royal Canadian Air Force, Siege of Leningrad, World War Two

Last prior edition:

Thursday, April 27, 1944. Exercise Tiger

1940s, 1944, Capitalism, Disaster, Exercise Tiger, German Kriegsmarine, Poland, Quebec, U.S. Navy, Ukraine, United Kingdom, World War Two, Wyoming, Wyoming Stock Growers Association

Monday, August 30, 1943. Hornets

CV-12, the second aircraft carrier of World War Two to be named the USS Hornet, was launched.

CV-12 being launched.

CV-8, the USS Hornet that had been in the Doolittle Raid, was sunk in October, 1942.

CV-12 was the eighth U.S. Navy ship to bear that name, the first being a merchant sloop acquired by the infant U.S. Navy in 1775 and captured by the Royal Navy during the Revolution.  A second USS Hornet, also a sloop, was acquired in the Mediterranean during the First Barbary War, but served for only a year.

CV-8 was named in honor of a sloop of war commissioned in 1805.  She's served in the War of 1812, but had been lost due to a material failure at sea in 1829, going down with all hands.

The foundering of CV-8's namesake.

The fourth was a schooner acquired in 1814 that mostly served the Navy by running messages.

The fifth ship to bear that name was a captured and renamed Confederate steam ship.  Its career with the US Navy was brief, and she then went on to a brief career with filibusters, being renamed Cuba.

The Red Army captured Sokolovskym Yelna, and Taganrog.

In his second act of heroism, Lt. Kenneth Walsh, would push his deeds over the top as a Marine Corp aviator and win the Medal of Honor.  His citation reads:

For extraordinary heroism and intrepidity above and beyond the call of duty as a pilot in Marine Fighting Squadron 124 in aerial combat against enemy Japanese forces in the Solomon Islands area. Determined to thwart the enemy's attempt to bomb Allied ground forces and shipping at Vella Lavella on 15 August 1943, 1st Lt. Walsh repeatedly dived his plane into an enemy formation outnumbering his own division 6 to 1 and, although his plane was hit numerous times, shot down 2 Japanese dive bombers and 1 fighter. After developing engine trouble on 30 August during a vital escort mission, 1st Lt. Walsh landed his mechanically disabled plane at Munda, quickly replaced it with another, and proceeded to rejoin his flight over Kahili. Separated from his escort group when he encountered approximately 50 Japanese Zeros, he unhesitatingly attacked, striking with relentless fury in his lone battle against a powerful force. He destroyed 4 hostile fighters before cannon shellfire forced him to make a dead-stick landing off Vella Lavella where he was later picked up. His valiant leadership and his daring skill as a flier served as a source of confidence and inspiration to his fellow pilots and reflect the highest credit upon the U.S. Naval Service.

Lt. Walsh had joined the Marine Corps in 1933 and retired in 1962, flying again in action during the Korean War.  He died at age 81 in 1998. 

The Lackawanna Limited wreck occurred when a Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad passenger train, the New York-Buffalo Lackawanna Limited collided with a freight train. Twenty-seven people were killed in the collision, and about twice that number injured, many from steam that poured into the railroad cars.

Blog Mirror: Why Stalingrad still matters.

 

Why Stalingrad still matters

The last word has not been written on WWII's bloodiest battle

Sunday, July 25, 1943. The surreal end of Mussolini's Premiership.

Having been voted out of office the night prior, Mussolini left the meeting of the Fascist Grand Council that had voted to remove him, he went to award prizes at a farm festival and carried on business as usual.  The Fascist Grand Council reported its decision to King Victor Emmanuel III, who ordered Mussolini to report and asked him to resign.  Mussolini asked for more time and was arrested.

Marshal Pietro Badoglio was appointed Premier.

Badoglia had been Chief of Staff of the Italian army from 1925 to 1940, but had resigned following the disastrous performance of the Italian Army in Greece.

On the same day in the same country, Ubaldo Pugnaloni won the Giro d'Italia.

The Navy commissioned the USS Harmon, a destroyer named after Leonard Roy Harmon, a mess attendant who had been killed at Guadalcanal saving a fellow shipmate.  It was the first ship named after an African American in the U.S. Navy.

Harmon's citation reads:

The President of the United States of America takes pride in presenting the Navy Cross (Posthumously) to Mess Attendant First Class Leonard Roy Harmon, United States Navy, for extraordinary heroism and devotion to duty in action against the enemy while serving on board the Heavy Cruiser U.S.S. SAN FRANCISCO (CA-38), during action against enemy Japanese naval forces near Savo Island in the Solomon Islands on the night of on 12–13 November 1942. With persistent disregard of his own personal safety, Mess Attendant First Class Harmon rendered invaluable assistance in caring for the wounded and assisting them to a dressing station. In addition to displaying unusual loyalty in behalf of the injured Executive Officer, he deliberately exposed himself to hostile gunfire in order to protect a shipmate and, as a result of this courageous deed, was killed in action. His heroic spirit of self-sacrifice, maintained above and beyond the call of duty, was in keeping with the highest traditions of the United States Naval Service. He gallantly gave his life for his country.

 

Sunday, July 4, 1943. First Broadcast of the Armed Forces Radio Network.

American Armed Forces Radio Network began broadcasting from the United Kingdom. While the organization had been formed in 1942, this was its very first broadcast.

Subhas Chandra Bose became president of the Indian Independence League at its meeting in Singapore.

Władysław Eugeniusz Sikorski, Prime Minister of Poland and former Polish army officer, and the then head of its government in exile, died in a plane crash at Gibraltar.  While the British ruled the crash an accident due to mechanical failure, suspicions remain that it may have been sabotage.

The Steer. 1942.

 Annual agricultural show at the state experimental farm at Presque Isle, Maine. Prizewinning "baby beef", raised by a daughter of a Farm Security Administration client.

Thursday, May 10, 1923. The bizarre actions of Maurice Conradi.

Soviet delegate to the Conference of Lausanne was shot dead by former Russian White officer and émigré Maurice Conradi in the Cecil Hotel.  Two other members of the Soviet mission were wounded when they attempted to resist.  Conradi then handed his gun to a waiter and asked him to call the police, which they did.

Conradi.

Conradi was born to Swiss parents in 1896.  They were living in St. Petersburg at the time, where they ran a candy factory.  Most of Conradi's family were killed during the Russian Revolution, with several being executed by the Bolsheviks.  During this period he married his wife,  Vladislava Lvovna Svartsevich, and he immigrated to Switzerland following the defeat of Wrangel's army.

Conradi and his confederate Arkady Polunin were tried that following November and defended themselves on moral grounds, introducing evidence of Communist horrors. The prosecution fell into this, oddly enough, and introduced evidence of the happiness of Soviet citizens, something that would have had to have involved an element of delusion.  The jury found that all the elements of murder were present, but failed to convict him 5 to 4 anyhow, leading to a rupture in diplomatic relations between Switzerland and the Soviet Union.

In 1925 the Conradi's moved to Paris. They divorced in 1929.  Conradi then joined the French Foreign Legion, returning to Switzerland and remarrying in 1942.  He died in 1947.  Polunin went to Paris as well and died under mysterious circumstances in 1933.

Of the Soviet survivors, one, was executed in Stalin's purges in 1938.  The other was killed in 1942 while serving in the Red Army.

About as much as can be said of this entire episode is that it was downright bizarre.

Friday, April 2, 1943. Bulgaria says Не (no) in response to a German Bitte and the Little Big Inch

King Boris III of Bulgaria told German Foreign Minister Joachim von Ribbentrop that Bulgaria would not surrender its Jewish population to Germany.

Tsar Boris.

Tsar Boris, as he was also known, was on dangerous ground and he knew it.  He stuck to his position however and refused until his death later that year to yield on sending Jewish Bulgarians to the Germans.  Bulgaria ultimately conscripted Jewish men for labor on roads, but to some degree at least this seems to have been a pretext to help prevent their deportation.

Bulgaria, which did pass anti Semitic laws, had participated in the war as a German ally only to the extent of the war against Yugoslavia.  It wisely refused to declare war against the Western Allies or the Soviet Union, much to the irritation of Hitler.  Tsar Boris untimely death seems to have been due to the stress of dealing with the Germans, although it remains an open question if he was poisoned under orders of the Germans.

Sarah Sundin reports:

Today in World War II History—April 2, 1943: US War Production Board approves construction of the “Little Big Inch” pipeline to take refined oil from Texas to the northeast states.

We discussed the Big Inch earlier. 

Friday, March 30, 1942. The Laconia comes home, Mussolini ponders Italian emigration.

The SS Laconia completed its circumnavigation of the globe, becoming the ship to complete an around the world pleasure cruise.

It had departed in November 1930 and, before returning to New York, would be at sea for 130 days and call on 22 ports.

She'd be sunk on September 12, 1942, by a U-boat.

Mussolini addressed emigration from Italy in a famous speech, which stated:

The Sig. Director has compromised me, because he has announced my speech. Now almost all Italians know that I do not like speeches, but I accept with joy and resign myself this morning to this exception. He was also moved because he recalled with a warm voice of passion the history of the school—a superb history which all of Milan knows and admires. Also in this area, which could be defined as related to the problem of emigration—without prejudice to the question of whether migration is good or bad—is the "Carlo Tenca" School, and it has done very well, since when discussing the thesis you can argue endlessly regarding a conclusion.

For better or for worse, emigration is a physiological necessity of the Italian people. We are forty million squeezed into our narrow but adorable peninsula, with its too many mountains, and its soil which cannot feed everyone. There are around Italy countries that have a population smaller than ours and a territory double the size of ours. Hence it is obvious that the problem of Italian expansion in the world is a problem of life or death for the Italian race. I say expansion: expansion in every sense: moral, political, economic, demographic. I declare that the Government intends to protect Italian emigration: it cannot be indifferent to those who cross the mountains and travel beyond the Ocean, it cannot be indifferent because they are men, workers, and above all Italians. And wherever there is an Italian there is the tricolour, there is the Fatherland, there is the Government's defense of these Italians.

I feel all the excitement of life that stirs this new powerful generation of the Italian race. You certainly have meditated a few times on what you might call a miracle in the history of mankind; it is not rhetoric, it is said that the Italian people are the immortal people who always find a spring for their hopes, for their passion, for their greatness. Some two thousand years ago Rome was the center of an empire that had no boundaries except in the extreme limits of the desert; the civilization that Rome had given, its great legal tradition, as solid as the monuments, to the world—Rome had built a huge miracle that still moves us even to our most intimate fibers.

Then the empire decayed and crumbled. But it is not true that all the centuries which followed the collapse of the Roman world were centuries of darkness and barbarism. However, after a few centuries the Italian spirit suffered from an eclipse, but during that period of rest it was powerfully reinforced by new achievements, and so here the Italian spirit blossomed again through the creation of the immortal Dante Alighieri.

We were great in 1300 when other people were ill or were not yet born to history. Here followed the superb centuries, the Renaissance; Italy was once again the bearer of civilization to all races, all peoples. Then followed another political eclipse of division and discord, but it was barely a century and the Italian people recover, regaining consciousness of their historical unity. Rome returned, still playing its fanfare of glory for all Italians, it recovered the use of weapons that are necessary when it comes to saving its freedom, its greatness and its future. Then followed small wars, one state, conspiracies, the revolution of a people, martyrs, tortures, jails, exile. And just a century after the last war we made our political unity. However, alongside this political unity and geographical unity, the Italian people lacked the moral consciousness of themselves and their own destinies, even though after a victorious war this formation of conscience was in place. Under our eyes Italy will gradually become indestructible in its unity.

My Government will abolish bell towers so that Italians may see the august image of the Fatherland. This is the work to which my Government intends all its passion and a sense of religious faith. I am confident, gentlemen, of the destinies of Italy! I am optimistic for a simple act of will, because the will is a great force in people's lives and the lives of peoples.

We must will, strongly will! We must want, strongly want! Only with this power of the will we can overcome any obstacle. We must be ready for all sacrifices.

Recollect, then, in a moment of meditation after this rapid advance into the past. We love our willingness to project proudly of our time into the future. This young Italian people—fierce, fearless, restless, but strong. I am most certain that Italy will march towards a future of freedom, prosperity and greatness. Recollect in this vision, we tend all our nerves and all our passion towards this future that awaits us and we cry with a religious fervor.

Viva l'Italia!

It's hard to know what to make of this speech, but the vague references to past empire offer a clue of future fascist actions.

Tuesday, March 22, 1943. Expanding Murder of European Jews by the Nazis, U.S. Army takes Maknassy, Tunisia, Italian port disaster.

Jewish women in Paris, 1942.  By Bundesarchiv, Bild 183-N0619-506 / CC-BY-SA 3.0, CC BY-SA 3.0 de, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=5367011

Germany began deportation of 4,000 Jews from occupied France.  They were sent to Sobibor, where only five of them would survive.

The initial deportation of 4,000 was shortly followed by an additional 1,000.

The Germans also began to deport Yugoslavian Jews from Skopje to Treblinka.

The Germans made the first executions of Gypsies at Auschwitz.

The Waffen SS attacked and destroyed Khatyn, Byelorussia in retaliation for the killing of four German officers, including Hans-Otto Woellke of the Order Police.  Woelke had been an Olympic shot putter.

Sarah Sundin notes:

Today in World War II History—March 22, 1943: Nazis extend work week in the occupied Netherlands to 54 hours. US II Corps under Lt. Gen. George Patton occupies Maknassy, Tunisia.

Sundin also has a very interesting photograph on her blog, of troops in Maknassy.  I wouldn't normally repost it, but the details are quite interesting.

The quality of the photograph isn't fantastic, but the details are really interesting as noted.  All of the soldiers except the one on the far right are wearing coveralls, suggesting they're armored vehicle crewmen.  They are armed, left to right, as follows:  M1903 Springfield, M1 Carbine, M1903 Springfield, M1903 Springfield, unclear, unclear.

British Colonel Edward Orlando Kellett DSO, parliamentarian, British Army officer, and big game hunter was killed in action during the fighting in Tunisia as a colonel of the Royal Armoured Corps. 

The U-524 and U-665 were sunk by Allied aircraft in the Atlantic.

The Allesandro Volta (Italy) exploded in port, devasting the harbor, after being hit by bombs from a B-24. The same raid took out the Franco M, the Labor, the Lentini, the Manzoni, the Maria Louisa, the Modena, the Mondovi,  hte Moni, the Renato, the Rosa and the Trentino.

It was a bad day for Italian shipping.

The German tanker Eurosee sank in an air raid on Wilhelmshaven.

The British Harbour Defense Motor Launches HMML 1157 and HMML 1212 sank in an air raid in Portugal.

The Imperial Japanese Army (yes, army) auxiliary transport ship Meigan Maru was sunk off of Java by the USS Gudgeon.

Clark Gable appeared on the cover of Look magazine in his airman attire.

Thursday, December 31, 1942. New Year's Eve

Hitler's Order of the Day, in part, stated: "The year 1943 will perhaps be hard but certainly not harder than the one just behind us."

In fact, for the Germans, it would be harder than 1942, and in short order.

Franklin and Elanor Roosevelt hosted dinner and a midnight movie at the White House.

The Battle of the Barents Sea occurred between the Kriegsmarine and the Royal Navy, with the Royal Navy escorting Convoy JW 51 B to the Kola Inlet.

All the merchant vessels made it safety to their destinations. The British lost the HMS Achates while the Kreigsmarine lost the Z16 Freiderich Ecoldt.

Emperor Hirohito gave permission for Japanese forces to withdraw from Guadalcanal.  The Japanese, accordingly, had officially suffered their first internally recognized defeat.

Wednesday, December 30, 1942. Sinatra breaks out, and Soviets starting to. And, Bobby Soxers.

Frank Sinatra appeared as a solo act for the first time, appearing before a screaming crowed of bobby soxers of 5,000 at the Paramount Theatre in New York City.

Sinatra on the radio with actress Alida Valli.*

Sinatra in some ways was the first example of a phenomenon that would attach to certain male performers of the mid 20th Century in which they were the subject of gigantic teenage female fascination.  We tend to think of personalities like Elvis in this category, but Sinatra had the same adulation prior to their experiencing it.

His appearance at this point in time raises certain interesting questions.

Sinatra was born into an Italian American family that endured rough circumstances, to some degree, but which also saw his father go from being a boxer to a fire captain, and which featured a dominant, highly driven mother.  The mother supported the son's endeavors.  Sinatra, who always performed under his own name, took an interest in music early and started singing professionally with bands at age 20.  He sang with Tommy Dorsey's band in the late 1930s, with his desire to break free from the band resulting in a legal battle and persistent rumors that Mafia boss Willie Moretti, who was Sinatra's Godfather, had held a gun to Dorsey's ear.  That rumor was incorporated by Mario Puzo in the novel, and later the movie, The Godfather to apply to a very much Sinatra like character.

Sinatra was a huge hit in the early 1940s, but being of conscript age, the logical question is why he wasn't drafted.  He was categorized by the Selective Service as 4-F, which provides the reason, due to a perforated ear drum, but Army files later indicated that he was regarded as psychologically unsuitable for military service due to emotional instability.  He did tour with the USA in the latter portion of the war.  A lack of wartime service did not hurt him, as it did not hurt John Wayne, which says something about the culture of the time.

He campaigned for Franklin Roosevelt in 1944.

Sinatra lived a long, and not uncontroversial, life, dying at age 82. As all that would really be too long to go into, will stop here, with the World War Two story told.

Bobby soxers should be noted.

Bobby soxers have come to be erroneously associated with the 1950s, but in fact were a 1940s phenomenon.  They were teenage girls and women in their very early 20s who were an early example of the emerging youth culture of the United States.  Indeed, they were in some ways its real pioneers.  They were called "bobby soxers" as, at the time, they wore short "bobbed" socks with saddle oxfords.

Saddle oxfords are a dress shoe now, but they've always had the reputation of being a semi casual dress shoe.  At some point they became heavily associated with students and young people.  They were introduced as a mass manufactured shoe in the early 1900s by the Spaulding Company, with the first example introduced in 1906. That's the same company, we'd note, famous for basketballs, etc., which says something, as at first, it was an athletic shoe, not a dress shoe.

Probably that origin as a sporting shoe caused its popularity.  It crossed over pretty quickly to dress wear, anticipating a later trend we have seen the past few decades of basketballs hoes in that use.  

The shoe came on the scene just as there was a real expansion of women in sports, so it was ideally timed  It became hugely popular with cheerleading teams.  By the 1930s it was approaching near universal adoption by schools as mandatory footwear for girls academic uniforms, although it remained popular with men.  They began to become school uniform shoes for boys in the period as well.

The same period saw a shortening of skirts. The combination of the shorter skirts, saddle shoes, and short socks lead to Bobby Soxers being the name for young women affecting the style.  The style endured until the 1950s, when it faded, but the shoes themselves retained widespread academic popularity until the decline of clothing standards started to set in during the late 1960s.

While it may seem odd now, the style was somewhat risqué.

President Roosevelt spent the morning visiting with Naval personnel, including Admirals King and Leahy, and the Secretary of the Navy.  He was in New York City at the time, and had a doctor's visit in the afternoon.

The Red Army was generally gaining ground everywhere to the south of Stalingrad.

Footnotes:

*Not really related to this entry but for this photograph, Alida Valli was an Italian actress coined by Mussolini as "the most beautiful woman in the world."  She truly was lovely.

Born to nobility, her real name and title was Freiin Altenburger von Marckenstein-Frauenberg.  She was born in a part of Italy that is now in Croatia, and which had once been part of Austria Hungary.  She was of mixed heritage, but considered herself Italian.

The photo must have been taken post 1943 as she was active in Italy at this time.  Married three times, her first husband was an Italian fighter pilot who was killed in action at Tobruk.

She was popular in Western films throughout her career, which again says something about the times.  Unlike hugely popular Italian actresses of a certain appearance, Sophia Loren and Claudia Cardinale, Valli had a more normal figure and rose to popularity in the "dirty" Italy period when Italy was regarded as, and truly was, fairly backwards.

Tuesday, December 29, 1942 Retreats.

From Sarah Sundin's blog:

Today in World War II History—December 29, 1942: 80 Years Ago—Dec. 29, 1942: German army begins retreat from the Caucasus region. Japanese begin withdrawal from Buna area of New Guinea.

 

Monday, December 28, 1942. Funding the Manhattan Project.

President Roosevelt authorized a major expenditure on the Manhattan Project, effectively significantly funding the project for the first time.

Hitler issued Directive No. 47.  This directive concerned the war in the southeast, and more particularly the Balkans and Crete, now that Allied attacks on those locations were a possibility.

On the same day, the costly but effective Tatsinskaya Raid ended in the East.

According to Sarah Sundin:

Today in World War II History—December 28, 1942: 80 Years Ago—Dec. 28, 1942: French Somaliland switches allegiance from Vichy to Free French, the final French territory in Africa to do so.

She also reports that the Germans began to experiment with sterilization of female prisoners at Buchenwald. 

Sunday, December 27, 1942. Wars within wars.

Today in World War II History—December 27, 1942: Smolensk Committee

Sarah Sundin reports on the organization of this committee on this day, in 1942.  The Committee of Anti Stalin Soviet citizens would lead to the formation of the Russian Liberation Army, recruited from Soviet POWs. 

The RLA was only a portion of the body of Soviet citizenry that took up arms against the USSR, or which otherwise cooperated in the German war effort.  Motives for joining the German effort were mixed and varied, with some individuals being genuine anti-communists or non-Russian nationalist, and others just trying to avoid death and starvation at German hands.  While many of the other armed groups saw active service, the RLA wasn't deployed until the very end of the war, and at that time would not fully obey German orders.

RLA Flag.

Organization of formal units from Russian volunteers was slow in part due to the fact that liberating any Slavic lands was not part of the German war aim, and the Nazis generally despised the Slavic people.  For this reason, it tended to occur informally at the front first, where Cossacks in particular threw in with the Germans.

A Marine Corps attempt to take Mount Asten on Guadalcanal failed.