Today in World War II History—December 23, 1942: 80 Years Ago—Dec. 23, 1942: US First War Loan Drive ends, raising $13 billion (quota was $9 billion). Read more: War Bonds in World War II.
So notes Sarah Sundin.
On the same day, Operation Winter Storm officially ended, dooming the German soldiers at Stalingrad to death or imprisonment at the hands of the Red Army.
Life magazine, which oddly came out on Mondays, issued a story with a famous cover story and photograph, that being one simply captioned "Lonely Wife". The contents of the issue were as follows:
First U.S. raid on Italy 19
Manpower 27
Best Christmas present you can give the boys is economy 32
U.S. Negro troops are based in Liberia 36
Battle for Tunisia 38
Stimson's new offices, Pentagon building 83
Private Murphy teaches candidates at Fort Benning's officer school 86
Las Vegas gambling 91
Aftermath of war 97
Geopolitics 106
Joseph Jacobs Thorndike; 1913-. Versatile soda-pop gas puts out fires, inflates life rafts, opens bomb bays 51
War posters 54
In which we serve (the movie) 59
Motion picture reviews (Single works)
Lonely wife 71
Lurid career of a scientific system which a Briton invented, the Germans used, and Americans need to study 106
Life visits the Bowery 116
English comedienne mugs and sings 124
Swimming school 129
Lonely Wife, whom readers would learn was named Joan, was an article following just such a wife, who appeared on the cover looking pensive and in a pose that, while not risqué, would probably have caused some concern for married servicemen. The article highlighted a recent book on the topic. The article was surprisingly long, and concluded with a reassuring photograph of the wife kneeling before a votive stand in a (probably Catholic) church.
British forces crossed back into Burma from India and headed towards Akyab.
Operation Mars ended as an operational failure.
Today in World War II History—December 19, 1942: 80 Years Ago—Dec. 19, 1942: Free French take Pichon, Tunisia from Germans.
From Sara Sundin's blog.
Today saw the high water mark of Operation Winter Storm, the German effort to relieve Stalingrad. German troops advanced to a point 30 miles south of Stalingrad, which is not close in military offensive terms. They could not advance further, and the trapped forces had insufficient fuel to commence an effort to break out.
Galeazzo Ciano, Mussolini's son-in-law and a prominent figure in the Italian government, was dispatched to the Wolf's Lair with a message from Mussolini urging Hitler to make a separate peace with the Soviet Union.
Ciano only rose to power via his marriage to Edda Mussolini, but starting in 1939 he began to pull away from the dictator over the war, which he opposed. He was sidelined by being appointed Ambassador to the Holy See in 1943. He voted with the Fascist Grand Council to remove Mussolini in July 1943, but was removed from his office by the government, after which he fled to Germany. The Germans in turn handed him over to Mussolini's rebel fascist Italian Social Republic, which would have him executed.
Ciano's diaries are an important source of inside information regarding the Italian fascist government as well as the Axis alliance.
The British prevailed at El Agheila.
The Red Army's armored Tatsinskaya Raid commenced on this day.
Reminiscent of Russian cavalry deep raids of World War One, the objective was to draw off German Army forces seeking to breakthrough to Stalingrad by taking the Luftwaffe field at Tatsinskaya. That goal was achieved, but ultimately at the loss of raiding force.
Today in World War II History—December 14, 1942: US and Australian troops occupy Buna, New Guinea. On sub USS Grayback in the Bismarck Islands, an appendectomy is performed by a pharmacist's mate.
Jews in the UK held a day of mourning for victims of the Holocaust.
Rommel withdrew German forces from Tunisia, thereby saving his forces while disobeying an order from Hitler.
Something perhaps Gen. Paulus later had time to contemplate.
The Germans launched Operation Winter Storm, an offensive that aimed to break through to trapped forces at Stalingrad.
The Soviets launched Operation Little Saturn on south of the Don.
The Knights of Columbus Hostel fire occurred in St. John's Newfoundland. The fact that many suspicious items are associated with the fire, that other fire attempts happened in the same locality within a proximate time frame, and that the Catholic hostel housed many military and shipping personnel at the time have caused it to be suspected that the fire arose due to a Nazi act of sabotage. 99 people died as a result of the fire.
Sarah Sundin notes:
Today in World War II History—December 12, 1942: M3 submachine gun enters service with US Army. UCLA football team beats USC for the first time, 14-7; a war bond drive at the game raises $2 million.
The M3 was a wartime design that made use of stamping technology. The goal was to produce a reliable submachine gun at a much lower cost than the competing machined examples that then existed, a goal which was largely achieved.
As it was a Saturday, the Saturday weekly magazines were out.
The Saturday Evening Post had an illustration of a hunting dog by tools of the trade and a photo of its owner, now in the service.
Today in World War II History—December 11, 1942: “Cockleshell Heroes” Raid: British commandos who had landed in France from a submarine on Dec. 7 and canoed up the Gironde River, damage six ships in Bordeaux.
From Sarah Sundin's blog.
The Italian navy sank two Allied cargo ships, and damaged three others, in a manned torpedo raid on Algiers.
All in all, the Italian raid was more successful than the Royal Marine one on the same day.
The Battle of El Agheila commenced, which saw the British launch an operation to outflank the retreating Afrika Korps, which was both invading and withdrawing into Tunisia.
The town of El Agheila, Libya, had been the site of an Italian concentration camp earlier in the war which had confined 10,000 Bedouin in poor conditions.
Australian forces captured Gona.
Sarah Sundin notes this milestone:
Today in World War II History—December 9, 1942: US Marines under Lt. Gen. Alexander Vandegrift turn over operations on Guadalcanal to US Army under Maj. Gen. Alexander Patch.
Guadalcanal in the popular imagination is a Marine Corps battle, but the Army fought there too and, as noted, overall command of the battle was put in charge of an Army general in this later stage. Indeed, Patch had just arrived with the Americal Division to relieve the 1st Marine Division, which was severely depleted by malaria this point. The Americal Division itself would be severely depleted within a month and relieved by the 25th Infantry Division.
Patch fits into that category of senior U.S. commanders who served well in the war, but who physically showed the strain. He'd been ill prior to Guadalcanal, and serving there depleted his health further. He was 52 years old at the time, but he'd die at 55 of pneumonia, a diseases he'd just recovered from, somewhat, prior to deploying to Guadalcanal. His death came in November, 1945.
Dick Butkus, legendary American football player, was born.
Fr. Aloysius Liguda drowned with nine other prisoners at Dachau.
The collaborationist Kalibapi party was formed in the Philippines, where it was organized to be the sole, Japanese friendly, political party. While it did serve in that role, its nationalistic policies led it to refuse to declare war on the US and UK, causing the Japanese to form a second collaborationist party in 1944.
The Germans took Bizerte.
Bizerte is the northernmost city in Africa. France, valuing its deep water port, retained the city after Tunisia secured independence, leading to a brief undeclared war between the countries in 1961. In October 1963, the French turned the city over to Tunisia, following a great deal of international pressure to do so.
The Mexican Claims Act of 1942 settled American claims, some dating back sixty years, against Mexico for property losses.
As of this day, the United States had been at war for a year.
The Marine Corps celebrated the day by bombarding Japanese position on Guadalcanal.
The USS New Jersey was launched by the U.S. Navy:
The massive battleship was of the Iowa Class, and would serve off and on until 1991.
We've covered this time frame, 12/7/41 to 12/7/42, in a sort of day by day fashion, even though this isn't "World War Two Day By Day". We've done it as an interesting historical exercise, much like we started tracking the period of a century ago when we commenced with our day by day on the Punitive Expedition. This blog isn't "A Century Ago", or whatever, either.
Anyhow, it has been instructive.
What we have seen is that on December 7, 1941, the world was truly in contest. The Soviets were losing the war in the East. Not just might be losing, they were outright losing. The British, who really would have been entitled to regard the Easter Front as "the second front", were holding on however, and continued to fight where ever they could, sometimes in a surprising place like Greece, but perhaps most notably in North Africa. They were doing surprisingly well, even though the Germans had joined the fight to aid failing Italy there.
On the seas, however, the titanic Battle of the Atlantic raged, and the Mediterranean was very much in contest.
A year later, the United States and Australia had arrested Japanese progress in the Pacific. The Japanese would have been entitled not to have necessarily regarded the tide as having been turned, but any rational observer would have had to conclude that their offensive in the Pacific had already ground to a halt, and they were now on the defensive. They should have been worried.
The tide had been turned in North Africa and the handwriting was on the wall for the Afrika Korps, although the now German lead enterprise was attempting to react to Operation Torch, the Anglo-American invasion of Vichy France's possession in the region which lead to the effective and rapid end of Vichy. The French military had departed from its own official sovereign and joined the Allies. And the battle for the Medettreanean was over, with the Allies prevailing in what was a Royal Navy victory. The Italians were beginning to regard the war as lost.
The Red Army had finally arrested German progress in the East and had launched its first really successful counter-attack, surrounding Stalingrad in what was to become a German disaster. In the East too, the Germans would have been entitled not to regard the contest as decided, but they no longer would have reason to regard a battlefield victory against the Allies as likely.
What my parents did on this day I don't know, of course. Both would have been in school. For my father, at least, talk of the war being "a year old" must have come up in some fashion.
The British commenced Operation Frankton, a kayak insertion raid on the French port of Bordeaux. The raid by commandos of the Royal Marines gave rise to the nickname The Cockleshell Heroes for its participants, who over a course of several days several vessels in the harbor, damaging six of them. The Germans predictably captured six of the men, and executed them.
Interestingly, it was Japanese vessels that had evaded blockades that the British were particularly attempting to target.
Today saw the first flight of the P-63 Kingcobra, the intended successor to the P-39.
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The aircraft based on this frame were never popular with the U.S. Air Force and the while the aircraft was adopted by the US, it was not deployed in combat. It should principally be regarded as a Soviet fighter, and it was very popular with the Soviet Air Force, which was actually not supposed to deploy it, by agreement with the US, against the Germans, but retain it in the Far East in case of a Japanese attack upon the Soviet Union. Nearly indistinguishable from the P39, that agreement was not honored.
A P63 was recently involved in a tragic accident in Dallas, which we have noted here:
Tragedy. P63 hits B-17 at Dallas Airshow. (Graphic)
I'm sorry, it's hard to see how this could happen.
Actually, it apparently isn't all that hard to see how it could happen, as the P63 had poor visibility.
The Germans murdered thirty-one Poles, including two Jewish refugees, in the Polish villages of Stary Ciepielów and Rekówka in retaliation for the Poles there aiding Jews. The victims included children.
The United States released the casualty information for the Japanese attack on Peal Harbor. It read:
THE JAPANESE ATTACK ON PEARL HARBOR, DECEMBER 7, 1941
On the morning of December 7, 1941, Japanese aircraft temporarily disabled every battleship and most of the aircraft in the Hawaiian area. Other naval vessels, both combatant and auxiliary, were put out of action, and certain shore facilities, especially at the naval air stations, Ford Island and Kaneohe Bay, were damaged. Most of these ships are now back with the fleet. The aircraft were all replaced within a few days, and interference with facilities was generally limited to a matter of hours.
When the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, 2 surface ship task forces of the Pacific Fleet were carrying out assigned missions at sea, and 2 such task forces were at their main base following extensive operations at sea. Discounting small craft, 86 ships of the Pacific Fleet were moored at Pearl Harbor. Included in this force were 8 battleships, 7 cruisers, 28 destroyers and 5 submarines. No U. S. aircraft carriers were present.
As result of the Japanese attack five battleships, the Arizona, Oklahoma, California, Nevada, and West Virginia; three destroyers, the Shaw and Downes; the mine layer Oglala; the target ship Utah, and a large floating drydock were either sunk or damaged so severely that they would serve no military purposes for some time. In addition, three battles, the Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Tennessee, three cruisers, the Helena, Honolulu, and Raleigh, the seaplane tender Curtiss and the repair Vestal were damaged.
Of the 19 naval vessels listed above as sunk or damaged, the 26-year-old battleship Arizona will be the only one permanently and totally lost. Preparations for the righting of the Oklahoma are now in process, although final decision as to the wisdom of accomplishing this work at this time has not been made. The main and auxiliary machinery, approximately 50 percent of the value, of the Cassin and Downes were saved. The other 15 vessels either have been or will be salvaged and repaired.
The eight vessels described in the second sentence of paragraph three returned to the fleet months ago. A number of the vessels described in the first sentence of paragraph three are now in full service, but certain others, which required extensive machinery and intricate electrical overhauling as well as refloating and hull repairing, are not yet ready for battle action. Naval repair yards are taking advantage of these inherent delays to install numerous modernization features and improvements. To designate these vessels by name now would give the enemy information vital to his war plans; similar information regarding enemy ships which our forces have subsequently damaged but not destroyed is denied to us.
On December 15, 1941, only 8 days after the Japanese attack and at a time when there was an immediate possibility of the enemy's coming back, the Secretary of the Navy announced that the Arizona, Shaw, Cassin, Downes, Utah, and Oglala had been lost, that the Oklahoma had capsized and that other vessels had been damaged. Fortunately, the salvage and repair accomplishments at Pearl Harbor have exceeded the most hopeful expectations.
Eighty naval aircraft of all types were destroyed by the enemy. In addition, the Army lost 97 planes on Hickam and Wheeler Fields. Of these 23 were bombers, 66 were fighters, and 8 were other types.
The most serious American losses were in personnel. As result of the raid on December 7, 1941, 2,117 officers and enlisted men of the Navy and Marine Corps were killed, 960 are still reported as missing and 876 were wounded but survived. The Army casualties were as follows: 226 officers and enlisted men were killed or later died of wounds; 396 were wounded, most of whom have now recovered and have returned to duty.
At 7:55 a. m. on December 7, 1941, Japanese dive bombers swarmed over the Army Air Base, Hickam Field, and the naval air station on Ford Island. A few minutes earlier the Japanese had struck the naval air station at Kaneohe Bay. Bare seconds later enemy torpedo planes and dive bombers swung in from various sectors to concentrate their attack on theheavy ships at Pearl Harbor. The enemy attack, aided by the element of surprise and based on exact information, was very successful.
Torpedo planes, assisted effectively by dive bombers, constituted the major threat of the first phase of the Japanese attack, lasting approximately a half-hour. Twenty-one torpedo planes made 4 attacks, and 30 dive bombers came in in 8 waves during this period. Fifteen horizontal bombers also participated in this phase of the raid.
Although the Japanese launched their initial attack as a surprise, battleship ready machine guns opened fire at once and were progressively augmented by the remaining antiaircraft batteries as all hands promptly were called to general quarters. Machine guns brought down two and damaged others of the first wave of torpedo planes. Practically all battleship antiaircraft batteries were firing within 5 minutes; cruisers, within an average time of 4 minutes, and destroyers, opening up machine guns almost immediately, average 7 minutes in bringing all antiaircraft guns into action.
From 8:25 to 8:40 a. m. there was a comparative lull in the raid, although air activity continued with sporadic attack by dive and horizontal bombers. This respite was terminated by the appearance of horizontal bombers which crossed and recrossed their targets from various directions and caused serious damage. While the horizontal bombers were continuing their raids, Japanese dive bombers reappeared, probably being the same ones that had participated in earlier attacks; this phase, lasting about a half-hour, was devoted largely to strafing. All enemy aircraft retired by 9:45 a. m.
Prior to the Japanese attack 202 U.S. naval aircraft of all types on the Island of Oahu were in flying condition, but 150 of these were permanently or temporarily disabled by the enemy's concentrated assault, most of them in the first few minutes of the raid. Of the 52 remaining naval aircraft, 38 took to the air on December 7, 1941, the other 14 being ready too late in the day or being blocked from take-off positions. Of necessity therefore, the Navy was compelled to depend on antiaircraft fire for its primary defensive weapon, and this condition exposed the fleet to continuous air attack. By coincidence, 18 scout bombing planes from a U. S. aircraft carrier en route arrived at Pearl Harbor during the raid. These are included in the foregoing figures. Four of these scout bombers were shot down, 13 of the remaining 14 taking off again in search of the enemy. Seven patrol planes were in the air when the attack started.
It is difficult to determine the total number of enemy aircraft participating in the raid, but careful analysis of all reports makes it possible to estimate the number as 21 torpedo planes, 48 dive bombers, and 36 horizontal bombers, totaling 105 of all types. Undoubtedly certain fighter planes also were present, but these are not distinguished by types and are included in the above figures.
The enemy lost 28 aircraft due to Navy action. In addition, three submarines, of 45 tons each, were accounted for.
The damage suffered by the U. S. Pacific Fleet as result of the Japanese attack on December 7, 1941, was most serious, but the repair job now is nearly completed, and thanks to the inspired and unceasing efforts of the naval and civilian personnel attached to the various repair yards, especially at Pearl Harbor itself, this initial handicap soon will be erased forever.
***
ADDITIONS TO NAVY DEPARTMENT PEARL HARBOR RELEASE
Insert in 2d sentence, 1st paragraph, page 1:
. . . facilities, especially at the Army Bases, Hickam and Wheeler Fields, and the naval air stations . . .
Insert after paragraph 3, page 3:
There were a total of 273 Army planes on the Island of Oahu on December 7, 1941. Very few of these were able to take off because of the damage to the runways at Hickam and Wheeler Fields.
Insert in 1st sentence, last paragraph, page 3:
. . . Navy action, and the few Army pursuit planes that were able to take off shot down more than 2O Japanese planes.
A riot broke out at the Manzanar Japanese Internment Camp.
The event is complicated, but it involved divisions with in the interned population and difficulties with the camp staff. It ultimately resulted in the authorities deploying armed force, resulting in two of the camp's internees being killed.
Due to manpower shortages, President Roosevelt suspended the induction of men over 38 years of age.
Carlson's Patrol concluded successfully for the U.S. Marines on Guadalcanal.
American aircraft raided Italy for the first time, with B-24s of the 9th Air Force hitting Naples from bases in the Middle East.
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Canadian Prime Minister Mackenzie King met with Franklin Roosevelt.
Roosevelt, also on this day, ordered the Works Progress Administration dissolved, or as he put it, given an "honorable discharge". It would take until June 30, 1943, to dissolve it, however.
The swashbuckler The Black Swan, featuring Tyrone Power and Maureen O'Hara was released. It'd be a huge hit.
So, even though we reported this yesterday, and used the National Archives as the source:
Scientists working on the Manhattan Project achieved the world’s first man-made, controlled nuclear chain reaction on 12/1/1942. Afterwards, they drank a silent toast to recognize the historic moment. The Chianti bottle’s basket bears their signatures.National Archives, with a link to the photo of the Chianti bottle, which in its original form, as here is called a fiasco.
That it was Chianti, an iconic Italian table wine, is curious.
Every other source claims this happened today.
The December 2 date is clearly the correct one, and for that reason, every December 2 is World Nuclear Energy Day.
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