Showing posts with label Admiralty Islands Campaign. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Admiralty Islands Campaign. Show all posts

Monday, March 11, 2024

Saturday, March 11, 1944. Rittmeister Eberhard von Breitenbuch attempts to assassinate Hitler.


Rittmeister Eberhard von Breitenbuch, an aid to Generalfeldmarschall Ernst Busch, accompanied the latter who had been summoned to brief Adolf Hitler to a briefing.  Part of what would become the July 20 Plot, he carried a Browning pocket pistol with him in order to assassinate the German Führer, something he had worked out with senior plotter Henning von Tresckow as he was opposed to what others preferred, a suicide bomb.  He as allowed into the Berghof but wasn't allowed into the conference rooms by the SS, which had determined not to allow in aides.

Unlike many involved in the various German military efforts to assassinate Hitler, Von Breitenbuch was not a career officer.  A forester before the war, and again after, he was part of the cavalry branch, a typical branch for those involved in forestry.

A member of the Order of St. John, the Protestant branch of the Knights Hospitallers, he survived the war and died in 1980 at age 70. 

Polish mortar men, March 11, 1944.  Italy.

British forces took Buthidaung in Burma.  

Reconnaissance forces land on Manus Island and Butjo Luo in the Admiralty Islands and meet Japanese resistance.

The U-380 and U-410 were sunk in their pens at Toulon in an American air raid.  Former Italian submarine UIT-22, now in the service of the German's, was sunk off of the Cape of Good Hope by a Royal Air Force PBY.


A conscientious objector from Laramie was sent to a detention center.  Attribution:  Wyoming History Calendar.

People have a widespread idea that conscientious objectors simply didn't serve during World War Two.  In reality, their fate was much more difficult, quite frequently.  70,000 American men applied for conscientious objector status during World War Two, and about half of them received it, with most of them receiving some sort of alternative service.

Last Prior:

Friday, March 10, 1944. Soviets say no to Finns.

Saturday, March 2, 2024

Thursday, March 2, 1944. And the Oscar goes to. . .

Men of the 5th Cavalry Rgt. were landed on Los Negros to back up the previous landings.  Momote Airfield was taken.

Lend Lease aid to Turkey was cut off.  That it was ever extended is interesting, in that Turkey had not joined the war and in fact was still being courted by both sides.

Maj. Graham Batchelor, Milledgeville, Ga., U.S. Army Infantry Liaison Officer, eating with Chinese officers, March 2, 1944.

The 16th Academy Awards were held at Grauman's Chinese Theater, the first time the awards were held in a large public venue. 

Casablanca won Best Picture and Best Director. Other films that were nominated were, For Whom the Bell Tolls, Heaven Can Wait, The Human Comedy, In Which We Serve, The More the Merrier, The Ox-Bow Incident, The Song of Bernadette and Watch on the Rhine.  Of those, I've only seen Casablanca, The Ox-Bow Incident and The Song of Bernadette all of which are truly excellent.

Paul Lukas won best actor for Watch on the Rhine.  Jennifer Jones won best actress for The Song of Bernadette.

Thursday, February 29, 2024

Tuesday, February 29, 1944. The 1st Cavalry Division lands at Los Negros.


First wave of the 1st Cavalry, note all the Thompson Submachineguns.

The Admiralty Islands Campaign began with the dismounted US. 1st Cavalry Division landing on Los Negros Island. What had started as a small landing was converted on the spot by General MacArthur and Admiral Kinkaid to a full scale landing.


MacArthur and Kincaid on Los Negros, February 29, 1944, with Army cameraman T/Sgt Daniel Rocklin.

A-20s on their way to Vesuvius airport after bombing targets at Anzio.

Poor weather prevented an effective continued German effort at Anzio.

The USS Trout was sunk in the East China Sea by the Japanese destroyer Asashimo.

The Red Army prevailed in the Nikopol-Krivol Rog Offensive.

The Commander of the 1st Ukrainian Front, Marshal Nikolai Vatutin, was ambushed by Ukrainian partisans and mortally wounded.

The Battle of Ist was fought between the Free French Navy and a Kriegsmarine element, resulting in a French victory in the Adriatic.

A rodeo was held in New South Wales.