Showing posts with label Alsace-Lorraine. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Alsace-Lorraine. Show all posts

Friday, January 24, 2025

Wednesday, January 24, 1945. Himmler given a field command.

German POW, January 23, 1945.  His cap badge indicates he was in the Luftwaffe.

Hitler appointed Heinrich Himmler as commander of the newly created Army Group Vistula.  This was rightfully resented by the German military.

The Battle of Poznań began for Polish city.

The French 1st Army took crossing over the River Ill in Alsace.  The  British 2nd Army entered Heinsberg.

"Lt. Col. V. L. Johnson, G-3 Officer, 25th Division, and Maj. Gen. C. L. Mullins, Jr., CG, 25th Division, share a foxhole in San Manuel, Luzon, P.I., with a GI of the 161st Infantry Regiment. 24 January, 1945."

The US took Calapan on Mindoro and Cabanatuan on Luzon.

The US 14th Air Force abandoned Suichuan airfield in China due to Japanese advances.  Operation Ichi-Go, the Japanese ground offensive in China, was going spectacularly well at the same time the United States was destroying the Japanese in the Pacific and getting ever closer to Japan itself, giving this a surreal quality.  Additing to it, British operations in Burma were going very well.

The Shigure was sunk by the USS Blackfin in the  Gulf of Siam.

Today In Wyoming's History: January 24:1945  The Legislature rejects a junior college plan.

One thing that's nice about doing these posts is that you learn how prior legislatures were short sighted. This is just such an example, most likely.

They would approve a community college plan within a couple of years.

This year the legislature is going to pass a bill, probably, allowing people who homeschool to not report to their school district.  By and large, those homeschooling around here do it so their children don't learn something, rather than insure that they learn.

Last edition:

Tuesday, January 23, 1945. St. Vith taken by the Allies.

Thursday, January 16, 2025

Tuesday, January 16, 1945. Der Führerbunker.

Hitler arrived in Berlin, where he would principally remain for the rest of the war.

The Red Army took Radom, Poland.

An Allied offensive to eliminate a German bridgehead over the Rhine north of Strasbourg was commenced.

"Pfc. Gerald A. Cohan, 9 Shaw Ave., Newark, N.J., mans a .30 caliber machine gun covering approaches to Salmchateau, as the 75th Division takes the town. 3rd Battalion, 289th Infantry Regiment, 75th Infantry Division. 16 January, 1945."

The Chinese took Namhkam in Burma.

The U-248 was sunk by US destroyers north of the Azores.

Last edition:

Tuesday, January 14, 2025

Thursday, January 15, 1875. Restoring the gold standard.

The Specie Payment Resumption Act of January 14, 1875 restored the gold standard through the redemption of previously unbacked United States Notes.

It also attacked inflationary policies that arose during the Civil War.

President Grant address Congress regarding it, stating:

To the Senate of the United States:

Senate bill No. 1044, "to provide for the resumption of specie payments," is before me, and this day receives my signature of approval.

I venture upon this unusual method of conveying the notice of approval to the "House in which the measure originated" because of its great importance to the country at large and in order to suggest further legislation which seems to me essential to make this law effective.

It is a subject of congratulation that a measure has become law which fixes a date when specie resumption shall commence and implies an obligation on the part of Congress, if in its power, to give such legislation as may prove necessary to redeem this promise.

To this end I respectfully call your attention to a few suggestions:

First. The necessity of an increased revenue to carry out the obligation of adding to the sinking fund annually 1 per cent of the public debt, amounting now to about $34,000,000 per annum, and to carry out the promises of this measure to redeem, under certain contingencies, eighty millions of the present legal-tenders, and, without contingency, the fractional currency now in circulation.

How to increase the surplus revenue is for Congress to devise, but I will venture to suggest that the duty on tea and coffee might be restored without permanently enhancing the cost to the consumers, and that the 10 per cent horizontal reduction of the tariff on articles specified in the law of June 6, 1872, be repealed. The supply of tea and coffee already on hand in the United States would in all probability be advanced in price by adopting this measure. But it is known that the adoption of free entry to those articles of necessity did not cheapen them, but merely added to the profits of the countries producing them, or of the middlemen in those countries, who have the exclusive trade in them.

Second. The first section of the bill now under consideration provides that the fractional currency shall be redeemed in silver coin as rapidly as practicable. There is no provision preventing the fluctuation in the value of the paper currency. With gold at a premium of anything over 10 per cent above the currency in use, it is probable, almost certain, that silver would be bought up for exportation as fast as it was put out, or until change would become so scarce as to make the premium on it equal to the premium on gold, or sufficiently high to make it no longer profitable to buy for export, thereby causing a direct loss to the community at large and great embarrassment to trade.

As the present law commands final resumption on the 1st day of January, 1879, and as the gold receipts by the Treasury are larger than the gold payments and the currency receipts are smaller than the currency payments, thereby making monthly sales of gold necessary to meet current currency expenses, it occurs to me that these difficulties might be remedied by authorizing the Secretary of the Treasury to redeem legal-tender notes, whenever presented in sums of not less than $100 and multiples thereof, at a premium for gold of 10 per cent, less interest at the rate of 2 1/2 per cent per annum from the 1st day of January, 1875, to the date of putting this law into operation, and diminishing this premium at the same rate until final resumption, changing the rate of premium demanded from time to time as the interest amounts to one-quarter of 1 per cent. I suggest this rate of interest because it would bring currency at par with gold at the date fixed by law for final resumption. I suggest 10 per cent as the demand premium at the beginning because I believe this rate would insure the retention of silver in the country for change.

The provisions of the third section of the act will prevent combinations being made to exhaust the Treasury of coin.

With such a law it is presumable that no gold would be called for not required for legitimate business purposes. When large amounts of coin should be drawn from the Treasury, correspondingly large amounts of currency would be withdrawn from circulation, thus causing a sufficient stringency in currency to stop the outward flow of coin.

The advantages of a currency of a fixed known value would also be reached. In my opinion, by the enactment of such a law business and industries would revive and the beginning of prosperity on a firm basis would be reached.

Other means of increasing revenue than those suggested should probably be devised, and also other legislation.

In fact, to carry out the first section of the act another mint becomes a necessity. With the present facilities for coinage, it would take a period probably beyond that fixed by law for final specie resumption to coin the silver necessary to transact the business of the country.

There are now smelting furnaces, for extracting the silver and gold from the ores brought from the mountain territories, in Chicago, St. Louis, and Omaha--three in the former city--and as much of the change required will be wanted in the Mississippi Valley States, and as the metals to be coined come from west of those States, and, as I understand, the charges for transportation of bullion from either of the cities named to the mint in Philadelphia or to New York City amount to $4 for each $1,000 worth, with an equal expense for transportation back, it would seem a fair argument in favor of adopting one or more of those cities as the place or places for the establishment of new coining facilities.

I have ventured upon this subject with great diffidence, because it is so unusual to approve a measure--as I most heartily do this, even if no further legislation is attainable at this time--and to announce the fact by message. But I do so because I feel that it is a subject of such vital importance to the whole country that it should receive the attention of and be discussed by Congress and the people through the press, and in every way, to the end that the best and most satisfactory course may be reached of executing what I deem most beneficial legislation on a most vital question to the interests and prosperity of the nation.


Physician and Lutheran minister Albert Schweitzer, in Kaysersberg in Alsace

Last edition:

Saturday, January 9, 1875. Officers' Quarters Fire at D. A. Russell.

Thursday, January 2, 2025

Tuesday, January 2, 1945. Advances and withdrawals.

German forces launched counterattacks northwest of Budapest, pushing the 31st Guards Rifle Corps back twenty miles.

"Guarding against enemy infiltration east of Bastogne, machine gunners Pvt. John P. McFarlane, Portland, Ind., Loyd W. Lockwood, Oxnard, Calif., man a .30 caliber machine gun in a wooded area near the Bastogne Corridor. 35th Infantry Division."

The 3d Army took Bonnerue, Hubertmont and Remagne.

The 7th Army falls back in Alsace.

Hitler turned down requests from Model and Manteuffel for withdrawals west of Houffalize.


Naval Commander in Chief Allied Expeditionary Force Admiral Sir Bertram Ramsay was killed in an airplane accident while traveling from Paris to Belgium.  He's organized the evacuation from Dunkirk and the naval operation for Operation Overlord.

Ramsey had actually retired in 1938, but came back into the service prior to World War Two at the urgings of Churchill.

A Sikorsky helicopter was used for convoy escort duties, by the U.S. Navy, for the first time.


The US occupied Fais Island in the Carolines.

Japanese Americans were free to return to the West Coast.

Last edition:

Monday, January 1, 1945. Operation Bodenplatte. Reprisal massacre.

Tuesday, December 31, 2024

Sunday, December 31, 1944. Unternehmen Nordwind launched Ichi-Go concludes a success.

The Germans launched Operation Northwind (Unternehmen Nordwind), their last major offensive in the West.


The offensive in the Ardennes was designed to support Wacht am Rhine in Belgium.

Northwind is often overlooked in the story of Germany's 1944 effort, in part because it proved a pretty rapid failure.  It was, however, a major effort and designed to thrust German forces behind the Third Army.  It saw Himmler in operational control of a major part of the SS forces dedicated to the action.  1,000 aircraft were dedicated to the effort.

It's worth noting that the Western Allies, here and there, were outright in Germany by this time.  Germany's final offensive was itself launched on French territory the Germans had annexed.

Operation Ichi-Go concluded as a massive success for the Japanese Imperial Army, with huge sections of China having been taken.

Filipino general and guerilla leader Vicente Lim, age 56, a prisoner of war of the Japanese, was murdered along with 50 companions by the Japanese.

Lim had served in the Filipino army as a teenage ammo carrier during the Philippine Insurrection.  In 1910 he became the first Filipino to enter the United States Military Academy.  He served with the Philippine Scouts after graduating in 1914 and retired from the U.S. Army in 1936 so that he could join the new Philippine Army, where he became its senior officer.  He clashed with MacArthur in that role as he felt the building of the Philippine Army was occurring to rapidly for a quality force.  He became a guerilla leader with the fall of the country and was captured in 1944 when an attempt was being made to evacuate him from the islands.

The Soviet backed provisional government of Hungary declared war on Germany.

A Soviet backed provisional government was declared in Poland, with the claim contested by the Polish government in exile in London.

A misdirected RAF Mosquito raid on Oslo killed 78 Norwegian civilians, and 28 Germans.

The Grumman F8F Bearcat entered service.  Be that as it may, it came too late in the war to see combat in the Second World War, with its introduction into that coming during the French Indochina War.

The 100th Bomb Group lost 12 aircraft and 109 men during a mission to Hamburg, Germany. The mission was their lost one with heavy losses.

While it would have been more appropriate to enter it in an item for yesterday, The Saturday Evening Post made New Years Eve its them with a Rockwell illustration of a young sleeping woman in bed and photographs of Willie Gillis, Rockwell's average GI, on the wall behind her in different positions, with Gillis' eyes eagerly looking at her.  The illustration is nearly salacious.

Last edition:

Saturday, December 30, 1944. Reporting on the bomb.

Saturday, November 23, 2024

Thursday, November 23, 1944. Thanksgiving Day.

"Three American infantrymen eat K Rations on Thanksgiving day in a dugout somewhere in France.
They will be relieved later and will have Thanksgiving dinner in the evening with their unit. The soldiers are left to right: Sgt. Albert E. Burns, 1308 E. Gilbert Street, Muncie, Ind., Pfc. John K. Smith, Munderstar Route, Brookville PA., and Pvt. Robert H. Seymour, Newark, N.Y. Near Faulquemont, France. 23 November, 1944.80th Infantry Division."

French forces liberated Strasbourg.


US troops liberated the Natzweiler-Struthof concentration camp in France.  20,000 people had died there while it was open.

The Canadian cabinet made 16,000 Canadian conscripts, previously not liable for overseas deployment, available for the same.

Soviet troops took Cop, Czechoslovakia and Tokay, Hungary.

The Royal Navy disbanded the British Eastern Fleet.  Escort carriers and older ships were formed into the British East Indies Fleet with modern ships detached for service in the British Pacific Fleet.

"A newly captured crossroad carries east and west bound traffic as Lt. Gen. George S. Patton's Third Army smashes towards the Rhine. 23 November, 1944. Photographer: Sawyer."

Last edition:

Tuesday, November 21, 1944. Vive La France.

Tuesday, August 26, 2014

Wednesday, August 26, 1914. Tannenberg begins.

The epic Battle of Tannenberg began on the Eastern Front.


Up until it, the Imperial Russian Army had been doing well.  That was soon to change.

The Russians halted the Austro Hungarian army at Komarów

The French Army of Alsace was recalled and disbanded, ended their successful defense at Mulhouse.  The Battle of Lorraine also ended in a French victory, although an extremely costly one.

British and French forces retreated from Le Cateau to Saint Quentin.

The French Second Army prevented the Germans from advancing past Charmes.

The Germans bombed Antwerp by Zeppelin.

Last edition:

Tuesday, August 25, 1914. German murders in Belgium.

Monday, August 18, 2014

Tuesday, August 18, 1914. Lady Teacher for Lincoln County. Neutrality for the US.

The Lincoln County School District requested a "lady teacher" from the University of Wyoming for the Cumberland Mining Camp. (UW History Calendar).

Lincoln County is remote now, and it would have been even more so in 1914.

The Imperial Russian Army invaded the Austrian Crownland of Galicia, or Austrian Poland (it's now in Poland and Ukraine.

The French captured bridges over the Rhine as well as taking large numbers of German soldiers in Alsace.

President Wilson declared the United States to be strictly neutral in the war developing in Europe and spreading the globe.



Last edition:

Monday, August 17, 1914. Russia invades Prussia.

Sunday, August 10, 2014

Monday, August 10, 1914. Austro Hungaria takes the field against Imperial Russia.

Austro Hungaria invaded Russia.

The Germans retook Mulhouse. 

British ships in pursuit of cruisers Goeben and Breslau.  By Bundesarchiv, Bild 134-C2320 / CC-BY-SA 3.0, CC BY-SA 3.0 de, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=5337867

The Ottoman Empire opened the Dardanelles to allow German cruisers SMS Goeben and SMS Breslau passage to Constantinople.

The United Kingdom released all suffragette prisoners.

4th Marine Regiment, August 10, 1914.


"Cook house and mess tents." - Keechelus Dam, Yakima River, 10 miles northwest of Easton, Easton, Kittitas County, Washington.

Friday, August 8, 2014

Saturday, August 8, 1914. Leaving for the Antarctic.

The UK passed the first Defence of the Realm Act authorizing wartime censorship.

French forces took Muhouse in Alsace, although they'd be pushed back out two days later.

German colonial authorities executed Cameroonian resistance leaders Martin-Paul Samba and Rudolf Duala Manga Bell for treason.

The Shackleton Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition left the UK for Antarctica, seemingly out of context and now out of their own times.

Last edition:

Friday, August 7, 1914. The BEF arrives in France.

Thursday, August 7, 2014

Friday, August 7, 1914. The BEF arrives in France.

The British Expeditionary Force arrived in France.

The French launched an offensive to regain Alsace.

German soldiers began burning private buildings in Kalisz.


The British Gold Coast Regiment entered German Togoland.  German police opened fire and British soldier Alhaji Grunshi returned it, becoming the first British soldier to fire a shot in World War One.

Spain declared its neutrality.


Last edition:

Thursday, August 6, 1914. More declarations of war.