Germany was absent from the games as it had not been invited.
A revolution, which would ultimately fail, broke out in Brazil.
Last edition:
The Finisterre Range Campaign in New Guinea concluded in an Allied victory. US forces reached Lake Sentani near Hollandia. Australian forces took Madang.
The RAF violated Swiss airspace in order to evade Munich's air warning system. Earlier in the day, the U.S. Army Air Force had raided the heavily defended city, losing 55 aircraft, 14 of which crashed into Switzerland.
Italy started fielding a "Co Belligerent Air Force" in support of the Allies over the Adriatic.
The Special Boat Service raided Santorini in the Aegean.
A British blockade of mutinous Greek troops in Egypt ceased.
Double Indemnity was released in Brazil, a few months ahead of the American release.
The early stages of the Battle of Belgorod began on the Eastern Front when the Wehrmacht's XI Army Corps returned to their prior fortified positions on both sides of the city
Brazil, having banned the use of gasoline powered automobiles the prior year, now did the same for motorcycles in order to conserve fuel.
Sarah Sundin, on her blog, notes:
Today in World War II History—July 23, 1943: First US naval air squadron to operate in Britain arrives for antisubmarine duty—squadron VP-63 with PBY Catalinas, nicknamed the “Mad Cats."
She also notes that Rommel assumed command of Army Group E in Greece to defend that territory from an anticipated Allied invasion.
Lê Đức Thọ confronted Henry Kissinger in anger about the Christmas bombings, yelling at Kissinger for more than an hour. Somewhat ironically for a country that was heir to the Viet Minh effort against the French, particularly for a former prisoner of the French, he did so in French.
The Brazilian government kidnapped six left wing opponents of the military regime and murdered them. While it in no way excuses what occurred, at least one of those murdered was a left wing extremist with a long history in left wing movements in South America.
Mexican television networks Telesistema Mexicano and Televisión Independiente de México, merged to create a Televisa.
In North Africa, the British 8th Army captured Tobruk, a major British victory and a major Afrika Korps defeat.
Off of the Solomon's, the Japanese sank the U.S. Navy light cruiser Juneau, which took 687 men with it, including five brothers of the Irish Catholic Sullivan family of Iowa.
It's commonly asserted that after this the U.S. military would not allow siblings to serve together, but in fact many siblings were already serving together in combat in North Africa as members of Federalized National Guard units. Entire towns would end up loosing huge numbers of their male citizens in the combat actions to come. There was a policy change, which relieved a sole survivor from military service, but it did not come until 1943, and was partially due to the deaths of the Borgstrom brothers of Utah as well. Indeed, the Navy already had a policy precluding siblings from serving on the same vessel, but they did not actively enforce it.
A sister of the Sullivan brothers remained in Navy service. Indeed, their enlistment in the Navy, or in once case a reenlistment, was to avenge the death of her boyfriend, who died at Peal Harbor.
The Sullivan family was not informed of the death of their sons until 1943, at which time their father was informed of all of their deaths at one time. The Navy would commission a ship in their honor during the war, and oddly enough, one of the sons of the one of the men lost would later serve as a post-war officer aboard it. That ship has been decommissioned, but a second The Sullivans was commissioned to take its place.
_flies_the_ship's_battle_flags_during_exercises_at_sea.jpg)
The tragic story was also made into a patriotic movie during the war itself, which was released in 1944.
The Sullivan story was the inspiration for the film Saving Private Ryan, although it's obviously in a much different setting.
It should be noted that at least over 100 men survived the sinking of the Juneau, and were spotted by an USAAC B-17, but radio silence precluded its rapid reporting.
On the same day the cruiser Atlanta and the destroyers Barton, Cushing, Laffey, Monssen and Preston went down while the Japanese suffered the loss of the cruiser Kinugasa and destroyers Akatsuki and Yūdachi.
Brazil, El Salvador, Honduras and Panama broke off diplomatic relations with Vichy France.
I don't know this story well, nor do I know the history of Portugal well, which this event is tightly tied into. Pedro was a Portuguese-born member of a noble family close to the thrown in Portugal. Born with the full name of Pedro de Alcântara Francisco António João Carlos Xavier de Paula Miguel Rafael Joaquim José Gonzaga Pascoal Cipriano Serafim, he not only became Emperor of Brazil, but bizarrely, due to revolution and family associations, was briefly later King of Portugal.
Something often missed in the United States is the fact that early independence movements in Latin America sometimes featured contests between propertied American located noblemen vs. their European opposites, and were not examples of common people rebelling against their colonial masters. No matter how a person might tend to characterize the American Revolution, they were often not analogous to it and featured little input or concern for common people. I'm not familiar, as noted, with the Brazilian episode, as noted, but it is interesting to note that this provides an example of a contest between societal monarchical elites. The first revolutions in Mexico very much followed this pattern before they turned into true revolutions against the Spanish noble class.
Brazil, having endured several days of German U-boat attacks, declared war on Germany and Italy. The Germans has presumed, incorrectly, that Allied ships were taking refuge in South American territorial waters.
Brazil would contribute some ground forces to the war in Europe, but its major contribution would be in regard to providing its massive coastline in the war effort.
On this day, the German 16th Panzer Division crossed the Don, with the path to Stalingrad now open before it.
A renewed naval battle in the Savo Sound occurred between the U.S. Navy and the Imperial Japanese Navy in the early morning hours, resulting in the ultimate loss of the USS Blue.
The Chinese captured Yuijiang.
In the Caribbean, an American B-18, a plane we hardly think of in the context of World War Two, sank the U-654.
.jpg)
The USS Ingraham sank off of Nova Scotia after she was hit in fog by the oil tanker Chemung.
In the novel The Great Gatsby, today is the date on which Nick recounts the guest list.
In Brazil, the first of the Tenente rebellions began, in which junior army officers rose up. In this case, they demanded agrarian and distributist reforms.
Today in World War II History—March 11, 1942: 80 Years Ago—Mar. 11, 1942: In the Philippines, Gen. Douglas MacArthur evacuates Corregidor by PT boat with his family and staff for Mindanao. Col. Karl Bendetsen is appointed director of US Wartime Civil Control Administration to supervise removal of Japanese-Americans from the West Coast. Britain bans sale of white bread, replaced by National Wheatmeal Loaf made of whole wheat and potato flour.
A horror of epic proportions, in an event that features many epic horrors.
Over two days the SS would kill an unknown number of Ukrainians including over 30,000 Jewish Ukrainians. Somewhere between 50,000 and 96,000 Ukrainians would be killed overall in the event.
The scale of such events makes the "we didn't know" excuse levied by so many Germans after the war simply lacking in credibility.
German forces entered the Ukrainian Donets Basin on this day in 1941.
In Moscow Soviet minister Molotov, who also knew about plenty of state sponsored bloodshed, met with Canadian Lord Beaverbrook, who was serving as the British Minister of Supply, and Averell Harriman, from the ostensibly neutral United States, about lend lease to the Soviet Union.
Brazil gave the U.S. Navy operating rights from two Brazilian ports.
We just posted an item for 1909 on Theodore Roosevelt leaving the US for his legendary 1909, 1910 safari. Famously, after losing his effort to regain the Presidency in the three-way race in 1912, he embarked on the exploration of what was then known as the River of Doubt, or more officially the Roosevelt–Rondon Scientific Expedition
It's often noted that Roosevelt never recovered from this trip, but that can be somewhat debated. It's true he was never himself thereafter, but Roosevelt had been a vigorous proponent of "the Strenuous Life" and had lived it. While this is fully admirable, and today would be cited to some degree as a life extending practice, Roosevelt had experienced ill health with asthma in his youth (as have I), and had been shot during the 1912 campaign. Four years of semi enforced idleness as Vice President and President had taken their toll as well, and by the time he left office in 1909 he was, in my view, beginning to significantly age even though he was not yet 60.
Having said that, he made a really dedicated effort to join the Army as head of an expeditionary unit during World War One, so he had plenty of vigor left, even after these ordeals.
It's also noteworthy how, just before World War One, there was plenty of exploration of the remote regions of the globe still going on. The era immediately before the war seems to have been the last great push in the age of exploration.
Last prior edition:
Related threads:
Mexican strongman Victoriano Huerta promised an investigation into the death of Clemente Vergara while, at the same time, Secretary of State William Jennings Bryan announced that the Texas Rangers would not be allowed to cross into Mexico to arrest the suspect Mexican soldiers.
Theodore Roosevelt's and Brazilian explorer Cândido Rondon's expedition team reached Caceres, Brazil, to begin exploration of the Rio da Dúvida, an event from which Roosevelt's health would never recover by the time it was done.
The Vanderbilt Cup race was held.
