Showing posts with label British Army. Show all posts
Showing posts with label British Army. Show all posts

Wednesday, July 16, 2025

Monday, July 16, 1945. Trinity.


The first detonation of an atomic weapon.

The name is nearly blasphemous. The device itself was called the "Gadget".


Nuclear power, sadly, arrived in the form of a weapon.  It had not, however, yet been used that way.

British soldiers were taking advantage of the relaxation of the fraternization rules by chatting with German women.  We often hear of the calorie deprivation of the Second World War, but, while not seeking to be vulgar, the young woman on the far right clearly hadn't been too calorie deprived in the late stages of the war.


While photos can be deceiving, none of these women appear to be upset that the war was over and the British were there.

Related threads:

Saturday, July 14, 1945. Verboten und Nicht Verboten

Last edition:

Sunday, July 15, 1945. Lifting the blackout.

Saturday, July 5, 2025

Monday, July 5, 1915. Anarchist end, Ottoman failure, British withdrawal.

 Anarchist bomber Eric Muenter committed suicide while in New York police custody.

The Ottoman Army failed at a final attempt to recapture ground in the Battle of Gully Ravine.

British forces withdrew from Lahij, South Arabia.

Last edition:

Sunday, July 4, 1915. Sedicionistas hit Los Indios. Ottomans and Arabs tribesmen hit Lahij, South Arabia (جنوب الجزيرة العربية).

Thursday, July 5, 1900. Democratic nominees and a Canadian VC.

The Democratic Party nominated William Jennings Bryan for President, and former U.S. Vice-President Adlai E. Stevenson for Vice President.

Originally timed for July 4, a debate over the silver to gold ration for coinage delayed it.


British born Canadian soldier Arthur Herbert Lindsay Richardson

On the 5th July, 1900, at Wolve Spruit, about 15 miles north of Standerton, a party of Lord Strathcona's Corps, only 38 in number, came into contact, and was engaged at close quarters, with a force of 80 of the enemy. When the order to retire had been given, Sergeant Richardson rode back under a very heavy cross-fire and picked up a trooper whose horse had been shot and who was wounded in two places and rode with him out of fire. At the time when this act of gallantry was performed, Sergeant Richardson was within 300 yards of the enemy, and was himself riding a wounded horse.

The Commonwealth of Australia Constitution Act passed the Parliament of the United Kingdom.

Last edition:

Wednesday, July 4, 1900. Streetcar disaster.

Friday, July 4, 2025

Wednesday, July 4, 1945. MacArthur declares things wrapped up while additional mopping up occurs in the Philippines.

"With the 6th Inf. Div. in the Cagayan Valley, Luzon, P.I., about 9 miles north of Bagabag along Highway 4. Scene showing a reinforcing patrol of A Co., 1st Bn. of the 63rd Regt. on road at the frontlines just prior to moving ahead. 4 July, 1945. Company A, 1st Battalion, 63rd Infantry Regiment, 6th Infantry Division. Photographer: Pfc. Murray Schneiweiss."

General Douglas MacArthur announced that the Philippines had been completely liberated while the 24th Infantry Division organized an amphibious expeditionary force to liberate Sarangani Bay, south of Davao. 

Hmmm. . . . 

President Truman released a short statement for the Fourth of July.

Statement by the President: The Fourth of July.

July 04, 1945

AGAIN THIS YEAR we celebrate July 4 as the anniversary of the day one hundred and sixty-nine years ago on which we declared our independence as a sovereign people.

In this year of 1945, we have pride in the combined might of this nation which has contributed signally to the defeat of the enemy in Europe. We have confidence that, under Providence, we soon may crush the enemy in the Pacific. We have humility for the guidance that has been given us of God in serving His will as a leader of freedom for the world.

This year, the men and women of our armed forces, and many civilians as well, are celebrating the anniversary of American Independence in other countries throughout the world. Citizens of these other lands will understand what we celebrate and why, for freedom is dear to the hearts of all men everywhere. In other lands, others will join us in honoring our declaration that all men are created equal and are endowed with certain inalienable rights--life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

Here at home, on this July 4, 1945, let us honor our Nation's creed of liberty, and the men and women of our armed forces who are carrying this creed with them throughout the world.

Canadian troops in Aldershot rioted about the delay in returning them home to Canada.

Rumors started circulating in Berlin that Hitler was alive and well.

The British Occupation force arrived in the city.

Last edition:  

Tuesday, July 3, 1945. Don't use the Bomb.

Sunday, July 4, 1915. Sedicionistas hit Los Indios. Ottomans and Arabs tribesmen hit Lahij, South Arabia (جنوب الجزيرة العربية).

Sedicionistas hoped to bring the territory south of the C line back into Mexico.

Sedicionistas, hoping to spark a revolution in the southern US to bring what had formerly part of Mexico back into the country, launched their first cross border raid, hitting the Los Indios Ranch in Cameron County, Texas.

Interestingly, in some parts of the US July 4, 1915 was Americanization Day.


It would  be so defined by the movement supporting it up until entry into World War One and would later become Loyalty Day.

The Ottomans and loyal Arab tribesmen attacked British held Lahij in South Arabia (جنوب الجزيرة العربية), or Greater Yemen).  The city on the Indian Ocean is now in Yemen.

Related threads:

Wednesday, January 6, 1915. The Plan of San Diego.


Last edition:

Tuesday, July 1, 2025

Thursday, July 1, 1915. Synchronization Gear.

South African forces under Louis Botha defeated German colonial forces at the Battle of Otavi in German South West Africa with assistance from Canada, Great Britain, Portugal and Portuguese Angola. 

The Battle of Gully Ravine started at Gallipoli.  Two Victoria Cross awards would occur due to today's actions.

German fighter pilot Kurt Wintgens became the first person to shoot down a plane using a machine gun equipped with synchronization gear, starting the "Fokker Scourge".


Of the event, he wrote:

Dear Karl:

Unfortunately I gave you the wrong address last time, for during my voyage to Mühlhausen I got a different destination and for the time being I am with the Bavarian (unit) Abteilung 6b. Up to now nothing of real interest happened. In Mannheim I had tested the machine and then from Strasbourg by air to the Front, where lately a (Morane) Parasol fighter monoplane à la Garros had made its presence felt.

I had flown to the Front a couple of times without seeing an opponent, until yesterday evening when the big moment came. Time: 6:00 o'clock. Place: east of Lunéville. Altitude: between 2,000 and 2,500 m. Suddenly I notice a monoplane in front of me, about 300 m higher. And at the same moment he had already dived in front of me, fiercely firing his machine gun decently. But as I, at once, dived in an opposite direction under him, he missed wildly. After four attacks I reached his altitude in a large turn, and now my machine gun did some talking. I attacked at such a close distance that we looked each other into the face.

After my third attack he did the most stupid thing that he could do – he fled. I turned the crate on the spot and had him at once, beautifully, in my (gun)sight. Rapid fire for about four seconds, and down went his nose. I could follow him until 500 meters, then, unfortunately, I was fired upon from the ground too hotly; the fight (now) being far over the French lines. Hopefully, I'll soon meet a biplane.

Cordial greetings and so long,

Your friend,

— Kurt"

He'd be killed in action in September, 1916.

The US Navy started the Office of Naval Aeronautics.

The United States Forest Service combined the Jemez National Forest and Pecos National Forest in northern New Mexico to establish the Santa Fe National Forest, which luckily for us today was not hacked up to be sold by Sen. Mike Lee.

The Moapa National Forest was absorbed into the Toiyabe National Forest in Nevada, which fortunately Mike Lee has to keep his hands off of for the time being.

New York City established in the Child Welfare Board.

Blues great Willie Dixon was born.

Last edition:

Wednesday, June 30, 1915. Armenian massacre.

Wednesday, June 18, 2025

Monday, June 18, 1945. The death of Gen. Simon Bolivar Buckner, Jr.


Gen. Simon Bolivar Buckner, Jr. was killed by Japanese artillery on Okinawa.  He was 58 years old, making him one of the older U.S. Generals of the Second World War.

The artillery projectile was of the flat shooting rifle type, and the projectile had actually ricocheted off of a coral reef, and then hit Buckner.

Prior to World War Two, Buckner had principally been involved in the education and training of troops.  He had seen overseas duty, however, in the Philippines in 1908.

His father, the senior Simon Bolivar Buckner, had been an American Army officer during the Mexican War, and a Confederate general during the Civil war.

Prime Minister Kantarō Suzuki informed the Japanese Supreme Council of Emperor Hirohito's intention to seek peace with the Allies as soon as possible.

The USS Bonefish was sunk in Toyama Bay.

The Chinese Army took Wenchow.

The Soviets put sixteen officers of the Polish Home Army on trial for fighting the Soviets.


William Joyce, Lord Haw Haw, was put on trial for treason.

The British Army began demobilizing.

Last edition:

Sunday, June 1, 2025

Friday, June 1, 1945. The Levant, the fate of the German Cossacks, and of Danish collaborators.

Twenty seven P-51 Mustangs out of 148 escordging B-29s were lost in a thunderstorm en route to Osaka.

Charles de Gaulle accused the British of meddling in French affairs in the Middle East. In response, the British accused the French of using Lend-Lease equipment to fight the Syrians and Lebanese in violation of the agreement with the United States, which the French were almost certainly doing.  The British meanwhile complete the occupation of Lebanon and Syria.

Cossack cemetery in Peggetz.  By He96848 - own work (transferred from de:Image:Kosakenfriedhof2.jpg), GPL, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=5447806

British troops reluctantly began the forcible repatriation of approximately 40,000 members of the Cossack Corps and their families.  Conflict broke out resulting in 700 Cossack deaths from gunshots, panic, and suicide.

The repatriated Cossacks would meet with death in their home countries.  The few who managed to avoid repatriation tended to immigrate to the United States, where they spent the rest of their lives in an understandably insular manner.

Cossacks had suffered as an ethnicity under Communism and largely joined the Germans, as many other Soviet citizens did, hoping to overthrow the Communist government while not really giving much thought to what the Germans stood for.  The Nazis proved to be oddly fascinated with them, so much so that they were given a false ethnic identity to make them more "Aryan".  

Sarah Sundin's blog also discusses their fate today, and that of Danish collaborators:

Today in World War II History—June 1, 1940 & 1945: Denmark decrees prison for war profiteers and for those who aided Germans or joined German military or police units, and the death penalty for those in Danish Nazi terror organizations.

Japanese troops began to grow upset with the war on Okinawa.

Last edition:

Thursday, May 31, 1945. Intervening in Syria.

    Saturday, May 31, 2025

    Thursday, May 31, 1945. Intervening in Syria.

    Churchill informed de Gaulle that British forces had been instructed to intervene in the Levant in order to end the fighting and the threat it posed to Allied supply lines to the Pacific.  The British soon arranged a ceasefire but British intervention would bring the UK and France to the point of war.


    The Norwegian government started to return to Oslo.

    Odilo Globocnik, age 41, Austrian Nazi  committed suicide after being captured by the British.

    On Okinawa, the Japanese pulled out of Shuri.

    Japanese resistance ended on Negros in the Philippines.

    Last edition.

    Wednesday, May 30, 1945. Czech reprisals.

    Monday, May 31, 1915. An Armenian provisional state.

    Imperial Russian general Nikolai Yudenich arrived in Van, Turkey and appointed Armenian resistance leader Aram Manukian Governor of the Armenian provisional government.

    British and Ottoman troops fought in the marshes of the Tigris between the towns of Amara and Qurna, Mesopotamia (Iraq).

    The Germans pushed the French back at Souchez.

    British and French colonial troops laid siege to German forts around Garua, German Cameroon.

    Zeppelin L38 bombed London.

    Italian Ralph DePalma won the 5th Indianapolis 500 driving a Mercedes 18/100.

    Last edition:

    Saturday, May 29, 1915. Success against the Ottomans.