Wednesday, May 17, 1944. Landing at Wakde.

 

The US landed on Wakde.

US forces also landed on Insumarai and at Arare on mainland New Guinea.

The U.S. Navy raided Surabaya's oil installations in the  Dutch East Indies by air, and then the night B-24s did so again.

Merrill's Marauders and Chinese Nationalists captured Myitkyina airfield.  Allied troops landed by glider later that day.

Allied forces took Piumarolo, Monte Faggeta, Esperiam Formiam Sant'Angelo. The Germans decide to withdraw to a new defensive perimeter.

From Sarah Sundin:

Today in World War II History—May 17, 1944: Allied Expeditionary Air Force approves black & white invasion stripes for aircraft for D-day to prevent friendly fire, not announced yet to maintain security.

Last prior edition:

Tuesday, May 16, 1944. The Romani Uprising, Advancing in Italy

1940s, 1944, Allied Powers, Auschwitz, Belgium, boats and ships, Diplomacy, German SS, Gypsies, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Operation Diadem, Romani Uprising, The Holocaust, World War Two

Wednesday, May 10, 1944. New Medals.

Chinese forces, while under assault elsewhere in China, crossed the Salween River near the Burmese border in an offensive.

The Japanese destroyer Karukaya was sunk in the South China Sea by the USS Silversides.

Soviet General Aleksandr Vasilevsky was wounded in the head at Sevastopol when his car drove over a mine.  He recovered and later served again in high command, and went on to be Stalin's post-war Minister of War, a position he lost with Stalin's death.  He died in 1977.

A series of Merchant Marine medals were established, recognizing their very dangerous service in various theaters.

Last prior edition:

Tuesday, May 9, 1944. Sevastopol liberated.

1940s, 1944, Aircraft, El Salvador, Red Army, Siege of Sevastopol, Soviet Navy, technology

Wednesday, May 4, 1944. Japanese Command Changes.

 

Soemu Toyoda (豊田 副武) was made Commander in Chief of the Imperial Japanese Navy Combined Fleet.

Toyada became a full Admiral only shortly before the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor and was opposed to it from the onset, believing that a war with the United States was unwinnable.  He figured in late war Imperial Conferences on finding an end to the war, which he was in favor of ending but he wished for better terms for Japan, even after the atomic strikes on the country.  He was in favor of defending the home islands to the last man.

Arrested and charged with war crimes in 1948, he was acquitted in 1949, the only member of the Japanese armed forces to prevail in a war crimes trial.  He died in 1957 at age 72.

The British 14th Army captured the heights above the Maungdaw-Buthindaung road in the Arakan.

The USS Donnell was heavily damaged by a strike by the U-473. Towed to Scotland, she became a total loss.

The U-852 was scuttled on the Somali coast.

Harvard scientists announce the ability to produce synthetic quinine.

The French Resistance burned 100,000 liters of acetone at the Lambiotte plant.

2nd Lt. John W. Garrett, age 19, was killed making an emergency landing of a B-24 at Rentschler Field, East Hartford, Connecticut. 

Sarah Sundin has some interesting entries on her blog, Today in World War II History—May 3, 1944.

She reports, for instance, that Going My Way was released.

I've never seen the film, but according to some its the best in Bing Crosby's career.  I probably should catch it.

The movie is really from the golden age of the portrayal of Catholic clerics in American films.  It interestingly came before the point at which Catholics had crossed over into the American cultural mainstream, and remained their own ethnicity to a strong degree.  The era, which started in the 1930s and continued into the 1950s, basically ended after the American Catholic integration occured following John F. Kennedy's election to the White House.

It's interesting, in that there are an entire series of really sympathetic portrayals of Catholic priests and Catholicism in general from this era, including Boys Town (1938), The Song of Bernadette (1943), The Bells of Saint Mary's (1945), The Keys of the Kingdom (1944), The Quiet Man (1952) On The Waterfront (1954), and The Left Hand of God (1955).  These were all major motion pictures, not niche pictures such as For Greater Glory (2012).  They came on pretty strongly in the late 1930s and continued on into the mid 50s, but really disappeared after that.  By the 1970's M*A*S*H the portrayal of priests had declined to the point where the portrayal was entirely satyric.

Sundin reports that meat rationing was temporarily relaxed, which brings up this post that we pondered the topic in from a few years back:

Hunting (and fishing), Stateside, during World War Two.

Owning a packing house, as they did, I wonder what was table fare for my father and his family during the war?

Last prior edition:

Tuesday, May 2, 1944. Sensing a change.

1940s, 1944, boats and ships, French Resistance Movements, Red Army, Romania, Second Battle of Târgu Frumos, Spain, U.S. Navy, Vichy France

Monday, April 10, 1944. Odessa taken by the Red Army.

The Red Army took Odessa. 24,000 German and Romanian troops were evacuated, although many of them were wounded, along with 55,000 tons of supplies.

The RAF dropped 3,600 tons of bombs in a single raid that included Germany, France and Belgium.  It was a record.

Gen. William Slim ordered an offensive to relieve Kohima and into Japanese territory.

The U-68 and U-515 were sunk in the Atlantic by U.S. aircraft flying from the USS Guadalcanal.

108th Gun Bn., camouflage and concealment of 90mm AA gun battery height finder, dug in. Anzio area, Italy. 10 April, 1944.

Last prior edition:

Easter Sunday, April 9, 1944. A wartime Easter, de Gaulle becomes Commander of the Free French, fighting in Romania, a Ukrainian heroine, Belgrade bombed.

1940s, 1944, Catholic, Charles de Gaulle, Christianity, Crimea, Easter, Eastern Front, First Battle of Târgu Frumos, Free French, Personalities, Radio, religion, Romania, Soviet Air Forces, World War Two, Yugoslavia

Holy Saturday, April 8, 1944. The invasion of Romania, maybe. Luftwaffe trans Russia flights, maybe. Battle of the Tennis Court,

The Red Army commenced the First Jassy-Kishinev Offensive, the invasion of Romania.

Or maybe it did. This is asserted by historian David Glanz, but the Soviets themselves don't really acknowledge it, perhaps because the effort was botched, as will be seen.

It seems to me that Glanz is likely correct.

Ju 290 A-9

The Luftwaffe began cargo flights from Polish airfields to Manchuria, using Junkers Ju 290 A-9 aircraft.  Or at least maybe they did.  This is fairly consistently asserted, but the details are obscure and there are obvious problems with the assertion, as common as it is.  For one thing, even at very high altitude, it would be surprising that the Red Army would not have shot at least one of the planes down.  Sill, at least some experts on the Luftwaffe claim it occured.  Others are skeptical.

I'm pretty skeptical.

For one reason, Imperial Japan was at peace with the Soviet Union, and I don't imagine that it would have wanted to risk that in 1944 when it was already losing in the Pacific.  It was doing okay in China and in Southeast Asia, but it didn't have the manpower to add the USSR to its list of enemies, particularly over something of such doubtful utility.

Secondly, flying clean over the USSR and not getting shot down would be tough.  Even if we assume, and we probably can, that for much of the flight it would not have encountered any opposition, early on it certainly might, and then again nearer its destination.

Finally, the Germans kept records on everything they did, and such records seem to be lacking here.

The Red Army began a determined assault into Crimea through its land bridge with Ukraine.

The Battle of the Tennis Court happened within the Battle of Kohima.  It was a pitched, hand to hand, battle that went on for several days.  It has been referred to as one of the greatest battles in history, and a British/Indian Thermopylae

The German submarine U-2 hit the German trawler Helmi Söhle and sank off of Pilau.

The U-962 was sunk off of Cape Finisterre by the Royal Navy.

Last prior edition:

Good Friday, April 7, 1944. The Vrba-Wetzler Report.

1940s, 1944, Auschwitz, Battle of Kohima, Bougainville, Crimea, Eastern Front, Good Friday, Nazi Germany, Operation U-Go, The Holocaust, World War Two

Tuesday, March 28, 1944. Another day in the war.

Jewish Welfare Board Seder at Muskogee, Oklahoma, March 28, 1944.

Mexican National Mercy Martinez harvesting carrots in the field in El Centro, Imperial County, California on March 28, 1944.

The British Parliament voted to give female teachers the same pay as men.

The Italian Communist Party declared cooperation with "bourgeois" parties.

The Red Army took Nikolaev.

Fighting carried on in the CBI.

"Infantrymen of the 66th Regt, 2nd Bn, 22nd Chinese Division advancing upon a group of tanks upon which a Jap Magnetic anti tank mine has been set off by remote control ordnance Intelligence purposes.

These tanks had burnt out. They belong to the First Provisional Tank Group and maintenance men of that outfit will salvage the salvageable parts left on these tanks. They met action against the Japs in the area a few miles north of the village of Shadeazup, Northern Burma. This photo demonstrated though, how the Chinese troops had actually fought with the tank group. This tank group is an American trained Chinese outfit, they having received their training at Ramgarh, India from U.S. Army Armoured Corps instructors. These infantrymen are also American trained. 28 March, 1944."

Ships were inspected:

USS Cleveland (CL-55) during a Captain's inspection, March 28, 1944.

Combat runs were made.

Corsairs on a mission over the Solomons.

Stricken B-17 "Whodat/The Dingbat" of the 381st Bomb Group in flight over Reims, France, 28 March 1944. Just hit, she was dropping out of formation with three dead on board.

B-17 going down over France, March 28, 1944.

Training was ongoing.

M4 Shermans at Camp San Luis Obispo, California, March 28, 1944.

Field Mess, Camp Cooke, California, March 28, 1944.

Tank crews with M4 Shermans, Camp Cooke, California, March 28, 1944.

The final game of the 1944 NCAA Men's Division Tournament saw Utah beat Dartmouth.

Commander Richard Wainwright, Jr., winner of the Medal of Honor for action at Vera Cruz in 1914, and recalled to service after having been medically retired in 1921, died in service at Annapolis at age 61.  His Medal of Honor citation reads:

For distinguished conduct in battle, engagements of Vera Cruz, 21 and 22 April 1914. Lt. Wainwright was eminent and conspicuous in command of his battalion; was in the fighting of both days, and exhibited courage and skill in leading his men through action. In seizing the customhouse, he encountered for many hours the heaviest and most pernicious concealed fire of the entire day, but his courage and coolness under trying conditions were marked.

Last prior edition:

Monday, March 27, 1944. Knock Out Dropper.

Wednesday, March 15, 1944. The destruction of Monte Cassino.

Allied aircraft dropped 14,000 tons of bombs on Monte Cassino and fired 195,000 rounds of artillery.  British, Indian and New Zealand troops tried, and failed, to take the abbey.

The Red Army crossed the Bug.

US troops held off a Japanese assault on the American beachhead at Bougainville.

Additional cavalry landed on Manus Island in the Admiralities.

The Japanese crossed the Chindwwin River in Burma.

The U-653 was sunk in the North Atlantic by the Royal Navy.  The British submarine Stonehenge was lost in the Indian Ocean.

The State Anthem of the Soviet Union replaced The Internationale as the anthem of the USSR.

Last prior:

Tuesday, March 14, 1944. Isolating Ireland

Monday, March 13, 1944. Bougainville counterattack.

US troops regained most of the ground lost on Bougainville in a counterattack.

37th Infantry Division soldier firing Thompson submachinegun on Bougainville, March 13, 1944.

Light tank in action, Bougainville.

Artillery in action, Bougainville.

U.S. forces overrun the small Japanese garrison at Hauwei.

In northwest Indian, the 17th and 20th Indian Divisions were authorized to pull back to Imphal. Mountbatten requested American aircraft to supply the Chinese and to redeploy the 5th Indian Division from the Arakan.  

Japanese aircraft attacked the Broadway airfield being used to supply the Chindits.

The Kingdom of Italy and the Soviet Union restored diplomatic relations with each other.

The Red Army took Kherson.

The U-575 was sunk in the Atlantic.  The Japanese cruiser Tatsuta was sunk off Hachijō-jima by the American submarine Sand Lance.

Last Prior:

Sunday, March 12, 1944. Derailed.

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.

Tuesday, March 7, 1944. U-Go and women at war.

The Japanese launched Operation U-Go on the Indian Burmese border.

It was a major Japanese offensive, and would be one of their last.

Today In Wyoming's History: March 7: 1944  It is announced that the Wyoming State Hospital at Rock Springs will be training nurses for the Army.

In Germany, the National Socialist Women's League (Nationalsozialistische Frauenschaft, abbreviated NS-Frauenschaft) started making house calls to recruit women between the ages of 17 and 45 to work in "the service of the community" as part of an effort to address the German labor shortage.

Navajo woman with carrots, near Phoenix, Arizona, March 7, 1944.

On Bougainville, the Japanese were preparing for an assault, which is the same day these men of the 37th Infantry Division were photographed.

Last prior:

Monday, March 6, 1944. "Black Monday"

Sunday, March 5, 1944. The Uman–Botoșani Offensive, Yeager shot down.

A member of No. 9 Commando at Anzio, equipped for a patrol with his Bren gun, 5 March 1944.

The Red Army began the Uman–Botoșani Offensive in Ukraine.  It would become one of hte most successful Soviet offensives of the war.  On this day they took Iziaslav and Yampil.

The 77th Indian Infantry Brigade, the Chindits, was inserted in Burma by glider.

Flight Officer Chuck Yeager was shot down by Unteroffizier Irmfried Klotz, east of Bordeaux, France, on his eighth combat mission.  Russ Spicer, who would, like Yeager, remain in the Air Force after the war, was also shot down.  Unlike Yeager, Spicer did not live a long life, dying at age 59 just after he retired from the Air Force as a Maj. Gen.

Irmfried Klotz did not survive the war.  He was actually a fairly green pilot, and the FW190 he was flying was shot down by another P51 in the same dogfight.  He bailed out, but his parachute did not open.

Yeager would escape to Spain by March 30, and then return to action.  Spicer spent the rest of the war in a POW camp.

Friday, March 5, 1824. The First Anglo Burmese War commences.

The First Anglo Burmese War commenced with a British declaration of war against the Burmese Empire over competing claims to Northeast India.

The war would be one of the costliest British wars of all time, although would prevail, and it would commence the beginning of the end for the Burmese Empire.

Saturday, February 5, 1944. The Battle of Admin Box

 

Sikh troops fighting in the Battle of Admin Box.

The Battle of Admin Box, so named as it was in a rectangular shaped area of the Indian Army's 7th Division administrative area, began, with the British Indian Army defending its position against a Japanese offensive in Burma which was calculated to draw off British troops from a larger Japanese offensive.

The Chindit 16th Long Range Penetration Brigade left Ledo and marched south toward the "Aberdeen" area in Burma.

The Red Army took Lutsk and Rovno in the Ukrainian sector.

The Germans withdrew to a smaller perimeter within the Korsun Pocket, which the Germans were able to resupply by air.

Friday, February 4, 1944. Operation Ha-Go.

The Japanese launched Operation Ha-Go in the Arakan, a major offensive against British forces in Burma.  As was typical for Japanese offensive operations, it featured a strict timetable.

Stemming from the same region, the Swiss passed on a protest from Thailand, stating:

The Swiss Minister (Bruggmann) to the Secretary of State

Th. 1 Thailand

The Minister of Switzerland presents his compliments to The Honorable, The Secretary of State, and has the honor to submit a communication from the Government of Thailand which has been received from the Federal Political Department in Berne, with the request that it be transmitted to the Government of the United States:

“In air raids about the end of 1943 and January 1944 Anglo-American aeroplanes dropped bombs on Chulalongkon Hospital, Saowapha, on the Pasteur Institute of the Red Cross Bangrak Hospital and two mental disease hospitals. Such humanitarian establishments cannot be said in any way to be military objectives and the indiscriminate bombing thereof is not only a violation of the Geneva Convention [Page 1322]of 192925 but also of the principles of humanity. His Majesty’s Government therefore enters a strong protest against the unjustifiable act of destruction above mentioned.”

The Minister would be grateful to The Honorable, The Secretary of State, for an acknowledgment of this communication.26

Washington , February 4, 1944.

All Japanese organized resistance on Kwajalein ceased.  Of 8,700 defenders, 265, many of them Korean laborers, survive.   The American forces sustained 370 KIA and 1,500 WIA.

Men of the 7th Infantry Division getting cigarettes.  Note the rifle, probably a M1903, with a grenade launcher attachment and that the men have bayonets fixed.  Note also that one of the men has a M3 fighting knife.

M3's on Kwajalein.

7th Infantry Division torching Japanese position with flamethrower, February 4, 1944.

The Germans attacked the British 1st Division at Anzio, forcing it to fall back.  The US 5th Army gained ground further south.

The Soviet 42nd Army took Gdov.  Hitler ordered the 24th panzer Division to assist in the relief of the Korsun Pocket.  Relieving forces are spearheaded by the Heavy Panzer Regiment Bake.

The U-854 struck a mine in the Baltic and sank.

President Roosevelt established the Bronze Star.

Executive Order 9419—Bronze Star Medal

February 04, 1944

By virtue of the authority vested in me as President of the United States and as Commander in Chief of the Army and Navy of the United States, it is hereby ordered as follows:

There is hereby established the Bronze Star Medal, with accompanying ribbons and appurtenances, for award to any person who, while serving in any capacity in or with the Army, Navy, Marine Corps, or Coast Guard of the United States on or after December 7, 1941, distinguishes, or has distinguished, himself by heroic or meritorious achievement or service, not involving participation in aerial flight, in connection with military or naval operations against an enemy of the United States.

The Bronze Star Medal and appurtenances thereto shall be of appropriate design approved by the Secretary of War and the Secretary of the Navy, and may be awarded by the Secretary of War, or the Secretary of the Navy, or by such commanding officers of the Army, Navy, Marine Corps, or Coast Guard as the said Secretaries may respectively designate. Awards shall be made under such regulations as the said Secretaries shall severally prescribe, and such regulations shall, so far as practicable, be of uniform application.

No more than one Bronze Star Medal shall be awarded to any one person, but for each succeeding heroic or meritorious achievement or service justifying such an award a suitable device may be awarded to be worn with the medal as prescribed by appropriate regulations. The Bronze Star Medal or device may be awarded posthumously, and, when so awarded, may be presented to such representative of the deceased as may be designated in the award.

Signature of Franklin D. Roosevelt

FRANKLIN D ROOSEVELT

The White House,

February 4, 1944.

It's a surprise, really, to realize that Bronze Star was created this late, but like the Silver Star, it was created to reflect combat conditions that the US had not experienced since the Civil War.

Sunday, January 9, 1944. Advances on all fronts.

Red Cross helping men at 5th Army rest center prepare packages for sending home. 9 January, 1944.

The Red Army took Polonne and Kamianets-Podilskyi.

Polonne had been within Poland until the Russo Polish War, when it went to the Soviets in 1920.  It had a major Jewish population before World War Two.  Kamianets-Podilskyi had also been part of the post World War One Polish state until 1920.

The U-81 was sunk at Pola Italy by American aircraft.

The US 2nd Corps attacked Cervaro and Monte Trochio in Italy.

The US constructed a second airfield on Bougainville.

Pvt. R. Dennis, 182nd Infantry, Americal Division, Bougainville, January 9, 1944.

Allied forces took Maungdaw in Burma.

Jimmy Page of Led Zeppelin fame was born on this day in 1944.

Sunday, October 17, 1943. The Burma Railway completed.

The German surface raider Michel was torpedoed and sunk off of Japan by the USS Tarpon.  On the same day the German's lost the U-540, U-631 and U-841 in the Atlantic.

The Burma Railway, constructed with Asian slave labor and Allied POWs, was completed.

Tamils working on the bridge.

The railway may be best remembered today due to the fairly inaccurate movie, The Bridge On the River Kwai, which is nonetheless a great movie.

POW illustration of the construction of Bridge 227 across the Kwai.

A second concrete bridge replaced the original wooden bridge shortly after its construction. It was destroyed by the RAF in February 1945.  Shortly after the war, most of the original railway was dismantled and only the original 81 miles remains in use.

The Third Moscow Conference begins.

It would begin to work on the post-war world.

Chicago began running its subway for the first time.

Tuesday, April 27, 1943. Hill 609.

The Battle of Hill 609 commenced, in which the U.S. II Corps took on and defeated the Afrika Korps in the first clear-cut US victory against the European Axis of World War Two. The II Corps in Tunisia by that time was commanded by Omar Bradley.

Bradley entered the military only due to the education opportunity West Point afforded, having originally intending to go to the University of Missouri to study law.  Born into poverty, with his father dying when he was 15, he was employed as a boilermaker prior to entering West Point. Taking the admittance examination was suggested by a Sunday School teacher.  An excellent athlete, he was offered positions in professional baseball while in West Point.

Heinrich Himmler directed concentration camps to cease murdering inmates capable of working in order to use them for labor.  The mentally ill incapable of working were moved to priority execution status.

Chindits, 3d Indian Infantry Division, unit patch.

Sarah Sundin notes on her blog:

Today in World War II History—April 27, 1943: Radar-jamming devices become operational in eastern England. British & Indian Chindits cross the Chindwin River in return to India from raids in Burma.

The Chindits were a special long range penetration unit made up of British, Gurkha and Burmese soldiers.  They were officially the 3d Indian Infantry Division.  They were named after lions, using a corruption of the Burmese name for lions, Chinthe (Burmese: ခြင်္သေ့).  Lions are a popular symbol in Burma.  Asiatic Lions do still exist, although we do not tend to think of lions in Africa, but in fact they once had a much wider range.

A tornado hit Akron, Ohio. 

Friday, January 15, 1943. Tragedies and the Pentagon dedication.

US B-24s bombed a Japanese convoy off the coast of Burma and sank the Nichimei Maru, which was, unbeknownst to them, carrying 1,000 Dutch and Australian POWs.  Most survived, but over 50 lost their lives.

Eric Knight, author of the Lassie books, died in a C-54 air crash in Dutch Guiana.  He was serving as a Major in the U.S. Army and assigned to Special Services at the time.

Knight had been born in 1897 in the United Kingdom.  His family moved to the US in 1912, but he'd only been an American citizen since 1942.

FBI agents Harold D. Haberfeld and Percy E. Foxworth were killed in an aviation accident in Suriname.  The were flying to North Africa at the request of Gen. Eisenhower in a role seconded to the military at the time.

Topographic map of Pentagon area in 1945.

The Pentagon was dedicated.  Construction had only commenced on September 11, 1941, which says something about. . . well something.

The British launch a new offensive against the Afrika Korps at Beurat, Libya.  Tunisia saw a lot of air action on this day, and Tripoli, Libya was bombed by US and RAF B-24s.

Andrée de Jongh

Belgian resistance worker and member of the nobility, Andrée de Jongh, organizer and leader of the Comet Line that assisted downed Allied aircrewmen to escape the Germans, was arrested in southern France.  She survived the war and went on to work in leper hospitals all over the world thereafter.  She was decorated by the United States and United Kingdom after the war, and made a Belgian Countess.

The XP-54 flew for the first time.

The airplane was a pusher, and performed below expectations and therefore did not enter service.