Tuesday, June 27, 1944. Angelo Klonis or Thomas E. Underwood?

A famous photograph was taken of Saipan, which popularly is now claimed to be of Greek immigrant Angelo S. Klonis, was taken on this day, on Saipan.  

Or, maybe not.

First the Klonis claim, which was not advanced by Konis during his lifetime.

Painted Bricks: Evangelo's, Santa Fe New Mexico

Over on one of our other blogs, we posted this item:

Painted Bricks: Evangelo's, Santa Fe New Mexico:

Tavern sign for Evangelo's in Santa Fe, New Mexico, featuring the famous Life Magazine cover photograph of Angelo Klonis, the founder of the tavern. The late Mr. Klonis was a soldier during World War Two when this photograph of him ws taking by Life photographer Eugene Smith.  Konis, a Greek immigrant, opened this bar in his adopted home town in the late 1960s, at which time his identify as the soldier photographed by Smith was not widely known.

We also posted this on our blog Some Gave All.

There's some interesting things going on in this scene, that are worth at least noting.  For one thing, we have an iconic photograph of a U.S. soldier in World War Two, which is often mistaken for a photograph of a Marine given the helmet cover, appearing on the sign for a cocktail lounge in 2014.  Sort of unusual, but the fact that it was owned by the soldier depicted explains that.

Note also, however, the dove with the olive branch, the symbol of peace.  Interesting really.  Perhaps a reflection of the views of the founder, who was a Greek immigrant who located himself in Santa Fe, went to war and then  came back to his adopted home town.

All on a building that is in the local adobe style, which not all of the buildings in downtown Santa Fe actually were when built.

I don't know what all we can take away from this, but it sends some interesting messages, intentional or not, to the careful observer.

It's an interesting story, which I took at face value at the time.  I no longer do.

The problem is, it is supposedly known that Klonis, who didn't talk about his military service during his lifetime hardly at all, and who returned to Greece for a long period of time after the war, and came back during the 1960s, was supposedly also on Omaha Beach on June 6, 1944.  Advocates for this photograph being Klonis maintain that he must have been part of a secret Army unit, probably part of the OSS.

Hmmm . . . that doesn't pass the smell test, quite frankly.  Getting a soldier from Normandy to Saipan in just a few days would have been a monumental effort in 1944.  It wouldn't be easy now.  And while Saipan was an important strategic objective, it was just that. There's nothing that was so wildly consequential in Saipan that the War Department would have needed to transfer enlisted men from one front to another.  Moreover, the Army had specialized troops, Rangers, in the Pacific already.

I don't believe it.

Originally, the figure in the photo was identified as Marine Thomas Ellis Underwood.  The Klonis claim didn't come until many years later.

And I'm not the only one who doesn't believe it.

The Weary Warrior

First of all, the guy in that photograph is a Marine, not a soldier. The article explains this in detail, but the helmet cover alone makes that clear.  And there's quite a bit more.

More than anything, however, transferring a soldier from France to Saipan in 44?  No way.

The Klonis story, however, has really had legs, and It's expanded out to include all sorts of elements, including that Klonis had joined the Army then asked to switch to the Marines, but upon learning of the German murder of his family in Greece, he asked to fight in Europe.  Frankly, while the service did allow some switching around inside the service, for example from infantryman to paratrooper, the giant endeavor of the Second World War meant that regular enlisted men were sent where the service put them, not where they wanted to go as a special request.  Moreover, as noted, getting anyone from Europe to the Pacific in just a few days simply wasn't going to happen, and it simply wouldn't be needed.

As a final note, the photograph is probably not only Klonis, but Underwood, but it was likely actually taken in July, in spite of being attributed to this day.

The British took Cheux and Rauray and established a bridgehead across the Odon.

Fighting continued in Cherbourg even though the city had been surrendered.

U.S. Army captain observing the body of a German in Cherbourg who had killed three of the captain's troops.  Fighting continued on in Cherbourg after it had been surrendered due to the unwillingness of German diehards to quit.

The Red Army took Vitebsk and Petrozavodsk.  German 9th Army Commander Gen. Hans Jordan was relieved.

The Veterans' Preference Act was enacted, requiring the Federal Government to give preference to returning war veterans for employment.

Milan Hodža, 66, Prime Minister of Czechoslovakia from 1935 to 1938, died in exile in the United States.

Last prior edition:

June 26, 1944. Cherbourg surrenders.

Labels: 1940s, 1944, Army, Battle of Mogaung, British Army, Burma, Cherbourg France, Chindits, Dachau, German Wehrmacht, Operation Epsom, Operation Overlord, Operation Thursday, University of Wyoming, Wyoming

June 26, 1944. Cherbourg surrenders.

The Germans surrendered at Cherbourg.

Karl-Wihelm Schlieben and Admiral Walter Hennecke at the surrender of Cherbourg.  In captivity, Schlieben remarkably noted regarding Dachau; “Everybody knew, happen that terrible things there – not what, but that terrible things happen because, knew each of us, even then 1935”.  Neither of these senior German officers reappeared in the German forces of the Budesrepublik in spite of their relative youth, which is interesting.

The British launched Operation Epsom to take Caen and seize Fontenay-le-Pesnel, Cheux and the airfield at Saint-Manvieux-Norrey.  Rommel orders SS units at Saint-Lô to disengage and to the aid of the 12th SS Panzer at Caen, but Allied air cover makes that impossible.

The Germans prevailed at the Battle of Osuchy against the Polish Home Army.

The Red Army kills or captures most of the German 53d Corps and also captured Orsha and Mogilev.  

Brigadier General Mike Calvert (left), Lieutenant-Colonel Shaw, with (right) Pakistani born Major James Lumley after the capture of Mogaung.  The General is armed with a SMLE and the Lt. Col. with a bayonet fixed SMLE.  The Major with a M1 Carbine.  Gen. Calvert is a particularly tragic figure. This battle was his most significant, and it was significant.  After the war, he began drinking heavily and was reassigned to a command in Germany.  In 1951, he was accused of improper sexual contact with three young German men, at a time at which that was fully illegal, and was court-martialed and convicted.  He never got back on his feet after that and maintained his innocence for the rest of his life.  Work by his biographer after his death indeed demonstrated that he was most likely innocent of what he had been accused of.

After 20 days of hard fighting, the Chindits, in the latter stages assisted by the Nationalist Chinese, took Mogaung in Burma.

The U.S. Navy bombarded Japanese positions on Matsuwa in the Kuriles.

The Republican National Convention opened in Chicago.

All three New York baseball team played at the Polo Grounds in a round-robin experiment to raise money for war bonds.

General Hap Arnold called Governor Lester Hunt and requested that UW President James Morill be given a leave of absence to assist with the War Education Program. (UW History Calendar).

The trustees refused the request.

Last prior edition:

Sunday, June 25, 1944. The Battle of Tali–Ihantala commences.

Labels: 1940s, 1944, Battle of Tali–Ihantala, British Army, Caen France, Canadian Army, Diplomacy, Finnish Army, German SS, Operation Epsom, Operation Martlet, Operation Overlord, Red Army, Waffen SS, World War Two

Saturday, June 24, 1944. The sinking of the Derrycunihy.

Soldiers awarded the Silver Star or Bronze Star on this day, for actions on June 6, 1944.  Notable in this photo is that quite a few of them are carrying M1 Carbines, not generally associated with combat troops in the U.S. Army, and all of them save for two are wearing M1941 field jackets.  One warm-blooded soldier is wearing just his wool shirt, with white t-shirt, and one is wearing a Winter Combat Jacket, commonly called (erroneously) a "tanker's jacket".  Nobody is wearing the new M1943 field jacket.

German acoustic mines sank the Derrycunihy off of Normandy, which had been laid by the Luftwaffe the night prior.  183 men of the 43d Wessex Reconnaissance Regiment went down with her. Twenty-five men of the crew also died.   

Hard fighting continued at Cherbourg.

The 1st Belorussian Front entered Operation Bagration with an assault aimed at Bobruisk. The Red Army's 1st Baltic Front and 3d Belorussian Front nearly encircled Viebsk as part of Operation Bagration leading Hitler to order all but one division of the German LIII Corps to break out, showing perhaps that he had wised up about leaving pockets of troops surrounded.  Red Army advances have been up to 25 miles.

The RCAF sank the U-1225 off of Bergen.

Progress is ongoing for the Army and Marines on Saipan.

The U.S. Navy again raided Iwo Jima and Chichi Jima, resulting in the Japanese losing 66 aircraft.

The Adelaide Mail revealed that one Ern Malley, a supposedly unknown dead (in 1943) poet who had been posthumously published, supposedly in the avant-garde Angry Penguins was a complete hoax meant to expose the vapidness of modernist style.

Last prior edition:

Friday, June 23, 1944. Bagration increases.

Labels: 1940s, 1944, Bougainville, Cherbourg France, Lithuania, Operation Bagration, Operation Overlord, Polish Home Army, Red Army, Saipan, War Crimes, World War Two

Friday, June 23, 1944. Bagration increases.

As part of Operation Bagration, the Soviets commenced the Bobruysk Offensive, Mogilev Offensive and Vitebsk–Orsha Offensive in Belarus.

It's worth remembering that the Soviet attack was done Soviet style, with a massive artillery barrage coming before anything else, and then the massive movement of men, which in this case involved over 1,250,000 soldiers.  Not all of the offensive actions part of the overall offensive started on day one, or two.

The Polish Home Army 5th Wilno Brigade murdered over 20 Lithuanian civilians in Dubingiai in retaliation for the Glinciszki (Glitiškės) massacre of Polish civilians on June 20th by the Nazi-subordinated 258th Lithuanian Police Battalion.

American WACs in France, June 23, 1944.  All three women are wearing M1943 field jackets, which were just coming into service at that time and which are not seen all that often at this point.

The Germans abandoned their first line of defense in Cherbourg.  The British took St. Honorina. Montgomery arrived in France.

The HMS Scylia was irreparably damaged by a mine in the English Channel.

A  Ju 52 aircraft carrying German generals Eduard Dietl, Thomas-Emil von Wickede, Karl Eglseer, and  Franz Rossi crashed in the vicinity of Rettenegg, Styria, killing them, and three others.

A monument remains on the location.

Dietl is associated with war crimes, and likely would have been tried had he lived through the war.

Hard fighting continued on Saipan.

Marines moving supplies to the front, Saipan, June 23, 1944.

On Bougainville, Sefanaia Sukanaivalu, a Fijian solder, gave his life attempting to rescue his comrades.

The KING has been graciously pleased to approve the posthumous award of the VICTORIA CROSS to:—

No. 4469 Corporal Sefanaia Sukanaivalu, Fiji Military Forces.

On 23rd June 1944, at Mawaraka, Bougainville, in the Solomon Islands, Corporal Sefanaia Sukanaivalu crawled forward to rescue some men who had been wounded when their platoon was ambushed and some of the leading elements had become casualties.

After two wounded men had been successfully recovered this N.C.O., who was in command of the rear section, volunteered to go on farther alone to try and rescue another one, in spite of machine gun and mortar fire, but on the way back he himself was seriously wounded in the groin and thighs and fell to the ground, unable to move any farther.

Several attempts were then made to rescue Corporal Sukanaivalu but without success owing to heavy fire being encountered on each occasion and further casualties caused.

This gallant N.C.O. then called to his men not to try to get to him as he was in a very exposed position, but they replied that they would never leave him to fall alive into the hands of the enemy.

Realising that his men would not withdraw as long as they could see that he was still alive and knowing that they were themselves all in danger of being killed or captured as long as they remained where they were, Corporal Sukanaivalu, well aware of the consequences, raised himself up in front of the Japanese machine gun and was riddled with bullets.

This brave Fiji soldier, after rescuing two wounded men with the greatest heroism and being gravely wounded himself, deliberately sacrificed his own life because he knew that it was the only way in which the remainder of his platoon could be induced to retire from a situation in which they must have been annihilated had they not withdrawn.

Last prior edition:

Thursday, June 22, 1944. The GI Bill signed into law.

Labels: Battle of Imphal, Battle of Kohima, Cherbourg France, Continuation War, GI Bill, It was because of World War Two, Operation Ichi-Go, Operation Overlord, Red Army, The Battle of Tienhaara, World War Two

Thursday, June 22, 1944. The GI Bill signed into law.

President Roosevelt signing the GI Bill.

Franklin Roosevelt signed the Serviceman's Readjustment Act, popularly called the G. I. Bill, into law.

People are fond of claiming that this event or that event, particularly associated with wars, changed the course of history, but in the case of the US, this event really did.   The act provided a massive set of benefits, including educational benefits, for returning servicemen.  In force, in its original form, until 1956, the GI Bill caused the boom in post-war university education which brought entire demographics into universities for the very first time, and made college education common.  It helped cause the massive boom into the entry into the white collar world by many demographics, and also created the semi Federally funded upper education system we now have.

The direct, and indirect, causes of the GI Bill would be a massive subject.  Everything from the post-war economic boom that continued into the 1960s, to today's educational system, to the end of European American ethnic ghettos, can be traced to it.  It was not only transformative, but the unintended consequences roll on to the present day.  It was one of the most successful liberal government programs of all time.

Some other looks at this major act:

June 22, 1944: President Franklin D. Roosevelt Signs the G.I. Bill

Today in World War II History—June 22, 1944

Noted in yesterday's entry, when the event commenced, the Luftwaffe staged a massive two-hour raid on the field at Poltava.  The Soviet anti-aircraft defense response was huge, but totally ineffective.  The Soviets refused to allow U.S. fighters to take off during the raid.  Numerous aircraft were destroyed on the ground, and the stored munitions and aviation fuel were destroyed.

By Pauli Myllymäki / Suomen Armeija - http://sa-kuva.fi/neo2?tem=webneo_image_download&lang=FIN&id=7aa7d225602342102e0ce9d1f822470d&archive=&name=155142Image record page in Finna: sa-kuva.sa-kuva-143177, CC BY 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=36745916

The Finns prevailed against the Red Army in the Battle of Tienhaara on the Karelian Isthmus.

On the same day, however, the massive ground offensive in Operation Bagration began.  It started off three years to the day from Operation Barbarossa.

A massive assault, Bagration would bring the Red Army into Germany itself, although only barely in the form of entering East Prussia's border.  The Red Army would advance to the gates of Warsaw, however.  The offensive effectively wiped out all of Germany's Operation Barbarossa gains and returned Germany to the territorial position it was in, in the east, on June 21, 1941.  The Baltic States found themselves, at the end of it, about 60% occupied by the Soviets.

It would prove to be one of the most remarkable offensives of the war.  Still, almost as remarkable, was the German resistance which kept the offensive from simply overrunning the Wehrmacht and ending the war.

The British prevailed at Kohima.

The Battle of Hengyang (衡陽保衛戰) a siege defense of the city by the Nationalist Chinese Army, began.  It would turn into an epic battle.

Fighting continued on Biak.

Pvt. Andy Hamilton, Vincentown, New Jersey; Pvt. Chester Klovas, Chicago, Ill.; Pfc. Harry Reynolds, Loogoote, Ind.; gun crew of the .50 caliber machine gun is credited with half of 109 Japanese slain on Biak Island on 22 June 1944.

Fighting continued in Saipan as well.

The I-185 was sunk near Saipan by American destroyers.

Weather improved over the English Channel and repairs on artificial ports commenced.  Howver, the the port of Saint-Laurent-sur-Mer was so badly damaged, it was abandoned.

Fighting at Cherbourg continued, as did the fighting near Caen.

Twenty seven year old German fighter ace Maj. Josef Wurmheller, with 102 kills to his name, was killed himself when his FW-190 collided with his wingman, Feldwebel Kurt Franzke, during aerial combat with USAAF Republic P-47 Thunderbolt and RCAF Spitfires near Alençon.

Unlike some high ranking German fighter aces, Wurmheller's victories were mostly in the west, with a large number of Spitfires included.

Navy working uniform, June 22, 1944.

 Specialist (R)2c Jeanne Henry, attached to the Office of Naval Officer Procurement, in New York City. Shown: Overcoat (front). This optional item as uniform is worn as an alternative to the raincoat in cold seasons. The white muffler also is optional. Released June 22, 1944.

The Appalachian Tornado Outbreak began and would carry into the following day.  Over 100 people were killed.

Last prior edition:

Wednesday, June 21, 1944. Operation Bagration commences with artillery.

Labels: 1940s, 1944, Battle of Imphal, France, German Luftwaffe, Italy, Operation Bagration, Operation Forager, Operation Frantic, Operation Overlord, Red Army, Royal Navy, Saipan, U.S. Air Force, Weather, World War Two