Monday, May 14, 1945. Lingering actions.

Louis J. Hauge Jr. performed the actions that resulted in his being awarded a posthumous Medal of Honor.

For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty as Leader of a Machine-Gun Squad serving with Company C, First Battalion, First Marines, First Marine Division, in action against enemy Japanese forces on Okinawa Shima in the Ryūkyū Chain on 14 May 1945. Alert and aggressive during a determined assault against a strongly fortified Japanese Hill position, Corporal Hauge boldly took the initiative when his company's left flank was pinned down under a heavy machine-gun and mortar barrage with resultant severe casualties and, quickly locating the two machine guns which were delivering the uninterrupted stream of enfilade fire, ordered his squad to maintain a covering barrage as he rushed across an exposed area toward the furiously blazing enemy weapons. Although painfully wounded as he charged the first machine-gun, he launched a vigorous single-handed grenade attack, destroyed the entire hostile gun position and moved relentlessly forward toward the other emplacement despite his wounds and the increasingly heavy Japanese fire. Undaunted by the savage opposition, he again hurled his deadly grenades with unerring aim and succeeded in demolishing the second enemy gun before he fell under the slashing fury of Japanese sniper fire. By his ready grasp of the critical situation and his heroic one-man assault tactics, Corporal Hauge had eliminated two strategically placed enemy weapons, thereby releasing the besieged troops from an overwhelming volume of hostile fire and enabling his company to advance. His indomitable fighting spirit and decisive valor in the face of almost certain death reflect the highest credit upon Corporal Hauge and the United States Naval Service. He gallantly gave his life in the service of his country.

Marines reached the top of Sugar Loaf Hill on Okinawa and captured the airfield at Yonabaru.

The Battle of Poljana commenced outside of Poljana, Slovenia between the Yugoslav Army and a column of 30,000 retreating Axis soldiers, consisting of members of the Wehrmacht, the Croatian Armed Forces, the Montenegrin People's Army, the Serbian Volunteer Corps, the Slovene Home Guard, and the 15th Waffen SS Cossack Cavalry Corps.

Army Group Kurland surrendered to the Red Army.

The provisional government of Austria nullified the 1938 Anschluss, abolished the Nazi Party and repealed all Nazi-era laws.

U-boat commander Wolfgang Lüth, age 31, German U-boat ace was shot and killed by a German sentry of the still functioning Mürwik Naval Academy when he failed to return a call sign.  He was given a state funeral.

The US Army announced the discovery of millions of dollars worth of stolen ar by the Nazis and 100 tons of gold bars and currency hidden in a salt mine located on the Losa Plateau in Austria. 

The concentration camp at Ebensee was liberated.

Marines reached the top of Sugar Loaf Hill on Okinawa and captured the airfield at Yonabaru.

Herbert J. Grant, president of the LDS church, died at age 88.  He was the lasts surviving member of the LDS Council of Fifty and the last one to have been a polygamist, although he enforced the LDS change in the position.  At the time of his death, only one of his three wives was living.

Last edition:

Sunday, May 13, 1945. "There is still a lot to do".

Labels: 1940s, 1945, British Army, Burma, Chile, German Wehrmacht, Mussolini, Okinawa, the spoken word, Winston Churchill, World War Two

Wednesday, May 9, 1945. The last Wehrmachtbericht, Stalin's congrats.

"Pvt. Wallace F. Burket, left, bazooka man with the 80th Infantry Division, U.S. Third Army, finds his brother, Sgt. Wm. C. Burket who was shot down over Africa two years and three months ago. Branau, Austria. 9 May, 1945. Company C, 318th Infantry Regiment, 80th Infantry Division. Photographer: Zinni."

The last Wehrmachtbericht was broadcast, which reported Germany's defeat.   The address read:

FROM THE GRAND ADMIRAL'S HEADQUARTERS, May 9-The High Command of the Armed Forces announces:

In East Prussia - German divisions even yesterday gallantly defended to the very last the Vistula mouth and the western part of the Frisches Nehrung. The Seventh Division distinguished itself particularly in this fighting. To their Commander in Chief, General of Tank Troops von Saucken, were awarded diamonds to the Oak Leaves with swords to the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross in recognition of the exemplary gallantry of his soldiers.

As an advanced bulwark, our armies in Courland [Latvia], under the well-proved command of Colonel General Guenther, tied down superior Soviet rifle and armored formations through many months and acquired eternal glory in six great battles. They refused any premature surrender. Only the wounded, and later numerous children, were transported in full order by aircraft that still left for the west. Staffs and officers remained with their troops.

At midnight all fighting and all movements were suspended on the German side, under the conditions that had been signed.

The defenders of Breslau, who resisted Soviet attacks for more than two months, succumbed to enemy superiority in the last hour after a heroic struggle.

On the Southeast and East Fronts, from Fiume to Brno [Bruenn] to the Elbe near Dresden, all the higher military authorities have received the order to cease fire.

A Czech rising is taking place in the whole of Bohemia and Moravia and may threaten the execution of the capitulation conditions as well as communications in that area.

The High Command of the Armed-Forces so far has not received any reports regarding the situation of the army groups Loehr, Rendulic and Schoerner.

Far from home, the defenders of the Atlantic bases, our forces in Norway and garrisons of the Aegean Islands have maintained the military honor of the German soldier in obedience and discipline.

Since midnight all weapons have been silent on all fronts on orders of the Grand Admiral, and the armed forces have ceased the fighting, which has now become hopeless, thus ending a heroic struggle that lasted almost six years. This struggle brought us great victories. But also heavy defeats. In the end the German Wehrmacht succumbed with honor to enormous superiority.

Loyal to his oath, the German soldier's performance in a supreme effort for his people can never be forgotten. Up to the last moment the homeland had supported him with all its strength in an effort entailing the heaviest sacrifices. The unique performance of the front and homeland will find a final appraisal in the later, just judgment of history.

The enemy, too, will not deny his tribute of respect to the performance and sacrifices of German soldiers on land, at sea and in the air. Every soldier, therefore, may lay aside his weapon proud and erect and set to work in these gravest hours of our history with courage and confidence to safeguard the undying life of our people.

In this grave hour the Wehrmacht remembers its comrades who have died in battle. The dead impose upon us an obligation of unconditional loyalty, obedience and discipline toward the Fatherland, which is bleeding from countless wounds.

(There followed three minutes of silence).

The German radio has transmitted the last High Command communiqué of this war. We close our news bulletin with an official announcement as follows:

"It is officially announced that effective May 9, 1945, blackout regulations are lifted. Effective also from today the ban on listening to foreign stations has been lifted."

An often missed oddity of this period is that while Germany had surrendered, it's government was still functioning. The Flensburg Government still had a military command, in spite of the surrender, and in some areas it had troops under arms.

Indeed, in spite of the surrender, German forces of German Army Group Ostmark (Lohr) continued to resist in Croatia and to the north.

Stalin congratulated the Red Army. This is regarded by the Russians as VE Day.

Comrades! Men and women compatriots!

The great day of victory over Germany has come. Fascist Germany, forced to her knees by the Red Army and the troops of our Allies, has acknowledged herself defeated and declared unconditional surrender.

On May 7 the preliminary protocol on surrender was signed in the city of Rheims. On May 8 representatives of the German High Command, in the presence of representatives of the Supreme Command of the Allied troops and the Supreme Command of the Soviet Troops, signed in Berlin the final act of surrender, the execution of which began at 24.00 hours on May 8.

Being aware of the wolfish habits of the German ringleaders, who regard treaties and agreements as empty scraps of paper, we have no reason to trust their words. However, this morning, in pursuance of the act of surrender, the German troops began to lay down their arms and surrender to our troops en masse. This is no longer an empty scrap of paper. This is actual surrender of Germany’s armed forces. True, one group of German troops in the area of Czechoslovakia is still evading surrender. But I trust that the Red Army will be able to bring it to its senses.

Now we can state with full justification that the historic day of the final defeat of Germany, the day of the great victory of our people over German imperialism has come.

The great sacrifices we made in the name of the freedom and independence of our Motherland, the incalculable privations and sufferings experienced by our people in the course of the war, the intense work in the rear and at the front, placed on the altar of the Motherland, have not been in vain, and have been crowned by complete victory over the enemy. The age-long struggle of the Slav peoples for their existence and their independence has ended in victory over the German invaders and German tyranny.

Henceforth the great banner of the freedom of the peoples and peace among peoples will fly over Europe.

Three years ago Hitler declared for all to hear that his aims included the dismemberment of the Soviet Union and the wresting from it of the Caucasus, the Ukraine, Byelorussia, the Baltic lands and other areas. He declared bluntly: “We will destroy Russia so that she will never be able to rise again.” This was three years ago. However, Hitler’s crazy ideas were not fated to come true—the progress of the war scattered them to the winds. In actual fact the direct opposite of the Hitlerites’ ravings has taken place. Germany is utterly defeated. The German troops are surrendering. The Soviet Union is celebrating Victory, although it does not intend either to dismember or to destroy Germany.

Comrades! The Great Patriotic War has ended in our complete victory. The period of war in Europe is over. The period of peaceful development has begun.

I congratulate you upon victory, my dear men and women compatriots!

Glory to our heroic Red Army, which upheld the independence of our Motherland and won victory over the enemy!

Glory to our great people, the people victorious!

Eternal glory to the heroes who fell in the struggle against the enemy and gave their lives for the freedom and happiness of our people!

The Battle for Czech Radio in Prague ended in Czech victory.

General Alexander Löhr, Commander of German Army Group E near Topolšica, Slovenia, signed the capitulation of German occupation troops in that region.

British forces took the surrender of troops occupying Jersey and Guernsey.

The Stuffhof concentration camp was liberated.  It had been the first to be established outside of Germany's borders and was the last one liberated.

Vidkun Quisling and other members of  his regime in Norway surrendered to the Resistance (Milorg) and police at Møllergata 19 in Oslo.

The British began Operation Doomsday with the British 1st Airborne Division landing in Norway to act as a police and military force.

Walter Frank, 40, German Nazi historian, committed suicide.

The US 145th Infantry Regiment captured Mount Binicayan on Luzon.

Marines captured Height 60 on Okinawa.

The British 82nd West African Division occupied Sandoway, Burma.

Last edition:

Tuesday, May 8, 1945. Victory In Europe.

Labels: 1940s, 1945, Algeria, Germany, Harry S. Truman, Hermann Göring, Joseph Stalin, Massacre in Trhová Kamenice, The Sétif and Guelma massacre, Victory in Europe Day, War Crimes, Winston Churchill, World War Two

Saturday, January 27, 1945. Auschwitz Liberated.

The Red Army liberated Auschwitz and the full horror of the German murderous oppression came into very sharp focus.

The Red Army also took Memel.

It was within 100 miles of Berlin.

The US 3d Army crossed the Our and took Oberhausen.

Charles Maurras, editor of Action Francaise, was sentenced to life imprisonment for collaboration.  He was released shortly before his death in 1952, but remained very far right in his views.

The Ledo Road was cleared in Burma.

"Men of C and E Cos., 6th Ranger Bn., are shown advancing toward the Japanese prisoner of war camp at Cabanatuan, Luzon, P.I. 27 January, 1945. 6th Ranger Battalion."  The story of the behind the lines raid has been committed to a book and movie, The Great Raid.  This Ranger Battalion was unique in that it was not an all volunteer Ranger unit from the onset, but rather started off partially as a pack mortar battalion.

Last edition:

Friday, January 26, 1945. Audie Murphy.

Labels: 1940s, 1945, 1970s, 1971, actors and actresses, Eastern Front, Great Depression, Heroes, Mental Health, Personalities, Poland, Przyszowice Massacre, Red Army, World War Two

Friday, December 8, 1944

Today In Wyoming's History: December 8:  1944 Bryant B. Brooks, governor from January 1905 to January 1911, died in Casper.  Brooks was a true pioneering figure in Wyoming, having come to the state in 1880 and having been, at first, a trapper and rancher.  He reflects a class that isn't often discussed, however, in early Western history in that he was well educated (but not a lawyer), having attended Business College in Chicago Illinois.  Nonetheless, he was only 19 years old at the time he moved to Wyoming.  He was highly energetic and was successful in ranching.  After his term in office expired he was also very active in the early oil industry and was partially responsible for the construction of one of Casper's first "skyscraper" buildings, the Oil Exchange Building, which was built in 1917, during one of the region's earliest oil booms, this one due to World War One. The building remains in use today, with its name having been changed to the Consolidated Royalty Building.

Iwo Jima was hit by a massive U.S. air raid.

The pro Japanese Filipino organization Makabayang Katipunan ng mga Pilipino (Patriotic Association of Filipinos), better known as the Makapili, was organized by far right Filipino nationalist.

It's stunning that this late in the war organizations were still forming that supported an obviously losing side.

The Germans withdrew from Jülich, Germany.

The 8th Army crossed the Lamone.

Last edition:

Thursday, December 7, 1944. The end of the USS Ward

Labels: 1930s, 1939, 1940s, 1941, 1944, Arabs, Battle of Leyte, Battle of Ormoc Bay, boats and ships, Geology, Japan, Kamikaze, Pearl Harbor Hawaii, Romania, U.S. Navy, Women, World War Two

Wednesday, September 13, 1944. The Execution of the SOE Agents.

The first meeting of American troops of General Patton's Third U.S. Army forces with French troops of General Patch's Seventh U.S. Army took place recently when their long reconnaissance arms met at Autun, France. Here Adjutant Emile Lancery, Bouhy, France, left, whose native group landed near Toulon, is shown shaking hands with Sgt. Louis Basil, Follansbee, W.Va., in the first scout vehicle of the Combat Command. 13 September, 1944. Combat Command B, 6th Armored Division.

Greek, Canadian and New Zealand forces attacked the Germans at Rimini, Italy.

The Red Army took the Warsaw suburb of Praga.  That evening, the Soviet air force began dropping supplies to the Home Army in Warsaw.  The action was undertaken due to US and UK pressure.

The Greek People's Liberation Army and the collaborationist Security Battalions fought at Melgalas.

The Navy begana pre invasion bombardment of Peleliu and Angaur.

SOE agents Yolande Beekman, 32, Madeleine Damerment, 26, and Noor Inayat Khan, 30, were executed at Dachau.

Yolande Beekman.

Madeleine Damerment

Noor Inayat Khan.

The USS Warrington sunk in the 1944 Great Atlantic Hurricane.

Last edition:

Tuesday, September 12, 1944. Le Havre taken.

Labels: 1940s, 1944, Aegean Sea, British Army, Romania, World War Two

Saturday, August 26, 1944. De Gaulle in the streets of Paris. Bulgaria calls it quits.

Charles de Gaulle marched in the streets of paris, German sniper fire notwithstanding.

T-Sgt. Kenneth Averill, 563 Marshall St., Hazel Park, Mich., of the 4th Signal Co., 4th Div., gets his welcome personally from a Parisian girl when his unit, with other French and American forces, enters the main section of the French capitol. 26 August, 1944.

Not every Parisian enjoyed the festivities.  Parisian women with recent German boyfriends were brutalized, although the number was undoubtedly far below the numbers that had fraternized during the German occupation.  They were made to bear the guilt of a nation who had resisted heroically, in part, but which had not been free of collaboration.

American and French armor rolls through the Rue De Rivoli, Paris, passing cheering crowds and a knocked-out Nazi tank which fell victim to the gunnery of the tank crews which aided in the liberation of the French capital. 26 August, 1944.

Indeed, France has never reconciled with its complicated history during the war. Thousands of Frenchmen heroically resisted the Germans, including groups as widely divergent as monarchist and communists, but it's also the case that "French" liberation armies included massive numbers of North Africans who saw joining the Free French as a means of bringing their regions into metropolitan France, which they were soon to learn was not the case.

Crowds of Parisians celebrating the entry of Allied troops into Paris scatter for cover as a sniper fires into them from a building on the Place De La Concorde. Although the Germans surrendered the city, small bands of snipers still remained. 26 August, 1944.

Meanwhile, while dwarfed by the Free French formation that had formed during the war, and the regular French units that were now part of the Allied armies, some French volunteers continued to fight on the Eastern front.

The Germans lose more of their supplies. Captured when American and French forces occupied the main parts of the French capital, this stock of German gasoline quickly disappeared as Parisians help themselves outside the former Paris Wehrmacht headquarters on Avenue Kleber, former French tanks taken into German service, now abandoned on location. 26 August, 1944.

The Allies won the Battle of Toulon.

And they were taking back channel islands this late as well.

British paratroopers backed by Belgian infantry and armor, cleared the arears around Caen still in German hands.

Six American airmen were lynched by the townspeople of Rüsselsheim am Main.  Some of the townspeople would find themselves defendants in a war crimes trial after the war.

While this incident resulted in trials, killings of airmen, both in Germany and Japan, were hardly limited to this.

Bugarai announced that it was pulling out of the war and disarming all German troops on its territory.

The Red Army reached the Danube.

The 8th Army crossed the Metauro in Italy.

Adam von Trott zu Solz, 35 years of age, a German lawyer, diplomat and central figure in the 20 July plot, was hung by the Nazis.

Banika "U", Headquarters for Morale Services on the Russell Islands. L-R: Lt. William H. Ireland, Orientation Officer, of Ohio; Pvt. Paul E. Swofford, Assistant in Moral Services, of Ill.; Cpl. Fred D. Scullcy, Assistant in Moral Services, of Indiana; native of the Island; and Lt. John W. M. Rothney, [illegible] officer, of Wisconsin. 26 August, 1944.

Last edition:

Friday, August 25, 1944. Paris, Versailles and Avignon liberated.

Labels: 1940s, 1944, Army, Battle for Paris, British Army, Charles de Gaulle, French Army, German Army, Italy, Logistics, New Guinea, Operation Olive, Personalities, Romania, Transportation, Trucks, World War Two

Friday, August 5, 1944. The Wola Massacre.

German SS, the Azerbaijani Legion and the Russian collaborationist Kaminski Brigade, commenced killing Poles in the Wola district of Warsaw.  The massacre was ordered by Himmler.

Major Ivan Denisovich Frolov with the officers of the Russian National Liberation Army (RONA) during the Warsaw Uprising.

Between 40,000 and 50,000 Poles would be murdered.

The weirdness of this is inescapable. The Russians in RONA were there partially in order to survive German captivity, and partial in an effort to free their homeland from Communist control. The Soviet Union had helped take away Poland's freedom by invading it along with Germany, and the Polish Home Army was attempting to free their homeland and was anti communist.  The Azerbaijanis were fighting for the liberation of their homeland as well.

The 3d Army took Vannes.

The Cowra breakout occured in New South Wales in which 1,100 Japanese POWs broke out.  They'd all be captured within ten days, although four Australians and 231 Japanese POWs would be killed.

The RAF destroyed the German U-boat pens at Brest.

The Soviet submarine Shch-215 sanke the Turkish motor schooner Mefküre resulting in the death of 300 Jewish refugees.

Last edition:

Thursday, August 4, 1944. The Frank's arrested.

Labels: 1940s, 1944, Army, British Army, Continuation War, Finland, German Wehrmacht, Italy, Netherlands, Normandy, Normandy Breakout, South African Army, The Holocaust, The written word, Warsaw Uprising, World War Two

Sunday, May 14, 1944. Route to Rome.

Today in World War II History—May 14, 1944: 80 Years Ago—May 14, 1944: In Italy, US II Corps breaks German Gustav Line, opening the route to Rome.

Sarah Sundin's blog.

The Luftwaffe raided Bristol at night.

E-boats attacked Allied landing craft near the Isle of Wight.

Albanian SS rounded up 281 Kosovo Jews for deportation to concentration camps.

Vichy radio reported that French cardinals had appealed to the Roman Catholic clergy in Britain and the United States to use their influence to ensure that the French civilian population towns, works of art and churches would be spared from Allied bombing as much as possible,

2nd Lt. Trava Thomas of Okmulgee, Okla., arrives with full pack at the Brisbane, Queensland railroad station. 14 May, 1944.

The ironically named America Maru was sunk by the USS Nautilus.  Most of the occupants of the ship were Japanese civilians being evacuated from Saipan, the overwhelming majority of whom were killed in the sinking.

George Lucas was born in Modesto, California.

Last prior edition:

Friday, May 12, 1944. Heroism in Italy. End of the war in the Caucasus.

1940s, 1944, Battle of the Caucasus, Heroes, Indian Army, Italy, Nazi Germany, Operation Diadem, Personalities, Red Army, Rome, U.S. Air Force, World War Two

Saturday, November 6, 1943. The Red Army retakes Kiev

Today in World War II History—November 6, 1943: Hitler names Field Marshal Albert Kesselring commander of all German forces in Italy. Submarine USS Pampanito is commissioned at Portsmouth Navy Yard, NH.

Sarah Sundin.

The Pampanito is now in San Francisco and may be toured.  Well worth doing.

The Red Army took Kiev.  Most of the German forces successfully withdrew and avoided capture.

The Greater East Asia Conference, a conference of Japan and its puppet states, concluded and issues a final declaration, which stated:

It is the basic principle for the establishment of world peace that the nations of the world have each its proper place, and enjoy prosperity in common through mutual aid and assistance.

The United States of America and the British Empire have in seeking their own prosperity oppressed other nations and peoples. Especially in East Asia, they indulged in insatiable aggression and exploitation, and sought to satisfy their inordinate ambition of enslaving the entire region, and finally they came to menace seriously the stability of East Asia. Herein lies the cause of the recent war. The countries of Greater East Asia, with a view to contributing to the cause of world peace, undertake to cooperate toward prosecuting the War of Greater East Asia to a successful conclusion, liberating their region from the yoke of British-American domination, and ensuring their self-existence and self-defense, and in constructing a Greater East Asia in accordance with the following principles:

The countries of Greater East Asia through mutual cooperation will ensure the stability of their region and construct an order of common prosperity and well-being based upon justice.

The countries of Greater East Asia will ensure the fraternity of nations in their region, by respecting one another's sovereignty and independence and practicing mutual assistance and amity.

The countries of Greater East Asia by respecting one another's traditions and developing the creative faculties of each race, will enhance the culture and civilization of Greater East Asia.

The countries of Greater East Asia will endeavor to accelerate their economic development through close cooperation upon a basis of reciprocity and to promote thereby the general prosperity of their region.

The countries of Greater East Asia will cultivate friendly relations with all the countries of the world, and work for the abolition of racial discrimination, the promotion of cultural intercourse and the opening of resources throughout the world, and contribute thereby to the progress of mankind.

This entity issuing anything at this point is somewhat surreal, as Japanese fortunes had clearly turned in the war and they were obviously losing.

The participating entities were Japan, Manchukuo; The "Reorganized National Government of China" governed from Nanjing, the Kingdom of Thailand; the State of Burma; and the Second Philippine Republic.  Only Thailand was really independent.

The USS Beatty was torpedoed off of Algeria by Junkers Ju 88, resulting in its sinking.   The U-226 and U842 were sunk by the Royal Navy in the Atlantic.

Wednesday, October 21, 1943. Indian declaration.

The Provisional Government of Azad Hind ("Free India") was declared with Subhas Chandra as president.  Its territory, such as it was, were those portions of Indian occupied by Japan.

It immediately declared it was entering the war on the Japanese side, an example of really not grasping the direction things were headed in, and in fact already well advanced towards.

On the same day, Japan began drafting high school and university students.

The Germans began liquidating the Minsk Ghetto as they were retreating from Belarus.

The RAF made a highly destructive raid on Kassel.

Algerian Jews, 140,000 in number were restored French citizenship, which had been restricted, along with the same for Algerian Arabs, on March 17, 1942 by Gen. Henri Giraud.  Arabs had to apply for restoration of their French citizenship.

Thursday, October 14, 1943. Black Thursday.

The Eight Air Force raided Schweinfurt for the second time in a heavily opposed raid.

Seventy seven B-17s were shot down, along with four P-47s.  121 aircraft were ottherwise damaged.  590 Allied airmen were killed.

The target of the raid was ball bearing plants. The RAF refused to cooperate on the basis that ball bearings were a worthless object of a raid, something that post-war analysis proved correct.

An uprising commenced at Sobibor resulting in eleven SS and Ukrainian guards being killed.  SS-Untersturmführer Johann Niemann, thirty years of age and the commandant of Sobibor was the first one killed when he went to see a tailor, one of the prisoners, for a fitting.  The prisoner killed him with an axe, and his pistol was taken.

Three Hundred inmates escaped, although many were killed in nearby minefields or recaptured and immediately killed.  Fifty did survive and escape.  Those prisoners who had opted not to escape were also killed and the camp closed.

José P. Laurel, formerly a Philippines Supreme Court Justice, took the oath of office as President of the puppet Second Philippine Republic.  The Republic's then signed an alliance with Japan.

He also appealed to the Vatican at this time for recognition, which was refused on the stated basis that the Vatican did not wish to recognize any new states during the war.  Nonplussed, he sought the Filipinization of the Church in the Philippines.

We've already dealt with him in a previous post, and as noted there, he had a post-war political career in the country, demonstrating that the common view that East Asian collaborators were universally despised by their own people is not true.

Sunday, September 19, 1943. Wars within the war.

The Markham, Ramu and Finisterre campaigns on New Guinea began with an Allied offensive in the Ramu Valley.

The Ramu Valley campaign would continue on through November, with the overall campaign carrying on until April 1944.

The Battle of Turjak Castle in Slovenia ended in a Slovene partisan victory against the Anti Communist Volunteer Militia, formerly allied to the Italian Army.  Part of the wars within the war feature of World War Two.

German forces and Cham Albanians began the Paramythia executions of Greeks in Paramythia.

Lebanese Maronite Christian leader Bechara El Khoury met with Lebanese Sunni Muslim senior politician Riad Al Solh and worked out the National Pact.  Under it, an arrangement was arrived upon in which a free Lebanon would have a Christian President and a Muslim Prime Minister.

The St. Louis Cardinals took the National League pennat with a 2 to 1 victory over the Chicago Cubs.

Wednesday, March 3, 1943. Accidents.

173 people were crushed to death in London's Bethnal Green tube, where they were sheltering from an air raid.

The rush to the shelter was started when people fled into the tube due to a salvo of British anti-aircraft rockets being launched from Victoria Park.

British anti-aircraft rockets.

The German minelayer Doggerbank was sunk by the German U-43 in a case of mistaken identity.  Following its routine orders, the U-43 departed without attempting to pick up survivors, and 365 people drowned.  A single person survived, lasting 26 days at sea before being picked up by a Spanish ship.

The Doggerbank was a captured British vessel, so the mistake was perhaps excusable.  Converted into a minelayer, it laid mines off of South Africa in January 1942 and proceeded to Japan, twice being challenged as a British vessel on the way and successfully fooling the challenging ships.  In Japan, it took on the survivors of the auxiliary cruiser Thor, a German tanker, and the Altmark.  She sank within two minutes when attacked.

The U43 was sunk by an American torpedo bomber that following July.

Gandi ended his protest fast.

Twenty-three year veteran of the Red Army, Andrey Vlasov, published "Why I have taken up the struggle against Bolshevism" in the newspaper Zarya.

Vlasov had been captured by the Germans and then became a German collaborator, commanding the Russian Liberation Army, which saw little action during the war.  I know little about him, and don't really know what his reasons were.  He'd cause his troops to switch sides again, to a degree, late in the war, by which time his fate, and theirs, was effectively sealed.

Vlasov started off, like Stalin, as a divinity student at a Russian Orthodox seminary.  He quit that in 1919 and joined the Red Army.  He didn't become a Communist, however, until 1930.  He served successfully as an advisor to Chiang Kai-shek from 1938 to 1939 before going on to command the 99th Rifle Division.  Up until his capture, he generally was well regarded in the Red Army.

Vlasov would claim that he became an anti Communist while trying to evade German capture.  A post-war analysis of the 180 Red Army generals who joined Vlasov's Russian Liberation Army revealed that most of them had personally experienced NKVD atrocities prior to the war.