Tuesday, December 21, 1943. Arrests of the former Vichy officials.

Pierre-Étienne Flandin, a former Prime Minister of France, and briefly Premier of Vichy France, was arrested in Algiers along with former Vichy Interior Minister Marcel Peyrouton, former Vichy Information Secretary Pierre Tixler-Vignacourt, member of parliament André Albert, and Pierre François Boisson, the Vichy Governor-General of French West Africa.

Flandin had been a French pilot during World War One.

Albert had been serving with the Free French forces since June 1943, after he had fled from Vichy.

They would all survive their arrests and falls from grace.

The U-284 was scuttled by the Germans after it received storm damage southeast of Greenland.

Tuesday, December 14, 1943. The Death of Captain Waskow.

 

Captain Henry T. Waskow, who became the subject of Ernie Pyle's most famous column, and who was the inspiration for the protagonist in The Story of GI Joe, was killed in action in the Battle of San Pietro.

The French Committee of National Liberation granted French citizenship to Algerians classified as "Moslem elites", those being the ability to fluently read and write French.  It was expected that this would enfranchise between 20,000 to 30,000 Algerians.

This also abandoned a prior requirement that those obtaining French citizenship abandon Islam.

This would have been a huge move had it come in the 30s, but now, it would prove to be too little, too late.

The Germans raided Nantua, France, in reprisal for resistance activities.

Allied aircraft raided Luftwaffe airfields near Athens at Eleusis, Kalamaki and Tatoi, as well as the harbor facilities at Piraeus in the heaviest raid on Greece to date.

Sarah Sundin's blog, reports that:

Today in World War II History—December 14, 1943: US Army Air Force decides to stop using camouflage paint on planes, with the exception of night fighters and transports, to increase speed and range.

The reason I've always been told that this was done was to save weight.  You wouldn't think that this would make much of a difference, but if you consider the overall surface area of an airplane, it's a fair amount.  Less weight means fuel savings and increased speed.

The Red Army took Cherkasy.

John Harvey Kellogg, creator of cornflakes (1878) and founder of the Battle Creek Sanitarium ain Battle Creek, Michigan, died at age 91.

Sunday, June 6, 1943. Radio broadcasts, Triple Crown, Actor in the Navy, Rohatyn Ghetto.

The French Committee of National Liberation made a radio broadcast pledging to abolish the "arbitrary powers" imposed by the Vichy regime and restore French liberties and republican government.

Count Fleet won the Belmont, and hence the Triple Crown.

Paul Newman, having enlisted days before his 18th birthday, was called up for service in the Navy.

Newman wanted to be a pilot, but was taken out of flight school when it was discovered he was color blind.  He went on to be a torpedo bomber crewman.

Sarah Sundin noted Newman's enlistment, but also noted the A36:

Today in World War II History—June 6, 1943: North American A-36 Apache flies first combat mission in a US Twelfth Air Force mission to Pantelleria. Future actor Paul Newman enlists in the US Navy, age 18.

We don't think much of the A-36, the dive bomber version of the P-51.  The odd aircraft only came into existence in the first place as the 1942 appropriations for new fighter aircraft had run out and converting the assembly line to dive bombers kept the P-51 line open.  Only 500 were built, with most used by the U.S. Army Air Force, but some used by the RAF.

A-36 in Italy.

The Germans liquidated the Rohatyn Ghetto in what is now Ukraine.

Thursday, June 3, 1943. Zoot Suit Riots, Comité Français de Libération Nationale, Pocket Protectors,

This is the 80th anniversary of the start of the Los Angeles' Zoot Suit Riots. They'd continue through the 8th.

With tensions dating back for months, the event saw an outbreak of white servicemen attack Hispanic Angelinos wearing Zoot Suits, in part for revenge over an incident that had occurred several days prior, but largely due to racist animosity.

The initial confrontation on June 3 was between a party of sailors and Zoot Suiters, which isn't surprising given the injury of  a sailor several days prior.  As the attacks grew the servicemen were supported by the press and the Los Angeles city council announced efforts to curb the manufacture of clothing in excess of wartime regulations, thought to be part of the problem as it was part of the excuse.  By the 8th, the attacks had spread from Hispanic districts to African American ones, where Zoot Suits were also popular.

Arrested Angelinos.

On the 8th, the Department of the Navy declared Los Angeles off limits and confined servicemen to their barracks.

The Battle of West Hubei, which had gone on for about a month, ended in a  Chinese tactical victory, although Chinese losses exceeded Japanese ones, and there is some evidence that the Japanese used the battle as a battlefield training exercise.

The French Committee of National Liberation,  Comité Français de Libération Nationale, was formed with those senior officers of the former Vichy command in North Africa and the Free French who had been technically in rebellion against Vichy, in Algiers.  It had a committee leadership at this point, although by November DeGaulle would be the leader.

The pocket protector was patented on this day.