Showing posts with label Commandos. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Commandos. Show all posts

Friday, October 27, 2023

Wednesday, October 27, 1943. Navy Day.

Today in World War II History—October 27, 1943: 80 Years Ago—Oct. 27, 1943: New Zealanders land on and take Stirling, Soanotalu, and Mono in the Treasury Islands, their first opposed amphibious landing since Gallipoli in WWI. US movie premiere of Guadalcanal Diary. American musicians are allowed to record V-discs for the military, bypassing the recording strike. US celebrates Navy Day.
New Zealand mortarmen on Mono.

From Sarah Sundin's blog.

The British SAS raided Ancona and Pescara in Italy in Operation Candytuft and cut the rail lines between the two cities in Operation Saxifrage.  The 8th Army took Montefalcone.

The first stainless steel airplane, the RB-1 Conestoga, made its first flight.


Only twenty were made.

Argentine Col. Juan Perón agreed  to direct the nation's Department of Labor.

Tuesday, October 3, 2023

Sunday, October 3, 1943. De Gaulle ascends.


Gen. Charles de Gaulle became the sole leader of the Committee for National Liberation, following the resignation of Henri Giraud.

Today in World War II History—October 3, 1943: Japanese finish evacuating Kolombangara, their last air base in the Solomons, after the island had been bypassed and isolated by the Allies.

Sarah Sundin.

The village of Lingiades (Λιγκιάδες) was arbitrarily chosen for reprisals by the Germans over the killing of a German officer by the Greek Resistance. As able-bodied men were harvesting walnuts at the time, most of the 92 victims were women, children, and the elderly.

British commandos landed at Termoli in Operation Devon, which would take the Italian harbor.

Central Italy experienced an earthquake.

Germans landed on Cos in the Aegean.

Tuesday, September 26, 2023

Sunday, September 26, 1943. Melting the vessels.

The SS gave the Roman Jewish community 36 hours to make payments to the German occupiers.  Chief Rabbi Israel Zolli appealed to the Vatican regarding the monetary shortfalls, and which the Vatican did. As the payments were to be i gold, it is thought that religious vessels were melted to make the payment.

Isreal Zolli.

Rabbi Zolli would survive the war, but with a dramatic turn of events.  On Yom Kippur in 1944 he experienced a vision of Jesus while celebrating a religious service and felt himself to have experienced the words "You are here for the last time".  On February 13, 1945, he, his second wife (his first had died) and his daughters were received into Catholicism. He died on March 2, 1956 after having received Communion.  He was ill at the time, but had told a nun at the hospital at which he was located the date and hour of his death before it arrived.

The Free French occupied Ghisonaccia on Corsica.

The multinational (not including Americans) Z Special Unit raided Japanese shipping at Singapore.  The Japanese, in New Guinea, launched an unsuccessful counterattack on the Australians at Finschafen.

Tuesday, September 12, 2023

Sunday, September 12, 1943. The Germans spring Mussolini

Italian Social Republic poster.

German commandos under the command of Otto Skorzeny rescued Benito Mussolini from Italian imprisonment at the Campo Imeriale Hotel in the Abruzzi Mountains.  A less than enthusiastic Mussolini was spirited away as a passenger on a Fieler Storch after the combined glider/paratrooper raid.

The raid allowed Mussolini to be installed in a puppet fascist state called the Italian Social Republic, which would not have a happy end for Il Duce.  While in photos of this event, he's all smiles, he was a shadow of his former bombastic self by this time.  His fascistic state embedded within a monarchy had been destroyed and was going to be defeated no matter what was done at this point.  Italian troops were now fighting the Germans, although not terribly effectively.  A partisan movement was developing. The sympathies of the Italian people had gone over to an Allied peace.

The raid itself, while regarded as quite a feat of arms, emphasized the sad state of the Axis war effort itself by this point.  Mussolini could be regarded as nothing other than a puppet with an Axis alliance that was basically down to one power and associates.  Some of those associates, such as Romania and Finland, had concluded the Axis cause was doomed and were looking for a way out of the war.

Patriarch Sergius was installed as the leader of the Russian Orthodox Church, the first such formal installation since the Russian Revolution.

Monday, May 22, 2023

Saturday, May 22, 1943. Comintern dissolves.

The Comintern was dissolved in Moscow.

The Soviet Union had already betrayed the propaganda associated with the entity by being an ally of Nazi Germany until attacked by Nazi Germany.  The move was interpreted as a feeler towards the Western Allies, in that the Comintern had been dedicated to supplanting any government that wasn't a communist one.

Sarah Sundin's blog reports:

Today in World War II History—May 22, 1943: USS Bogue’s TBF aircraft damage German U-boat U-569, which is scuttled by her crew, the first victory for an Allied escort carrier unassisted by surface ships.

She also noted that Luftwaffe General Adolf Galland flew the ME262 on this day and was impressed by it, as anyone would have had to have been.


Long Range Desert Group, No. 2 Commando and the No. 43 (Royal Marine) Commando raided the Yugoslavian island of Mljet.   The raid was a substitute for ones early planned, and was supported by the OSS which had agents on the island.

Helen Taft, former First Lady, died at age 81.

Monday, May 15, 2023

Saturday, May 15, 1943. Changes in Tunisian leadership, Flaming bats.

From Sarah Sundin's blog:'

Today in World War II History—May 15, 1943: 80 Years Ago—May 15, 1943: US Army ends experiment in using “bat bombs” as bats burn down newly constructed, unoccupied Carlsbad Army Air Base, NM.

Oops.

She also noted that the Germans launched an offensive in Yugoslavia against Communist partisans, and ABC was founded to enable the newly formed company to purchase the NBC Blue Network.


The Free French deposed Sidi Muhammad VII al-Munsif (Moncef Bey) from Tunis, and would ultimately, that following July, send him packing to Madagascar.  The Bey had collaborated with the Germans, who had in turn made him the King of Tunisia.  To his credit, however, he'd protected the Jewish population of the country as well as the Muslim population.  In context, his actions may have made some sense, from a Tunisian prospective.

When he went into exile, his 25 wives went with him, so at least he wasn't lonely.

His cousin, Muhammad VIII al-Amin (Lamine Bey), became the new Bey.


Moncef Bey retained fairly strong support from Tunisian nationalist, who in turn had an uneasy relationship with the same.  This began to change upon Moncef Bey's death in exile in 1948.  Lamine Bey became king in 1956 with the departure of the French, but he was deposed in 1957.  He died at age 81 in 1962.

He was married to a commoner, with whom he had ten children.

The SS Irish Oak, an Irish flagged vessel with Irish tricolors and Eire painted on the side of it was torpedoed by the U-607.  The crew was able to abandon the vessel and the U-607 waited to fire a final shot until they had departed it.

Operation Checkmate came to an end.

Friday, April 28, 2023

Wednesday, April 28, 1943. Lost ships.

The Chichibu Maru (秩父丸) renamed Kamakura Maru was sunk by the submarine USS Gudgeon resulting in 2,035 of the 2,500 passengers, soldiers and civilians, loosing their lives.

No. 14 (Arctic) Commando began a raid on Haugesund Norway's shipping.  The seven man team would sink one ship before being captured. They all ultimately perished, six being executed under the Commando Order and a seventh dying of typhus while a prisoner.

From Sarah Sundin's blog:

Today in World War II History—April 28, 1943: Atlantic convoy ONS-5 begins battle with U-boats: by May 6, six U-boats and thirteen Allied ships will be sunk; a turning point in the Battle of the Atlantic.

Thursday, April 27, 2023

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. 


Sunday, April 9, 2023

Monday, April 9, 1973. Operation Spring of Youth.

Israel launched Operation Spring of Youth on Palestinian Liberation Organization targets in Beirut and Sidon, Lebanon.  Over 50 PLO operatives were killed to the loss of two Israeli commandos.

Shipboard Israeli commandos during the operation. By ניר מאור מוזיאון ההעפלה וחיל הים - ניר מאור מוזיאון ההעפלה וחיל הים, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=43634278

The operation was part of the ongoing retaliation for the attack on Israeli athletes at the Munich Olympics.

The United Nations Organization for African Unity conference on Southern Africa opened in Oslo, Norway, which is not anywhere near Southern Africa.  Norway was hosting the event.

As part of the Nixon effort to combat inflation, grocery stores were required to post signs at their meat counters listing the limit for prices per pound for meat. 

Thursday, March 23, 2023

Monday, March 23, 1943. Last sighting of the Xerces Blue.

The last spotting of the Xerces Blue butterfly was made. The species is believed to have gone extinct due to the expansion of San Francisco into its habitat.

Sarah Sundin's blog has a number of interesting items:

Today in World War II History—March 23, 1943: RAF drops 2000 tons of bombs on Dortmund, Germany. At El Guettar in Tunisia, US 1st Infantry Division manages to defeat German armor (10th Panzer Division).

She also discusses the Danish parliamentary elections, which took place in spite of Nazi occupation. The German occupation of Denmark, it might be noted, was quite odd in that Denmark retained its government and even retained its army while occupied.

The Social Democrats took 66 out of 148 seats.  The Danish Nazi Party received a mere 3.3% of the vote.

The British troopship RMS Windsor Castle was sunk by an HE 111 off of Algiers.  All on board save one of 2,700 were rescued by the Royal Navy.

The multinational commando raid styled Operation Roundabout, made up of two enlisted members of No. 12 Commando, four enlisted men of the 29th Ranger Battalion, and four Norwegian soldiers, commanded by a British officer and with an American officer in support, failed in its mission to destroy a bridge over a fjord when a Norwegian soldier dropped his machine gun magazine.  The sound altered the Germans.

The 29th Ranger Battalion was short lived, existing only in 1943.  It was made up of volunteers from the 29th Infantry Division and was trained by the British. The unit was successful but it did not have the supporter of higher headquarters and therefore was disbanded in October 1943 with its men sent back to their units.

29th in training.

The combination of hydrocodone and acetaminophen marketed as Vicodin was approved by the FDA.

Saturday, March 18, 2023

Thursday, March 18, 1943. 1st Rangers take El Guettar.

The U.S. 1st Ranger Battalion, "Darby's Rangers", took El Guettar Tunisia from surprised Italian forces.


William O. Darby, their commander, was a pre-war artilleryman who was exposed to British Commandos while stationed in Northern Ireland.  Darby sought and was granted a leadership role in the 1st Ranger Battalion when it was formed in 1942.  The Rangers at that time were heavily made up of volunteers from the 34th Infantry Division, which was a National Guard division made up of units from several states.  That the rangers had this origin is often missed.

Darby was killed in action in Italy shortly before the war ended.


United States Army Air Corps bombardier Jack Warren Mathis was killed in action.  He'd be awarded the Medal of Honor for his actions on this day. The citation reads:

For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity above and beyond the call of duty in action with the enemy over Vegesack, Germany on 18 March 1943. First Lt. Mathis, as leading bombardier of his squadron, flying through intense and accurate antiaircraft fire, was just starting his bomb run, upon which the entire squadron depended upon for accurate bombing, when he was hit by the enemy antiaircraft fire. His right arm was shattered above the elbow, a large wound was torn in his side and abdomen, and he was knocked from his bombsight to the rear of the bombardier's compartment. Realizing that the success of the mission depended upon him, 1st Lt. Mathis, by sheer determination and willpower, though mortally wounded, dragged himself back to his sights, released his bombs, then died at his post of duty. As the result of this action the airplanes of his bombardment squadron placed their bombs directly upon the assigned target for a perfect attack against the enemy. First Lt. Mathis' undaunted bravery has been a great inspiration to the officers and men of his unit.

Mathis had joined the Army in 1940 and had served as an enlisted artillerymen until his brother joined the Air Corps.  He then transferred to it. 

The German recapture of Kharkiv was completed.  The Red Army evacuated Belgorod.

Of note, now regarded as a Russian city, it had been a Ukrainian one prior to the USSR redrawing the map.

The British Canadian Star, Clarissa Radcliiffe, Dafila, Kaying, the US SS Ogelthorpe, Molly Pitcher, Walater Q. Gresham and  the DutchTerkolei went down in the Battle of the Atlantic.

The Vichy administration of French Guiana was deposed.

American Nazi leader, German-born Fritz Kuhn, was stripped of his U.S. citizenship.

Deportation of Jewish residents of Bulgarian occupied Thrace commenced.

Tuesday, February 28, 2023

Sunday, February 28, 1943. Norwegians at Vermok.

Norwegian ski born Norwegian commandos raided the Norsk Hydro plant at Vermok, Norway, destroying the heavy water inventory that had been produced there by the Germans.

The plant in 1948.

28,000 Norwegians carried on beyond Norway during the war, joining Norwegian forces that had made it out of Norway when it was invaded in 1940.  15,000 Norwegians joined the German forces, principally in the SS, which mostly fought on the Eastern Front, although Germany attempted to recruit Norwegians for the German Navy as well.  About 40,000 Norwegians participated in the Milorg, the Norwegian resistance.

The Vermok event was memorialized in the 1965 British war movie, Heroes of Telemark.  It was also featured in a 1948 Norwegian movie, Operation Swallow.

This was the third attempted raid on the plan, this one being more successful than the prior two.  Another air attack would take place in November 1943 and a heavy water transporting boat would be attacked in 1944.

The USAAF and RAF made a 1,000 plane raid on Saint-Nazaire submarine base.

Tuesday, February 21, 2023

Thursday, February 21, 1963. Training SEALs.

US Navy Seals in training in the Virgin Islands, February 21, 1963.  Note the original verion of the M16 in use here, before it had been actually adopted as a theater rifle by the U.S.



I don't normally put posts from 60 years ago, but as I don't anticipate being around when these photos hit the 75 or 80 year mark, I thought I'd go ahead and post them.

As we have these up, we'll note a few things about the day.

The Telstar 1, the first privately funded satellite, became the first satellite destroyed by radiation.  The U.S. had conducted a high altitude nuclear test the day prior.

Oops.

The satellite had inspired a hit instrumental by the Tornados.

The Soviet Communist Party wrote the Chinese one, proposing a meeting in hopes of clearing up differences between the two bodies of thuggery.

In East Berlin, the Communist government yielded in the face of a student protest which simply assigned occupations to graduating students, rather than allow them to pick their own paths, prior to being able to attend university. The occupations that had been chosen were all manual labor jobs.

Klein's Sporting Goods in Chicago received a shipment of surplus Mannlicher-Carcano rifles.  One of them would later be purchased by Lee Harvey Oswald.

Monday, January 23, 2023

Saturday, January 23, 1943. Casablanca released.

Casablanca was given its general release.  Our review of it is here:

Movies In History: Casablanca

First of all, let me note that I made an error in my review of The Maltese Falcon.  The 41 variant of that film was released first, not Casablanca.  I don't know why I reversed the order, but I did.

Casablanca was released for general circulation on January 23, 1943.

At that time, Morocco was just recently brought into the Allied orbit.  Allied troops had landed there in November, 1942 with the landings being part of Operation Torch.  The Moroccan landings, much less discussed than the Algerian ones, actually took place at Casablanca.  French forces resisted the Allies briefly in Algeria and Morocco, before formally switching sides as part of a negotiated turn about in early November, 1942.  Casablanca was the host that January to the Casablanca Conference between Winston Churchill and Franklin Roosevelt, where the policy of unconditional surrender was announced and agreed upon.

So how's the film hold up?

Well, the movie doesn't take place in 1943, it takes place in December, 1941, just before the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. The US isn't yet in the war.  Morocco is in the hands of the Vichy French, although at the end of the movie we learn about a Free French garrison in Brazzaville, a city in French Equatorial Africa.  Casablanca is, as the movie depicts it, as sweaty den of vice, filled with refugees seeking desperately to get out of Morocco and on to freedom somewhere else.  In the center of it is Rick's Cafe American, where everyone goes.  Working into this, we have Victor Laszlo, a Central European resistance leader and his beautiful wife Ilsa Lund, played by Ingrid Bergman.  Lund, we learn, was the girlfriend of Rick of Rick's Cafe, who proposed to her just as Paris was set to fall, not knowing that she was already married to Laszlo.  Laszlo and Lund need "letters of transit" to leave Morocco, and Vichy French control, and the cynical world-weary Rick is believed to have obtained them from the oily Signor Ugarte, played by Peter Lorre.  Through it all a charmingly corrupt Inspector Renault, played by Claude Rains, weaves his way.

If you haven't seen it, see it.  This is another film which, by some people's measure, is the "greatest" movie ever made, although it isn't as great as the film commonly taking that prize, in my view, that being Citizen Kane.  It's a great movie, however.  And it's all the more amazingly great when you realize how much the making of the film was beset by all sorts of difficulties.

But what of its place in history. Was Casablanca of 1941 like the way it was portrayed in this 1942/43 film?

Well, probably surprisingly close.

Places under European colonial administration were bizarrely reservoirs of traditional cultures, advancement of European ideas, and massive corruption.  All three are shown to exist in the film and, if in exaggerated fashion, probably not too exaggerated really.  Morocco was controlled by Vichy at the time.  Brazzaville actually was beyond Vichy control and French Equatorial Africa was held by France Libre, a Free French movement.  Portugal was a neutral and a destination for people trying to get to the United Kingdom and beyond, or for that matter into Spain and then Nazi Germany through France.

Letters of Transit?  Nope, no such thing.  It is, after all, fiction.

In terms of material details, well the film was a contemporary picture, and it has the pluses and the minuses noted in our review of the Maltese Falcon.  Male costumes, more or less correct, with Bogar again wearing a Borsolino fedora, maybe the same one. Women's fashion?  Well, women refugees probably almost never traveled with a radiant wardrobe.

Well worth seeing, however.

The movie had a limited release on Thanksgiving Day, 1942, in New York City.

It was not known to the general public that Franklin Roosevelt was in Casablanca, Morocco, at the time.

The 8th Army captured Tripoli. We erroneously had this date reported a couple of days ago.

US forces successfully concluded all major ground operations on Guadalcanal, effectively bringing the campaign to a conclusion, the second such conclusion in the Pacific in two days.

British commandos, with Norwegian support, raided Stord, a Norwegian island, in Operation Cartoon and put a pyrite mine out of commission for a year.

Wednesday, December 7, 2022

Monday, December 7, 1942. Operation Frankton, the USS New Jersey,

As of this day, the United States had been at war for a year.

The Marine Corps celebrated the day by bombarding Japanese position on Guadalcanal.  

The USS New Jersey was launched by the U.S. Navy:

The massive battleship was of the Iowa Class, and would serve off and on until 1991.

We've covered this time frame, 12/7/41 to 12/7/42, in a sort of day by day fashion, even though this isn't "World War Two Day By Day".  We've done it as an interesting historical exercise, much like we started tracking the period of a century ago when we commenced with our day by day on the Punitive Expedition. This blog isn't "A Century Ago", or whatever, either.

Anyhow, it has been instructive.

What we have seen is that on December 7, 1941, the world was truly in contest.  The Soviets were losing the war in the East.  Not just might be losing, they were outright losing.  The British, who really would have been entitled to regard the Easter Front as "the second front", were holding on however, and continued to fight where ever they could, sometimes in a surprising place like Greece, but perhaps most notably in North Africa. They were doing surprisingly well, even though the Germans had joined the fight to aid failing Italy there.

On the seas, however, the titanic Battle of the Atlantic raged, and the Mediterranean was very much in contest.

A year later, the United States and Australia had arrested Japanese progress in the Pacific.  The Japanese would have been entitled not to have necessarily regarded the tide as having been turned, but any rational observer would have had to conclude that their offensive in the Pacific had already ground to a halt, and they were now on the defensive.  They should have been worried.

The tide had been turned in North Africa and the handwriting was on the wall for the Afrika Korps, although the now German lead enterprise was attempting to react to Operation Torch, the Anglo-American invasion of Vichy France's possession in the region which lead to the effective and rapid end of Vichy.  The French military had departed from its own official sovereign and joined the Allies.  And the battle for the Medettreanean was over, with the Allies prevailing in what was a Royal Navy victory.  The Italians were beginning to regard the war as lost.

The Red Army had finally arrested German progress in the East and had launched its first really successful counter-attack, surrounding Stalingrad in what was to become a German disaster.  In the East too, the Germans would have been entitled not to regard the contest as decided, but they no longer would have reason to regard a battlefield victory against the Allies as likely.

What my parents did on this day I don't know, of course.  Both would have been in school.  For my father, at least, talk of the war being "a year old" must have come up in some fashion.

The British commenced Operation Frankton, a kayak insertion raid on the French port of Bordeaux.  The raid by commandos of the Royal Marines gave rise to the nickname The Cockleshell Heroes for its participants, who over a course of several days several vessels in the harbor, damaging six of them.  The Germans predictably captured six of the men, and executed them.

British military kayaks.

Interestingly, it was Japanese vessels that had evaded blockades that the British were particularly attempting to target.

Today saw the first flight of the P-63 Kingcobra, the intended successor to the P-39.


The aircraft based on this frame were never popular with the U.S. Air Force and the while the aircraft was adopted by the US, it was not deployed in combat.  It should principally be regarded as a Soviet fighter, and it was very popular with the Soviet Air Force, which was actually not supposed to deploy it, by agreement with the US, against the Germans, but retain it in the Far East in case of a Japanese attack upon the Soviet Union.  Nearly indistinguishable from the P39, that agreement was not honored.

A P63 was recently involved in a tragic accident in Dallas, which we have noted here:

Tragedy. P63 hits B-17 at Dallas Airshow. (Graphic)


I'm sorry, it's hard to see how this could happen.

Actually, it apparently isn't all that hard to see how it could happen, as the P63 had poor visibility.

Friday, November 25, 2022

Wednesday, November 25, 1942. Operation Mars commences

Having just concluded Operation Uranus around Stalingrad, the Red Army launched Operation Mars near the Rzhev salient outside of Moscow.


Operation Mars remains a controversial offensive, as the Soviets later claimed it was a diversion designed to tie down German forces in the north so that they could not be redeployed to the south.  This view has been taken by famed student of the Red Army, Anthony Beever.  Noted historian David Glanz, however, disagrees, and I frankly feel that Glanz has the better side of the argument.

It should be noted that the offensive was supposedly the subject of a radio false information campaign by the Soviets, something they were very good at, designed to draw attention to it prior to its commencement.  The overall problem is that, as a diversion, if it was one, it was a big one which wasn't skillfully executed, which would be odd as its success, diversion or not, should have been something sought by the Soviets.

The Soviet offensive would ultimately fail, which may provide the reason for its having been claimed as a diversion.  If it was a diversion, it was a massive one, involving over 700,000 troops.  Notably, in Mars the Red Army was encountering German troops, who fought stubbornly from its onset, rather than the forces of Germany's Eastern Front allies.  Additionally, the offensive started after Uranus had concluded, whereas if it were a diversion it would seem more likely that it would have commenced simultaneously.

As with Stalingrad, the German forces were subject to a Hitler no retreat order.  Hitler had issued a similar order the prior winter, which had proven instrumental in stabilizing the front.  The strategic situation had changed since then, however, and while it worked in this instance, it was costly.  The Germans took 40,000 casualties, small compared to the outsized 335,000 casualties the Red Army took, but the losses would not be made up by the German 9th Army by the following spring and therefore made it less effective in resumed offensive operations that year.

The Washington Post ran an article with the headline:

Two Million Jews Slain

This was the written report on the live announcement by Rabbi Stephen Wise announcement of the prior day.  It did not make the front page.

The Luftwaffe began to fly supply missions into Stalingrad.

At Meijez el Bab British forces made a disastrous attack on the town, which was defended by German paratroopers of the Luftwaffe's 5th Fallschirmjager Regiment.   The unit had been in North Africa since the summer, at which point it became part of the Afrika Korps.  It's deployment to Tunisia had been by plane, but they had not made a combat drop.

Medjez al Bab is an ancient city and was the site of a prior battle, the Battle of Bagradas River in 536 at which Eastern Roman Empire forces under Belisarius fought rebel forces under Stotzas.

British SOE operatives and Greek resistance fighters raided the Gorgopotamos viaduct in Operation Harling.

Saturday, November 19, 2022

Thursday, November 19, 1942. Operation Uranus launched.

 

By Lưu Ly - Own workVẽ lại dựa vào nguồn tham khảo http://victory.mil.ru/war/maps/023.jpg, CC BY 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=10483516

The decisive turning of the tables on the Eastern Front commenced on this day in 1942 with the Red Army launched Operation Uranus, their 1942 winter offensive in the Stalingrad region.

The massive attack had been postponed for two days while the air element of the offensive was fully readied.  When it commenced on this day, initial operations were against the Romanian Army that held the positions north of Stalingrad.


The Romanians broke by the end of the day and the massive pincer movement's north claw, therefore, started to advance.

The fact that the Germans had placed the Romanians in such an important position itself was a stunning failure showing either hubris or a real lack of understanding of the situation they were in.  The Romanian Army was primitive in comparison to the German army and its rank and file was made up of peasantry.

Much further to the north, the Red Army began an advancement on Velikiye Luki designed to relieve it.

The British launched a glider assault on Telemark. The gliders did not land near their objective, Operation Freshman was a failure, and 41 British soldiers were killed.  The attack was aimed at trying to sabotage the chemical plant at Telemark in order to disrupt any German nuclear plans associated with it.

Polish artist and literary critic Bruno Schultz was murdered by a Gestapo agent in a bizarre act of personal revenge.

Schultz was Jewish, but had been extended protection by Gestapo agent Felix Landau in exchange for Schultz painting a mural for Landau in his children's bedroom.  On this day, however, another Gestapo agent, Karl Günther, shot and killed him in an act of revenge against Landau for Landau having murdered Gunther's "personal Jew", who was a dentist.  The murals were painted over, but have since been rediscovered.

The entire matter shows how perverse Nazi Germany really was.

Landau, an Austrian by birth, survived the war and served a decade in the 1960s for his crimes.  He died a natural death in 1983 at age 72.  He kept a diary which documented the plight of the Jews, including his own crimes in regard to them.

Fashion designer Calvin Klein was born.

Tuesday, October 18, 2022

Sunday, October 18, 1949. Hitler issues the Commando Order.

British Combined Operations patch.

Hitler issued the illegal Commando Order. It stated:

On 18 October, after much deliberation by High Command lawyers, officers and staff, Hitler issued his Commando Order or Kommandobefehl in secret, with only 12 copies. The following day Army Chief of Staff Alfred Jodl distributed 22 copies with an appendix stating that the order was "intended for commanders only and must not under any circumstances fall into enemy hands". The order itself stated:

For a long time now our opponents have been employing in their conduct of the war, methods which contravene the International Convention of Geneva. The members of the so-called Commandos behave in a particularly brutal and underhanded manner; and it has been established that those units recruit criminals not only from their own country but even former convicts set free in enemy territories. From captured orders it emerges that they are instructed not only to tie up prisoners, but also to kill out-of-hand unarmed captives who they think might prove an encumbrance to them, or hinder them in successfully carrying out their aims. Orders have indeed been found in which the killing of prisoners has positively been demanded of them.

In this connection it has already been notified in an Appendix to Army Orders of 7.10.1942. that in future, Germany will adopt the same methods against these Sabotage units of the British and their Allies; i.e. that, whenever they appear, they shall be ruthlessly destroyed by the German troops.

I order, therefore:— From now on all men operating against German troops in so-called Commando raids in Europe or in Africa, are to be annihilated to the last man. This is to be carried out whether they be soldiers in uniform, or saboteurs, with or without arms; and whether fighting or seeking to escape; and it is equally immaterial whether they come into action from Ships and Aircraft, or whether they land by parachute. Even if these individuals on discovery make obvious their intention of giving themselves up as prisoners, no pardon is on any account to be given. On this matter a report is to be made on each case to Headquarters for the information of Higher Command.

Should individual members of these Commandos, such as agents, saboteurs etc., fall into the hands of the Armed Forces through any means – as, for example, through the Police in one of the Occupied Territories – they are to be instantly handed over to the SD

To hold them in military custody – for example in P.O.W. Camps, etc., – even if only as a temporary measure, is strictly forbidden.

This order does not apply to the treatment of those enemy soldiers who are taken prisoner or give themselves up in open battle, in the course of normal operations, large-scale attacks; or in major assault landings or airborne operations. Neither does it apply to those who fall into our hands after a sea fight, nor to those enemy soldiers who, after air battle, seek to save their lives by parachute.

I will hold all Commanders and Officers responsible under Military Law for any omission to carry out this order, whether by failure in their duty to instruct their units accordingly, or if they themselves act contrary to it.

It figures, somehow, that he'd issue the order on a Sunday. 

On the same day, as Sarah Sundin notes:  "Vice Adm. William Halsey replaces Vice Adm. Robert Ghormley as Commander South Pacific Area and South Pacific Force."

Halsey was a 1904 graduate of the Naval Academy and was in his early 60s, having been born in 1882.

Monday, October 3, 2022

Saturday, October 3, 1942. The Rocket Age

In a remarkable scientific achievement, but one which came in the context of war, and one which would foreshadow a terror that was introduced during World War Two and has remained ever since, a German V2 rocket became the first man-made object launched into space.

The horrific weapon would not enter into service until September 1944, two years later.

President Roosevelt ordered a freeze on wages, rents and farm prices under authority granted him the day prior.

The British raided the German occupied Channel Island of Sark.

The Hollywood Canteen opened.

Marlene Dietrich and Rita Hayworth serve food to soldiers at the Hollywood Canteen in 1942, the year that it opened.

Sunday, September 18, 2022

Friday, September 18, 1942. Far from home.


The Rohwer War Relocation Center, a Japanese American internment cap, opened in Desha County, Arkansas.

Popular myth has held that all internment camps were in the West, but this one obviously wasn't. 8,500 people were held there during the war, in a location that was probably as alien as imaginable from their homes.

FWIW, the current population of Desha County is nearly half of what it was in 1940.

The British occupied Tamataave on the east coast of Madagascar in their undeclared war on the Vichy French in Madagascar.

The British also concluded Operation Anglo, the long-running raid on Rhodes, successfully.

The 4,157 man 7th Marine Regiment and one battalion of the 11th Marine Regiment, land on Guadalcanal.  Additionally, food arrives, allowing the Marines to go back to full rations.