General Heinrich Freiherr von Lüttwitz, commander of German forces outside of Bastogne, sent a major, a lieutenant and two enlisted men to deliver an ultimatum to US forces. The ultimatum, delivered to 101st artillery commander, Gen. Anthony McAuliffe, who was in command, read:
To the U.S.A. Commander of the encircled town of Bastogne.
The fortune of war is changing. This time the U.S.A. forces in and near Bastogne have been encircled by strong German armored units. More German armored units have crossed the river Ourthe near Ortheuville, have taken Marche and reached St. Hubert by passing through Hompre-Sibret-Tillet. Libramont is in German hands.
There is only one possibility to save the encircled U.S.A. troops from total annihilation: that is the honorable surrender of the encircled town. In order to think it over a term of two hours will be granted beginning with the presentation of this note.
If this proposal should be rejected one German Artillery Corps and six heavy A. A. Battalions are ready to annihilate the U.S.A. troops in and near Bastogne. The order for firing will be given immediately after this two hours term.
All the serious civilian losses caused by this artillery fire would not correspond with the well-known American humanity.
The German Commander.
McAuliffe read the note, crumpled it up, and muttered, "Aw, nuts" after realizing that the Germans were asking for a U.S. surrender, rather than the other way around. Lieutenant Colonel Harry Kinnard suggested that McAuliffe's response summed up the situation well and reply was typed and delivered by Colonel Joseph Harper, commanding the 327th Glider Infantry, to the German delegation. It stated:
To the German Commander.
NUTS!
The American Commander.
The German commander was confused by the reply, understandably, and asked Harper what it meant. Harper replied; "In plain English? Go to hell." McAuliffe himself never used profanity.
Slowed progress caused Guderian to recommend the German offensive in the Ardennes be halted.
Guderian and McAuliffe's assessment was realistic. While from the outside the American situation appeared desperate, in fact it was not. The German advance had been massively slowed by American resistance, including by relatively inexperienced troops. At Bastogne the Germans now faced two airborne divisions which were used to being surrounded.
President Roosevelt signed the Flood Control Act of 1944.
A new provisional government was formed in Hungary.
France rounded up over 300 communists in raids on their headquarters, including some 70 foreign ones.
Prime Minister Herriot stated: "There are too many foreign communists in France who forget their duty to the country that has given them asylum. They are indulging in political demonstrations, and we will not tolerate it, we will not let them meddle in our political life. If we meet with resistance we will break it, and we will deport as many as necessary."
"Men of the 121st Regt., 8th Inf. Div., U.S. First Army, after 15 days at the front, move back along the road from Hurtgen, Germany. 5 December, 1944. 121st Infantry Regiment, 8th Infantry Division. Photographer: T/3 Jack G. [illegible], 165th Signal Photo Co."
" An American infantryman keeps firing while two of his comrades insert fresh ammunition in their rifles, as steady fire from this sheltered infantry covers advance near Rosteig, France. December 5, 1944. K Company, 398th Infantry Regiment, 100th Infantry Division. Rosteig Area, France. December 5, 1944." Note that the men are wearing L. L. Bean Maine Hunting Shoe boots.
Éamon de Valera was arrested in Newry as he arrived at a meeting of the Sinn Féin. He was charged with entering a prohibited area under the Civil Powers Act.
Romanian fascist Iron Guard leader Corneliu Codreanu assassinated Constantin Manciu, the police chief of the city of Iași, and shot several other policemen.
He would be acquitted on the grounds that he had acted in self-defense, despite entering the meeting and shooting Manciu from behind.
The British Foreign Office released the Zinoviev letter. The letter purported to be a directive from the Soviets addressed to the Communist Party of Great Britain to increase labor unrest in the UK. A protest was lodged with the Soviet Embassy.
Belgium signed the Geneva Protocol.
Crown Princes Wilhelm of Germany and Rupprecht of Bavaria reconciled.
The Prince of Wales ended his visit to the United States and Canada.
Bob Denver, who had previously been portrayed as a beatnik, played the title role. He'd been previously known for The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis. All of the actors in the short run series ended up typecast, in cluding the talented Alan Hale, Jr.
UPI critic Rick Dubrow commented: "It is impossible that a more inept, moronic or humorless show has ever appeared on the home tube."
As a kid, I'd often watch the show, already in syndication, when I got home from school.
Rebels in the Congo rounded up of all foreigners trapped in Stanleyville and Paulis.
The "High National Council" was installed to function as the legislature for South Vietnam.
Communist Pole Boleslaw Bierut became the usurper president of the Russian backed Polish provisional government.
Scouting around in the small Belgian town of Battice, Belgium, on the way to Aachen (25km away) are L-R: T/Sgt. Frank F. Kitts, Chambersburg, Pa.; Pfc. Durward F. Oakly, Tocum, Ky.; Pfc. Leon Mooers, 174 Franklin Ave., Hartford, Conn., and Cpl. Tom. H. Graham, Scranton, S.C., all members of an infantry outfit. 11 September, 1944. Company B, 1st Battalion, 16th Infantry Regiment, 1st Infantry Division.
The U.S. Army entered Germany in a patrol by the 2nd Platoon, Troop B, 85th Cavalry Reconnaissance Squadron, 5th Armored Division. No Germans were encountered.
The US 1st Army took Malmedy. The 7th Army took Digon and linked up iwth the 3d Army, uniting the forces of Overlord and Dragoon.
South Africans captured Pistoia, Italy.
The Octagon Conference between Churchill and Roosevelt started in Quebec.
U.S. infantry advancing with Sherman, Spangle, Belgium, September 9, 1944.
A captured Japanese Mitsubishi A6M fighter, the Zero, was displayed in Cheyenne (Wyoming State History Calendar).
A coup in Bulgaria put the Communist Fatherland Front (Отечествен фронт) in control of the country, which it would control until the fall of Hungarian Communism in 1986. It dissolved in 1990.
French race car driver Robert Benoist, a member of the French Resistance, was executed at Buchenwald.
The U-484 was sunk by the Royal Navy northwest of Ireland.
Ten mule team draws heavy Chinese howitzer over many mountains in the Burma Road on its way to the fighting at Tung Ling, Yunnan, China. 9 September, 1944.
Portugal and FRELIMO (Frente de Libertação de Moçambique) recognized independence for Mozambique, with it to formally occur on June 25, 1975. The negotiations took place in Zambia.
FRELIMO, a far left wing political party that was formally Communist, has governed the country continually since that time. It has evolved into a democratic socialist party.
Yesterday, I made some observations on Denver, and today I'm doing the same on Labor Day, 2024.
Of course, it's immediately notable that I'm making these the day after Labor Day, which was a day I didn't get off. I worked a full day.
I was the only one in the office.
Labor Day dates back to the mid 1800s as an alternative to the more radical observance that takes place in many countries on May 1. Still, nonetheless, early on, and for a long time, there was a fair amount of radicalism associated with it during that period when American labor organizations were on the rise. The day itself being a widely recognized day off is due to organized strikes on the day that started occurring during the 1930s, to the day as sort of a "last day of summer holiday" is fairly new.
Even now, when people think of it, they often think of the day in terms of the sort of burly industrial workers illustrated by Leyendecker and Rockwell in the 20s through the 40s. Otherwise, they sort of blandly associate it with celebrating work in general, which gets to the nature of work in general, something we sort of touched on yesterday with this entry;
Early on, Labor Day was something that acknowledged a sort of worthy heavy work. There are, in spite of what people may think, plenty of Americans that still are engaged in that sort of employment, although its s shadow of the number that once did. Wyoming has a lot of people who do, because of the extractive industries, which are in trouble. Ironically, therefore, its notable that Wyoming is an epicenter of anti union feelings, when generally those engaged in heavy labor are pro union. There's no good explanation for that.
When Labor Day became a big deal it pitted organized labor against capital, with it being acknowledged by both sides that if things went too far one way or another, it would likely result in a massive labor reaction that would veer towards socialism, or worse, communism. Real communism has never been a society wide strong movement in the United States, in spite of the current stupid commentary by those on the political far right side of the aisle accusing anyone they don't like, and any program they don't like, of being communistic. But radical economics did hae influence inside of unions, and communists were a factor in some of them, which was well known. As nobody really wanted what that might mean, compromise gave us the post war economic world of the 50s and 60s, which were sort of a golden age for American economics.
One of the unfortunate byproducts of the Cold War era, however, was the exportation of jobs overseas, which brought us the economic regime we have today, in part. The advance of technology brought us the other part. Today we find the American economy is massively dominated by capital in a way it hasn't been for a century, and its not a good thing at all. The will to do anything about it, or even understand it, seems to be wholly lacking. As a result of that, while an increasing number of Americans slave away at meaningless jobs in cubicles, and the former shopkeeper class now works at Walmart, we have the absolutely bizarre spectacle of two Titans of Capital, Donald Trump and Elon Musk, spewing out populist rhetoric. Populism, of course, always gets co-opted, but the working and middle class falling for rhetoric from the extremely wealthy is not only bizarre, its' downright dumb.
Indeed, in the modern American economy, having your own is increasingly difficult. Entire former occupations that were once local have been totally taken over by large corporations while agriculture has fallen to the rich in terms of land ownership, making entry into either field impossible. Fewer and fewer "my own" occupations exist, and those that do are under siege.
One of those is the law, of course. Lawyers, because of the nature of their work, still tend to own their practices, as to medical professionals of all types. The latter are falling into large corporate entities, however, and the move towards taking down state borders in the practice is causing the consolidation of certain types of practice in the former.
Not that "having your own" in the professions is necessarily a sort of Garden of Eden either, however.
Recently, interestingly, there's been a big movement in which young people are returning to the trades. That strikes me as a good thing, and perhaps the trades are finally getting the due they deserve. Ever since World War Two there's been the concept that absolutely everyone had to achieve white collar employment, which demeaned blue collar employment, and which put a lot of people in occupations and jobs they didn't care for. I suspect the small farm movement reflects that too.
Indeed, on my first day of practicing law as a lawyer over thirty years ago the long time office manager, who must have been having sort of a bad day, made a comment like "you might just end up wishing you had become a farmer". I remember thinking to myself even then that if that had been an option, that's exactly what I would have become. It wasn't, and it never has been for me, in the full time occupation sort of way.
Oh well.
And so we lost the garden to labor in, but we can make things better than they are. And we could do that by taking a much more distributist approach to things. Which seems nowhere near close to happening, a populist uprising notwithstanding.
Mikhail Glazman, one of Leon Trotsky’s closest advisers during the Russian Civil War, killed himself after being expelled from the Communist Party by Stalin.
Often not put in real context, something that's commonly missed about the Communists coming into power was the unending sea of blood associated with it. The rise of the Communists was bloody, the Russian Civil War was bloody, the Communist in power, even before they fully seized power was bloody, and before that quit flowing the Reds turned on other Reds, and on members of their own party. Included in the bloody pool was the blood of people like Glazman, who killed themselves for any number of reasons, some just to avoid being killed by others.
Just recently the Trumpist have taken up calling Kamala Harris a "Communist".
What horse shit.
Calling right wing politicians "fascists" is an old slander, dating back at least to the 1960s. It's overuse has now lead to the problem that when some of the right are genuinely approaching being fascistic, the slur has lost part of its meaning, compounded by the fact that a lot of the people who use it, even seriously, don't really know what it means.
The US of course fought a fascist power during the Second World War, Italy, and bombed a second arguably fascist power, Romania. Germany, quite frankly, probably doesn't really qualify as fascist during the war, but something else. Vichy France and Francoist Spain had fascist elements, but probably can't really qualify as fascist. That doesn't make any of those powers nifty, but rather it demonstrates the problem of the sloppy use of words.
Since Barack Obama, those on the right have been busy doing it. Obama wasn't a "Marxist", as some on the right like to claim, and Harris isn't a Communist. But now some followers on the Trumpist right seriously believe that Harris is really a Communist.
That is in part because they have no idea what Communism is.
I hear this all the time. The government will propose regulating something, for example, and people will decry that as "Communist". It isn't. It is't Socialism either. Simply favoring government action or espousing "progressive" views isn't either of those things.
And regarding Socialism, there's big elements of Socialism that many people on the right are perfectly fine with. Like state funded highways? Well, you are dirty Socialist, maybe a Communist even.
European powers agreed to adopt the Dawes Plan, save for ratification of their parliaments.
The body of Italian opposition leader Giacomo Matteotti was found in a shallow ditch about 14 miles outside of Rome.
Boris Savinkov, Russian terrorist with the paramilitary wing of the outlawed Socialist Revolutionary Party, was arrested in Minsk by the Soviet secret police agency OGPU, because your opponents murdered is a murderer, while your own is a hero, apparently.
He was an anti communist and an admirer of Mussolini.
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