Sunday, April 1, 1945. Operation Iceberg.

US troops, ultimately to include members of the Marine Corps and the U.S. Army, landed on Okinawa in Operation Iceberg.  The initial landing of 50,000 men saw little resistance.

The Red Army took Sopron, Hungaria.

The Battle of Kassel began between the U.S. Army's 80th Division and German defenders.

British commandos began Operation Roast in an effort to push the Germans across the Po and out of Italy.

Hitler moved his headquarters to the Führerbunker..

The hospital ship Awa Maru was sunk in a case of mistaken identity by the USS Queenfish leading to the loss of 2003 of its 2004 passengers and crew.

And this wild communications item was introduced.

Visie-Talkie, 1945

Last edition:

Saturday, March 31, 1945. Liberated.

Labels: boats and ships, British Army, Chinese National Army, French Army, Imperial Japanese Navy, Nationalist Chinese Army, Okinawa, Red Army, Slavery, U.S. Navy, Upper Silesian Offensive, World War Two

Sunday, March 18, 1945 Landings in the Philippines, the largest air attack on Berlin.

"First wave U.S. troops from the Americal Division's 3rd Battalion, 132nd Infantry during the landing on Talisay beach, Cebu. Alligator LVTs are visible rolling up in the background. View facing south, Signal Corps photograph SC 204236."

The Battle of the Visayas began in the Philippines, commencing with amphibious landings. The campaign would continue until the end of the war.

Japan closed its schools in Tokyo and ordered everyone over the age of six to report for war work.

The largest Allied bombing raid on Berlin during World War Two took place.  1,329 Allied bombers and 700 fighters were countered by the Luftwaffe using the new Me 262s and air-to-air rockets. 

The U.S. Eighth Air Force lost six Mustangs and 13 bombers while the Luftwaffe only lost two planes.  3,000 tons of bombs were dropped on the city.

The US 3d Army took Bingen and Bad Kreuznach.

The Battle of Kolberg ended in Soviet and Red Polish victory.

The Battle of the Ligurian Sea was fought between British and German naval forces in the Gulf of Genoa.

The U-866 was sunk by the U.S. Navy.

Last edition:

Saturday, March 17, 1945. The Ludendorff Bridge collapse.

Labels: 1940s, 1945, Eastern Front, German Kriegsmarine, World War Two

Saturday, March 17, 1945. The Ludendorff Bridge collapse.

The weakened The Ludendorff Bridge at Remagen collapsed.  Twenty five U.S. Army engineers were killed in the event.

By this time, however, the US had already constructed more than one alternative bridges at the location.

"U.S. Seventh Army infantrymen move past a destroyer barrier made of steel rails in the Altheim Area, Germany, as they press new 7th Army attack. 17 March, 1945. 3rd Infantry Division. Photographer: T/5 Joseph A. Bowen, 163rd Signal Photo Co."

The Kriegsmarine completed the evacuation of 75,000 civilians and soldiers from the Kolberg pocket.

Kobe was firebombed.

Last edition:

Friday, March 16, 1945. Luzon Language Edition.

Labels: 1940s, 1945, actors and actresses, boats and ships, Germany, Philippines, Tagalog, The Press, Women, World War Two

Saturday, March 10, 1945. The execution of Gen. Émile Lemonnier.

Gen. Émile Lemonnier of the French Army was executed by the Japanese for, as a captive, refusing to sign an instrument of surrender to the Japanese in Indochina.  He was 51 years of age.

The last few years of his life must have been one of unrelenting mental torment.

The cowardly weasel ordering his execution, Captain Kayakawa was himself executed after the war..

I know some will excuse the latter's actions based on culture, but he was a weasel.

It was day two of the firebombing of Tokyo.

It's extremely difficult not to be morally troubled by this action.  There are military justifications of it, but by and large, it was a monstrous attack upon a civilian population right down to the infant level.  It survives as a reminder that even in World War Two, in which the Allies held hte moral high ground, not all Allied actions were morally licit.

In our own day, in which we have a President who stands by as rockets rain down on a civilian population, and in which that same President sat a war out due to shin splints, it rains buckets of blood on our own  heads.

The Australians landed at Wide Bay, Papua New Guinea.

Smiling Albert Field Marshal Kesselring arrivee from Italy to take command of the German armies in the west.

The Germans withdrew from from the pocket west of the Rhine between Wesel and Xanten in the face of British and Canadian pressure.

The German offensive around Lake Balatron began to encounter heavy Rad Army resistance..

The U-275 struck a mine and was sunk off of East Sussex.  The U-681 was sunk off of the Isles of Scilly by a U.S Navy B-24.

FDR involved Spanish representatives with their hands out no American aid will be forthcoming so long as the Franco dictatorship continued.

Good for FDR.

Today, King Donny would probably be giving warm smooches to Francoist delegates.

Last edition:

Friday, March 9, 1945. Firebombing Japan (Operation Meetinghouse). Japanese end French rule in Indochina (Operation Bright Moon)

Labels: 1940s, 1945, Army, French Indochina, Italian Social Republic, law, Mussolini, Operation Bright Moon, Operation Meetinghouse, The Great Tokyo Air Raid, Tokyo Japan, U.S. Air Force, War Crimes

March 1, 1945. Iran declares war on Japan.

 

9th Armored Division, 1 March 1945, Germany

Signal Corps Photo.  This appears to be a M26 with its turret pointing to the rear for travel.  The M26 was just coming into service at this time.

Iran declared war on Japan.

Franklin Roosevelt reported on the Yalta Conference.  He was unable to stand.

The Wehrmacht launched an offensive around Lauban.

The Ninth Army took Mönchengladbach.

"Infantrymen of the U.S. Third Army move through war-torn city of Prum, Germany, of which little is left but blasted buildings and debris-littered streets. 1 March, 1945. 22nd Infantry Regiment, 4th Infantry Division."

"After the town of Disternich, Germany, fell to units of the 9th Armored Division, civilians are gathered to be interrogated by military authorities. 1 March, 1945. Company A, 27th Armored Infantry Battalion, 9th Armored Division."  This is an interesting photograph for a variety of reasons, one of which simply is to note what's occurring, the interrogation of  civilians in the Westphalian town of Disternich.    Note the peasant like appearance of the German civilians.  Peasantry is probably exactly what they are. Note also the medic.  This was for an interrogation, but there must have been a concern that the civilians would be sick or injured. The soldier on the right with the M1 Garand provides us with a really good example of Maine Hunting Shoes in use by the U.S. Army.  Note also his armored division shoulder patch.

 

"Children of parents left destitute in wake of German retreat from Manheim, Germany, receive milk after civilians were able to round up food for themselves. Scene in sector held by 3rd Armored Division of 1st U.S. Army. 1 March, 1945. Photographer: W. B. Allen, 165th Signal Photo Co."  Note that the boy in the foreground is wearing a classic German mutze with some sort of cap device.

Michael Strank, one of the Marines photographed raising the flag on Iwo Jima, lost his life in the battle.

He was born in Czechoslovakia to a Rusyn family, and had immigrated to the US as a child with his family.

Last edition:

Wednesday, February 28, 1945. Saudi Arabia declares war.

Labels: 1940s, 1945, Army, Axis Powers, Heroes, Iwo Jima, Philippines, Prisoners of War, Red Army, Saudi Arabia, U.S. Navy, United States Marine Corps, World War Two

Tuesday, February 20, 1945. Slow advance on Iwo Jima.

The Red Army's 1st Ukrainian Front and 1st Belorussian Front begin to threaten Berlin.

Nuremberg was bombed by the USAAF.

The US lands troops on Biri, Philippines.

Progress is slow on Iwo Jima.

Marines on Iwo Jima, February 20, 1945.

Last edition:

Sunday, February 18, 1945. Off of Iwo Jima.

Labels: 1940s, 1945, Army, German Wehrmacht, Iwo Jima, Personalities, Prisoners of War, Red Army, U.S. Navy, World War Two

Friday, February 16, 1945. Corregidor.

The U.S. Navy launched its first carrier raid against Japan itself.

The US launches an airborne and seaborn attack on Corregidor.

Lloyd G. McCarter performed the actions which caused him to be awarded the Medal of Honor.

He was a scout with the regiment which seized the fortress of Corregidor, Philippine Islands. Shortly after the initial parachute assault on 16 February 1945, he crossed 30 yards of open ground under intense enemy fire, and at pointblank range silenced a machinegun with hand grenades. On the afternoon of 18 February he killed 6 snipers. That evening, when a large force attempted to bypass his company, he voluntarily moved to an exposed area and opened fire. The enemy attacked his position repeatedly throughout the night and was each time repulsed. By 2 o'clock in the morning, all the men about him had been wounded; but shouting encouragement to his comrades and defiance at the enemy, he continued to bear the brunt of the attack, fearlessly exposing himself to locate enemy soldiers and then pouring heavy fire on them. He repeatedly crawled back to the American line to secure more ammunition. When his submachine gun would no longer operate, he seized an automatic rifle and continued to inflict heavy casualties. This weapon, in turn, became too hot to use and, discarding it, he continued with an M-1 rifle. At dawn the enemy attacked with renewed intensity. Completely exposing himself to hostile fire, he stood erect to locate the most dangerous enemy positions. He was seriously wounded; but, though he had already killed more than 30 of the enemy, he refused to evacuate until he had pointed out immediate objectives for attack. Through his sustained and outstanding heroism in the face of grave and obvious danger, Pvt. McCarter made outstanding contributions to the success of his company and to the recapture of Corregidor."

The U.S. Navy begins pre landing bombardment of Iwo Jima.

The Red Army captured Żagań.

The U-309 was sunk by the HMCS Saint John.

Last edition:

Thursday, February 15, 1945. Operation Solstice.

Labels: 1940s, 1945, Army, Ethnicities, German Wehrmacht, Heroes, Navy, Operation Solstice, Women, World War Two, Yugoslav Partisans

Thursday, February 1, 1945. Advances in east and west.

"Members of Co. I, 23rd Regiment, 2nd Infantry Division, U.S. First Army, cross a clearing in the Monschau Forest, on the Belgian-German border. 1 February, 1945. Company I, 23rd Infantry Regiment, 2nd Infantry Division.

The Second Battle of Kesternich ended in a US victory.

The Red Army reached Liebenow and took Torun.

The North Tube of the Lincoln Tunnel was opened.

Prince Kiril of Bulgaria, and Bogdan Filov, Prime Minister from 1940 to 1943, were executed under orders of the new Communist government.

The sentences were overturned in 1996.

Last edition:

Wednesday, January 31, 1945. Fifty miles from Berlin.

Labels: 1940s, 1945, Airborne, Army, Battle for the Kapelsche Veer, Battle of Hill 170, Berlin Germany, British Army, Burma, Crime, Indian Army, Philippines, Red Army, The Podgaje Massacre, World War Two

Monday, January 29, 1945. Königsberg taken.

The 3d Belorussian Front attacked Königsberg, or "the Kings Mountain" in German.  The Lithuanian city is now occupied by Russia as a Baltic access enclave and called Kaliningrad.

Dresden was taken by the Red Army.

The U-763 was scuttled after being damaged in a Soviet air raid.

"Four scouts of a reconnaissance squad of the 14th Field Artillery Observation Battalion, 87th Infantry Division, 3rd U.S. Army, race through snow-covered field to avoid enemy small arms fire near Malscheid. They are headed for protection of bomb crater in the field. L to R: Tec 5 Ralph Case, Cpl. Edwin Kral, Pvt. Charles Goddard and Cpl. Richard Christensen. 29 January, 1945. Malscheid, Belgium. 87th Infantry Division."

The US 1st Army took Bullingen.

Erich von Manstein attempted to meet with Hitler, who refused to receive him.  Von Manstein was now himself part of the refugee Prussian population.

Tom Selleck was born in Detroit.

Last edition:

Sunday, January 28, 1945. Katowice and Leszno and Roza Shanina dies of her wounds.

Labels: 1940s, 1945, Artillery, Burma, Burma Road, China, Eastern Front, Italian Army, Ledo Road, Red Army, Ruhr, The roles of men and women, U.S. Air Force, War Crimes, Women, World War Two

Sunday, January 28, 1945. Katowice and Leszno and Roza Shanina dies of her wounds.

The Red Army took Katowice and Leszno.

Female Red Army sniper Roza Shanina died of wounds sustained from artillery fire the prior day.  She is reported to have killed 50 Axis soldiers during her service. She was 20 years of age.

While not really well depicted in film, artillery was the great killer of the Second World War, not rifle fire or close combat.  This was so much the case that for a long period of time after the war artillery came to be seen as the predominant conventional combat arm, with this really only changing after the US began to appreciate the lessons of the Vietnam War which showed a shift back to close combat wounds.

The Germans killed Italian generals Giuseppe Andreoli, Emanuele Balbo Bertone, Ugo Ferrero, Carlo Spatocco, Alberto Trionfi, Alessandro Vaccaneo in Kuźnica Żelichowska.

The 8th Air Force conducted raids over the Ruhr.

The first supplies to cross the Ledo Road enter China.

Last edition:

Saturday, January 27, 1945. Auschwitz Liberated.

Labels: 1940s, 1945, Auschwitz, Burma, Collaborators, Philippines, Raid at Cabanatuan, Red Army, The Holocaust, World War Two

Friday, January 26, 1945. Audie Murphy.

The Przyszowice massacre began in Upper Silesia, Poland. It carried into the next day, during which the Red Army killed between 54 and 69 civilian Poles in the community.  The Soviets may have mistaken the Poles for Germans, which still wouldn't justify their actions.

The Battle of the Heiligenbeil Pocket began on the Eastern Front.

The Battle for the Kapelsche Veer began in the Netherlands.

Lt. Audie Murphy performed the actions that resulted in his winning the Medal of Honor.  His citation reads:

2d Lt. Murphy commanded Company B, which was attacked by 6 tanks and waves of infantry. 2d Lt. Murphy ordered his men to withdraw to prepared positions in a woods, while he remained forward at his command post and continued to give fire directions to the artillery by telephone. Behind him, to his right, 1 of our tank destroyers received a direct hit and began to burn. Its crew withdrew to the woods. 2d Lt. Murphy continued to direct artillery fire which killed large numbers of the advancing enemy infantry. With the enemy tanks abreast of his position, 2d Lt. Murphy climbed on the burning tank destroyer, which was in danger of blowing up at any moment, and employed its .50 caliber machinegun against the enemy. He was alone and exposed to German fire from 3 sides, but his deadly fire killed dozens of Germans and caused their infantry attack to waver. The enemy tanks, losing infantry support, began to fall back. For an hour the Germans tried every available weapon to eliminate 2d Lt. Murphy, but he continued to hold his position and wiped out a squad which was trying to creep up unnoticed on his right flank. Germans reached as close as 10 yards, only to be mowed down by his fire. He received a leg wound, but ignored it and continued the single-handed fight until his ammunition was exhausted. He then made his way to his company, refused medical attention, and organized the company in a counterattack which forced the Germans to withdraw. His directing of artillery fire wiped out many of the enemy; he killed or wounded about 50. 2d Lt. Murphy's indomitable courage and his refusal to give an inch of ground saved his company from possible encirclement and destruction, and enabled it to hold the woods which had been the enemy's objective.

Murphy is famous, of course, for having been the most highly decorated US soldier of World War Two, although that is no longer the case or at least not clearly the case.  He was, undoubtedly, heroic.

His life was, overall, quite sad.  He came from an impoverished background in which his father abandoned his large family.  He acquired hunting skills as a child in part for that reason, as that provided necessary food for the table.  His education ended at the 5th Grade level.  Seemingly a natural born soldier, he wanted to stay in the post war Army and even contemplated trying to attend West Point, but his lack of an education and physical injuries precluded it.  He did remain in the Texas National Guard.  He had an explosive temper even as a child, and suffered from PTSD after the war. 

After the war, he worked as an actor and songwriter.  

He died in 1971 in an airplane crash.  His father outlived him, dying in 1975.  His beloved mother died in 1941.

Last edition:

Thursday, January 25, 1945. The Beginning of the Evacuation of East Prussia and the Nature of the Red Army.

Labels: 1940s, 1945, Army, Battle of the Bulge, British Army, Burma, Evacuation of East Prussia, German Wehrmacht, Health, Philippines, Prussia, Rape and the Red Army, Red Army, Volkssturm, World War Two

Monday, January 22, 1945. Relentless.

Cavalrymen of the 3rd Guards Cavalry Corps approaching Allenstein, Prussia, now Olsztyn, Poland.  January 22, 1945.  A least a few of these horses appear to be panjes, Russian peasant ponies.  Allenstein dates back to 1334, when it was founded as a military outpost by the Teutonic Knights.  It rebelled against those knights in 1454 and joined the Kingdom of Poland.  Nicholas Copernicus, famous scientist and Catholic Deacon, lived there from 1516 to 1521.  It became part of the Kingdom of Prussia in 1772 during the First Partition of Poland.  Given this, in reality, the post World War Two result simply returned it to what it had originally been, Polish.

The Red Army took Insterburg, Allenstein and Deutsch Eylau in Prussia as well as Gneizo.

The British Army took St. Joost and other towns near Sittard. The US 1st Army attacked all along the front between Houffalize and St. Vith.

Kriegsmarine torpedo boats attacked a convoy north of Dunkirk while other torpedo penetrated into the Thames Estuary.

The British IV Corps took Htilin in Bruma and the Battle of Hill 170 began. The British also took Tilin.

M4 Sherman of the 19th King George's Own Lancers, Burma, 22 January 1945

The Royal Air Force destroyed a liquid oxygen factory in  Alblasserdam in a Spitfire raid.  The oxygen was used for rockets.

The 1st Corps engaged the Japanese in heavy fighting near Carmen and Rosario on Luzon.

Last edition:

Sunday, January 21, 1945. Removing Hindenburg.

Labels: 1940s, 1945, Army, Battle of Tannenberg, Belgium, British Army, Burma, Eastern Front, German Kriegsmarine, Kamikaze, Luzon, Paul von Hindenburg, Philippines, Royal Navy, U.S. Navy, World War Two