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

Sunday, January 21, 1945. Removing Hindenburg.

The Red Army captured Gumbinnen, crossed the Warthen and approached Poznań.  They also took Tannenberg, the site of a major German victory in World War One, where the Germans had begun demolishing key structures of the Tannenberg Memorial and where they also disinterred the remains of Paul von Hindenburg and his wife ahead of the Red Army's advance.

The U.S. Army took Titiz in the Ardennes.

"Reinforcements for front line duty move through Apach, France. 21 January, 1945. 94th Infantry Division."

The U-1199 was sunk by the Royal Navy off of Sicily.

The British landed on the northern tip of Ramree, Burma.

The US took Tarlac on Luzon.

The USS Ticonderoga was hit by two kamikazes.

Last edition:

Saturday, January 20, 1945. FDR Reinaugurated.

Labels: 1940s, 1945, Armor, Army, Battle of the Bulge, Belgium, Burma, China Burma India Theater, Eastern Front, Franklin Roosevelt, Harry S. Truman, Henry A. Wallace, Red Army, Slovakia, World War Two

Saturday, January 20, 1945. FDR Reinaugurated.

The fourth, and modest, inauguration of Franklin D. Roosevelt took place on the South Portico of the White House.

His address. 

Mr. Chief Justice, Mr. Vice President, my friends: 

You will understand and, I believe, agree with my wish that the form of this inauguration be simple and its words brief. 

We Americans of today, together with our allies, are passing through a period of supreme test. It is a test of our courage—of our resolve—of our wisdom—of our essential democracy. 

If we meet that test—successfully and honorably—we shall perform a service of historic importance which men and women and children will honor throughout all time. 

As I stand here today, having taken the solemn oath of office in the presence of my fellow countrymen—in the presence of our God—I know that it is America's purpose that we shall not fail. 

In the days and the years that are to come, we shall work for ajust and honorable peace, a durable peace, as today we work and fight for total victory in war. 

We can and we will achieve such a peace. 

We shall strive for perfection. We shall not achieve it immediately—but we still shall strive. We may make mistakes—but they must never be mistakes which result from faintness of heart or abandonment of moral principle. 

I remember that my old schoolmaster, Dr. Peabody, said in days that seemed to us then to be secure and untroubled, "Things in life will not always run smoothly. Sometimes we will be rising toward the heights—then all will seem to reverse itself and start downward. The great fact to remember is that the trend of civilization itself is forever upward; that a line drawn through the middle of the peaks and the valleys of the centuries always has an upward trend." 

Our Constitution of 1787 was not a perfect instrument; it is not perfect yet. But it provided a firm base upon which all manner of men, of all races and colors and creeds, could build our solid structure of democracy. 

Today, in this year of war, 1945, we have learned lessons—at a fearful cost—and we shall profit by them. 

We have learned that we cannot live alone, at peace; that our own well-being is dependent on the well-being of other Nations, far away. We have learned that we must live as men and not as ostriches, nor as dogs in the manger. 

We have learned to be citizens of the world, members of the human community. 

We have learned the simple truth, as Emerson said, that, "The only way to have a friend is to be one." 

We can gain no lasting peace if we approach it with suspicion and mistrust or with fear. We can gain it only if we proceed with the understanding and the confidence and the courage which flow from conviction. 

The Almighty God has blessed our land in many ways. He has given our people stout hearts and strong arms with which to strike mighty blows for freedom and truth. He has given to our country a faith which has become the hope of all peoples in an anguished world.

So we pray to Him now for the vision to see our way clearly to see the way that leads to a better life for ourselves and for all our fellow men—and to the achievement of His will to peace on earth.

Roosevelt would be the only US President to be elected to more than two terms, and after him jealous Republicans caused the Constitution to be amended to prevent that reoccurring, which we can now all be grateful for as it will theoretically prevent Donald Trump from trying for a their term, should old age or dementia not remove him from politics before the end of his claimed current term.  While still hated by some conservatives, FDR is the last American President who might be regarded as "great", although that status can be debated.  He certainly was one of the best Presidents in the nation's history, and his long administration fundamentally altered the country and shaped the post war United States up until, it would seem, today.

Outgoing Vice President Wallace administered the oath to his successor Harry S. Truman, which had been the long standing tradition.  It was the last time it would be observed.  Wallace was dumped as insiders, including FDR, knew that FDR was on death's door and that the incoming Vice President would become President.  Wallace was feared by many because of his very far left views.

The Germans started evacuating East Prussia.

The evacuation of East Prussia would be a major human tragedy, although one that receives very little attention as the Germans brought it upon themselves.  The mass migration into the Reich would end centuries of German presence in what is now once again part of Poland.

The Red Army took Prešov, Slovakia.

The Hungarian Provisional Government entered into an armistice with the Allies.

The Allies progressed in the Ardennes and the French 1st Army commenced an offensive in the Vosges region.

The Nationalist Chinese took Muse, Burma.

Last edition:

Friday, January 19, 1945. Martin Bormann and Hitler's mistress Eva Braun arrived at the Führerbunker.

Labels: 1940s, 1945, Adolf Hitler, Eastern Front, French Army, French Resistance Movements, Poland, Red Army, Siege of Budapest, War Crimes, World War Two