Showing posts with label Estonia. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Estonia. Show all posts

Saturday, March 9, 2024

Thursday, March 9, 1944. Bombing of Tallinn.

The Soviet Air Force destroyed 53% of Tallinn, Estonia.

In terms of World War Two destruction, this isn't particularly remarkable, but it is well remembered in Estonia to this day, where the day is marked.

This is not to excuse areal carpet bombing in the Second World War. . . by anyone.  All of it, to my mind, fits into the category of war crimes. And predictably, the bombing of Estonia resulted in increased Estonian resolve to resist the Soviets.

President Roosevelt authorized Dr. Stephen Wise and Dr. Abba H. Silver of the American Zionist Emergency Council to announce: “When future decisions are reached, full justice will be done to those who seek a Jewish national home.”

The 5th Marine Regiment took Talasea in an unopposed operation in New Britain.

On Bougainville, Japanese counterattacks against the Army's 37th Infantry Division failed to make significant gains.

The Japanese 33d Division reached the location of the headquarters of the British 17th Division.  Gen. Cowan initially refused to believe the news.

The Red Army took Starokonstantinov.

The USS Leopold was sunk by the U-255 in the North Atlantic. 28 of 191 men survived.


Argentina's President Ramirez resigned and turned over the miltiary government of Argentina to Edelmiro Julián Farrell, who would in turn yield to Juan Peron shortly after World War Two.

Pedro Ramirez had come to power via a coup. The fascist leaning dictator had strong connections with Germany, having been trained in Imperial Germany in the early 1910s, and having married a German wife.  He participated in the coup of 1930, after which he had been sent to Italy to observe the Italian Army. In the 1940s he organized the Argentine  Milicia Nacionalista, later called the Guardia Nacional, and authored a program for a state ruled by the militia. In 1942, Ramírez  hewas appointed War Minister by President Ramón Castillo, and began to reorganize the Argentine Army.  During that time, modeling things after what had happened in fascist states in  Europe, the Guardia Nacional joined with a political party to form the fascist "Recuperacion Nacional".  He participated in the May 18, 1943, coup after being dismissed from his post.

Last prior:

Wednesday, March 8, 1944. Battle of Imphal begins.

Monday, March 4, 2024

Saturday, March 4, 1944. The resisting defeated.

The USCGC Makinaw was commissioned on this date in 1944. She'd serve as an ice breaker until 2006.

The German military, evil cause notwithstanding, was proving itself to be as amazing in defeat as it had been in victory.  Never as well-equipped or modern as its propaganda would have it, it was nonetheless a potent fighting force, both in defeat as well as victory.  On this day, the Second Narva Offensive resulted in a German victory.

Outnumbered, the Germans took thousands of casualties, but not as many as the Red Army. Both armies had a disregard for life.  The Germans were, frankly quite surprisingly, aided by the presence of able Estonian recruits who had only recently entered service.

The latter was a portent of what was to come. As 1944 marched on, the German frontiers contracted, and as they did, the bloodletting, in part due to increased German resistance, meant that 1945, not 1944, was to be the bloodiest year of the war.

The Red Army launched a new series of offensive actions in Ukraine.  Stalwart German resistance notwithstanding, and the frankly primitive state of much of the Red Army, the tide had irrevocably turned.

From Sarah Sundin's blog:

Today in World War II History—March 4, 1944: 80 Years Ago—Mar. 4, 1944: Maj. Gen. Alexander Patch assumes command of US Seventh Army in Algiers, to prepare for landings in southern France.

Germany's battlefield performance on the Baltic coast and in Italy notwithstanding, the direction the war was headed in was obvious and the Allies were preparing not only for Operation Overlord, but Operation Dragoon, the invasion of southern France.  Patch was placed in command of that operation.


Patch had already seen combat command in the war in the Pacific, and more specifically Guadalcanal, making him one of a handful of U.S. generals who served against the Germans and Japanese. His health in the Pacific had been very poor, and he suffered from pneumonia while serving there.

Patch was born into an Army family and had originally wanted to be a cavalryman, but foresaw its obsolesce so he instead chose the infantry when he graduated from West Point in 1913  He saw action in the Punitive Expedition and in World War One.  He never recovered from his respiratory ailments and died on November 21, 1945, just after the end of the war.  He was 55.

Other things were also occurring in Algiers.

French industrialist, and fascist, Piere Firmin Pucheu went on trial in Algiers in spite of conditions that probably should have led to his safe presence in Algeria, Vichy role notwithstanding.  He had been the Vichy minister of the interior.  He was the first person tried under the French Committee of National Liberation's September 1943 edict charging all Vichy ministers with treason, something that was frankly political and extralegal.  He would be found guilty and executed on March 20, 1944, going to his death after shaking hands with his own firing squad and giving the order to fire himself.

Pucheau is an uncomfortable example as to how some examples of Allied justice were not just. Pucheau was largely not admirable. He was a fascist, and he had a hatred of Jews.  His execution, however, can be viewed for his being on the losing side of the war.

The 8th Air Force targeted Berlin, but only 29 bombers made it through due to weather.

Fighting was going on at Los Negros, where Troy McGill performed an act of heroism that would result in his receiving a posthumous Medal of Honor.

For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity above and beyond the call of duty in action with the enemy at Los Negros Island, Admiralty Group, on 4 March 1944. In the early morning hours Sgt. McGill, with a squad of eight men, occupied a revetment which bore the brunt of a furious attack by approximately 200 drink-crazed enemy troops. Although covered by crossfire from machine guns on the right and left flank he could receive no support from the remainder of our troops stationed at his rear. All members of the squad were killed or wounded except Sgt. McGill and another man, whom he ordered to return to the next revetment. Courageously resolved to hold his position at all costs, he fired his weapon until it ceased to function. Then, with the enemy only five yards away, he charged from his foxhole in the face of certain death and clubbed the enemy with his rifle in hand-to-hand combat until he was killed. At dawn 105 enemy dead were found around his position. Sgt. McGill's intrepid stand was an inspiration to his comrades and a decisive factor in the defeat of a fanatical enemy.

Chinese and American troops who have just received first aid treatment are seen in a 2½ ton truck for transfer to the rear.  March 4, 1944.  Note the tanker's helmet and the M1917 helmets

The U-472 was sunk in the Barents Sea.  She never sank a single ship.

China and Afghanistan entered into a pointless treaty of friendship.

Mobster Louie Lepke, birth name Louis Buchalter and also known as Louis Lepke or Lepke Buchalter, was executed.

Louis Capone met the same fate on this day, for the same reason.

The Phillies attempted to introduce a blue jay logo.

Wednesday, February 28, 2024

Saturday, February 28, 1944. Foreigners in the Wehrmacht.


In what was becoming a late war rarity, German and Estonian's in German service decisively defeated the Red Army's first Narva Offensive.  The Estonian's were mostly recent volunteer conscripts, brought into service after Estonian leaders urged an end to an Estonian boycott of German conscription in hopes of defending Estonia from being retaken by the USSR.

The German 14th Army renewed attacks against the US VI Corps at Anzio.

Ukrainian's in German service carried out the Huta Pieniacka Massacre of ethnic Poles, killing between 500 and 1,200 people.   The actions were carried out principally by police units of the 4th SS Volunteer Galician Regiment and the14th Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS (1st Galician), which were under German command at the time.

The 14th Waffen Grenadier Division continues to have fans in Ukraine today, who deny its association with atrocities.  Many of its surviving members, who surrendered to the Western Allies late in the war, were allowed to immigrate to the United States and Canada in 1947, in part due to the intervention of Polish General Anders who knew some of its commanders due to their pre-war Polish Army service.  In spite of claims to the contrary, the early arrival of the Cold War clouded their association with atrocities, which were accordingly not well known at the time, as Anders intervention demonstrates.  The unit was sufficiently well thought of that a memorial to Ukrainians bearing their unit symbol was put to them in St. Volodymyr Ukrainian Cemetery, Oakville, Ontario.

Aviator Hanna Reitsch visited Hitler at Berchtesgaden to receive a second Iron Cross.  She suggested kamikaze like volunteers there to fly piloted variants of the V-1.  Hitler rejected the idea as a waste of resources.

Reitsch survived the war and went on to a long post-war life. She never disavowed her association with Hitler, but did heavily alter her pre-war racial views.

Wednesday, February 7, 2024

Monday, February 4, 1944. Casting lots in the East.

U.S. infantryman near the Rapido, February 7, 1944.

Men of the 36th Infantry Division, near the Rapido, February 7, 1944.

Franklin Roosevelt aimed at compromise today and asked Stalin not to allow the Polish border issue to undermine international cooperation, while asking the Polish Prime Minister to accept the Soviet land grab while altering his government without evidence of foreign pressure.

In other words, the Allies were selling the Poles down the river, although perhaps there wasn't much they could really do about it.


Prime Minister Jüri Uluots of Estonia broadcast a speech on the radio urging Estonians to fight alongside the Germans and join the German army.  Up until that point, he had resisted Estonian mobilization.

Estonia had declared itself to be neutral in 1938, which didn't save it from being occupied by the Soviet Union in 1940. The Soviets were particularly hard on Russians in Estonia, the same being refugees from the USSR.

With the German invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941, Estonian partisan bands formed and attacked the Soviet forces. An Estonian government was allowed to be formed by the Germans, but the long term plan for the Baltics was for them to be Germanized under a central Ostland entity. The Germans regarded the Estonians as partially Germanized from the onset, oddly, due to the influence of various Nordic nations.  As part of this, Germany imposed conscription upon the Estonians, which was largely evaded, with many Estonians crossing into Finland to join the Finnish armed forces. Estonia was not allowed to maintain its own armed forces under German occupation until just before the end came.

38,000 Estonians responded to Uluots' call, which was based on his belief that the Estonian lot was better with the Germans than with the Soviets, by volunteering to serve in the Germany military.  Estonians who were serving in the Finnish forces were allowed to return home and join the Territorial Defense Force, a newly formed Estonian defensive organization.

Estonian partisan groups, the Forest Brothers, would prove to be so strong that they actually controlled sizable areas of Estonia following World War Two and fought on against the USSR until 1953, with a few members carrying on until the 1970s.

Uluots died in exile in Sweden, of cancer, in 1945 at age 55.

Hitler agreed to allow German forces in the Korsun pocket to attempt to breakout.

The British 56th and American 45th Infantry Division arrive at Anzio.

Friday, February 2, 2024

Wednesday, February 2, 1944. Roi and Namur taken. Battle of Narva begins.

American forces completed offensive actions at Roi and Namur.

Lieutenant Colonel Donald L. Dickson puts up flag on coconut stump. The sign says Namur Press Office. On right is Staff Sergeant Martin Kivel, a Marine Corps Combat Correspondent. February 2, 1944.


Fighting on Kwajalien carried on.

Today in World War II History—February 2, 1944: Soviets enter German-occupied Estonia. In Italy, US II Corps enters outskirts of Cassino town and takes Italian barracks area at Montevilla.

Sarah Sundin's Today in World War II History—February 2, 1944.  Indeed, the Soviets took Vanakula.

As part of this, the Battle of Narva and the Battle for Narva Bridgehead began.


The German force was heavily represented by SS forces, with non-German SS units participating. The German resistance was fierce, and the battle would go on for months.  Estonian conscripts were also used on the Axis side.

The Germans won the Battle of Cisterna, part of the Battle of Anzio, wrecking the Rangers deployed to it.

 PT-216 taking Lieutenant General Mark Clark to the advance command post at the Anzio Beachhead, February 2, 1944.

While an American loss, it did disrupt German plans to launch an assault on the Anzio beachhead.  In a way, therefore, while a German victory, it was a Pyrrhic one.

Kingfisher launch, February 2, 1944.

Wednesday, November 1, 2023

Thursday, November 1, 1923. Walton arraigned, Krupp signs, Baltic treaties, Finnair founded, George Washington Cornerstone laid, the wages of sin.

Oklahoma was impeaching its anti Klan Governor.


Gustav Krupp signed an agreement with the French which established operating conditions for his mines in the Ruhr.  He was released from prison fourteen days later.

Estonia and Latvia signed a mutual defense treaty.

Finnair was founded as "Aero Osakeyhtiö".  It had one airplane at the time, a Junkers F.13 seaplane.

The George Washington Memorial cornerstone was laid.












Recently retired, at age 29, Irish mob gangster Bill Lovett was murdered in his sleep at an abandoned store in Brooklyn.  Lovett was a well-educated man who loved animals, and a distinguished World War One veteran, but a dedicated alcoholic who could be very temperamental when drunk.  He'd been in the Irish mob before and again after World War One, but had recently given up crime and drinking after marrying.  He fell off the wagon on October 31 while downtown for a job interview, and went to sleep in the store with a compatriot.  He was apparently murdered by other Irish mobsters.

Friday, August 11, 2023

Wednesday, August 11, 1943. Retreats.

The Germans commenced withdrawing from Sicily.

Sarah Sundin notes this on her blog, also noting that 100,000 Axis troops would be evacuated to the Italian peninsula, a significant failure in the Allied campaign in that they were not able, in spite of attempting, to trap them in Sicily.  There were efforts to do so, as she also noted:

Today in World War II History—August 11, 1943: 80 Years Ago—Aug. 11, 1943: US Seventh Army makes amphibious landings at Brolo on Sicily’s north shore, but fails to cut off German retreat.

Hitler ordered the creation of an "Eastern Wall" to defend conquered territory in the Baltics.

Wednesday, June 21, 2023

Monday, June 21, 1943. Spreading the Holocaust in the Baltic

Douglas SBD "Dauntless" dive bomber balanced on nose after crash landing on carrier flight deck, June 21, 1943.

Head of the SS Heinrich Himmler ordered that all remaining Jews in the Baltic States be transferred to slave labor camps.

Sarah Sundin notes, on her blog:

Today in World War II History—June 21, 1943: US Marines land unopposed at Segi Point, New Georgia, in the Solomon Islands. Detroit race riot begins between whites and Blacks.

The NFL approved the temporary Merger of the Eagles and the Steelers, something we reported on the other day.  The declined the proposal to merge the Bears and the Cardinals.

Occupied Greece saw action as the SOE destroyed a railway bridge over the Asopos and the Greek Liberation Army conducted an ambush in the Battle of Sarantaporos.

The US Supreme Court rules in Stack v. Boyle that a foreign born citizen could not have that citizenship revoked for joining the Communist Party.

Harvard rejected a proposal to admit women to its medical school.

Saturday, February 25, 2023

Thursday, February 25, 1943. Around the clock bombing.

The Western Allies commenced "round the clock bombing" of the Third Reich.


A few things about this are worth noting.

It was essentially a massive upgrading of another theater, this one the skies over Germany, in which the Soviet Union, which lacked a heavy strategic bomber capacity, and which was not strategically placed to join in it, was absent.  The Soviets were of course also absent from the Battle of the Atlantic.

While it can't be expected that they would be in either, the fact that the Western Allies carried on these significant efforts benefited the USSR as well as the Western Allies, something that Soviet and now Russian recollections of the war choose to forget.

Also controversial is the extent to which the raids were actually effective.  German production went up during the war, so the question is whether strategic bombing depressed it from being higher, or simply disrupted it in other ways. The latter certainly occurred, but to what extent the former did is an open question.

The 15th Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS (1st Latvian), came into existence.  The unit was made up of Latvian volunteers, and conscripts, who harbored the naive hope that serving the Germans would lead to post-war Latvian independence.

While naive, and inexcusably associated with the SS, this is an example of the "war within a war" nature of the Second World War.  The Baltic States, along with Ukraine and Poland, would particularly be associated with various armed efforts against the Soviets, some of which were completely independent of association with the Germans, while some, outside of Poland, were.  Many of the partisan type movements, which this obviously was not, carried on fighting for some time after the war.

Of note, Latvian resistance to the Soviet Union remained fairly strong up until 1949 and remained a factor the Soviets had to consider into the early 50s.  The last violent acts by Latvian resistance forces occurred in the 1980s and the last Forest Brother, Jānis Pīnups, who had deserted from the Red Army during World War Two when wounded and left for dead, came in from hiding in 1995.

Regarding the Baltic States and the SS, during the war Estonia also contributed volunteers to "foreign legion" SS units, that being the 20th Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS (1st Estonian)   The Latvians would contribute a second one, that being the 19th Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS (2nd Latvian). Because the units contained conscripts, the US regarded them as not complicate in the criminal nature of the SS after the war.

Thursday, July 28, 2022

Friday, July 28, 1922. A triple recognition.

The United States established diplomatic relations with all three Baltic States and appointed Evan E. Young as the ambassador to all three countries.

A political cartoon from the July 28, 1922 Chicago Tribune.


Saturday, July 16, 2022

Sunday, July 16, 1922. Estonia adopts its flag.


Estonia officially adopted the flag it had used since 1918.

The blue field is for the sky, the black for attachment to the soil and often for the worried state of the nation, and white for purity.

Estonia is of course a Baltic nation, and its population is presently 88% Estonian.  Estonians are a Finnic people.

Saturday, July 17, 2021

Thursday July 17, 1941. The bloody East.

Secretary of the Navy Frank Knox whatching Marine Corps landings in North Carolina on this day in 1941.

On this day in history, Joe DiMaggio's 56 game hitting streak came to an end.  His 56 game streak remains a record.  

More on that can be viewed here.

Today in World War II History—July 17, 1941

The British carried out the "Twin Pimples" raid on the Italian lines near Tobruk. The raid was a success but had no impact on the siege.

On this day Alfred Rosenberg, an Estonian born Baltic German, was appointed Reichminister of the newly conquered eastern territories where he was to oversee the implementation of the Lebensraum concept.  He had been present at a conference the prior day where the topic had been discussed.

He was well familiar with it, being a very early proponent of it and an early influence on the Nazi world view.  He was educated in Imperial Russia and came of age in that country but did not serve in its armed forces during World War One.  He came to Germany in the early 1920s and quickly became a Nazi.  He ran the Nazi Party during Hitler's imprisonment.  A virulent proponent of Nazi ideology, he was an opponent of Christianity as well as Judaism.

Heydrich also acted in accordance with these goals on this day by reemphasizing the extermination orders issued to German troops in the east.

The Germans encircled Uman and took 300,000 Soviet prisoners of war.

Franco gave a highly bellicose public speech accusing the Allies of planning the war badly and having lost it, and criticizing  the United States for supporting the Allies.  The speech was generally baffling as it was obviously pro Axis but also gave no indication that Spain itself intended to join in the war.

President Roosevelt issued a proclamation banning trade with Latin American firms that supplied materials to Nazi Germany.

Monday, June 14, 2021

Saturday, June 14, 1941. The Soviets commence mass Baltic deportations.

On this day in 1941 the Soviet Union, which was mere days away from being attacked by Germany, which was receiving warnings from its own intelligence as well as the United Kingdom, started mass deportations of its perceived internal enemies in the Baltic States.

Mass deportations in Estonia

Given the horrors of the Second World War, and coming so close in time to Germany's invasion, this event has largely been forgotten outside of the Baltic States. There the day is a national day of mourning in the three countries which were impacted.

Deportations were on a mass scale with the victims largely sent to Siberia.  Most never returned and many died quickly.  The Soviets were already massively unpopular in the Baltic States, which had been independent following the Russian Revolution until overrun by the USSR in 1939, but the deportations would have an impact that would find immediate anti Soviet expression within a few days, given the time at which they came.

 As the second item there notes, the US also froze German and Italian assets in the U.S., as well as the assets of certain other Axis powers and countries now occupied by Germany or the Soviet Union, b y way of an executive order issued by President Roosevelt.

It read:

By virtue of and pursuant to the authority vested in me by Section 5 (b) of the Act of October 6, 1917 (40 Stat. 415), as amended, by virtue of all other authority vested in me, and by virtue of the existence of a period of unlimited national emergency, and finding that this Order is in the public interest and is necessary in the interest of national defense and security, I, Franklin D. Roosevelt, President of the United States of America, do prescribe the following:

Executive Order No. 8389 of April 10, 1940, as amended, is amended to read as follows:

SECTION 1. All of the following transactions are prohibited, except as specifically authorized by the Secretary of the Treasury by means of regulations, rulings, instructions, licenses, or otherwise, if (i) such transactions are by, or on behalf of, or pursuant to the direction of any foreign country designated in this Order, or any national thereof, or (ii) such transactions involve property in which any foreign country designated in this Order, or any national thereof, has at any time on or since the effective date of this Order had any interest of any nature whatsoever, direct or indirect:

A. All transfers of credit between any banking institutions within the United States; and all transfers of credit between any banking institution within the United States and any banking institution outside the United States (including any principal, agent, home office, branch, or correspondent outside the United States, of a banking institution within the United States);

B. All payments by or to any banking institution within the United States;

C. All transactions in foreign exchange by any person within the United States;

D. The export or withdrawal from the United States, or the earmarking of gold or silver coin or bullion or currency by any person within the United States;

E. All transfers, withdrawals or exportations of, or dealings in, any evidences of indebtedness or evidences of ownership of property by any person within the United States; and

F. Any transaction for the purpose or which has the effect of evading or avoiding the foregoing prohibitions.

SECTION 2. A. All of the following transactions are prohibited, except as specifically authorized by the Secretary of the Treasury by means of regulations, rulings, instructions, licenses, or otherwise:

(1) The acquisition, disposition or transfer of, or other dealing in, or with respect to, any security or evidence thereof on which there is stamped or imprinted, or to which there is affixed or otherwise attached, a tax stamp or other stamp of a foreign country designated in this Order or a notarial or similar seal which by its contents indicates that it was stamped, imprinted, affixed, or attached within such foreign country, or where the attendant circumstances disclose or indicate that such stamp or seal may, at any time, have been stamped, imprinted, affixed, or attached thereto; and

(2) The acquisition by, or transfer to, any person within the United States of any interest in any security or evidence thereof ' if the attendant circumstances disclose or indicate that the security or evidence thereof is not physically situated within the United States.

B. The Secretary of the Treasury may investigate, regulate, or prohibit under such regulations, rulings, or instructions as he may prescribe, by means of licenses or otherwise, the sending, mailing, importing, or otherwise bringing, directly or indirectly, into the United States, from any foreign country, of any securities or evidences thereof or the receiving or holding in the United States of any securities or evidences thereof so brought into the United States.

SECTION 3. The term "foreign country designated in this Order" means a foreign country included in the following schedule, and the term "effective date of this Order" means with respect to any such foreign country, or any national thereof, the date specified in the following schedule:

(a) April 8, 1940 —Norway and Denmark;

(b) May 10, 1940 —The Netherlands, Belgium, and Luxembourg;

(c) June 17, 1940 —France (including Monaco);

(d) July 10, 1940 —Latvia, Estonia, and Lithuania;

(e) October 9, 1940 -Rumania;

(f) March 4, 1941 —Bulgaria;

(g) March 13, 1941 —Hungary;

(h) March 24, 1941 —Yugoslavia;

(i) April 28, 1941 —Greece; and

(j) June 14, 1941 —Albania,

Andorra, Austria, Czechoslovakia, Danzig, Finland, Germany, Italy, Liechtenstein, Poland, Portugal, San Marino, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, and Union of Soviet Socialist Republics.

The "effective date of this Order" with respect to any foreign country not designated in this Order shall be deemed to be June 14, 1941.

SECTION 4. A. The Secretary of the Treasury and/or the Attorney General may require, by means of regulations, rulings, instructions, or otherwise, any person to keep a full record of, and to furnish under oath, in the form of reports or otherwise, from time to time and at any time or times, complete information relative to, any transaction referred to in Section 5 (b) of the Act of October 6, 1917 (40 Stat. 415), as amended, or relative to any property in which any foreign country or any national thereof has any interest of any nature whatsoever, direct or indirect, including the production of any books of account, contracts, letters, or other papers, in connection therewith, in the custody or control of such person, either before or after such transaction is completed; and the Secretary of the Treasury and/or the Attorney General may, through any agency, investigate any such transaction or act, or any violation of the provisions of this Order.

B. Every person engaging in any of the transactions referred to in Sections 1 and 2 of this Order shall keep a full record of each such transaction engaged in by him, regardless of whether such transaction is effected pursuant to license or otherwise, and such record shall be available for examination for at least one year after the date of such transaction.

SECTION 5. A. As used in the first paragraph of Section 1 of this Order "transactions [which] involve property in which any foreign country designated in this Order, or any national thereof, has... any interest of any nature whatsoever, direct or indirect," shall include, but not by way of limitation (i) any payment or transfer to any such foreign country or national thereof, (ii) any export or withdrawal from the United States to such foreign country, and (iii) any transfer of credit, or payment of an obligation, expressed in terms of the currency of such foreign country.

B. The term "United States" means the United States and any place subject to the jurisdiction thereof; the term "continental United States" means the States of the United States, the District of Columbia, and the Territory of Alaska.

C. The term "person" means an individual, partnership, association, corporation, or other organization.

D. The term "foreign country" shall include, but not by way of limitation,

(i) The state and the government thereof on the effective date of this Order as well as any political subdivision, agency, or instrumentality thereof or any territory, dependency, colony, protectorate, mandate, dominion, possession, or place subject to the jurisdiction thereof,

(ii) Any other government (including any political subdivision, agency, or instrumentality thereof) to the extent and only to the extent that such government exercises or claims to exercise de jure or de facto sovereignty over the area which on such effective date constituted such foreign country, and

(iii) Any person to the extent that such person is, or has been, or to the extent that there is reasonable cause to believe that such person is, or has been, since such effective date, acting or purporting to act directly or indirectly for the benefit or on behalf of any of the foregoing.

E. The term "national" shall include,

(i) Any person who has been domiciled in, or a subject, citizen, or resident of a foreign country at any time on or since the effective date of this Order,

(ii) Any partnership, association, corporation, or other organization, organized under the laws of, or which on or since the effective date of this Order had or has had its principal place of business in such foreign country, or which on or since such effective date was or has been controlled by, or a substantial part of the stock, shares, bonds, debentures, notes, drafts, or other securities or obligations of which, was or has been owned or controlled by, directly or indirectly, such foreign country and/or one Or more nationals thereof as herein defined,

(iii) Any person to the extent that such person is, or has been, since such effective date, acting or purporting to act directly or indirectly for the benefit or on behalf of any national of such foreign country, and

(iv) Any other person who there is reasonable cause to believe is a "national" as herein defined. In any case in which by virtue of the foregoing definition a person is a national of more than one foreign country, such person shall be deemed to be a national of each such foreign country.

In any case in which the combined interests of two or more foreign countries designated in this Order and/or nationals thereof are sufficient in the aggregate to constitute, within the meaning of the foregoing, control or 25 per centum or more of the stock, shares, bonds, debentures, notes, drafts, or other securities or obligations of a partnership, association, corporation, or other organization, but such control or a substantial part of such stock, shares, bonds, debentures, notes, drafts, or other securities or obligations is not held by any one such foreign country and/or national thereof, such partnership, association, corporation, or other organization shall be deemed to be a national of each of such foreign countries. The Secretary of the Treasury shall have full power to determine that any person is or shall be deemed to be a "national" within the meaning of this definition, and the foreign country of which such person is or shall be deemed to be a national. Without limitation of the foregoing, the term "national" shall also include any other person who is determined by the Secretary of the Treasury to be, or to have been, since such effective date, acting or purporting to act directly or indirectly for the benefit or under the direction of a foreign country designated in this Order, or national thereof, as herein defined.

F. The term "banking institution" as used in this Order shall include any person engaged primarily or incidentally in the business of banking, of granting or transferring credits, or of purchasing or selling foreign exchange or procuring purchasers and sellers thereof, as principal or agent, or any person holding credits for others as a direct or incidental part of his business, or brokers; and, each principal, agent, home office, branch, or correspondent of any person so engaged shall be regarded as a separate "banking institution."

G. The term "this Order," as used herein, shall mean Executive Order No. 8389 of April 10, 1940, as amended.

SECTION 6. Executive Order No. 8389 of April 10, 1940, as amended, shall no longer be deemed to be an amendment to or a part of Executive Order No. 6560 of January 15, 1934. Executive Order No. 6560 of January 15, 1934, and the Regulations of November 12, 1934, are hereby modified in so far as they are inconsistent with the provisions of this Order, and except as so modified, continue in full force and effect. Nothing herein shall be deemed to revoke any license, ruling, or instruction now in effect and issued pursuant to Executive Order No. 6560 of January 15, 1934, as amended, or pursuant to this Order; provided, however, that all such licenses, rulings, or instructions shall be subject to the provisions hereof. Any amendment, modification, or revocation by or pursuant to the provisions of this Order of any orders, regulations, rulings, instructions, or licenses shall not affect any act done, or any suit or proceeding had or commenced in any civil or criminal case prior to such amendment, modification, or revocation, and all penalties, forfeitures, and liabilities under any such orders, regulations, rulings, instructions, or licenses shall continue and may be enforced as if such amendment, modification, or revocation had not been made.

SECTION 7. Without limitation as to any other powers or authority of the Secretary of the Treasury or the Attorney General under any other provision of this Order, the Secretary of the Treasury is authorized and empowered to prescribe from time to time regulations, rulings, and instructions to carry out the purposes of this Order and to provide therein or otherwise the conditions under which licenses may be granted by or through such officers or agencies as the Secretary of the Treasury may designate, and the decision of the Secretary with respect to the granting, denial, or other disposition of an application or license shall be final.

SECTION 8. Section 5 (b) of the Act of October 6, 1917, as amended, provides in part:

". . . Whoever willfully violates any of the provisions of this subdivision or of any license, order, rule or regulation issued thereunder, shall, upon conviction, be fined not more than $10,000, or, if a natural person, may be imprisoned for not more than ten years, or both; and any officer, director, or agent of any corporation who knowingly participates in such violation may be punished by a like fine, imprisonment, or both."

SECTION 9. This Order and any regulations, rulings, licenses, or instructions issued hereunder may be amended, modified, or revoked at any time.

Occupied Croatia joined the Axis powers.

Colliers magazine ran an article on Pearl Harbor which termed it "impregnable".  The reporter who wrote the admiring piece had been invited by the Navy to examine and review the installation.

Monday, January 11, 2021

January 11, 1921. Fractured and Rescued Russian Lives, 1921 Wyoming Legislature, Work.

Six of the seven Russian children adopted by Admiral Newton A. McCully, with their "governess" Eugenia Z. Selifanova, photographed on January 11, 1921.  

On this day in 1921, a press photographer photographed most of Admiral Newton A. McCully's adopted Russian children together with their governess who was a teenager herself.

McCully was a southern born American naval officer who had been embedded in the Imperial Russian Army during the Russo Japanese War.  In 1914 he returned to Russia as a naval attache and he was elevelted to commend of the U.S. Navy in northern Russia in 1918.  Following this he was sent to appreciate the military situation of the Whites in 1919.  He adopted these children in 1920.


McCully obviously appreciated the East due to all of this service.  A bachelor until 1927, he married Olga Krundycher, an Estonian, in 1929 on the claim that this would provide a mother for his children, and perhaps that was his reason, although I suspect that there was more to it than that.  She was later listed as their mother on census forms, even though the McCully adoptees were not all related and came themselves from varying regions of the former Russian Empire.  She was 29 years old at the time and the marriage took place in Tallinn, Estonia at which time McCully was still a serving naval officer.  He would live until 1951, dying at age 83.  She would live until 1968 and returned to Estonia for reasons of which I am not aware (or am I aware of when that occurred).

Eugenia  Selifanova was 18 or 19 years old when this photograph was taken. She later married another Russian immigrant, about 20 years her senior, and lived the rest of her life in Dearborn, Michigan. She had two children by the marriage and died in 1952.   She's already left the family, and probably had married, but the time of Admiral McCully's marriage.  Indeed, at that time McCully's mother was tasked with minding the children when he was away on duties.

It's easy to see what became of some of the children and that they had long American lives.  I wonder if anything of their early origins and culture was retained at all, or if anything of it remains in their ancestors.

On January 11, 1921, the United States severed all further participation in foreign councils, including the council that made up the Allied powers during World War One.

Also on this day in 1921, Wyoming's legislature convened for the 1921 session, as we reported in Today In Wyoming's History: January 11:  1921.   The 1921 legislative session for Wyoming commenced.

And, in an era before Social Security, this elderly gentleman was photographed at work.
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Sunday, February 2, 2020

February 2, 1920. Changes.

Siberian girls pose for camera, February 2, 1920.   Their world was in a state of massive change at the time this photograph was taken.

Monday, February 2, 1920, saw the implementation of changes here and there. Some great, some small, in context, and others temporary.

Chief Clerk R.M. Reese of the Dept. of Agriculture administering the oath of office to Edwin T. Meredith the new Sectary today. On Mr Meredith's right is Mr Houston former Sectary.  Meredith is wearing a decidely modern type of suit showing how the patterns of Edwardian suits were taking a modern form.  The U.S. was slipping into a major depression lead by a major decline in the agricultural section as this photo was snapped.

A new Secretary of Agriculture was sworn in for the United States.

Meanwhile, in Baltimore, the gallant, or self sacrificing, Guy Spiker traveled with his sister in law to meet with Emily Knowles.  Knowles, we are now informed, appeared here for the first time two days ago when she was described as a girl whose relationship with the married Lt. Pearly Spiker had resulted in her pregnancy.


While she was earlier a "girl", we now know that she was a member of the British Women's Auxiliary service, a type of wartime British quasi military body formed to relieve men of some of the service roles they held  normally, thereby relieving them for service elsewhere.  That more easily explains how Lt. Spiker and Miss Knowles met, and as we learned from the entry the other day, it would also explain how she met the man she would, a year later, leave Guy Spiker for, and also abandon her association with her infant as a result of that.  So she turns out, at least, not to be as young as we might fear.

The Casper paper also reported on a perennial problem, that being that graduates of the high school in Casper were expressing a desire to take off as soon as they graduated.  Wyoming continues to suffer this problem today.


In far off Central Asia the Russian protectorate Khanate of Khiva came to an end when its last hereditary ruler abdicated.

The deminished Khiva in 1903

It had existed since 1511.

Khiva (Karasm) in the 18th Century.

Khiva had fallen to Russian aggression in the early 18th Century after which it became a protectorate, becoming increasingly smaller, until the Soviets just wiped it out as an entity entirely.

On the same day as the last Khan resigned in Khiva, the Soviets recognized the independence of Estonia.

Signing of the treaty recognizing Estonian independence.

The Soviets would get over that in 1940.

In the same region, under the Treaty of Versailles, the French occupied Memel, the eastern most region of East Prussia.

Memel was effectively the German frontier in the Baltic's and had long had a mixed population.  Given the German influence in the Baltic's, that in and of itself was a problem of sorts.  The French occupation would have given some time for these issues to be sorted out and in fact an Memel independence movement, an odd thought given its small size, developed during the brief French occupation.  However, in 1923 it became Lithuanian by way of a Lithuanian revolt in the region which the French did not suppress.  Indeed, the French were on their way out due to their occupation of the Ruhr at the time.  The region would become German again in March 1939 when the Nazi German state demanded its return and the Lithuanians acquiesced.  It changed hands again as a result of World War Two and it remains Lithuanian today, with its formerly significant German population having been largely expelled by the Soviets following the war.

Sunday, June 23, 2019

June 23, 1919. The collapse of things German.

On this Monday in June 1919, the German government confirmed it would sign the Versailles Treaty.


The German government had collapsed, as we've seen, over the issue which had required the Reichstag to form a new government.  In so doing, that body formally voted to accept the treaty by a comfortable margin.


It didn't happen, of course, before the German Navy took steps to sink itself, which was still in the headlines.  Less noted, German airmen took the same step with Zeppelins on this day, which was more in the nature of an act of defiance.  As it was, it hardly mattered as the day of the airship as an offensive weapon of war was over.

A person could debate these sentiments, but in the next war they wouldn't occur  Aircraft were advancing too fast and there was no escape from the carnage anywhere.

It was a day of defeat of German interest in general, as Estonian and Latvian forces defeated the Baltic German Landswehr, which had been their allies in their wars against the Reds but which had then gone on to install their own pro German government in Latvia, at the Battle of Cēsis. 

Member of the Baltic Landswehr carrying German equipment and uniformed in the German style.

This would end the Baltic German bid for control of the region and bring to an end a process that had started in the Medieval era.  Oddly,as the German empire collapsed German military interest had fought on, and then turned their effort over to the local Germans, with vague imperial aspirations in mind.

Baltic Germans would hang on the region thereafter but a series of resettlement programs commenced in 1939 and carried through during the Soviet administration of the in cooperation with Nazi Germany. Even after the Nazis captured the region after attacking the Soviet Union Baltic Germans were not allowed to return and by the wars end additional efforts were made to take them out, given the fate that the Nazis had dealt them. Today some Baltic Germans remain in the region but the numbers are quite small.

The day is celebrated as Victory Day in Estonia, which also traditionally celebrates the day as St. John's Day, an event that stands as a major holiday on the calendar in the region.  The day traditionally marks the commencement of summer.

Elsewhere in the north, more or less, Czech forces were being pulled out of Vladivostok.

Czechs on a tug in Vladivostok harbor waiting to board the Archer on their way out of Russia and war.


Wednesday, December 26, 2018

Boxing Day, 1918

The December 26, 1918 edition of Life Magazine, which at that time was a magazine that featured humor, although this image, if it's supposed to be humorous, isn't.

December 26 is Boxing Day, a holiday in almost all of the English speaking world except, for some odd reason, the United States. Given that much of the United States's holiday traditions that are older stem from the United Kingdom,  including some aspects of the Christmas holidays, it's surprising that Boxing Day isn't observed in the U.S. while it is in nearby Canada.*

Australian convalescence soldiers and volunteers out on Boxing Day, 1918.  Photo courtesy of the University of Wollongong, Australia.

In most of the English speaking world, the day is a day off.  It's also a day that has traditionally been devoted to sports and the like.  In British Army units, including units from the Dominions, it's likely that there were games of various types.  Horse racing and equestrian sports, which are a traditional Boxing Day activity, likely was likely part of that.  FWIW, it was in Austria that year (maybe it is every year), as soccer matches were held.

Whatever else was going on in the UK, dignitaries were meeting Woodrow Wilson who was visiting the country.  Elsewhere, British troops were engaged in active combat service, as for example off the coast of Estonia where the HMS Calypso and the HMS Caradoc ran the Red Russian Navy destroyer Spartak aground.


In New York, the U.S. Navy, or rather some elements of it, were committed to a big victory parade.

The Laramie Boomerang reported on the celebrations in New York City.







*Examples of British holidays incorporated into American tradition are Thanksgiving, which isn't really a thing though up by the Mayflower Pilgrims (it was a commonly observed English harvest religious holiday) and the observation of Halloween, which originally was an Irish observation of All Hallowed Eve in which the poor went door to door in search of the gift of food in exchange for a promise to pray for that family's dead.