Showing posts with label Finland. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Finland. Show all posts
Thursday, November 28, 2024
Today in World War II History—November 28, 1939 & 1944
Today in World War II History—November 28, 1939 & 1944: 80 Years Ago: Allies open port of Antwerp, Belgium, as the first convoy of supply ships arrives. Albania is secured by partisans as Germans evacuate.
Saturday, November 16, 2024
Thursday, November 16, 1944. Attack on the Siegfried Line.
"Soldiers of a tank destroyer battalion warm themselves with coffee before going into action against the Germans near Stolberg, Germany. 16 November, 1944. Company D, 692nd Tank Destroyer Battalion."
The U.S. Frist and Ninth Armies commenced Operation Queen, aimed at the Siegfried Line. The attack is supported by heavy Allied air strikes.
"German prisoners being taken to the rear were captured less than two hours after new American offensive started inside Germany. Beggendorf, Germany. 16 November, 1944. 2nd Armored Division."
Political disagreements between the Belgian government nad the Belgian resistance resulted in the resignation of three ministers.
The Jussi Awards for Finnish films were conveyed for the first time, with the ceremony in Helsinki.
Ansa Ikonen, best actress for 1944.
Last edition:
Wednesday, November 15, 1944. Early war movie released late in the war.
Tuesday, October 29, 2024
Sunday, October 29, 1944. Shelling chocolate bars.
Knocked out Panther, October 29, 1944. Oddly, it's labeled as to what it is.
The Red Army and the Romanian Army commenced the Budapest Offensive.
The Red Army prevailed in the Petsamo–Kirkenes Offensive.
The RAF tried for the Tirpitz again, and again without success.
Himmler ordered the gas chambers closed at Auschwitz and other death camps. Keep in mind, most of the death camps were in the east, which the Red Army was now approaching.
The final of three acts by Pvt. Barney F. Hajiro occurred which resulted in his being awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor.
For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty. Private Barney F. Hajiro distinguished himself by extraordinary heroism in action on 19, 22, and 29 October 1944, in the vicinity of Bruyeres and Biffontaine, eastern France. Private Hajiro, while acting as a sentry on top of an embankment on 19 October 1944, in the vicinity of Bruyeres, France, rendered assistance to allied troops attacking a house 200 yards away by exposing himself to enemy fire and directing fire at an enemy strong point. He assisted the unit on his right by firing his automatic rifle and killing or wounding two enemy snipers. On 22 October 1944, he and one comrade took up an outpost security position about 50 yards to the right front of their platoon, concealed themselves, and ambushed an 18-man heavily armed, enemy patrol, killing two, wounding one, and taking the remainder as prisoners. On 29 October 1944, in a wooded area in the vicinity of Biffontaine, France, Private Hajiro initiated an attack up the slope of a hill referred to as "Suicide Hill" by running forward approximately 100 yards under fire. He then advanced ahead of his comrades about 10 yards, drawing fire and spotting camouflaged machine gun nests. He fearlessly met fire with fire and single-handedly destroyed two machine gun nests and killed two enemy snipers. As a result of Private Hajiro's heroic actions, the attack was successful. Private Hajiro's extraordinary heroism and devotion to duty are in keeping with the highest traditions of military service and reflect great credit upon him, his unit, and the United States Army.
NBC broadcast a Jewish religious service from US occupied Aachen.
D-ration chocolate bars and bottles of Halazone pills are packed into 105mm howitzer shells to be fired to men in an Infantry battalion that is cut off by Germans in the Belmont sector, France. 29 October, 1944. ABL Bat., 131st Field Artillery Battalion, 36th Infantry Division.
Last edition.
Saturday, October 28, 1944. Slovaks put down, French Resistance ordered to disarm, Bulgaria quits, Day of Liberation of Ukraine from Fascist Invaders (День визволення України від фашистських загарбників).
Labels: Allied Powers, Auschwitz, Battle of Dukla Pass, Bulgaria, Charles de Gaulle, Czechoslovakia, French Resistance Movements, Red Army, Slovak National Uprising, Slovakia, The Holocaust, Ukraine, World War Two
Tuesday, October 22, 2024
Sunday, October 22, 1944. Smokey Smith.
Medics administer blood plasma to an American casualty wounded when his division command post was shelled. Leyte Island, P.I. 22 October, 1944. 96th Infantry Division. The wounded soldier is wearing M1942 Jungle Boots. The medic has a painted camouflage helmet.
The Red Army reached the Norwegian border.
The Sovies prevailed in the Battle of Memel. The Americans the same at Angaur.
The Japanese fleet assembled at Brunei sets sail for the Philippines.
Canadian Private Ernest "Smokey" Smith preformed the actions that resulted in his winning the Victoria Cross.
In Italy on the night of 21st–22nd October 1944, a Canadian Infantry Brigade was ordered to establish a bridgehead across the Savio River. The Seaforth Highlanders of Canada were selected as the spearhead of the attack, and in weather most unfavourable to the operation they crossed the river and captured their objective in spite of strong opposition from the enemy.
Torrential rain had caused the Savio River to rise six feet in five hours, and as the soft vertical banks made it impossible to bridge the river no tanks or anti-tank guns could be taken across the raging stream to the support of the rifle companies.
As the right forward company was consolidating its objective it was suddenly counter-attacked by a troop of three Mark V Panther tanks supported by two self-propelled guns and about thirty infantry and the situation appeared hopeless.
Under heavy fire from the approaching enemy tanks, Private Smith, showing great initiative and inspiring leadership, led his P.I.A.T. Group of two men across an open field to a position from which the P.I.A.T. could best be employed. Leaving one man on the weapon, Private Smith crossed the road with a Private James Tennant and obtained another P.I.A.T. Almost immediately an enemy tank came down the road firing its machine-guns along the line of the ditches. Private Smith's comrade, Private Tennant was wounded. At a range thirty feet and having to expose himself to the full view of the enemy, Private Smith fired the P.I.A.T. and hit the tank, putting it out of action. Ten German infantry immediately jumped off the back of the tank and charged him with Schmeissers and grenades. Without hesitation, Private Smith moved out on the road and with his Tommy gun at point-blank range, killed four Germans and drove the remainder back. Almost immediately another tank opened fire and more enemy infantry closed in on Smith's position. Obtaining some abandoned Tommy gun magazines from a ditch, he steadfastly held his position, protecting Private Tennant and fighting the enemy with his Tommy gun until they finally gave up and withdrew in disorder.
One tank and both self-propelled guns had been destroyed by this time, but yet another tank swept the area with fire from a longer range. Private Smith, still showing utter contempt for enemy fire, helped his wounded friend to cover and obtained medical aid for him behind a nearby building. He then returned to his position beside the road to await the possibility of a further enemy attack.
No further immediate attack developed, and as a result, the battalion was able to consolidate the bridgehead position so vital to the success of the whole operation, which led to the capture of San Giorgio Di Cesena and a further advance to the Ronco River.
Thus, by the dogged determination, outstanding devotion to duty and superb gallantry of this private soldier, his comrades were so inspired that the bridgehead was held firm against all enemy attacks, pending the arrival of tanks and anti-tank guns some hours later.
Smith survived the war and joined the Canadian Army again in 1950, at the start of the Korean War. He retired from military service in 1964, after which he owned a travel agency.
With rifles slung across their backs, these four combat-clad U.S. infantrymen are bound for mass in a Catholic church in Nancy, France. 22 October, 1944. NOte that all of these men are wearing older pattern field jackets and leggings.
Related thread:
Today in World War II History—October 22, 1939 & 1944
Last edition:
Saturday, October 21, 1944. The Nemmersdorf Massacre.
Saturday, October 12, 2024
Thursday, October 12, 1944. Heroes and explorers.
Ground was broken for St. Paul's Memorial Hospital in Evanston, Wyoming.
The Battle of Rovaniemi began between the Germans and Finns.
Finns arriving in a wrecked Rovaniemi.
The Germans arrested the American Fifth Army advance on Bologna at Mount Cavallara.
U.S. Army Sgt. Jack J. Pendleton performed the actions that resulted in him being awarded a posthumous Medal of Honor.
For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty on 12 October 1944. When Company I was advancing on the town of Bardenberg, Germany, they reached a point approximately two-thirds of the distance through the town when they were pinned down by fire from a nest of enemy machineguns. This enemy strong point was protected by a lone machinegun strategically placed at an intersection and firing down a street which offered little or no cover or concealment for the advancing troops. The elimination of this protecting machinegun was imperative in order that the stronger position it protected could be neutralized. After repeated and unsuccessful attempts had been made to knock out this position, S/Sgt. Pendleton volunteered to lead his squad in an attempt to neutralize this strongpoint. S/Sgt. Pendleton started his squad slowly forward, crawling about 10 yards in front of his men in the advance toward the enemy gun. After advancing approximately 130 yards under the withering fire, S/Sgt. Pendleton was seriously wounded in the leg by a burst from the gun he was assaulting. Disregarding his grievous wound, he ordered his men to remain where they were, and with a supply of handgrenades he slowly and painfully worked his way forward alone. With no hope of surviving the veritable hail of machinegun fire which he deliberately drew onto himself, he succeeded in advancing to within 10 yards of the enemy position when he was instantly killed by a burst from the enemy gun. By deliberately diverting the attention of the enemy machine gunners upon himself, a second squad was able to advance, undetected, and with the help of S/Sgt. Pendleton's squad, neutralized the lone machinegun, while another platoon of his company advanced up the intersecting street and knocked out the machinegun nest which the first gun had been covering. S/Sgt. Pendleton's sacrifice enabled the entire company to continue the advance and complete their mission at a critical phase of the action.
British paratroopers landed at Athens.
The U.S. Navy struck targets on Formosa by air.
Norwegian born Canadian Arctic explorer Henry Larsen reached Vancouver after sailing from Halifax through the Northwest Passage over 86 days.
Last edition:
Wednesday, October 11, 1944. To Have and Have Not.
Labels: 1940s, 1944, 1944 at the Movies, actors and actresses, Hungary, Movies, Okinawa, U.S. Air Force, USSR
Tuesday, October 8, 2024
Sunday, October 8, 1944 Passing of Fr. Nicolò Cortese and Wendell Willkie
The Battle of Crucifix Hill was fought at Haaren, Germany, with the hill taken by elements of the 1st Infantry Division.
A large statuary Crucifix was on top of the hill. In Sam Fuller's Big Red One his platoon takes a field with a large wooden Crucifix which is central to the story line, and which perhaps was inspired by the actual battle, if extremely loosely.
German resistance to Allied advances in the West was stiffening.
The nighttime Battle of Tehumardi was fought on the Estonian island of Saaremaa.
The Germans retreated at Tornio.
The German counteroffensive at Nijemegen failed.
The British occupied Corinth and Samos and landed commandos on Nauplion.
Savy to the Greek political situation, in some ways the British were fighting a prelude to the Cold War in Greece in their actions.
The Finns occupied Kemi on the Gulf of Bothnia.
Fr. Nicolò Cortese, age 37, was killed in Trieste by the Gestapo for his role in aiding Jews and Italian partisans.
SS Enterprise (CV 6) being refueled by tanker in rough seas, October 8, 1944.
Wendell Willkie, age 52, died of a heart attack.
Willkie had run for President in 1940 and had attempted to secure the GOP nomination in 1944. He had originally been a Democrat. Roosevelt thought highly of him and had considered his a potential Vice Presidential candidate. A heavy smoker and drinker, his health declined enormously in the summer and fall of 1944, and the heart attack that killed him was his third in three months, following a bout of pneumonia.
Willkie was a political liberal, authoring in 1943 the best seller One World, which espoused world federalism. There would be no place for him in the modern Republican Party.
Last edition:
Saturday, October 7, 1944. Fighting in the Arctic.
Monday, October 7, 2024
Saturday, October 7, 1944. Fighting in the Arctic.
The Sonderkommando Revolt occurred at Auschwitz when the Jewish detailed prisiones rose up with makeshift weapons. Three SS guards were killed, 200 members of the Sonderkommando, but hundreds of prisoners, all of whom were soon captured and executed, briefly escaped.
Egypt, Iraq, Syria, Jordan and Lebanon signed the Alexandria Protocol leading to the establishment of the Arab League in March of the following year.
The Red Army commenced the Petsamo–Kirkenes offensive in the Petsamo region ceded by Finland and Norway.
Members of "I" Co., 7th Inf. Regt., 3rd Division, move up an alley to screen their movement from German observation, as they go toward the edge of the town. Their mission is to take up a position outside of the town. 7 October, 1944.
The St. Louis Cardinals beat the St. Louis Browns 5 to 1 in game four of the 1944 World Series.
Last edition:
Friday, October 6, 1944. Collapsing.
Friday, October 4, 2024
Wednesday, October 4, 1944. Scorched Earth.
"Scene in a kitchen of a typical Russian family. These people are among the many who have been recently liberated by rapid Allied advances at the newly established Displaced Persons Center at Briey, France. 4 October, 1944." There's obviously more to this story than what the caption provides.
Operation Nordlicht began in Finland by the German Army. It was a planned withdrawal using scorched earth tactics, with the final line to be in Lyngen Municipality in Troms county, Norway.
"This photo shows a GI relaying fire data for artillery back from forward observation post near Havert, Germany. 4 October, 1944. 29th Infantry Division."
The Battle of Morotai more or less ended, with the ending being an Allied victory. Some fighting would continue to the end of the war.
Moscow asked for permission for the Red Army to enter Bulgaria.
The Serbian collaborationist government was dissolved.
Today in World War II History—October 4, 1944:British paratroopers land at Patras, Greece, and on Crete and Aegean islands.
The U-92, U-228 and U-437 were rendered inoperable by an RAF raid on Bergen.
Famous Democratic politician Al Smith died at age 70, five months after the death of his wife.
Last edition:
Tuesday, October 3, 1944. Breaking the Siegfried Line.
Thursday, October 3, 2024
Tuesday, October 3, 1944. Breaking the Siegfried Line.
Finnish forces captured Taivalkoski.
The Red Army took Hiuma Island, Estonia.
The 1st Army broke through the Siegfried Line north of Aachen.
The first large group of Nazi prisoners that were captured by the Americans following their breakthrough of the Siegfried Line. 3 October, 1944. 117th Infantry Regiment, 30th Infantry Division.
The RAF broke the dikes around Walcheren Island, flooding it.
Partisans attempted to kidnap fascist Italian Social Republic Minister of the Interior.Guido Buffarini Guidi with tragic unsuccessful results.
The ME 262 became operational.
October 3, 1944 The Littlest War Dog
The I-177 was sunk by the USS Samuel S. Miles
The USS Seawolf was sunk by the USS Richard M. Rowell in a friendly fire accident.
Pack mule train of 26th Indian Mule Co. with British 13th Corps, moving through town of Marradi.
Last edition:
Monday, October 2, 1944. The end of the Warsaw Rebellion.
Saturday, September 28, 2024
Saturday, September 21, 2024
Thursday, September 21, 1944. A sort of Estonian civil war.
Estonians, some in the Red Army, and some in German Estonian units, others in Waffen SS units fought each other at Porkuni.
The Red Army units prevailed.
This presents the complicated picture of the war in the Baltics. The Soviets were widely disposed by most residents of the Baltic States, but there were, and always had been, Baltic communists who saw the Soviet Union as an ally. Estonian resistance to Soviet occupation, on the other hand, had started with the pre World War Two Soviet invasion and continued on after World War Two in the form of the Estonian Forest Brothers.
The Germans had never desired any sort of independence for Estonia and had not supported it in any sense.
Interestingly, during the war, Finland never came into play in this even though the Estonians are a Baltic Finnic people and in the 1920s there had been serious considerations given to an Estonian Finnish union, with such efforts being committedly opposed by the Soviets. The East Karelian Uprising of 1921-22 fit into this, as that territory lay between the two nations to some degree and was occupied by Finnic people as well.
The Battle of Rimini ended in a Canadian, Greek and New Zealander victory.
The Satsuki was sunk by US aircraft in Manila Bay.
The Cardinals took the National League Pennant for the third time in a row, defeating the Boston Braves.
Pfc. Calvin Stempien, Monroe, Mich., levels covering fire from his foxhole while members of his engineer unit construct a bridge over the Meurthe river, under enemy fire. 21 September, 1944.
Last edition:
Wednesday, September 20, 1944 Nijmegen liberated.
Thursday, September 19, 2024
Tuesday, September 19, 1944. The Moscow Armistice Signed.
Fighting was ongoing in Italy.
The Moscow Armistice was signed between Finland and the USSR.
Land ceded to the Soviet Union by the Moscow Armistice. By Jniemenmaa - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=317801
The land ceded by Finland was similar in extent to that which had been ceded to end the Winter War four years earlier.
Land ceded by Finland in Winter War. By Jniemenmaa - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=317799
Will discuss the history of Finnish wars with the USSR in a separate thread, which is much more complicated than generally recalled, but suffice it to say, Karelia had been a major bone of contention between the two countries, and fought over several times in the 20th Century until the Continuation War seemingly ended the dispute.
Grand Duchy of Finland, 1900.
The Battle of Păuliș ended in Romanian-Soviet victory.
The Soviets took Valga, Estonia. A mass flight from the advancing Soviets by the Estonian population was underway, with a huge percentage of the population on their feet and in boats to attempt to escape.
British 30 Corps reached the US 82nd Airborne at Grave.
Cpl. Jaap W. Bothe, San Antonio, Texas, formerly of Rotterdam, Holland, gives some advice to a Dutch farmer who is giving Yanks a lift to the front lines near Son. 19 September, 1944. 101st Airborne Division.
The Battle for Brest ended in Allied victory.
Pvt. Garnett N. Early, of Harrisonburg, Va., receives an early morning cup of coffee from Red Cross worker Mary Jane Cook, of Jackson Heights, N.Y. Nancy, France. 19 September, 1944. 35th Infantry Division.
The Battle of Hürtgen Forest began between German and U.S. forces in the Hürtgen Forest began. The battle would continue until mid December. The Battle over a 54 square mile of industrial forest on the Belgian German frontier would continue until December 16 and became the longest battle on German ground during World War II and is the second longest single battle the U.S. Army has ever fought after The Battle of Bataan.
US tanker Lafayette G. Pool lost his third Sherman tank in combat in a night engagement when it was ambushed by a German Panther at Münsterbusch, southeast of Aachen, Germany. Pool lost his leg in the engagement, ending a pre war amature boxing career.
In 81 days of combat tanks commanded by Pool had destroyed 12 German tanks, 258 total armored vehicles and self propelled busn and killed German soldiers.
Pool reentered the Army in 1949 and retired in 1960. He thereafter became a Protestant minister. He passed away in 1991.
The SS declared a state of emergency in Denmark over the ongoing strike.
Heavy fighting occurred on Peleliu and Angaur.
The U-407 and U-867 were sunk by the Allies and the U-565 damaged beyond repair.
Brazilian nurses embarking for Europe at Hampton Roads, September, 1944.
Last edition:
Monday, September 18, 1944. Eindoven taken.
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