Saturday, December 23, 1944. German command worries.

The US First Army withdrew from St. Vith.

US aircraft are able to hit ground targets over Belgium.  C-47s dropped supplies into Bastogne.

By this point, Model, Guderian and Von Rundstedt have all recommended a halt to the offensive.

"Capt. Chaplain Connolly says mass for members of 127th Inf. Regt., 32nd Div., outside of Lonoy, Leyte, P.I. Mass was held two days before Christmas because the regiment was moving across country to push on to the west coast and would be unable to attend on Christmas. 23 December, 1944. 127th Infantry Regiment, 32nd Infantry Division. Photographer: Pfc. Jack Traub.

Twenty five German POWs escaped from Papago Park Camp in Arizona with a plan to float a river all the way to Mexico, apparently not appreciating that by this point Mexico was an Allied power.  They would be on the run until January 28, which is impressive, but their plan failed.

Today In Wyoming's History: December 23: 1944  All horse racing in the US is banned in an effort to save labor.

Last edition:  

Friday, December 22, 1944. "Nuts!".

Labels: "Wacht am Rhein", 1940s, 1944, Army, Artillery, Bastogne, Battle of the Bulge, Communism, German Army, Hungary, law, Paratroopers, Siege of Bastogne, The written word, Vietnam

Sunday, July 2, 1944. Plots in motion and the SS Jean Nicolet

The I-8 sank the SS Jean Nicolet, a liberty ship, and then engaged in what can only be the torture and murder of its survivors.  The atrocities were interrupted by Allied aircraft, allowing some men to survive as the I 8 dived away.

The I-8 had been involved in a prior atrocity.  It would be sunk near the end of the war.

Not too surprisingly, Gerd von Rundstedt was relieved of command and replaced by Günther von Kluge as Oberbefehlshaber West . The day prior, von Rundstedt had expressed the situation in the war as hopeless.   Additionally, on this day, he sought permission from Hitler to withdraw from the present German lines.

It wasn't the first time he'd been relieved, and he would be brought back.

The replacement would be a bit ironic in that von Kluge participated in the July 20 plot.

Concerning that, the prior day, July 1, Claus von Stauffenberg was appointed Chief of Staff to General Fromm at the Reserve Army headquarters.  The appointment meant that he would be in close proximity to Hitler frequently.

The British 8th Army captured Foiano, Italy.

U.S. and Australian troops landed on Numfoor Island, New Guinea.

The U-543 was sunk off of Tenerife by aircraft.

An interesting issue of Sarah Sundin's blog:

Today in World War II History—July 2, 1944

Fighting continued on Saipan, with the Japanese withdrawing to their last defensive line.

US ace and former member of the RCAF Ralph K. Hofer was killed in action over Budapest.

Last edition:

Saturday, July 1, 1944. Bretton Woods.

Labels: 1940s, 1944, Bretton Woods, Caen France, Eastern Front, Espionage, Estonian Forest Brothers, Gerd von Runstedt, Italy, J. C. Leyendecker, Lithuanian Partisans, Operation Overlord, Waffen SS, World War Two

Saturday, July 1, 1944. Bretton Woods.

Morgenthau opening conference.

Delegates from forty-four nations met at the secluded Mount Washington Hotel in Bretton Woods, New Hampshire to participate in the Bretton Woods Conference. The conference met to establish the post-war economic order and was one of the most significant events of the 20th Century.

Henry Morgenthau was the chief U.S. delegate to the conference, and was rapidly elected its presiding officer.  Harry Dexter White, who was a Soviet spy, was the chief US delegate in fact and a major factor in the resulting plans.

The II SS Panzer Corps attacked British positions around Caen but was repulsed.  Gerd von Rundstedt phoned Berlin to report the failure to which Chief of Staff Wilhelm Keitel purportedly asked, "What shall we do?", to which Rundstedt replied, "Make peace, you fools! What else can you do?"

The U.S. 133d Infantry Regiment captured Cicina, Italy.

The Red Army took Borisov.

U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the Public Health Service Act and the Renunciation Act of 1944.  The latter allowed people physically present in the U.S. to renounce citizenship when the country was at war.  It required an application to the Attorney General of the United States in order to do so.

The act sought to have Japanese Americans do that very thing, sot hey could later be deported to Japan.  A total of 5,589 American citizens availed themselves of the act, 5,461 coming from the Tule Lake Segregation Center.  Many came to regret their decision, and some of the renunciations were reversed.

Internees at Tule Lake.

Formation of the anti-Soviet Lithuanian Partisans occured.

Partisans in 1947.

They'd fight on after World War Two.

Anti Soviet Estonian Forest Brothers re formed on the same day.

Last edition:

Friday, June 30, 1944. Epsom halted.

Labels: 1940s, 1944, Battle of Biak, Blog Mirror, Caen France, Denmark, Diplomacy, Finland, Omar Bradley, Operation Epsom, Operation Overlord, United States, War Loan Drives, World War Two

Thursday, May 18, 1944. Monte Cassino ends.

And in more ways than one.

The Germans had withdrawn, leaving only 30 men too wounded to be moved. The Poles were the first Allied troops in the monastery.

It would be rebuilt.

Stalin ordered the Crimean Tartars deported from their homeland. The action was carried out on the excuse that some Tartars had collaborated with the Germans, which was actually true of every Soviet ethnicity, including, in large numbers, the Russians.  Repression of the Tartars would carry on for decades after the war, and the disaster has never been sufficiently redressed.

The Admiralty Islands Campaign and the Battle of Wakde ended in Allied victories.

Gerd von Runstedt as Commander in Chief of German forces in the west.

Von Runstedt was an old soldier by this point, having been born in 1875 and having entered the Prussian Army in 1892.  Like MacArthur in the U.S. Army, he'd retired before the war, having left service in 1938, although he was five years older than MacArthur, who was old for a U.S. Army commander.  An erasable character, he was not personally fond of Hitler, knew of plots to kill him which he kept to himself, but would not participate in them as he felt the concept disloyal.

After the war he was imprisoned for four years and upon his release found himself separated from his wife due to the division of Germany. She was in the American Zone of occupation, but he could not secure permission to visit her, as the US was upset by the British decision to release him.  He died in 1953 at age 77.

It can be argued that his decision not to support the July 20 plotters was instrumental in the coup's failure.

Last prior edition:

Wednesday, May 17, 1944. Landing at Wakde.

1940s, 1944, Battle of Wakde, Burma, Italy, Merrill's Maurauders, Nationalist Chinese Army, Operation Diadem, Operation Straight Line