Wednesday, March 28, 1945. Guderian gets his release.

Hitler fired Guderian as Chief of the OKH following an argument. His replacement was Hans Krebs.

Guderian, as we've noted before, would survive the war.  He was released from being held as a POW in 1948, never prosecuted for war crimes, and died in 1954 at age 65.

Krebs killed himself on May 2, 1945.

Eisenhower telegrammed Stalin with his plans for advancing in Germany.  The British, who were not consulted, protested.

The Red Army captured Balga.

The U.S. 80th Infantry Division captured Wiesbaden.

The 3d Corps took Marburg.

The USS Trigger was sunk by the Imperial Japanese Navy in the East China Sea.

The Battle of Slater's Knoll began between Australian and Japanese forces on Bougainville.

Last edition:

Tuesday, March 27, 1945. The last rockets.

Labels: 1940s, 1945, Argentina, Artillery, Battle for Cebu City, German Kriegsmarine, Nazi Germany, Philippines, Royal Navy, Weapons

Friday. March 26, 1915. A view of Alsace.

The French took Hartmannswillerkopf  giving them an observation post for Alsace.

The town of Miami Beach, Florida was established.

Last edition:

Thursday, March 25, 1915. Loss of the F-4.

Labels: 1860s, 1864, 1910s, 1915, boats and ships, Civil War, Confederate Navy, Hawaii, U.S. Navy

Tuesday, March 20, 1945. Hitler's last appearance in public.

Hitler visited Hitler Youth members mobilized for combat in Berlin.  The child whom he was famously photographed with, with Hitler pinching his cheek, would survive the Battle of Berlin and keep a framed copy of the scene in his house for the rest of his life.

This was Hitler's last public appearance.

The U.S. Seventh Army captured Saarbrücken.

German defensive specialist Gotthard Heinrici replaced Heinrich Himmler as commander of Army Group Vistula.

The Germans began to massacre forced workers in the Arnsberg Forest Massacre.

The Australian Army carried out Operation Platypus, in which troops from Z Special Unit were inserted into the Balikpapan area of Borneo to gather information and organize resistance against the Japanese.

France signed an economic pact with Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg.

The Navy endured heavy kamikaze attacks off of Okinawa.

The USS Midway was launched.

This Day in History: Staff Sgt Ysmael Villegas charges six enemy foxholes

Last edition:

Monday, March 19, 1945. The Nero Decree.

Labels: 1940s, 1945, Adolf Hitler, Albert Speer, British Army, Diplomacy, German Kriegsmarine, German Wehrmacht, Indian Army, Kamikaze, Populism, The Nero Decree, Turkey, U.S. Navy, USSR

National Museum of Military Vehicles. World War One Display.

 

Inside of Renault tank.

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Last edition:

Punitive Expedition Display, National Museum of Military Vehicles, Dubois Wyoming

Labels: 1910s, 1916, 1917, Army, Clothing, Dubois Wyoming, George S. Patton, Mexican Border War, National Museum of Military Vehicles, Pancho Villa, The Punitive Expedition, Weapons, Wyoming (Dubois)

Tuesday, January 23, 1945. St. Vith taken by the Allies.

"Troops of the 7th Armored Division on the lookout for snipers in the littered streets of St. Vith, Luxembourg. 23 January, 1945. Company G, 23rd Armored Infantry Battalion, 7th Armored Division."

Photographer: T/5 Hugh F. McHugh, 165th Signal Photo Co.

The last major German stronghold in the Ardennes, St. Vith, fell to the US 4th Army.

German lawyer and nobleman Helmuth James Graf von Moltke was executed for his membership in hte Kreisau Circle.  He was 37.

The 20th Indian Division in Burma took Myinmu.

The US 14th Corps took Bamban in the Philippines.

Last edition:

Monday, January 22, 1945. Relentless.

Labels: 1940s, 1945, Army, Battle of the Bulge, Belgium, British Army, Burma, cavalry, Eastern Front, German Kriegsmarine, Netherlands, Prussia, Red Army, Royal Air Force, World War Two

Wednesday, January 17, 1945. The Red Army enters a destroyed Warsaw.

The Red Army finally took a destroyed Warsaw.  Hitler reacted by sacking generals Smilo Freiherr von Lüttwitz and Walter Fries.

Von Lüttwitz, who had seen combat in World War One and Two, went on to be a general in the Bundesherr.  He died in 1975 at age 79.  

Freis was subjected to a trial for his role in the city following in which Hitler requested a death sentence.  Amazingly, the court refused and Fries survived the war as well and died in 1982 at age 88.

The SS marched prisoners out of Auschwitz.

Swedish businessman and humanitarian Raoul Wallenberg disappeared after being detained by the Soviets in Budapeast.  He likely died in a Soviet jail cell two years later.

The German SS Donau was sunk by the Norwegian resistancde in Oslofjord

AP War Correspondent, Olen Clemente, Point Barrow, Alaska, at 3:00 p.m., Christmas Day, 1944. Photograph released January 17, 1945.

Last edition:

Tuesday, January 16, 1945. Der Führerbunker.

Labels: 1940s, 1945, Adolf Hitler, Alsace-Lorraine, boats and ships, Burma, Chinese Army, Nationalist Chinese Army, Poland, Red Army, World War Two

Monday, January 1, 1945. Operation Bodenplatte. Reprisal massacre.

The Luftwaffe commenced Operation Bodenplatte, which had originally been planned for December 16, in an attempt to cripple Allied air forces in the Low Countries. The hope was to gain air superiority so that the stalled German advance in Wacht am Rhein could resume.

A tactical surprise resulting in the destruction of 500 Allied aircraft on the ground, it none the less failed to achieve its goal and actually destroyed the Luftwaffe as an offensive, or even defensive, force due to heavy losses.  Allied losses were replaced within one week.

Soldiers of the 11th Armored Division murdered about 80 German POWs at Chenogne, Belgium, in reprisal for the Malmedy Massacre.

Some of the boys had some prisoners line up. I knew they were going to shoot them, and I hated this business.... They marched the prisoners back up the hill to murder them with the rest of the prisoners we had secured that morning.... As we were going up the hill out of town, I know some of our boys were lining up German prisoners in the fields on both sides of the road. There must have been 25 or 30 German boys in each group. Machine guns were being set up. These boys were to be machine gunned and murdered. We were committing the same crimes we were now accusing the Japs and Germans of doing.... Going back down the road into town I looked into the fields where the German boys had been shot. Dark lifeless forms lay in the snow.

Following the Malmedy Massacre some US units were issued orders not to take SS POWs, a clearly illegal order.  The murdered POWs, however, were members of the Führerbegleitbrigade and 3rd Panzergrenadier Division, German Army units, the latter of which had been associated with atrocities in Italy.

The killing of SS POWs became routine in some units.

The event was covered up and only really became known in detail in 2018.  This was not the only such event that occurred, and some units began to routinely kill SS prisoners.

The UK refused to recognize the Soviet sponsored Polish government.

Hitler made a radio address which omitted the current German situation to such an extent that it provoked Allied debate on who made it, and when.

It's worth noting at this point that while October, 1944, was the bloodiest month of the war for the US, in larger terms, the killing and dying ramped up massively starting in January, 1945, as the Allies closed in on Germany.

Last edition:

Sunday, December 31, 1944. Unternehmen Nordwind launched Ichi-Go concludes a success.

Labels: "Wacht am Rhein", 1940s, 1944, Aircraft, Alsace-Lorraine, Filipino Army, Filipino resistance, German Wehrmacht, Operation Ichi-Go, Personalities, U.S. Air Force, Unternehmen Nordwind, World War Two

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

Bastogne was surrounded.

General Heinrich Freiherr von Lüttwitz, commander of German forces outside of Bastogne, sent a major, a lieutenant and two enlisted men to deliver an ultimatum to US forces.  The ultimatum, delivered to 101st artillery commander, Gen. Anthony McAuliffe, who was in command, read:

To the U.S.A. Commander of the encircled town of Bastogne.

The fortune of war is changing. This time the U.S.A. forces in and near Bastogne have been encircled by strong German armored units. More German armored units have crossed the river Ourthe near Ortheuville, have taken Marche and reached St. Hubert by passing through Hompre-Sibret-Tillet. Libramont is in German hands.

There is only one possibility to save the encircled U.S.A. troops from total annihilation: that is the honorable surrender of the encircled town. In order to think it over a term of two hours will be granted beginning with the presentation of this note.

If this proposal should be rejected one German Artillery Corps and six heavy A. A. Battalions are ready to annihilate the U.S.A. troops in and near Bastogne. The order for firing will be given immediately after this two hours term.

All the serious civilian losses caused by this artillery fire would not correspond with the well-known American humanity.

The German Commander.

McAuliffe read the note, crumpled it up, and muttered, "Aw, nuts" after realizing that the Germans were asking for a U.S. surrender, rather than the other way around. Lieutenant Colonel Harry Kinnard suggested that McAuliffe's response summed up the situation well and  reply was typed and delivered by Colonel Joseph Harper, commanding the 327th Glider Infantry, to the German delegation. It stated:

To the German Commander.

NUTS!

The American Commander.

The German commander was confused by the reply, understandably, and asked Harper what it meant. Harper replied; "In plain English? Go to hell."  McAuliffe himself never used profanity.

Slowed progress caused Guderian to recommend the German offensive in the Ardennes be halted.

Guderian and McAuliffe's assessment was realistic.  While from the outside the American situation appeared desperate, in fact it was not.  The German advance had been massively slowed by American resistance, including by relatively inexperienced troops.  At Bastogne the Germans now faced two airborne divisions which were used to being surrounded.

President Roosevelt signed the Flood Control Act of 1944.

A new provisional government was formed in Hungary.

The People's Army of Vietnam was formed.

Last edition:

Thursday, December 21, 1944. St. Vith taken.

Labels: 1940s, 1944, Bastogne, Battle of Ormoc Bay, Battle of the Bulge, Belgium, Siege of Bastogne, St. Vith, U.S. Air Force, World War Two

Wednesday, December 20, 1944. Besieged Bastogne.

Bastogne was reached by the Germans and put under siege.

The 3d Army began advancing against German forces committed to Wachts am Rhein.

"These American soldiers from the 28th Division Band and Quartermaster Company stayed and fought the Germans in Wiltz, Belgium, until their ammunition was exhausted. Shown at Bastogne, Belgium, these soldiers evacuated Wiltz after they had used all their ammunition. Bastogne, Belgium, 20 December, 1944. 28th Infantry Division."

"Troops of 630th Tank Destroyer Battalion, all their vehicles lost in combat, manning the front line near Bastogne, Belgium, 20 December 1944. Troops of 630th Tank Destroyer Battalion, all their vehicles lost in combat, manning the front line near Bastogne, Belgium, 20 December 1944."

Dwight Eisenhower was promoted to five star rank.

The US Women Airforce Service Pilots organization was disbanded as no longer needed.  Hap Arnold, who had advocated for incorporating the organization into the Air Force, noted:

The WASP has completed its mission. Their job has been successful. But as is usual in war, the cost has been heavy. Thirty-eight WASP have died while helping their country move toward the moment of final victory. The Air Forces will long remember their service and their final sacrifice.

Last edition:

Tuesday, December 19, 1944. Reacting to Wacht am Rhein.

Labels: 1940s, 1944, Army, Bastogne, Battle of Leyte, Battle of the Bulge, Bernard Law Montgomery, British Army, Chester Nimitz, Dwight Eisenhower, German Army, Omar Bradley, St. Vith, World War Two

Tuesday, December 19, 1944. Reacting to Wacht am Rhein.

 

"Troops of 10th Armored Division preparing for attack on German spearhead headed toward Bastogne, Belgium, await order to move out. Note refugees in foreground. 19 December, 1944. 10th Armored Division."

The Germans took about 9,000 surrounded U.S. troops prisoner in the Schnee Eifel region on the Belgian-German border.  US forces were pushed out of German territory.  The 6th SS Panzer Army reached Stavelot and 5th Panzer Army approached Houffalize. US forces in-between these advances continue to hold Gouvy and St. Vith.

"Infantrymen of 1st U.S. Army gather in Bastogne, Belgium, to regroup after being cut away from their regiment by Germans in the enemy drive in this area. 19 December, 1944. 110th Infantry Regiment, 28th Infantry Division."

Eisenhower appoints Field Marshal Montgomery, commanding British 21st Army Group, to lead all Allied forces to the north of " the Bulge" and General Bradley, all Allied forces to the south reflecting the tactical situation.

"101st Airborne Division on the road between Bastogne and Houffalize, Belgium, as they move up to stem German drive. 19 December, 1944. 101st Airborne Division."

Chester Nimitz was promoted to five star rank.

Japan determined to cease reenforceing the Japanese 35th Army on Leyte.

The Japanese aircraft carrier Unryū was sunk in the East China Sea by the Redfish. The German submarine U-737 sank in a collision with depot ship MRS 25 in Vestfjorden, Norway.

The French newspaper Le Monde published for the first time.

Last edition:

Monday, December 18, 1944. Typhoon Cobra.

Labels: 1940s, 1944, boats and ships, British Army, Dekemvriana (Δεκεμβριανά), Douglas MacArthur, Greek Civil War, Internment of Japanese, Navy, Oklahoma, Pacific, Petroleum, Weather, World War Two, Wyoming