Friday, November 28, 1941. The USS Enterprise departs Pearl Harbor.

A task force centered on the USS Enterprise left Pearl Harbor in order to deliver twelve Marine Corps F4F aircraft to Wake Island.  But for this, the Enterprise would have been at Pearl Harbor on December 7.

The Enterprise would complete that mission on December 4, and then it turned around to return to Pearl Harbor.  It would have arrived there on December 6 but for bad weather.

The Enterprise's departure was known to the Japanese, due to reporting from a consulate based intelligence officer they had there.  At this time, this meant, due to reassignments and repairs, only one carrier remained in Pearl Harbor.

The Army concluded the Carolina Maneuvers.

A brand new, at that time, Jeep and a 37mm anti tank gun in the Carolina Maneuvers.

The maneuvers were massive in scale, involving 350,000 men.

The direction things were moving in was obvious, inside at least the Government.

German general Johann von Ravenstein was captured by New Zealanders in North Africa, making him the first German general officer to become a prisoner of war during World War Two.

The Soviets retook Rostov on Don.

The O-21 at Gibraltar.

The Dutch submarine O-21 sank the German U-95.

Monday November 17, 1941. Finland halts operations

On this day in 1941 Finland halted offensive operations, abandoning further progress on the joint German-Finnish Operation Silver Fox, which had sought to capture Murmansk.

German forces outside of Murmansk.

Of all of Germany's allies in Europe, Finland was the most competent and was fighting for distinctly different war aims than Germany.  It's operations up to this date had been largely successful, and they had achieved  most of what they'd sought by entering the war on the German side in the first instance, that being territory lost during the Winter War.  This did not end the as to Finland, of course, as the Soviets didn't agree to be regarded as defeated, but the Finns were, by this time, skeptical of German abilities and saw no point in continuing offensive operations that would have mostly served German purposes.

The halting of Operations Silver Fox and Arctic Fox did mean that the Finnish/German forces failed to close Murmansk to the Allies.  This would prove to be a strategic failure in that the Western Allies used the port to supply the Soviets.  The Germans somehow failed to appreciate this, and the Finns after this point in the war wanted to avoid antagonizing the West any more than they already had, and further did not wish to fight for German, rather than Finnish, goals.  This would result in the Arctic Front stabilizing until 1944, when the Soviets were in a position to regain lost ground.

As it was, of course, having entered the war on the German side meant that Finland would be faced with attacks from the Red Army at the end of the war, by which time the Red Army was not at all the same army that the Finns had faced in the Winter War.  Finland was fortunate to escape a disaster as a result.

The cessation of hostilities was further significant in that it showed that Finnish war aims were limited to recovering truly lost territories to Finland, rather than an exercise in acquiring all the lands occupied by Balto Finnic peoples, which would have included all of Karelia, and even more territory occupied by the USSR if the Saami (Lapps) were included.  Finland's wise decision to halt rather than go for the inclusion of those territories would pay off when Axis fortunes reversed.

If Finnish forces had fought well in their campaign, the better materially equipped German forces had proven lacking.  Overall, German forces performed below expectation, particularly Waffen SS forces.  When the cold weather set in they were not adequately equipped, whereas the Finnish forces were.  Ultimately, the Germans started withdrawing its forces from this front, and had commenced doing so prior to the cessation of the offensive.

Without Finnish cooperation, there was nothing the Germans could do in order to ever resume an offensive on Murmansk, and they were not going to receive that.  Having said that, the German failure to appreciate the need to take the city was a monumental failure to grasp the logistical importance of the city. For a country engaged in a massive U-boat campaign in the Atlantic and North Sea, that oversight is difficult to grasp but perhaps goes to the German lingering belief that the campaign against the Soviet Union was going to be brief, and basically decided by taking Moscow.

On this day German World War One aviation hero and Luftwaffe general Ernst Udet killed himself.

Udet's World War One aviation tally was second only to Manfred Von Richtoeffen's.  He was a non-committed member of the Nazi Party, having joined based on a promise from Herman Goering to purchase two American dive bombers in 1933.  Moved to a administrative production position within the Luftwaffe, Udet became an alcoholic due to being both bored with the position and not really being able to do it. As the war began to loom, this became worse, as Udet did not believe that Germany could win the war. Goering supplied him with alcohol and drugs at parties to keep him in control, and he suffered a pre-war nervous breakdown.  A pre Operation Barbarossa report warning that the Soviet air force was good and technologically advanced that he issued was withheld from Hitler by Goering.  His situation was complicated by a sense that he had been abandoned both by Hitler and a mistress. To complicate matters further, he'd had an affair with Martha Dodd, the daughter of the US Ambassador to Germany who was a secret Communist and who was spying for the USSR.

Hitler would later blame Germany's looming defeat in later years on Udet, a rather fanciful explanation for the defeat.

British commandos completed their raid on Rommel's former headquarters.  Only two men escaped being killed or captured and Rommel was not there.

Cordell Hull met with the Japanese Ambassadors.  He summarized his meeting as follows:

I accompanied Ambassador Nomura and Ambassador Saburo Kurusu to the White House in order that the latter might be received by the President.

Following several minutes of an exchange of courtesies and formalities, the President brought up the more serious side by referring to the misunderstandings and matters of difference between our countries and made clear the desire of this country, and he accepted the statement of the Japanese Ambassador that it was the desire of Japan equally, to avoid war between our two countries and to bring about a settlement on a fair and peaceful basis so far as the Pacific area was concerned.

Ambassador Kurusu proceeded with one line of remarks that he kept up during the conversation and that was that we must find ways to work out an agreement to avoid trouble between our two countries. He said that all the way across the Pacific it was like a powder keg, and again he repeated that some way must be found to adjust the situation.

Ambassador Kurusu made some specious attempt to explain away the Tripartite Pact. I replied in language similar to that which I used in discussing this matter with Ambassador Nomura on November fifteenth, which need not be repeated here. I made it clear that any kind of a peaceful settlement for the Pacific area, with Japan still clinging to her Tripartite pact with Germany, would cause the President and myself to be denounced in immeasurable term and the peace arrangement would not for a moment be taken seriously while all the countries interested in the Pacific would redouble their efforts to arm against Japanese aggression. I emphasized the point about the Tripartite Pact and self-defense by saying that when Hitler starts on a march of invasion across the earth with ten million soldiers and thirty thousand airplanes with an official announcement that he is out for unlimited invasion objectives, this country from that time was in danger and that danger has grown each week until this minute. The result was that this country with no other motive except self?defense has recognized that danger, and has proceeded thus far to defend itself before it is too late; and that the Government of Japan says that it does not know whether this country is thus acting in self-defense or not. This country feels so profoundly the danger that it has committed itself to ten, twenty-five or fifty billions of dollars in self-defense; but when Japan is asked about whether this is self?defense, she indicates that she has no opinion on the subject-I said that I cannot get this view over to the American people; that they believe Japan must know that we are acting in self-defense and, therefore, they do not understand her present attitude. I said that he was speaking of their political difficulties and that I was thus illustrating some of our difficulties in connection with this country's relations with Japan.

The President remarked that some time ago he proclaimed a zone around this hemisphere, 300 miles out in the sea in some places and 1,100 miles in others.

The President added that this was self-defense.

I then said that Ambassador Nomura and I have been proceeding on the view that the people of the United States and Japan alike are a proud and great people and there is no occasion for either to attempt to bluff the other and we would not consider that bluffing enters into our conversations, which are of genuine friendliness.

The President brought out a number of illustrations of our situation and the Japanese situation as it relates to Germany and our self-defense which serve to emphasize our position and to expose the sophistry of the Japanese position.

Ambassador Kurusu said that Germany had not up to this time requested Japan to fight; that she was serving a desirable purpose without doing so; this must have meant that she was keeping the American and British Navies, aircraft, et cetera, diverted.

The further question of whether the United States is on the defensive in the present Pacific situation came up by soma general discussion in reference to that situation by Ambassador Kurusu, and the President and I made it clear that we were not the aggressors in the Pacific but that Japan was the aggressor.

At another point I said that the belief in this country is that the Japanese formula of a new order in greater East Asia is but another name for a program to dominate entirely, politically, economically, socially and otherwise by military force all of the Pacific area; that this would include the high seas, the islands and the continents and would place every other country at the mercy of very arbitrary military rule just as the Hitler program does in Europe and the Japanese in China. The Ambassador made no particular comment.

There was some effort by Ambassador Kurusu to defend their plan of not bringing the troops out of China. Placing the Japanese on the defensive, the President said that the question ought to be worked out in a fair way considering all of the circumstances and relative merits of the matters involved; and that at a suitable stage, while we know that Japan does not wish us to mediate in any way, this Government might, so to speak, introduce Japan and China to each other and tell them to proceed with the remaining or detailed adjustments, the Pacific questions having already been determined.

Ambassador Kurusu strongly stated that it would be most difficult to bring all the troops out of China at once.

Ambassador Kurusu said that we, of course, desired to bring up both sides of matters existing between our two countries and he said that we would recall. that when the Japanese went into Shantung during the World War, this Government insisted that she get out. I replied that my own country opposed a policy of this seizure of new territory by any country to the .fullest extent of its' ability to do so; that it declined to take a dollar of compensation or a foot of territory for itself; that it insisted that the world must turn over a new leaf in this respect or nations would be fighting always for territory and under modern methods of war would soon destroy and utterly impoverish each other; that in any event his country fared well in this respect.

The question of our recent proposal on commercial policy was brought up by us and Ambassador Kurusu said he had not examined it and that he had forgotten much of the technical side of commercial policy since he was in the Foreign Office. The President made very pertinent and timely reference to the destructive nature of armaments and the still more destructive effects of a permanent policy of armaments which always means war, devastation and destruction. He emphasized the point that there is from the long-term point of view no difference of interest between our two countries and no occasion, therefore, for serious differences.

All in all, there was nothing new brought out by the Japanese Ambassador and Ambassador Kurusu. Ambassador Kurusu constantly made the plea that there was no reason why there should be serious differences between the two countries and that ways must be found to solve the present situation. He referred to Prime Minister Tojo as being very desirous of bringing about a peaceful adjustment notwithstanding he is an Army man. The President expressed his interest and satisfaction to hear this. The President frequently parried the remarks of Ambassador Nomura and also of Ambassador Kurusu, especially in regard to the three main points of difference between our two countries. There was no effort to solve these questions at the conference. The meeting broke up with the understanding that I would meet the Japanese representatives tomorrow morning.

November 15, 1941. German offensive resumes.

After a hiatus, more or less, of three weeks, the Germans resumed their offensive on Moscow, but the temperatures were dropping and progress was slow.  Progress only resumed, however, as the roads were now frozen and not mud.

German forces were advancing in two pincers, with one on the Russian city of Kiln, where the Soviet defenders had no reinforcements.

Thursday, October 30, 1941. A Change In Material Circumstances

 

On this date in 1941, T-34s began to appear in action in numbers for the first time.

In other technological, if you will, news, Northrup received a contract for one full-scale mockup, and one actual flying experimental example, of its flying wing design.

Northrup XB-35 experimental flying wing bomber.

The revolutionary design would not fly until after the war and would not see adoption until modern stealth technology arrived, at which time Northrup's design would reappear, evolved, as the Northrup B-2 Spirit.

At Tula, the Germans attempted a pitched massive assault but Soviet forces, some of which were militia, turned them back in spite of suffering heavy losses.  The Soviets used anti tank guns and anti-aircraft guns in the effort.

The Germans and Romanians commenced the Siege of Sevastopol.  It would take the Axis forces until July to take the city.

Charles Lindbergh spoke to an anti-war rally crowd of 20,000 in Madison Square Garden.  His speech was very harsh on Franklin Roosevelt, whom he accused of attempting to draw the United States into war and of using dictatorial measures.

USO Camp Shows commenced on this day in 1941, as discussed in the link below:

Today in World War II History—October 30, 1941

A u-boat damaged the USS Salinas, a U.S. Navy fleet oiler, but the vessel managed to escape without sinking.

Pearl Harbor, October 30, 1941.

Friday October 26, 1941. The Germans enter Kharkov.

The German Army took Kharkov.

That event is the subject of a blog post here:

Today in World War II History—October 24, 1941

The entry is really worth looking at for the photograph that goes along with it.

The Forgotten Battle (De Slag Om De Schelde)

Alligator amphibious vehicle passing Terrapin amphibious vehicle on the Schledt.

This is a 2020 Dutch film which has been released with dubbed English, in place of Dutch, on Netflix.

The Battle of the Scheldt, which this film deals with, is hardly a "forgotten" battle, but it is a battle which is no doubt more remembered by the Dutch and the Canadians than it is for Americans.  A continual complaint of European audiences is that American films tend to treat World War Two as if the United States was the only Allied nation in it.  The complaint really isn't true, as there are certainly plenty of contrary examples, but this film is a little unusual for an American audience as it doesn't involve the US at all, while still dealing with a very important battle.

The Battle of the Scheldt was an October 1944 to November 1944 series of Allied campaigns that were aimed at opening up control of the Scheldt estuary so that Allied shipping could make it to Antwerp.  Antwerp had been taken intact, but because the Germans controlled the banks of the Scheldt it was of no use to the Allies, which desperately needed the port.   The task fell to the Canadian army which, in a series of attacks beginning on October 2, 1944, and running through November 8, 1944, took the banks of the Scheldt. It was a hard fought campaign.

This fictionalized portrayal of those events are centered on three principal characters.  One is a Dutch a young Dutch woman,Teuntje Visser, played by Dutch actress and model Susan Radder, who comes into the underground basically both accidentally and reluctantly, a British paratrooper, William Sinclair, played by Jamie Flatters, and a young Dutchman who is a German soldier, Marinus van Staveren, played by Gijis Blom.  The story involves three intersecting plot lines in order to construct a story that involves the climatic battle.

The story actually starts off, surprisingly for a Dutch film, with the Van Staveren character, opening up with a battle on the Russian front.  Van Staveren, who is wounded in the battle, turns out to be a willing volunteer.  While the Dutch are justifiably remember for their opposition to the Nazis, a little over 20,000 Dutch citizens did serve in the German armed forces.  Cornelius Ryan noted in his book A Bridge Too Far that the number was significant enough that parents in some regions of the country worried about what to do with photographs of their sons in uniform taken while they were in the German Army.

Van Stavern is befriended by a mentally decaying wounded SS lieutenant in the same hospital who, as his last act, gets him transferred to a desk job in the west, in what turns out to be a unit that's going to Holland, his native country. That's where he first encounters Visser, who reports with her father to a newly appointed German commander who calls them in as he's aware that Visser's brother was involved in an incident in which he threw a camera through a windshield of a German truck, resulting in a fatal accident.

That ties into an earlier scene setting up that the brother is part of the Dutch underground.  We're introduced to the Visser's there while they watch the Germans retreating in a scene that's much reminiscent of the opening scenes of A Bridge Too Far.

William Sinclair we're introduced to in the context of the topic Ryan's book addresses. He's a British glider pilot in the British airborne whose glider is damaged over the Scheldt and is cut loose to crash on a flooded island.  This occurs before the offensive on the Scheldt commences and he and the party of men he is with try to make their way towards dry land and the Allies.  Sinclair eventually makes it to the Canadian army and is in the battle with it.

The stories all, as noted, intertwine.

The film is well presented and presents good, and credible, drama.  It's realistically portrayed but avoids the post Saving Private Ryan gore that American films have tended to engage in.  None of the characters, interestingly, is without significant personal failings, thereby presenting a much less heroic and more nuanced picture of people at war than is usually the case.  A Dutch film, the central portrayed Dutch characters all have significant personal defects and are not heroic. As a movie, its a good movie.

So how does it do on history?

Well, fairly good  It is a dramatized version of history, but the battle on the Scheldt did come after Market Garden and it was a Canadian effort, as the battle portrays.  The reasons for the battle are accurately presented.  It's nicely done.  Perhaps my only real criticisms are based on things that I don't know if they're accurate or not.  One is that the British paratrooper ends up fighting with the Canadians in Canadian uniform.  I tend to think that he would have simply been evacuated upon crossing into Allied lines.  And I'm skeptical that the Germans would have assigned a Dutch private in their service to a unit serving in Holland, as it opens up the obvious loyalty problem.  Having said that, this is speculation on my part.

In terms of material details, this film also does quite well.  Uniforms and equipment are all presented accurately  The glider scenes are unique for a film as far as I'm aware of, and are really horrifying.

So, well worth watching.

Friday September 26, 1941. The Establishment of the Military Police Corps.

Today is the founding day of the Military Police Corps, something I only know about due to the blog post found here:

Today in World War II History—September 26, 1941

There were predecessors, it should be noted, but the official establishment dates to this date.

Sarah Sundin, on her blog, also had this excellent poster, which I can't resist also posting.

The poster, I'd note, has a good representation of 155 "Long Tom" M1 howitzers, a classic American gun that was a recent introduction into the American artillery stable.  It was the predecessor of other related long range large artillery, and an 8in variant also existed, a depiction of which also exists in this poster to its far right.  The U.S. had the best artillery of any army in the Second World War.  Indeed, this poster fairly accurately depicts the technology used by the US in the war, albeit in a very dramatic fashion.

The Germans took Kiev.  It was a major German victory, and it would soon result in the expansion of the German's murder of the Jews.

For a really interesting look at the German Army of 1941 and how it walked into Russia, see the following item, if you can, or at least look at the photo.

The exhausting march East

It's often not appreciated the degree to which the German Army was a shoe leather army.  Of course, at this point in the war, the Red Army was as well.

German propaganda during the Second World War was so good at depicting their forces as highly mechanized that it not only created that myth at the time, the myth has endured.  In reality, German infantry walked in, and German artillery was largely towed in by horse, just as the French forces had been in 1812 in their invasion of Russia.  Indeed, while the Germans certainly had motorized support, even much of their logistical support was horse drawn.

In 1941, this was also true of the Red Army, and indeed for Soviet infantry it would remain largely true throughout the war.  The Soviets, however, had a massive industrial based created by Stalin's forced industrialization of the country, and additionally it had the huge industrial base of the United States and the British Commonwealth behind it.  Soviet mechanization would advance during the war, German mechanization would retreat.

German Wehrmacht driving in to surrender near Prague (1945)

Really fascinating film clip of German troops surrendering in Prague at the end of the Second World War.

Some observations.

At 1:07, a US soldier can be seen with a C96 "broomhandle" Mauser pistol in a holster.  In a few scenes down the film, the same soldier requires a bunch of German officers to surrender their sidearms.

Overall, these German soldiers are heavily armed with small arms and are still under arms.

At 4:46 an American Lt. Col speaks with a German officer and his driver. The officer, and maybe the driver, have pulled the Nazi cap devices off of their caps.

The German troops are accompanied by a lot of women who are riding out with them.  As they are not in Germany, it'd be interesting to know the circumstances that caused the women to be rather obviously riding with them.

Thursday July 31, 1941. Goering, Heydrich, and the final solution.

Herman Goering ordered Reinhard Heydrich to make final preparations to solve the "Jewish question".

It's sometimes claimed that the Germans never put anything regarding the Holocaust in writing, which is incorrect. This is one such example and the order was later used in Goering's post-war trial.  Goering didn't contest its authenticity, but claimed it had been mistranslated and that it addressed a "possible solution" rather than a "final solution", hardly much of a defense.

In reality, there exists plenty of documentary evidence about the German slaughter of the Jews.

Soviet wartime poster, the caption reads something like "Red Army soldier, all hope is on you."

The Germans were still advancing, of course, but they were beginning to encounter stiff Soviet resistance and were not advancing as rapidly as they had been.  It should have been clear that the war in the East was not simply a repeat of prior German advances.  Nonetheless, the Germans had fully lauched into a campaign of ethnic slaughter were seemed to presuppose a victory they hadn't secured.

On the same day Sweden, which had wrung its hands over an earlier request it agreed to, refused permission to Germany to allow a second German infantry division to cross Swedish territory by rail.  In the same region, the Finns completed the reconquest of the Karelian Isthmus and began the process, although not yet implementing it, of going into defensive lines.  The Finns refused a request to attack Leningrad and, moreover, they had already endured a refusal by 2,000 Finnish troops to cross beyond the 1939 border. While they'd gotten past that, the Finns were in the process of wrapping up their offensive operations as they retook their pre Winter War borders.

The Germans restructured their forces in North Africa, reflecting the expansion of their operations.  Rommel was put in charge of the newly created Panzer Armee Afrika and Ludwig Cruwell given command of the Afrika Korps.

Saturday July 19, 1941. V for Victory

Winston Churchill first publically used the "V for Victory" reference on this day in 1941.  It was to become a signature sign of his, and the western Allies, during World War Two, being adopted by him as a widely used hand gesture.

The speech was broadcast early in the morning the following day, and after that the V became a popular item of graffiti in occupied Europe.  The Germans attempted to co-opt the use of it themselves, as it was so widespread.

The hand gesture predates Churchill's use of it and its origin is obscure.  The palm out version is the one that is commonly associated with calls for victory, and then later, in the United States, with a call for peace, the latter of which started during the Vietnam War.  It can symbolize both in some modern protests.

Aviator Katherine Stinson giving the V sign in Tokyo, 1920.

The back of the hand out version, it should be noted, is a rude gesture in some cultures.  The palm out version has become enormously widely used by the Japanese, particularly Japanese women, who use it very widely in photographs.

On this day in 1941 Adolph Hitler issued his Directive No. 33, which remains one of the most discussed Hitler orders of the war.

While the German armies were all still advancing, resistance was stiffening in some regions and the Germans were not advancing in the south as rapidly as they'd hoped for and some pockets of resistance, such as Leningrad and Smolensk were holding out.  Hitler accordingly issued his Directive 33 taking forces from Army Group Center and assigning them to Army Group North and Army Group South. The assignment to Army Group North, FWIW, is commonly ignored when historians analyze this event.

The order also indicated that Moscow was no longer the primary Germany target.

This order met immediate resistance with the German senior leadership, which ran a backdoor effort to prevent its implementation.

It's common to assert that this realignment of forces brought about a military disaster by guaranteeing that the Germans would not take Moscow in 1941. It should be noted that this was not apparent in July 1941 but what was apparent is that Soviet resistance was already stiffening.  While the recently directed directives 32 and 32a contemplated the war being won in the east by the fall of 1941, it was becoming clear that this might not occur in the south and north, with the south, the Soviet breadbasket and the source of Soviet petroleum, being very problematic.  Seizure of Ukraine had been a declared German objective as far back as the Nuremberg rally speech of 1936 and the German need for foodstuff and petroleum was a pressing matter.

Moscow was the major Soviet communications and transportation hub, so it was not an idle objective, so the realignment of forces can be debated. The decision to attempt it, however, was not as unthinking as often portrayed.

Tuesday July 8, 1941. Intentions.

On this day in 1941, German General Franz Halder, Chief of Staff, recorded in his diary that at a meeting he attended Hitler expressed his intention to raise Leningrad and Moscow to the ground and to dispose of Moscow's population. lest they have to be fed during the winter.  Of course, the Germans would never take either city.

That, of course, was revealing as to the Germans genocidal intent, and also evidence of whatever they may have later claimed, nearly anyone of significance in the Third Reich was fully aware of the regime's genocidal nature and intentions.

Of interest, the inner circle was already having a heated debate about diverting from the original Operation Barbarossa plans with their being discussion about diverting troops to assist in taking Leningrad.  Some, like Halder, opposed that as they saw it vital to rush on to take Moscow.  Historians for decades have debated if those who argued along the lines of Halder were correct or not.

As for Halder, he was complicit in the orders that instructed genocidal actions be taken in Operation Barbarossa.  Given that, he was one of the individuals that would logically have received the death penalty at the Nuremburg trials post war, but in fact he was not tried in them, but instead in a German civilian court.  He was fortunate that he fell out of favor with Hitler in 1942 and was retired at that time, taking no more active role in the war.  In 1944 he was arrested following the July 20 plot, but was found not to be associated with it.  Nonetheless, he was found to have been a figure in prior plots to topple Hitler, so he spent the rest of the war in incarceration.  Following the war he worked for the U.S. Army and was instrumental in the development of the false "clean Wehrmacht" myth.

His German trial resulted in a not guilty verdict.  Shortly after that, his diaries were discovered and the German government sought to charge him again, but by that time he was working for the United States and the US wouldn't allow it to occur.  He went on to develop the still persistent myth of a clean Wehrmacht for the rest of his life, dying in 1972.

The B-17 was flown in action for the first time.  The mission was a RAF strike on Wilhelmshaven.  The daylight raid was carried out without loss, but also without effect.

We don't think much of the British using B-17s, but they did acquire some lend lease.

Japan replied to an inquiry from the US about its intentions in regard to the war in Europe.

MESSAGE IN REPLY SENT BY H. I. M.'S FOREIGN MINISTER AT THE REQUEST OF THE PRIME MINISTER FOR DELIVERY TO THE PRESIDENT OF THE U.S.A., DATED JULY 7TH, SHOWA 16

At a time like this all sorts of rumours are abundantly bred not only in Japan but in all countries. 

It is hardly necessary to state that the prevention of the European War from spreading to the regions of Greater East Asia and the maintenance and preservation of peace in the area of the Pacific have always been the sincere and genuine desire of the Japanese Government which have consistently contributed their earnest efforts toward achieving that high purpose. 

The Japanese Government wish to state, in reply to the last paragraph of the Message, that they have not so far considered the possibility of joining the hostilities against the Soviet Union. The position of the Japanese Government vis-à-vis the Soviet/Axis war was made clear in the Oral statement of July 2nd, 1941 of H. I. M.'s Foreign Minister to the Soviet Ambassador in Tokyo. One can do no better than attach hereto a copy of this Oral statement for the President's perusal in order to bring home the course of policy Japan has been compelled to pursue in the present circumstances. Of course, it is understood that the American Government will treat it as strictly confidential. Incidentally, the Japanese Government would like to avail themselves of this opportunity for definitely ascertaining whether it is really the intention of the President or the American Government to intervene in the European war as they are naturally and very deeply concerned at the prospect, disturbed as they sincerely are, by reports reaching them from a variety of sources.

The question to Japan was a fair one, but the Japanese at the time were not contemplating a war against the Soviet Union in the near term, and for that matter were having a hard enough time attempting to defeat China.  Realistically, a Japanese strike against the Soviet Union was out of the question for strategic reasons.

American journalist Richard C. Hottelet was released from four months of German incarceration.  He'd been arrested by the Germans as a spy.  Born of German parents, Hottelet spoke fluid German, but his work was reporting, not espionage.

June 25, 1941. The Continuation War, Murder and Executive Order 8802

Finland declared war on the Soviet Union with the goal of reclaiming territories lost in the Winter War.  It's goals were limited in the war to the recovery of territory lost to the Soviets, which it advanced into, took strategic positions, and then stopped.  This date is noted here:

Today in World War II History—June 25, 1941

The action put the Finns in bed with the Germans, and it wasn't a spur of the moment decision.  The Finns knew that Barbarossa was coming, and had agreed to the prestaging of German troops on its soil.  It was a calculated move betting on a German victory in the war, or at least on Germany obtaining a sufficiently advantageous result such that Finland would regain the territories it had lost.

Dealing with the Continuation War has always been a bit of a problem for Western historians as it does cut slightly against the grain in regard to the story of World War Two. Finland, with one slight exception, is the big exception to the rule regarding the Axis. Finland protected its Jewish population, with the exception of 8 individuals, and refused to hand them over to the Germans.  It halted its advance and went on the defensive as soon as it regained the territory it had lost, which in context was probably a strategic failure as it could have gained ethnic Finnish ground in the far north which would have also choked off Murmansk to Allies, which would be a port of resupply to the Soviets during the war.

Finland gambled incorrectly, of course, and would pay the price, albeit not as much of a price as a person might have suspected it would receive from the Soviets.

Symbol of the German Army's 163d Infantry Division.

On the same day Sweden agreed to allow the Germans to transport the German 163rd Infantry Division across its territory from Norway into Finland. The request had been made several days prior and had provoked a crisis in the Swedish government in which the King intervened with the request that it be allowed. The motivations for allowing it are complicated but tied to aiding its neighbor.  It's an example of how the neutrals of the Second World War not only were neutral, but frankly made significant concessions to nearby belligerents none the less.

The 163d spent most of the war with the Finns, being transported back to Germany late in the war.  It was destroyed by the Red Army in Pomerania in March, 1945.

Anti Jewish pogroms broke out in Lithuania. Centered in Kovno, the murders were conducted by Lithuanian civilians, not the Germans, at first, as the Germans had not yet reached the city. Upon their reaching it the killing would continue under their direction.

In Serbia, the Utashi opened the Slana camp, an island concentration camp, and began transporting Jews, and later Serbian and Croatian communists, to the island to be murdered.  The killing would stop when the Italians would occupy the island.

President Roosevelt signed Executive Order 8802, which read:

EXECUTIVE ORDER 8802

Reaffirming Policy of Full Participation in the Defense Program by All Persons, Regardless of Race, Creed, Color, or National Origin, and Directing Certain Action in Furtherance of Said Policy

WHEREAS it is the policy of the United States to encourage full participation in the national defense program by all citizens of the United States, regardless of race, creed, color, or national origin, in the firm belief that the democratic way of life within the Nation can be defended successfully only with the help and support of all groups within its borders; and

WHEREAS there is evidence that available and needed workers have been barred from employment in industries engaged in defense production solely because of considerations of race, creed, color, or national origin, to the detriment of workers' morale and of national unity:

NOW, THEREFORE, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and the statutes, and as a prerequisite to the successful conduct of our national defense production effort, I do hereby reaffirm the policy of the United States that there shall be no discrimination in the employment of workers in defense industries or government because of race, creed, color, or national origin, and I do hereby declare that it is the duty of employers and of labor organizations, in furtherance of said policy and of this order, to provide for the full and equitable participation of all workers in defense industries, without discrimination because of race, creed, color, or national origin;

And it is hereby ordered as follows:

1. All departments and agencies of the Government of the United States concerned with vocational and training programs for defense production shall take special measures appropriate to assure that such programs are administered without discrimination because of race, creed, color, or national origin;

2. All contracting agencies of the Government of the United States shall include in all defense contracts hereafter negotiated by them a provision obligating the contractor not to discriminate against any worker because of race, creed, color, or national origin;

3. There is established in the Office of Production Management a Committee on Fair Employment Practice, which shall consist of a chairman and four other members to be appointed by the President. The Chairman and members of the Committee shall serve as such without compensation but shall be entitled to actual and necessary transportation, subsistence and other expenses incidental to performance of their duties. The Committee shall receive and investigate complaints of discrimination in violation of the provisions of this order and shall take appropriate steps to redress grievances which it finds to be valid. The Committee shall also recommend to the several departments and agencies of the Government of the United States and to the President all measures which may be deemed by it necessary or proper to effectuate the provisions of this order.

President Franklin D. Roosevelt
June 25, 1941

Australia formed its Naval Auxiliary Patrol.

Monday, June 23, 1941. The first modern tanks.

This was, obviously, D+1 in Operation Barbarossa.

German Armor in the early days of Barbarossa.  This tank is a Panzer III, one of the more modern German tanks at the time and would remain in production into 1943.  By this time it had already been really made obsolete by the Panzer IV, which had a larger more effective 75mm rifle as its main gun.  Only about half of the tanks that went into Russia in June, 1941, were IIIs and IVs.  It was By Bundesarchiv, Bild 101I-185-0139-20 / Grimm, Arthur / CC-BY-SA 3.0, CC BY-SA 3.0 de, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=5410249

Acting U.S. Secretary of State Sumner Welles stated on this day:

If any further proof could conceivably be required of the real purposes and projects of the present leaders of Germany for world-domination, it is now furnished by Hitler's treacherous attack upon Soviet Russia.

We see once more, beyond peradventure of doubt, with what intent the present Government of Germany negotiates "non-aggression pacts". To the leaders of the German Reich sworn engagements to refrain from hostile acts against other countries--engagements regarded in a happier and in a civilized world as contracts to the faithful observance of which the honor of nations themselves was pledged--are but a symbol of deceit and constitute a dire warning on the part of Germany of hostile and murderous intent. To the present German Government the very meaning of the word "honor" is unknown.

This Government has often stated, and in many of his public statements the President has declared, that the United States maintains that freedom to worship God as their consciences dictate is the great and fundamental right of all peoples. This right has been denied to their peoples by both the Nazi and the Soviet Governments. To the people of the United States this and other principles and doctrines of communistic dictatorship are as intolerable and as alien to their own beliefs as are the principles and doctrines of Nazi dictatorship. Neither kind of imposed overlordship can have or will have any support or any sway in the mode of life or in the system of government of the American people.

But the immediate issue that presents itself to the people of the United States is whether the plan for universal conquest, for the cruel and brutal enslavement of all peoples, and for the ultimate destruction of the remaining free democracies, which Hitler is now desperately trying to carry out, is to be successfully halted and defeated.

That is the present issue which faces a realistic America. It is the issue at this moment which most directly involves our own national defense and the security of the New World in which we live.

In the opinion of this Government, consequently, any defense against Hitlerism, any rallying of the forces opposing Hitlerism, from whatever source these forces may spring, will hasten the eventual downfall of the present German leaders, and will therefore redound to the benefit of our own defense and security. Hitler's armies are today the chief dangers of the Americas.

We have no intent of making this the "World War Two Day by Day Blog".  Indeed, this blog is still focused on the 1890s through 1920, but we are noting notable events that occurred 80 years ago, just as we do when we hit them that happened 50 years ago.

We note that is noting a couple entries that will appear here today.  The first is actually an advertisement email I received yesterday from that vender called At The Front which specializes in World War Two reproductions of clothing.  Their focus is on reenactors, which I am not, but I'm on their email list and indeed their blog, which is not often updated, is one of the ones that's linked in on this site.  The advertisement read:

 

Barbarossa

80 years ago today, the Germans made a grave error, disregarded the results of their own war games and many intelligence assessments and invaded the Soviet Union. A little less than 4 years later, T-34's were in Berlin. The consequences of their decision to attack are still affecting much of the world to this day. The early battles in the East are often brushed over in the history books as quick and relatively easy German victories, often due to the studies having been written in the 50's and 60's by former Wehrmacht officers working for allied historical departments. With the opening of the the Soviet archives in the 1990's, more recent works have been able to shed more detail on the subject and it's now clear that the Wehrmacht had a much rougher time of it and the Soviets were often far less incompetent than previously thought. Twenty years ago, during a rough Winter (the tickets were cheap.), I visited Stalingrad. It was the kind of weather where your face freezes the moment you walk outside. Studying the War for years is one thing- but standing on Mamayev Hill in January adds a perspective that no books or films can offer. At the museum, the granny guarding the displays looked at me indifferently until we told her I had come from the US to see how Russia won the War. Talk about the royal treatment...I got to meet the director, look at anything I wished, and got invited over for tea. No veterans were available, but everyone there had parents or grandparents who had been in the battle. It was an interesting trip. For those interested in the Eastern Front, among the best are the works by David M. Glantz.

I haven't read Glantz, but those who have read him often make similar recommendations.

I note this as what is noted here deserves some consideration. The typical story you hear is that the Germans simply ran over the Soviets up until winter hit in 1941.  It seems, now that we know more, that isn't really true.  We do know that the Germans took absolutely massive casualties in Barbarossa, something we'll discuss further in a moment.

Anyhow, on this date in 1941 the Germans encountered the KV1 and T34 tanks for the very first time.

Early KV1

Today in World War II History—June 23, 1941

The Germans encounter the KV1

The Germans were still advancing, and doing very well at it at that. By the end of this day they'd advanced up to fifty miles in some locations, which in military terms is a very rapid advance.  But they were taking heavier casualties than generally believed outside of German circles at the time, and they were finding that Soviet equipment was much better than they expected. The Germans were not unfamiliar with Soviet equipment, but had been fooled by the overall poor performance and quality of equipment used by the Soviets in the Winter War and the 1939 invasion of Poland.  

Among the rude shocks were the quality of new Soviet armor.

The Germans destroyed a massive amount of Soviet armor in the early days of Barbarossa, but a lot of it was of the prior generation of Soviet armor that was being phased out. For that matter, the Germans were still extraordinarily dependent on their early generation of armor themselves and all of their armor was light compared to what the Soviets were just starting to introduce.  The KV1 and the T-34 can be regarded as the first modern tanks in history, and the T-34 was the best tank of the war.  Regarding an encounter with a T-34 that occurred on this day, a German field report would note:

Half a dozen anti-tank guns fire shells at him, which sound like a drumroll. But he drives staunchly through our line like an impregnable prehistoric monster... It is remarkable that lieutenant Steup's tank made hits on a T-34, once at about 20 meters and four times at 50 meters, with Panzergranate 40, without any noticeable effect.

New Soviet armor from the beginning of the "Great Patriotic War". The two tanks on the right are T34s, models of 1940 and 1941 respectively.

Indeed, new Soviet armor was a massive leap ahead of anything anyone else was deploying in every respect.  It's armor protection was superior and the guns heavier.  The tanks clearly outmatched anything anyone else had.  The only problem was that it was brand new, and the Soviets were in the process of reorganizing their armor deployment strategy.

The battles of Brody and Raseiniai, both German victories, commenced on this day.  Brody was a Ukrainian battle, and Raseiniai a Lithuanian one.  At the latter, a single KV1 or KV2, in a battle that was much like that depicted in the move Fury, held up the entire German 6th Panzer Division for a day.

The Germans took Vilnius, the city that had been contested just after World War One between the Poles and the Lithuanians.

It should be noted that a person can take this too far.  A lot about the Soviet defense in these early days was disorganized, a mess, haphazard and ineffective. The Soviets took many, many, more casualties than the Germans did.  Soviet losses were outsized and massive, including armor losses.  Indeed, that was in part because the Soviets were just in the process of switching to a massed armor doctrine, like that used by the Germans, from a dispersed armor doctrine, like that used by the French (and which ironically would be partially implemented by the Germans).

Even that, however, revealed a long term German problem.  The Germans had to win quickly, which right then they were doing, which probably, in their minds, justified the high losses. The Axis had invaded the USSR with 3,500,000 troops.  The problem was, even at that point, the Soviets had over 5,000,000 men under arms, a massive increase from the year prior.  The Germans committed over 5000 aircraft to Operation Barbarossa and destroyed nearly 4,000 Soviet aircraft on the first two days, but the Soviets start the war against the Germans with over 14,000 aircraft themselves.  The Soviet losses, however, were so high in aircraft in 1941 that virtually their entire airforce was destroyed.

Again, none of this is to suggest that early German operations weren't a giant success against the Soviets.  But the success had to be complete and total in 1941 in order to be retained.  And now they were learning that the Soviets had surpassed theme in armor, and by a large margin.

The Soviets, on this day, reorganized their military command and recreated the Stavka, or central military command, which had not existed since Tsarist times.

Hitler took up quarters at the mosquito infested "Wolf's Lair" in East Prussia for the first time on this day in 1941.

That's interesting in and of itself as the construction of the East Prussian fortress suggests that somewhere in the recesses of his mind he know that the war against the Soviets was going to be a long one. The facility operated as an eastern based command center and was built to sustain any kind of attack.  Building a fortress to withstand an attack doesn't make a lot of sense unless you expect to be attacked.

Slovakia declared war on the Soviet Union.  The Provisional Government of Lithuania formed in anticipation of receiving its recognition from the advancing Germans and their allies, and regaining Lithuanian independence.  It would last only a little after a month until Lithuania was simply incorporated into the occupied German territories, slated for future German colonization.  

Eastern Herzogovina rebelled against Italian occupation and against the collaborationist government there.  It had been inspired to do so by the German invasion of Russia, with the Orthodox Russians being the traditional protectors of the Orthodox Serbs.  It's interesting to note that, of course, this assumed early on a German defeat at the hands of the Russians, which was correct, but which would in no way occur so rapidly as to be able to allow the rebels to hold out until the Russians arrived.  And, moreover, it failed to take into account that while Russia continued to look upon the Serbs as people in their sphere of influence, the government in Moscow was hardly sympathetic to Orthodoxy.

Sunday June 15, 1941 Battle of Kissoué and Operation Battleaxe. The death of Evelyn Underhill.

 The Second World War became, for a time, a French civil war at the Battle of Kissoué where French "Free" forces fought "Vichy" forces in Syria. The Free French forces were part of an overall Allied force which flanked the Vichy forces and caused them to withdraw.

Fort Capuzzo.

On the same day the British launched Operation Battleaxe in North Africa which had the goal of relieving Tobruk. While it gained ground, and the British retook Ft. Capuzzo, it suffered disastrous armor losses and was an overall failure.  The results proved German superiority in the use of armor, and perhaps the superior nature of German armor itself, and lead to the British quietly sacking their command structure in Libya.

Also on this day Anglican writer  Evelyn Underhill died at age 65.  She is highly regarded in Anglican circles, having a place on the Church of England's and the US Episcopal Church's calendars on this day.  As an Anglican writer, she is regarded as being in the Anglo Catholic category.  

Anglo Catholicism was a strong movement within the Anglican Communion, particularly in England itself, in the second half of the 19th Century and emphasized the Anglican Communion's Catholic roots to the extent that it sought to emphasize that it shared Apostolic succession and, therefore, was a full Catholic church, somewhat sharing the status of the Orthodox Church, or perhaps even closure to Rome than that.  It ultimately resulted in a Vatican decree that its holy orders were "completely null and utterly void", which it has reacted to on more than one occasion by seeking ordinations from clearly valid Bishops in other denominations  The movement still exists within the Anglican Communion.

Blog Mirror: German Hand Grenades of the Great War Part Seven – The Eierhandgranate Model 1917

 

German Hand Grenades of the Great War Part Seven – The Eierhandgranate Model 1917

May 20, 1941. The Germans Invade Crete From The Air

Maj. Gen. Freyberg during the invasion of Crete.  Freyberg was an eclectic New Zealander who was a dentist by training and reputedly had been serving as a Captain in Pancho Villa's forces in 1914 when the Great War broke out, after which he resigned as that position and traveled to England to join the British forces, earning traveling money on the way by winning a swimming match in Los Angeles and a boxing match in New York.  He won the Victoria Cross during World War One and even lead a late war cavalry charge.  A celebrated figure in New Zealand, he became its first New Zealand born Governor General after the war, but frankly his World War Two generalship was spotty and he is one of the collection of British Empire generals that have lead historians of other nations to conclude that the British, in World War Two, had to get by with lessers in senior command as that's all they had left.

And they did it by air.

Today in World War II History—May 20, 1941

Parachute assault on Crete

It was a bold move, and a costly one, but perhaps an example of necessity being the mother of invention, as Germany lacked a significant marine troop landing capacity and Hitler had forbade the use of troops that might delay the invasion of the Soviet Union.  So, the use of the Luftwaffe's paratroopers was made.

The operation was, statistically, an oversized German success with the Allies taking far more causalities in every sense than the Germans and the Germans taking Crete.  The battle was, moreover, a British failure as much as it was a German success as the British had left airfields undefended.  They had additionally withdrawn the RAF in advance in anticipation of the German assault.  The Germans made use of the airfield for troop insertion and landed not only airborne troops, but mountain troops as well.  The Italians ultimately landed some troops from the sea.  It's been widely pondered, and concluded, that the British could have won the battle if they'd fought it more wisely, a conclusion that the British military recognized itself at the time.  All  in all, in terms of a realistic assessment, it was a stunning German airborne success and a stunning British military failure.

Be that as it may, British resistance was so marked that the Germans concluded that future largescale airborne operations were impossible. They were not prepared for the paratrooper casualties they did take and, moreover, they were not prepared for the rate of loss of air crews.  Their post battle conclusions are baffling in retrospect, and they must have simply been expecting the operation to be a cakewalk, perhaps over impressed with all of their prior military success.

Ironically, the Allies concluded, correctly, the very opposite from the same battle.  The invasion marked the end of the really largescale use of German airborne.  It also marked the real emphasis in the Allies on airborne troops for the same purpose.  In a very real sense, the massive Allied airborne operations of 1944 owe their origin to this battle.

Also of note, Cretan civilian participation in the battle was marked, with many civilians participating in combat on their own initiative with whatever they had at hand.  This shocked the Germans and resulted in reprisals.

Civil Defense Logo.

With German paratroopers descending on Crete, perhaps it was a good day for the Executive Order being issued that created the Office of Civilian Defense.  That office was created on this day in 1941.

On this day, the interior of Ebbets Field was photographed.

April 27, 1941. Greece Falls

 

German propaganda poster issued on this day in 1941. The text, which is oddly in the German script more or less reads "The gigantic work of our Furher's in the struggle of the war is the highest and best duty of all Germans to support."^[1]

On this day in 1941, the Germans took Athens and the Greek government surrendered.

Today in World War II History—April 27, 1941

Almost 1,000 men died in British naval evacuations on this day when the ships carrying the evacuated troops were sunk in Luftwaffe raids. The event is known as the Salmat Disaster.

Churchill delivered a radio address:

Westward Look, the Land is Bright (Audio) - International Churchill Society: April 27, 1941. Broadcast, London. http://ia800205.us.archive.org/19/items/Winston_Churchill/1941-04-27_BBC_Winston_Churchill_Westward_Look_The_Land_Is_Bright.mp3 Related Story

All in all, obviously, it was a bad day for the Allies in what had been a bad month.

Hindsight is 20/20, of course, but relating these events now, what do they say about the actual state of the forces?  We know, of course, how the story ends, but even then there were certain things that seem evident, if considered.

One is, and the one the Germans were obviously focused on, that the Germans were pretty much the top contenders in ground combat at the time.  They'd now defeated all of the continental European powers they'd fought and had pushed the British off of the continent twice. And at the moment, they were besting the British in North Africa.

Having said that, and it wasn't quite evident yet, that strength waned considerably once they were removed from the continent, and the opposite was the case for the British. The British were retreating in North Africa in the face of the modern new opponent, the Afrika Corps, but they weren't defeated and hadn't been pushed out of Tobruk.

Moreover, the British, with naval power the Germans couldn't match, were capable of landing troops wherever they wished, and whenever they wished.  They'd commenced naval based raids and had conducted them on German held Norway, in North Africa, and on the Italian peninsula.  This meant that the Axis, which had a massive coastline, was really incapable of defending it against such raids but it had to try. The British, for their part, were not really subject to them due to their superior naval strength.

Additionally, the Italians had proven completely incompetent in the war.  This is something that is well known, and the reasons for it are debated by historians, but it was a fact. Without German direct support the Italian military was completely useless.  Indeed much of its more "modern" equipment was now obsolete, having peaked its point of being cutting edge in the mid 1930s prior to the onset of the war.  In the rapidly developing armor and aircraft industries of the time, that meant that their equipment was old and past its prime.

This in turn meant that for the most part the Italian army was of no real aid to the German war effort other than that it simply existed.  Indeed, Italy had caused the Germans to commit men to North Africa and to an effort in Greece which caused it to have to invade Yugoslavia.  The German Army, in 1939-1941, was the best on the ground in Europe, but it was spread pretty thin.

All of this sets the background, of course, for what was coming. But what was, was this.  Germany could go where it wanted and when it wanted on the European landmass. . . against conventionally sized European states.  It couldn't, however, knock the United Kingdom out of the war, and the UK could strike the Axis coast anywhere it wanted at any time.  Germany was committed to an air campaign against the UK but it wasn't denting British resolve and it wasn't really impacting British production much.  The British, in turn, could and did hit Germany fairly frequently in bombing raids conducted at night, which also weren't denting German resolve and which weren't really impacting German production much, but which should have been a red flat to the Germans that in spite of their ability to occupy the European landmass they weren't even remotely close to defeating the British and whatever they might wish to do next, the British remained a power capable of really harassing them, at a bare minimum, and one that needed to be constantly guarded against.

And, in the background, the United States was openly edging closer to war every day with the Roosevelt Administration openly backing the British and coming as close to bringing the country into the war without openly asking for a declaration of war.  The German Navy's "Happy Time" had ended and now the production scale was tipping towards the British.

Not obvious yet, with the occupation of Yugoslavia and Greece the Germans now would, additionally, have to maintain a fighting garrison as those countries would soon be the seen of guerilla warfare.

With all of this in mind, the Germans looked east towards the Soviet Union, which had started a rolling slow mobilization earlier that week.  Hitler and his lieutenants calculated, perhaps rationally, that German land forces had been invulnerable to date and they would be again.  But they discounted, and rather seriously, that their rear was completely exposed from the air and sea, they hadn't been able to really absorb what they'd taken to date, and with every miles they gained anywhere, they were spread that much thinner with no real source of additional manpower to supply them with replacements other than from Germany itself.

Footnote:

1.  This is one of those odd texts that doesn't translate directly from one language to another, so it can be translated more than one way.