Today in World War II History—October 28, 1939 & 1944

Today in World War II History—October 28, 1939 & 1944: 85 Years Ago—Oct. 28, 1939: A Heinkel He 111 bomber is shot down over Scotland, the first German aircraft shot down over Britain.

Thursday, October 5, 1944. Fuzhou and Memel.

The Japanese captured Fuzhou, the last seaport China had controlled.

The Battle of Memel commenced.

German reduced civilian food rations.

An ME 262 was shot down for the first time in combat. The RCAF scored the victory.

Last edition:

Wednesday, October 4, 1944. Scorched Earth.

Labels: 1940s, 1944, Al Smith, Battle of Morotai, British Army, Bulgaria, Finland, German Army, Greece, Lapland War, New Guinea, Operation Nordlicht, Paratroopers, Refugees, World War Two

Wednesday, June 21, 1944. Operation Bagration commences with artillery.

The Red Army commenced Operation Bagration with massive artillery and bombing raids.

Tailed first by a ME109, and then by a dispatched HE111, the Luftwaffe learned that the U.S. Army Air Force was using the Ukrainian airfield at Poltava.  German aircraft shadowed the B-17s headed to Poltava, Ukraine, following a raid.  The Luftwaffe then struck the base at night, destroying 15 P-51 fighters and more than 40 B-17s.  Soviet air defenses were ineffective, and P-51s were not allowed by the Soviets to take off during the raid.

Sarah Sundin's blog has a great photograph taken during this air raid:

Today in World War II History—June 21, 1944

The HMS Fury struck a mine off of Sword Beach and was wrecked.

Meanwhile, the Channel storm continued and was effecting British operations on land.

French refugees pass destroyed German self-propelled gun.

The Battle of Val-de-Saire started on the Cotentin Peninsula.  US troops enter Cherbourg following a massive bombardment.  Intense fighting occurs in Cherbourg and the German commander, Lt. Gen. Von Schlieben ordered the port and navy assets destroyed.  The US attacks towards Saint-Lô in the face of a German order to hold at all costs.

Mail call.  Note how heavily these soldiers are dressed.

Destroyed German artillery, June 21, 1944.

The British 8th Army reached the German Trasimene Line in Italy.

The US 2nd Marine Division captured Mount Tipo Pole and then started fighting for Mount Tapotchau on Saipan.  The 4th Marine Division progressed east on the Kagman Peninsula.

Marines in ox cart, Saipan, June 21, 1944.

The British broke the Siege of Imphal in Burma.

The Royal Navy raided the Andaman islands in an aircraft carrier raid.

Oliver Lyttelton addressed his remarks in front of the American Chamber of Commerce before the House of Commons, stating:

I was trying, in a parenthesis, to make clear the gratitude which this country feels for the help given to us in the war against Germany, before Japan attacked the United States, the words I used, however, when read textually, and apart from the whole tenor of my speech, seemed to mean that the help given us against Germany provoked Japan to attack. This is manifestly untrue. I want to make it quite clear that I do not complain of being misreported, and any misunderstanding is entirely my own fault. I ask the House to believe, however, that the fault was one of expression and not of intention. I hope this apology will undo any harm that the original words may have caused here or in the United States.

Last prior edition:

Tuesday, June 20, 1944. End of the Battle of the Philippine Sea.

Labels: 1940s, 1944, Battle of the Philippine Sea, boats and ships, Disaster, Finland, France, Imperial Japanese Navy, Lithuania, New Britain, Operation Overlord, Outer space, Rocketry, United Kingdom, World War Two

Monday, May 29, 1944. Memorial Day.

Today was Memorial Day for 1944.  

The Japanese mounted aggressive counterattacks on Biak and Arare, using tanks on Biak.

The Germans gave up the four-month strategic bombing campaign against Southern England.

The U-549 sank the USS Block Island off of the Canary Islands. Six crew members died, but 951 were picked up.  The U-549 was sunk in the same engagement.  All 57 hands went down with her.

German graveyard and unburied dead at Cori, Italy. Germans evacuated so quickly that they failed to bury their dead, May 29, 1944. 

The Allies took Campoleone and Carroceto.

The U.S. Army Air Force attacked the synthetic fuel factories at Polits.

Field Marshal Busch, Army Group Center, presented evidence of a major Soviet buildup. Hitler emphasized improving the defensive fortifications at Vitebsk, Polotsk, Rosh, Mogilev and Bobriusk and to defend them at all costs, as if stemming the Red tide was really possible.

Last prior edition:

Sunday, May 28, 1944. A Memorial Day Weekend.

Labels: 1940s, 1944, actors and actresses, Aircraft, Artillery, Battle of Biak, Canadian Army, Douglas MacArthur, entertainment, Holidays, Italy, Memorial Day, New Guinea, Old Age, Personalities, World War Two

Sunday, May 14, 1944. Route to Rome.

Today in World War II History—May 14, 1944: 80 Years Ago—May 14, 1944: In Italy, US II Corps breaks German Gustav Line, opening the route to Rome.

Sarah Sundin's blog.

The Luftwaffe raided Bristol at night.

E-boats attacked Allied landing craft near the Isle of Wight.

Albanian SS rounded up 281 Kosovo Jews for deportation to concentration camps.

Vichy radio reported that French cardinals had appealed to the Roman Catholic clergy in Britain and the United States to use their influence to ensure that the French civilian population towns, works of art and churches would be spared from Allied bombing as much as possible,

2nd Lt. Trava Thomas of Okmulgee, Okla., arrives with full pack at the Brisbane, Queensland railroad station. 14 May, 1944.

The ironically named America Maru was sunk by the USS Nautilus.  Most of the occupants of the ship were Japanese civilians being evacuated from Saipan, the overwhelming majority of whom were killed in the sinking.

George Lucas was born in Modesto, California.

Last prior edition:

Friday, May 12, 1944. Heroism in Italy. End of the war in the Caucasus.

1940s, 1944, Battle of the Caucasus, Heroes, Indian Army, Italy, Nazi Germany, Operation Diadem, Personalities, Red Army, Rome, U.S. Air Force, World War Two

Thursday, May 11, 1944. Operation Diadem.

Japanese foxholes located under bank of draw in the 129th Infantry, 37th Division sector on Bougainville, Solomon Islands. The jungle growth has been cleared by the fierce artillery fire.  May 11, 1944.

Allied forces broke through German defenses in the Liri Valley in Operation Diadem with the first attacks being by the British 4th Infantry Division and the 8th Indian Infantry Division, with fire support from the 1st Canadian Armoured Brigade.  All the Allies fighting in Italy would participate in the offensive.

Allied air forces raided the French coast, with Calais particularly hard hit.

Oberst Walter Oesau (123 victories) was shot down and killed over the Eifel Mountains.  

Oesau had been goaded into flying by Luftwaffe chief Hermann Göring on that day even though he'd been sick in bed with the flu, Göring calling his command to see if he was flying.  Göring had been turning his ire on unit commanders who were not regularly flying, and upon learning that Oesau was in bed he basically accused him of cowardice.  He did skillfully fight three P-38s but was killed by cannon fire from one of the aircraft attempting to make an emergency landing.\

Oesau had fought in the Spanish Civil War, but there's little known about him overall.  He was not a flamboyant figure and included no special markings on his aircraft.

The RAF Lancaster "S for Sugar" completed its 100th mission.

Today in World War II History—May 11, 1944 In Italy, Germans release Jews of Turkish, Spanish, Portuguese, Swedish, Finnish, and Swiss citizenship under pressure from these neutral governments.

Movie premiere of The White Cliffs of Dover, starring Irene Dunne.

Social Security Administration ruling reflecting a marriage on this date, and a complicated set of relationships.

SSR 60-9. STATUS OF CHILD IN THE WOMB

A child conceived during its mother's marriage to her first husband, but born after her re-marriage to her second husband is the stepchild of the second husband from the date of such marriage.

M was divorced from F on March 25, 1944. She married P on May 11, 1944. A child, C, was born to M on July 13, 1944. P died on May 20, 1945. An application for child's benefits on P's social security account was filed September 23, 1959, on behalf of C.

Section 216(e) of the Social Security Act defines the term "child" as including a stepchild of a deceased individual who has been a stepchild "for not less than one year immediately preceding the day on which such individual died."

In view of the general principle that when justice or convenience requires, the child in the womb is dealt with as a human being even though physiologically it is part of the mother, the marriage of P and M created a steprelationship between P and M's child, C, even though C was unborn at that time. Since the marriage of P and M occurred more than one year prior to P's death, and C had been conceived and was in existence at the time of the marriage, it is held that C was P's stepchild for one year prior to his death as required by section 216(e) for becoming entitled to benefits on his earnings record.

Last prior edition:

Wednesday, May 10, 1944. New Medals.

1940s, 1944, boats and ships, Burma, Imperial Japanese Navy, Merchant Marine, Nationalist Chinese Army, Personalities, Red Army, U.S. Navy, World War Two

Friday, May 5, 1944. Counterattack at Imphal.

The British 14th Army counterattacked at Imphal. 

Mahatma Gandhi was released from two years imprisonment due to ill health.  He'd never be imprisoned again.

Italy's Torre Dam was breached by RAF Mustangs and Australian and South African P40s.

The St. John the Baptist Church in Dragatuš, Slovenia, was destroyed in a German air raid on the town.

Last prior edition:

Thursday, May 4, 1944. Smoke on the Water.

1940s, 1944, 1944 at the Movies, Battle of Hollandia, Country & Western Music, Exercise Fabius, Hollandia, Hungary, Movies, New Guinea, Operation Overlord, Royal Air Force, Royal Canadian Air Force, World War Two

Thursday, April 20, 1944. Bombs for Hitler's birthday.

Members of 5307 Composite Unit (Merrill's Maunders) and local Kachin tribesmen in a group photo of all the nationalities represented in the unit.

L to R, back row:

Sgt. Harold R. Stevenson, Beaver, Pa. - Irish.

Pfc. Stephen Komar, Minnesota. - Ukrainian.

Pvt. George D. Altman, Adamsburg, Pa. - German.

Sgt. Carl F. Hamelic, Cleveland, Ohio. - Dutch.

Pvt. Hose L. Montoya, Las Vegas, Nevada. - Spanish.

Capt. A. E. Quinn, Burma. - Anglo-Burmese.

Capt. D. G. Wilson, Burma. - Anglo-Burmese.

Pfc. Joseph Wuele, Italy. - Italian.

Third row:

Pvt. Kai L. Wong, Los Angeles, California. - Chinese.

S/Sgt. C. N. Dulien, Wisconsin. - Polish.

Cpl. Perry E. Johnson, Somerville, Massachusetts. - Swedish.

Pfc. Louis O. Perdomo, Tampa, Florida. - Cuban.

T/Sgt. Jack Growly, Brooklyn, N.Y. - American.

Second row:

T/Sgt. Russell Hill, Chicago, Ill. - English.

Sgt. Werner Katz, N.Y.C. - Jewish.

Sgt. Miles Elson, Toledo, O. - Swedish.

S/Sgt. Francis Wonsowitz, Gary, Indiana. - Polish.

Sgt. Edward Kucera, Antigo, Wisc. - Bohemian.

Cpl. Bernard Martin, Providence, R.I. - French.

Sgt. Wilbur Smawley, Pullman, Wash. - English.

First row: 

Father James Steward. - Irish.

N'Ching Gam. - Kachin.

Li Yaw Tang - Maru.

Pirta Singh. - Gurkha.

Hpakawn Zau Mun. - Atzi.

The Royal Air Force dropped 4,500 tons of bombs on a single raid, a new record.  It was Hitler's 55th birthday.

The Luftwaffe sunk the USS Lansdale and the Liberty ship SS Paul Hamilton of Algiers. The attacking planes were Ju 88s which were used as torpedo bombers in this application.

Off of Anzio, the Germans deployed human torpedoes.  No serious damages are incurred by any of the Allied ships which are stricken.

Elmer Gedeon, age 27, was killed piloting a B-26 over France.  He had been, prior to entering the service, a professional baseball player and was one of only two major league ball players killed during World War Two, the other being Harry O'Neill who was killed as a Marine Corps officer on Iwo Jima.

The British conversation at Kohima was relieved.

The Luftwaffe attempted to raid Hull, but called off the mission.

George Grantham Baink "the father of foreign photographic news", died at age 78 in New York City, which he had heavily photographed.

Many of his photographs appear on this website.

Last prior edition:

Wednesday, April 19, 1944. Operation Ichi-Go.

1940s, 1944, Adolf Hitler, baseball, Battle of Anzio, Battle of Kohima, boats and ships, German Kriegsmarine, German Luftwaffe, Operation U-Go, Personalities, Royal Air Force, U.S. Navy

Tuesday, April 18, 1944. 4,000 tons v. 53.

The USS Wyoming in Chesapeake Bay, April 18, 1944. The Wyoming was a training ship during World War Two and was so frequently in Chesapeake Bay she was nicknamed "The Chesapeake Raider".

The combined Allied Air Forces achieved a new daily record, and dropped over 4,000 tons of bombs on Germany and occupied France.

On the same day, the Luftwaffe sent 125 aircraft on a raid over London, the last of the "Little Blitz" air raids.  Fourteen German aircraft were brought down. Fifty-three tons of bombs were dropped on the city, and a hospital was amongst the buildings hit.

The Red Army took Balaclava.

German and Hungarian forces counterattacked at Buchach.

The British government banned coded radio and telegraph transmissions from the UK.  Diplomats are forbidden to leave, and diplomatic bags are censored, with excepts for the US, USSR and the Polish government in exile. Incitement to strike is made a punishable offense.

The British 5th Brigade linked up with the Kohima garrison, braking the encirclement of the city.

The USS Gudgeon was sunk off of Iwo Jima by a Mitsubishi G3M.

The Vatican established the Pontificia Commissione di Assistenza to provide rapid, non-bureaucratic and direct aid to needy populations, refugees, and prisoners in Europe.

Last prior edition:

Monday, April 17, 1944. The Uman–Botoșani Offensive Concludes, First Shots of the Greek Civil War, The Martyrdom of Fr. Max Josef Metzger, A Mystery Flight, Up Front in U.S. newspapers.

1940s, 1944, Aircraft, Cartoons, Communists, Greece, Greek Civil War, Greek Partisans, Imperial Japanese Navy, Nazi Germany, Personalities, Royal Air Force, Uman–Botoșani Offensive, World War Two

Holy Saturday, April 8, 1944. The invasion of Romania, maybe. Luftwaffe trans Russia flights, maybe. Battle of the Tennis Court,

The Red Army commenced the First Jassy-Kishinev Offensive, the invasion of Romania.

Or maybe it did. This is asserted by historian David Glanz, but the Soviets themselves don't really acknowledge it, perhaps because the effort was botched, as will be seen.

It seems to me that Glanz is likely correct.

Ju 290 A-9

The Luftwaffe began cargo flights from Polish airfields to Manchuria, using Junkers Ju 290 A-9 aircraft.  Or at least maybe they did.  This is fairly consistently asserted, but the details are obscure and there are obvious problems with the assertion, as common as it is.  For one thing, even at very high altitude, it would be surprising that the Red Army would not have shot at least one of the planes down.  Sill, at least some experts on the Luftwaffe claim it occured.  Others are skeptical.

I'm pretty skeptical.

For one reason, Imperial Japan was at peace with the Soviet Union, and I don't imagine that it would have wanted to risk that in 1944 when it was already losing in the Pacific.  It was doing okay in China and in Southeast Asia, but it didn't have the manpower to add the USSR to its list of enemies, particularly over something of such doubtful utility.

Secondly, flying clean over the USSR and not getting shot down would be tough.  Even if we assume, and we probably can, that for much of the flight it would not have encountered any opposition, early on it certainly might, and then again nearer its destination.

Finally, the Germans kept records on everything they did, and such records seem to be lacking here.

The Red Army began a determined assault into Crimea through its land bridge with Ukraine.

The Battle of the Tennis Court happened within the Battle of Kohima.  It was a pitched, hand to hand, battle that went on for several days.  It has been referred to as one of the greatest battles in history, and a British/Indian Thermopylae

The German submarine U-2 hit the German trawler Helmi Söhle and sank off of Pilau.

The U-962 was sunk off of Cape Finisterre by the Royal Navy.

Last prior edition:

Good Friday, April 7, 1944. The Vrba-Wetzler Report.

1940s, 1944, Auschwitz, Battle of Kohima, Bougainville, Crimea, Eastern Front, Good Friday, Nazi Germany, Operation U-Go, The Holocaust, World War Two

Friday, March 24, 1944. Pvt Theodore J. Miller, The Great Escape and the Ardeatine Massacre.

Nineteen year old Marine Corps Pvt. Theodore J. Miller who had become a famous face following being photographed being loaded back onto a landing craft after Eniewetok was killed on Ebon Atoll.

 

Today In Wyoming's History: March 24: 1944   76 Allied officers escaped Stalag Luft 3, which was later the topic of Paul Brickall's book "The Great Escape."

Seventy-six Royal Air Force POWs escaped from a single tunnel from Stalag Luft III in Silesia.  Seventy-three would be recaptured, almost all fairly rapidly.  Fifty of them were subsequently murdered after being recaptured.  

The Gestapo undertook an investigation of the escape and Commandant von Lindeiner-Wildau, who had started off as an assistant to Göring, was removed and threatened with court-martial.  He escaped prosecution by feigning mental illness.  He ended up in command of an infantry unit and was wounded in the Battle of Berlin in 1945.  He had, as commandant, followed the Geneva accords and did have the respect of the prisoners.  He died in 1963 at age 82.

An effort to bring the guilty to justice following the war was undertaken.  The man who selected the men to be killed, SS-Gruppenführer Arthur Nebe, did not survive the war as he was ironically executed as one of the members of the July 20 plot.  Trials were held in 1947 and 1948, at which time the British government called off any future war crime prosecutions.

Stalag Luft III was a big camp and continued on after the event.  It's the camp featured in the recent series Masters of the Air, and it's the camp where a coworker's father had been a prisoner.  The murders of the POWs had a huge chilling effect on escapes, and attempts were much reduced after that.

The escape was massive, although it did not really tie up German resources in any significant way.  It also had the effect of provoking what had long been feared, although only temporarily, which was a Gestapo insertion into the POW system.  Air POWs were held by the Luftwaffe as a point of privilege. 

The event had an outsized lasting impact on the British. The movie based on Brickall's book (which is an excellent book) has become, oddly, a Christmas routine in the United Kingdom. 

The three men who successfully escaped were:

• Per Bergsland, Norwegian pilot of No. 332 Squadron RAF, the 44th escapee.  He remained a pilot after the war, eventually becoming a commercial pilot and an airline executive.
• Jens Müller, Norwegian pilot of No. 331 Squadron RAF, the 43d escapee.  He also remained a pilot and became an airline executive.  His escape took him to Sweden with Bergsland.
• Bram van der Stok, Dutch pilot of No. 41 Squadron RAF, the 18th escapee.  The most decorated pilot in Dutch history, he escaped through the Netherlands down the escape line through Spain and reentered combat before the end of the war.

It's of note that not one of the escapees who managed to get away were British.

It's also worth noting that the famous film fictionalized some elements for the audience.  Luft Stalag III was a massive camp and prior to the escape the Germans had separated American POWs, who had been mixed with the British, from the British.  There were no Americans in the escape at all.

Likewise, while the film correctly shows three men making good their escapes, two onto Sweden and one onto Spain, it condenses the timeline for the event and makes the Dutch pilot an Australian, and one of the Norwegian pilots a Pole.

In Italy, the Germans carried out the reprisal Ardeatine Massacre and killed 335 people in retaliation for a partisan attack in Rome the day prior.

The Germans surrounded the Jewish Greek town of Ioannina, which had been home to Greek Jews for 2,000 years, and marked the houses in the town by the religion of the home's occupants.

200 inmates of the Majdanek concentration camp in Poland were shot.

Mieczysław Wolski and Janusz Wysocki were shot for assisting Jews in Poland.

In Rome, Ivanoe Bonomi resigned as president of the Comitato Centrale di Liberazione Nazionale due to internal problems the organization had amongst its internal factions.  He would return to politics shortly, however.

The Germans prevailed in the Third Narva Offensive.

RAF Flight Sergeant Nicholas Alkemade survived a fall of 18,000 feet without a parachute, his descent from his Lancaster arrested by pine trees and soft snow.  Alkemade had knowingly jumped out of his stricken aircraft without a parachute as his plane was on fire, and the parachute with it.

Fighting continued on Bougainville.

And also in the Admiralities.

R. Lee Ermey, who started his adult career in 1961 as a Marine, and who was medically discharged in 1972, was born in Emporia, Kansas.  He broke into movies while studying in the Philippines on the GI bill, with the role of the drill sergeant in The Boys In Company C, a film which was so close in plot to Full Metal Jacket, save for the fate of the DI, that the second film resulted in a lawsuit.

Last prior edition:

Thursday, March 23, 1944. Defeat at Cassino.

1940s, 1944, Bougainville, German SS, Italian partisans, Italy, Monte Cassino, National Guard, Operation Strangle, Partisans, Personalities, Rome, Vermont National Guard, World War Two