Showing posts with label Heinrich Himmler. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Heinrich Himmler. Show all posts

Friday, May 23, 2025

Wednesday, May 23, 1945. The end of governments.


Winston Churchill resigned as Prime Minister, forming a caretaker government in anticipation of July 5 elections.

The elections would be the first in a decade.

The German Flensburg government is arrested and deposed by the Allies.


Himmler committed suicide.  So did German admiral Hans-Georg von Friedeburg, who became a POW during the British occupation of Flensburg.

Julius Streicher was arrested in Bavaria.

US attacks on Yokohama bring shipping from the city to an end.

The United Nations Conference in San Francisco approved veto rights for China, France, the Soviet Union, the United Kingdom and the United States on the Security Council.


Last edition:

Tuesday, May 22, 1945. Operation Unthinkable.

Wednesday, May 21, 2025

Monday, May 21, 1945. British government falls apart, French mandates want out, Himmler arrested.

The Polish Home Army attacked the NKVD Camp in Rembertów and freed political prisoners held there.

The Labour Party withdrew from the government forcing the UK into elections.

Today in World War II History—May 21, 1940 & 1945Heinrich Himmler is arrested by the British in Bremervörde, Germany, disguised as a businessman.

Demanding full independence, Syria and Lebanon break off negotiations with France.

The 31st Division captured the Japanese supply base at Malaybalay on Mindanao.

Humphrey Bogart married Lauren Bacall.

Note how plainly the couple is dressed, compared to what is so often the case today.

It was his fourth marriage.  They had met just that year when she was 19 and he was 44.  They'd remain married until his death at age 57.

Last edition:

Sunday, May 20, 1945. Contracting in China.

    Sunday, April 27, 2025

    Friday, April 27, 1945. Mussolini captured by Partisans, Second Austrian Republic comes into being.

    Benito Mussolini and his mistress Clara Petacci were captured by partisans while attempting to cross into Switzerland.

    The Red Army took Potsdam, Prenzlau, Angemunde and Tempelhof airfield.

    US troops liberated Kaufering concentration camp.

    The Western Allies rejected Himmler's peace offer for the Germans to lay down their arms in the west and sent a reminder that the German surrender was to be unconditional.

    One of the interesting things here is that its not entirely clearly that the Western Allies understood the offer the way it was made.  Theoretically, it might have been possible to accept the offer as a largescale troop surrender which, while it would have ended fighting in the west, it would not have ended the war against Germany.

    The U.S. Fifth Army reached Genoa, Italy, which was mostly already liberated by Italian partisans.

    SS architect Hans Schleif committed suicide at age 43.  Schleif had been involved in removing cultural material from Poland, but he oddly never really seemed to be fully on board with the worst elements of Nazism.  His death was probably needless, but he probably would have served time after the war.

    Former Austrian chancellor Karl Renner set up a provisional government composed of Social Democrats, Christian Socialists, and Communists and proclaimed the reestablishment of Austria as a democratic republic.  This became the Second Austrian Republic, which remains today.

    US and Philippine forces commenced the Battle of Davao.  US forces took Baguio.

    U.S. troops firing a pack howitzer in the Philippines, April 27, 1945.

    Tuesday, April 22, 2025

    Sunday, April 22, 1945. The Bunker.

    Adolph Hitler held conference in the Führerbunker to discuss the military situation. He learned there that the Steiner attack ordered the prior day had not occured, and became enraged.

    He announced his intention to remain in Berlin nad kill himself, and conceded that the war was lost.  Those wishing to leave the bunker were given permission to do so.

    This scene if famously depicted in the movie Downfall.

    Himmler met in secret with Count Folke Bernadotte of Sweden and asked him to act as an intermediary to offer the surrender of all German forces in the west.  The message would be delivered two days later.

    The 7th Army crossed the Danube.

    The Red Army liberated the Sachsenhausen concentration camp.

    The U.S. Navy sank the U-518.

    The British Fourteenth Army captured Taungoo and Oktwin, Burma.

    Private First Class Thomas performed the actions that resulted in his winning the Medal of Honor in the Philippines..

    He was a member of the leading squad of Company B, which was attacking along a narrow, wooded ridge. The enemy strongly entrenched in camouflaged emplacements on the hill beyond directed heavy fire and hurled explosive charges on the attacking riflemen. Pfc. Thomas, an automatic rifleman, was struck by 1 of these charges, which blew off both his legs below the knees. He refused medical aid and evacuation, and continued to fire at the enemy until his weapon was put out of action by an enemy bullet. Still refusing aid, he threw his last 2 grenades. He destroyed 3 of the enemy after suffering the wounds from which he died later that day. The effective fire of Pfc. Thomas prevented the repulse of his platoon and assured the capture of the hostile position. His magnificent courage and heroic devotion to duty provided a lasting inspiration for his comrades.

    The US 31st Infantry Division landed at Moro Gulf.  US forces took Jolo.

    German mathematician Wilhelm Cauer, 44, was executed by the Red Army, with the soldiers killing him apparently not aware that he was on a list of people to be found by the Soviets for their talents.

    "As an ambulance jeep evacuates three wounded U.S. soldiers to a rear area field hospital, one is given blood plasma en route by a corpsman of 102nd Med. Bn. on Okinawa. 22 April, 1945."

    Last edition:

    Saturday, April 21, 1945. Steiner refuses to attack, Hitler decides on suicide, Model kills himself, May dies heroically in action.

    Monday, April 21, 2025

    Saturday, April 21, 1945. Steiner refuses to attack, Hitler decides on suicide, Model kills himself, May dies heroically in action.

    Hitler ordered a last ditch, all out, attack by German forces in Berlin.  The Berlin forces were under the command of SS Obergruppenführer Felix Steiner., who called Gen. Heinrici and informed him that the plan could not be implemented because the 5th Jäger Division and the 25th Panzergrenadier Division were deployed defensively and could not be redeployed until the 2nd Naval Division arrived from the coast to relieve them. This left only two battalions of the 4th SS Panzergrenadier Division available, and they were poorly equipped.

    Heinrici, appreciating Steiner's assessment, called General Hans Krebs, Chief of Staff of the German General Staff of the Army High Command (Oberkommando des Heeres or OKH), and told him that the plan could not be implemented and he  further asked to speak to Hitler.  He was informed that Hitler was too busy.  Hitler did become aware that Steiner had no intention of attacking, however, and fell into a rage, declared the war lost, and blamed his generals.  He expressed his intention to remain in Berlin until the defeat was final and kill himself.

    What a selfish asshole.

    The Battle of Bautzen, one of the last battles of the Eastern Front, began around Bautzen, Germany.

    The Battle of the Ruhr Pocket ended in an Allied victory.  It was notable as German anti Nazi resistance  in Düsseldorf attempted to surrender the city to the Allied armies in the so-called "Aktion Rheinland" in order to spare Düsseldorf.

    The Polish II Corps captured Bologna.  

    American soldiers being greeted by civilians in Genoa. 21 April, 1945. Photographer: Leviton, 196th Signal Photo Co.

    The U-636 was sunk off of Ireland by the Royal Navy.

    German born Jewish representative for Sweden to the Jewish World Congress Norbert Masur met, in Germany, with Heinrich Himmler to agree the release of women from Ravensbrück concentration camp.

    Diehard Nazis who weren't willing to go down with Hitler were beginning to attempt to cut their deals.

    A mutual assistance treaty was concluded between the Soviet government and the Provisional Government of Poland

    Field Marshall Walter Model, age 54, killed himself.

    Model had not come from a military family, which is interesting in relation to his death.  Many high ranking officers who did saw no reason to take this step at all, and their post war lives showed the wisdom of their decision.  Many joined the Bundesheer, and even very high ranking officers were not really subject to much but temporary punishment.  Model would no doubt not have been able to join the post war West German Army, but he likely would not have been punished all that much.

    Model's middle class background likely had much to do with his despair.  Perhaps ironically, those who came from the military class were acclimated to German and Prussian regimes failing.

    Gen. Karl Decker, age 47, German panzer general killed himself.  What is noted above for Model, is even more the case for Decker.

    PFC Martin O. May, agee 23,preforemd the actions that resulted in his winning the Medal of Honor.  His citation reads:

    He gallantly maintained a 3-day stand in the face of terrible odds when American troops fought for possession of the rugged slopes of legusuku-Yama on Ie Shima, Ryukyu Islands. After placing his heavy machinegun in an advantageous yet vulnerable position on a ridge to support riflemen, he became the target of fierce mortar and small arms fire from counterattacking Japanese. He repulsed this assault by sweeping the enemy with accurate bursts while explosions and ricocheting bullets threw blinding dust and dirt about him. He broke up a second counterattack by hurling grenades into the midst of the enemy forces, and then refused to withdraw, volunteering to maintain his post and cover the movement of American riflemen as they reorganized to meet any further hostile action. The major effort of the enemy did not develop until the morning of 21 April. It found Pfc. May still supporting the rifle company in the face of devastating rifle, machinegun, and mortar fire. While many of the friendly troops about him became casualties, he continued to fire his machinegun until he was severely wounded and his gun rendered useless by the burst of a mortar shell. Refusing to withdraw from the violent action, he blasted fanatical Japanese troops with hand grenades until wounded again, this time mortally. By his intrepidity and the extreme tenacity with which he held firm until death against overwhelming forces, Pfc. May killed at least 16 Japanese, was largely responsible for maintaining the American lines, and inspired his comrades to efforts which later resulted in complete victory and seizure of the mountain stronghold.

    Last edition:

    Friday, April 20, 1945. Shelling Berlin. Departing Berlin. The Morotai Mutiny.

    Sunday, April 20, 2025

    Friday, April 20, 1945. Shelling Berlin. Departing Berlin. The Morotai Mutiny.

    At 11:00 the Red Army started shelling Berlin.

    It was Hitler's 56th birthday.  He left his bunker to to decorate a group of Hitler Youth combatants.  He refused an effort to evacuate to Obersalzberg.  Goering and Himmler left the bunker for good. 

    SS officer Herbert Lange, age 35, commandant of Chełmno extermination camp was killed in action in the city.

    The 7th Army captured Nuremberg.  Karl Holz, age 49, German Nazi Gauleiter was found dead in a barricaded police bunker. Willy Liebel, age 47, lord mayor of Nuremberg was also found there, a suicide.

    Italian paratroopers boarding C-47 for Operation Herring.  It must have been comforting to board an aircraft that has a giant flak scar near the door they're entering.

    U.S.aircraft dropped Italian paratroopers over northern Italy in Operation Herring.

    While the Italian Army is often dissed in World War Two, it's airborne troops were good.

    Mussolini gave his final interview noting that the end had been reached for him.

    Members of the  Australian First Tactical Air Force based on the island of Morotai in the Dutch East Indies tendered their resignations to protest their belief that they were being assigned to missions of no military importance.  A later investigation confirmed their views.

    The war had never been as widely supported in Australia as it was in the US, something the Australians shared with Canadians.  And they had a real point here I've often wondered about.  Islands in the South Pacific and targets in the Indian Ocean that had been significant early on really were not by this time, even though fighting continued on them.  The wisdom of continuing the ongoing operations actively can be questioned.

    The US 3rd Amphibious Corps completed the capture of the Motobu Peninsula and the whole of the main northern part of Okinawa.

    Last edition:

    Thursday, April 19, 1945. Broadcasting from Belsen.

    Wednesday, February 12, 2025

    Monday, February 12, 1945. Peru enters the war.

    The Treaty of Varkiza was signed in which Greek resistance agreed to disarm and relinquish control of all the territory it occupied in exchange for legal recognition, free elections, and the removal of Nazi collaborators from the armed forces and police, which seems reasonable enough.

    Greek politics had been a mess for years, and would continue to be for many more years.

    The Japanese executed Antonio Villa-Real, an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court in the Philippines.

    Peru declared war on Germany and Japan.

    A tornado outbreak in Mississippi and Alabama killed 45 people.

    Himmler appeared on the cover of Time magazine, in an illustration depicting him as a death's head.

    Last edition:

    Sunday, February 11, 1945. Yalta winds up.

    Friday, January 24, 2025

    Wednesday, January 24, 1945. Himmler given a field command.

    German POW, January 23, 1945.  His cap badge indicates he was in the Luftwaffe.

    Hitler appointed Heinrich Himmler as commander of the newly created Army Group Vistula.  This was rightfully resented by the German military.

    The Battle of Poznań began for Polish city.

    The French 1st Army took crossing over the River Ill in Alsace.  The  British 2nd Army entered Heinsberg.

    "Lt. Col. V. L. Johnson, G-3 Officer, 25th Division, and Maj. Gen. C. L. Mullins, Jr., CG, 25th Division, share a foxhole in San Manuel, Luzon, P.I., with a GI of the 161st Infantry Regiment. 24 January, 1945."

    The US took Calapan on Mindoro and Cabanatuan on Luzon.

    The US 14th Air Force abandoned Suichuan airfield in China due to Japanese advances.  Operation Ichi-Go, the Japanese ground offensive in China, was going spectacularly well at the same time the United States was destroying the Japanese in the Pacific and getting ever closer to Japan itself, giving this a surreal quality.  Additing to it, British operations in Burma were going very well.

    The Shigure was sunk by the USS Blackfin in the  Gulf of Siam.

    Today In Wyoming's History: January 24:1945  The Legislature rejects a junior college plan.

    One thing that's nice about doing these posts is that you learn how prior legislatures were short sighted. This is just such an example, most likely.

    They would approve a community college plan within a couple of years.

    This year the legislature is going to pass a bill, probably, allowing people who homeschool to not report to their school district.  By and large, those homeschooling around here do it so their children don't learn something, rather than insure that they learn.

    Last edition:

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

    Wednesday, January 15, 2025

    Monday, January 15, 1945. Hitler visits the Western Front for the last time and goes home to the bunker, Himmler orders the SS to cover its tracks.

    Adolph Hitler met with Rundstedt and Walter Model at the Adlerhorst and ordered them to hold the Western Allies back as long as possible.

    "Sgt. Clarence Pfeifer, Jordan, Montana, (with machine gun) and Pfc. Sherman Maness, Searcy, Ark., (driver) bring in two German prisoners captured near Longchamps, Belgium. 15 January, 1945. HQ Company, 63rd Armored Infantry Battalion, 11th Armored Division. Photographer: T/5 S. Slevin, 167th Signal Photo Co."

    It was his last visit to the Western Front.  Most of the rest of the war he would spend in his bunker in Berlin.

    "2nd Lt. Charles Pettit, of Bardstown, Kentucky, left, and Lt. Col. Benjamin J. Butler of Milton, Kentucky, read a copy of the Trimble County Democrat. 15 January, 1945. 168th Infantry Regiment, 34th Infantry Division."  The Colonel is is wearing a M1943 Field Jacket with a combat infantryman's bad and his overseas stripes (18 months) affixed, which is unusual.  Note also the sheepskin hat.

    Heinrich Himmler, who by this point had a more realistic view of how the war was going to turn out, ordered the evacuation of Auschwitz and its sub-camps to the West.  All evidence of the existence of the camps was ordered to be destroyed, which would prove to be impossible.

    Arthur Otto Beyer performed the actions that lead to his being awarded the Medal of Honor.

    He displayed conspicuous gallantry in action. His platoon, in which he was a tank-destroyer gunner, was held up by antitank, machinegun, and rifle fire from enemy troops dug in along a ridge about 200 yards to the front. Noting a machinegun position in this defense line, he fired upon it with his 76-mm. gun killing 1 man and silencing the weapon. He dismounted from his vehicle and, under direct enemy observation, crossed open ground to capture the 2 remaining members of the crew. Another machinegun, about 250 yards to the left, continued to fire on him. Through withering fire, he advanced on the position. Throwing a grenade into the emplacement, he killed 1 crewmember and again captured the 2 survivors. He was subjected to concentrated small-arms fire but, with great bravery, he worked his way a quarter mile along the ridge, attacking hostile soldiers in their foxholes with his carbine and grenades. When he had completed his self-imposed mission against powerful German forces, he had destroyed 2 machinegun positions, killed 8 of the enemy and captured 18 prisoners, including 2 bazooka teams. Cpl. Beyer's intrepid action and unflinching determination to close with and destroy the enemy eliminated the German defense line and enabled his task force to gain its objective.

    Beyer's parents were immigrants from Luxembourg.  After the war, he moved to rural Buffalo, North Dakota, and worked as a farm hand, eventually acquiring a farm.  He married Marian Hicks in 1962, and passed away in 1965 at age 55.

    The 1st Ukrainian Front took Kielce, Poland.  the 2nd Belorussian Front crossed the Pilica and attacked toward Radom, Łódź and Posen.  The Germans commit their reserves.

    The HMS Thane, an escort carrier was sunk by the U-484 off of the Firth of Clyde.

    And, what the heck?


    Advertisement from this day in 1945.

    Last edition:

    Sunday, January 14, 1945. Retreat in the Ardennes.

      Tuesday, November 26, 2024

      Sunday, November 26, 1944. Covering up a crime against humanity.

      Himmler ordered the crematorium at Auschwitz destroyed to cover up the concentration camp's crime against humanity.

      "American infantryman kneels in the rubble to draw a bead on a sniper in the burning building. Germany, 26 November, 1944."

      2nd Battalion, 414th Infantry Regiment, 104th Infantry Division,

      The U.S. Seventh Army captured Steige and Villé.  T he 1st Army captured Weisweiler to the west of Cologne.

      "This is all that is left of an American half track after a direct hit from a German shell. 26 November, 1944. 53rd Armored Infantry Battalion, 4th Armored Division."

      The Red Army captured capture Michaloyce, Slovakia.

      General Alexander was promoted to Field Marshal and appointed the Supreme Allied Commander, Mediterranean.

      Last edition:

      Saturday, November 25, 1944. Heavy resistance on Leyte, V2 attack in London.

      Monday, August 5, 2024

      Friday, August 5, 1944. The Wola Massacre.

      German SS, the Azerbaijani Legion and the Russian collaborationist Kaminski Brigade, commenced killing Poles in the Wola district of Warsaw.  The massacre was ordered by Himmler.

      Major Ivan Denisovich Frolov with the officers of the Russian National Liberation Army (RONA) during the Warsaw Uprising.

      Between 40,000 and 50,000 Poles would be murdered.

      The weirdness of this is inescapable. The Russians in RONA were there partially in order to survive German captivity, and partial in an effort to free their homeland from Communist control. The Soviet Union had helped take away Poland's freedom by invading it along with Germany, and the Polish Home Army was attempting to free their homeland and was anti communist.  The Azerbaijanis were fighting for the liberation of their homeland as well.

      The 3d Army took Vannes.

      The Cowra breakout occured in New South Wales in which 1,100 Japanese POWs broke out.  They'd all be captured within ten days, although four Australians and 231 Japanese POWs would be killed.

      The RAF destroyed the German U-boat pens at Brest.

      The Soviet submarine Shch-215 sanke the Turkish motor schooner Mefküre resulting in the death of 300 Jewish refugees.

      Last edition:

      Thursday, August 4, 1944. The Frank's arrested.