Saturday, March 24, 1945. Operation Varsity.

Operation Varsity, part of Operation Plunder, saw British, Canadian and American airborne troops drop around Wesel, Germany.

Little remembered, and sometimes criticized, the successful operation remains the largest airborne operation ever conducted on a single day and in one location.  Much of the criticism has been based on the operation perhaps being unnecessary, but it's notable that by the end of this day, Montgomery's forces of Operation Plunder, which included American, British and Canadian troops, had established a bridgehead over the Rhine five miles deep.

German troops in Hungary were retreating in disorder.

The Red Army took Spolot on the Baltic coast between Gdynia and Danzig.

Task Force 58 raided Okinawa.

The Allied Chinese New 1st Army links up with the Chinese 50th Division near Hsipaw, bringing the campaign in northern Burma to an end.

Last edition:

Friday, March 23, 1945. Rhine flood.

Labels: 1940s, 1945, Adolf Hitler, Airborne, Army, Burma, Germany, Indian Army, Luzon, Operation Plunder, Operation Varsity, Philippine Resistance, Philippines

Tuesday, March 6, 1945. Soviet murders in Poland and Eagle 7.

Today in World War II History—March 6, 1940 & 1945: 80 Years Ago—Mar. 6, 1945: US First Army takes Cologne (Köln), Germany; in retreat, Germans destroy the Hohenzollern Bridge.

Operation Spring Awakening was launched by the Germans.  It would be their last major offensive.  An Eastern Front offensive, oil reserves were the target.

King Michael of Romania installed Petru Groza as Prime Minister of Romania due to Soviet pressure.

The Soviets began to arrest or kill anyone associated with the Polish Government In Exile or the Polish Home Army.

The famous tank battle in Cologne between a German Panther and a M26 named Eagle 7 took place.  It's one of the best known American v. German tank battles of World War Two, and ironically took place in a large urban environment.

The battle was, unusually, completely filmed.

The crew of Eagle 7, after the battle.

"The crew of an M26 Pershing tank, nicknamed "Eagle 7," of the 3rd Armored Division pose for a photo after their famous victorious tank duel against a German Panther tank in Cologne, Germany, March 1945.  Commander - Sgt. Robert M. Earley of Fountain, Minn Gunner - Cpl. Clarence E. Smoyer of Lehighton, Pa Loader - Pvt. John S. Deriggi of Scranton, Pa Driver - T/5 William D. McVey of Jackson, Mich Assistant Driver - Pvt. Homer L. Davis of Morehead, Ky.

The Chinese 1st Army took Lashio, Burma.

"The crew of the Ninth U.S. Army Sherman tank who escaped injury though their vehicle was hit by four German 88 shells in action during the capture of Hottorf, near Erkelenz, Germany. L to R: Tec 5 John Helbo, driver, South Plainfield, N.J.; Tec 5 William B. Paff, cannoneer, Morrisville, Pa.; Sgt. Matteo Fortino, tank commander, Bronx, New York; Pfc. Leo V. Digangi, gunner, Jackson Heights, Long Island, N.Y.; and Pfc. Steve Raguseo, assistant driver. 6 March, 1945."

Last edition:

Monday, March 5, 1945. Conscripting the mid teens.

Labels: 1940s, 1945, Army, children, Christianity, German Wehrmacht, Germany, religion, Teenagers

Thursday, January 30, 1975. Rubik's Cube.

Professor Ernő Rubik applied at the Hungarian patent office for a patent on his cube.

One of the interesting things here is that a person living in a communist country, or at least Hungary, could get a patent.

He is still with us, and is a bibliophile and collector of plants.

The deadline for draft dodgers to apply for amnesty for evading service in the Vietnam War was extended from January 31 to March 1.

Amnesty required a year of volunteer service, which most weren't up for, so not all that many had applied for amnesty.

Last edition:

Wednesday, January 29, 1975. American terrorism of the 1970s.

Labels: 1960s, 1970s, 1975, 2020s, 2025, American Terrorist Organizations, Commentary, Communism, Folk Music, Music, Populism, The Second Trump Administration, Washington DC, Weather Underground

Wednesday, December 27, 1944. End of the Siege of Bastogne and the beginning of the Siege of Budapest. The execution of Sára Salkaházi.

End of the Siege of Bastogne which was an American victory.  Beginning of the Siege of Budapest by the Red Army.

Germans forces were forced out of Celles by 30 Corps.

The US 8th Air Force bombs Coblenz, Bonn and Kaiserslautern (nominally railway targets) and the RAF Munchen-Gladbach and Bonn.

Sára Salkaházi, a Hungarian religious sister was executed by the Arrow Cross Party for working to save Jews.  She was 45 years old.

The U-877 was sunk northwest of the Azores by Canadian corvette HMCS St. Thomas.

David Lloyd George, 1st Earl Lloyd-George of Dwyfor, announced his retirement from Parliament.

"Men marching through unnamed village outside of Nansin, two natives of the village stand on the porch of their basha and watch the troops of the 1st Bn., 475th Regt. pass by. Sitha, Burma, 27 December, 1944. 1st Battalion, 475th Infantry Regiment, MARS Task Force."

Last edition:

Boxing Day, 1944. Third Army broke through to Bastogne.

Labels: 1940s, 1944, Army, Bastogne, Battle of the Bulge, Dekemvriana (Δεκεμβριανά), George S. Patton, Greece, Paratroopers, Philippines, Siege of Bastogne, Winston Churchill, World War Two

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

Bastogne was surrounded.

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

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

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

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

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

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

The German Commander.

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

To the German Commander.

NUTS!

The American Commander.

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

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

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

President Roosevelt signed the Flood Control Act of 1944.

A new provisional government was formed in Hungary.

The People's Army of Vietnam was formed.

Last edition:

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

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

Tuesday, December 16, 1924. Looking back.

The Spanish confiscation (Desamortización española) law, authorizing the government of Spain to steal the property and lands of the Catholic Church, a popular enlightenment and Reformation despoliation that happened in many places, was repealed. 

The barbarity had been in place since 1766.

Amongst other things, the law resulted in millions of acres of forest falling into private hands, being deforested, with the cost of reforestation exceeding the value of their sales.  The confiscations of the 19th Century were one of the biggest environmental disasters in Iberian history.

The Supreme Court of Hungary confiscated the property of former president Mihály Károlyi for high treason. He had been convicted of negotiating with Italy in 1915 to keep the Italians out of World War One in exchange for Austrian territory, and for allowing a communist revolution to happen in 1919 by deserting his position.

Last edition:

Saturday, December 13, 1924. Albanian invasion.

Labels: 1920s, 1924, Albania, Art, Yugoslavia

Monday, December 11, 1944. The Great Snowstorm of 1944.

The Great Snowstorm of 1944 set in, impacting  northeastern Ohio, western Pennsylvania, West Virginia, upstate New York, southern Ontario and southern Quebec.

Scene from Toronto..

The British 8th Army crossed the Lamone.

The Soviets heavily bombard Budapest.

The US 7th Army entered Haguenau.   The Germans unsuccessfully attacked 3d Army bridgeheads over the Saar.

The Germans completed the murder of the inmates of the Hartheim Euthanasia Centre.

British reinforcements reach Athens to combat some 25,000 ELAS troops.

The USS Reid was sunk off of Leyte by a kamikaze.

Kia (기아), then Kyungsung Precision Industry (京城精密工業), was founded in Seoul, which of course was occupied as part of the Japanese Empire.

Last edition:

Sunday, December 10, 1944. Hall of Fame.

Labels: 1930s, 1939, 1940, 1944, baseball, Battle of Leyte, boats and ships, Clothing, Diplomacy, France, Kamikaze, Nobel Prize, USSR, World War Two

Tuesday, November 28, 1944. Antwerp opens.

The Port of Antwerp opened for the Allies. 

The Red Army took Mohács, Hungary.

Heavy fighting continued in Leyte.

The U-80  went down with all hands in an accident off of Pillau.

Last edition:

Monday, November 27, 1944. Accidents.

Labels: 1940s, 1944, Battle of Peleliu, boats and ships, Prisoners of War, Royal Air Force, The Law of Unintended Consequences

Thursday, November 23, 1944. Thanksgiving Day.

"Three American infantrymen eat K Rations on Thanksgiving day in a dugout somewhere in France.

They will be relieved later and will have Thanksgiving dinner in the evening with their unit. The soldiers are left to right: Sgt. Albert E. Burns, 1308 E. Gilbert Street, Muncie, Ind., Pfc. John K. Smith, Munderstar Route, Brookville PA., and Pvt. Robert H. Seymour, Newark, N.Y. Near Faulquemont, France. 23 November, 1944.80th Infantry Division."

French forces liberated Strasbourg.

US troops liberated the Natzweiler-Struthof concentration camp in France.  20,000 people had died there while it was open.

The Canadian cabinet made 16,000 Canadian conscripts, previously not liable for overseas deployment, available for the same.

Soviet troops took Cop, Czechoslovakia and Tokay, Hungary.

The Royal Navy disbanded the British Eastern Fleet.  Escort carriers and older ships were formed into the British East Indies Fleet with modern ships detached for service in the British Pacific Fleet.

"A newly captured crossroad carries east and west bound traffic as Lt. Gen. George S. Patton's Third Army smashes towards the Rhine. 23 November, 1944. Photographer: Sawyer."

Last edition:

Tuesday, November 21, 1944. Vive La France.

Labels: 1940s, 1944, Albania, Albanian resistance movements, boats and ships, France, French Army, Imperial Japanese Navy, Prisoners of War, U.S. Navy, World War Two

Tuesday, November 7, 1944. Roosevelt wins a fourth term.

Today In Wyoming's History: November 7: 1944     President Franklin D. Roosevelt won a fourth term in office, defeating Thomas E. Dewey.

Truman, of course, became his Vice President.

Truman was chosen over prior VP Henry Wallace as Democratic insiders were concerned about Wallace's far left leanings.  People have wondered about how far Wallace went in that direction, but The New Republic, which ironically was featured here just yesterday, and for which Wallace was an editor after he was no longer VP, actually stated that he was a Communist in its 75th anniversary issue.  He was certainly very far left.

He was also an expert on chickens.

Truman had been a small businessman before entering politics and was the last U.S. President to lack a college degree.

Roosevelt in many ways created much of the modern state which the current Republican Party, once again flirting with isolationism, threatens to tear down under Donald Trump, something that got started with Ronald Reagan.

US fighters strafed a Red Army column near Niš, mistaking it for a German column.  Soviet aircraft responded.  There were losses on both sides, but what exactly occured is confusing as it remains classified.

The US took Bloody Ridge on Leyte.

The USS Albacore struck a mine off of Hokkaido and was sunk.

SOE operative Hannah Szenes, age 23, was executed in Hungary, which was controlled by Hungarian fascists at the time.

Last edition:

Monday, November 6, 1944.. The photo.

Labels: 1940s, 1944, British League of Nations Mandates, Canadian Army, Egypt, Iowa, Medicine, Netherlands, Palestine, Scotland (Liverpool), Terrorism, Vichy France, World War Two, Zionism

2024 Elections In Other Countries.

Taiwan

Taiwan’s ruling Democratic Progressive Party returned an historic third Presidential victory in a blow to the People's Republic of China.

The party regards Taiwan as de facto independent, which it should be.  President Biden, following the election, stated the US didn't support Taiwanese independence, which it very much should.

January 14, 2024.

Hungary

The President of Hungary, Katalin Novák, age 46, has resigned due to a scandal involving the pardoning of an accomplice in a child sexual abuse case.

February 11, 2024.

Ireland

I had a post on the Irish referendum to amend its constitution, and was frankly way off 

Blog Mirror: On marriage, family, and the Irish constitutional referendum.

The referendum failed massively.  Actually two proposals, the one that sought to expand the definition of family from a relationship founded on marriage to include other durable relationships, failed 67.7% to 32.3%.  The one to replace language surrounding a woman's duties in the home with a clause recognizing the role of family members in the provision of care was rejected 73.9% to 26.1%.

This deserves its own thread.

March 10, 2014

Russia

Putin.  Gee, what a surprise.

March 18, 2024.

South Africa.

The ANC lost the majority of parliamentary seats so, if it is to stay in power, it needs to form a coalition with minority parties.

Mexico

Claudia Sheinbaum won the presidential election, becoming the countries first woman elected to this office.

She is a protégé of the incumbent populist Manuel López Obrador and served as his pro oil environmental minister, in spite of having a degree in the field.  Mexican presidents may only serve one six year term.

June 3, 2024

European Union

Far right parties gained overall in EU parliamentary elections over the weekend, although in Scandinavia, the far left did.  President Macron dissolved the French parliament as a result, and France will now have elections.  Poland's governing conservative party came out on top for that country, edging out the further right wing party that had governed Poland before it came to power last year.

June 10, 2024

France

In round one of a snap French election, the far right Le Pen RN bloc took 33.15% of the vote, the left-wing New Popular Front (NFP) coalition came second with 27.99% and President Emmanuel Macron’s Ensemble alliance took 20.76%.  Voting concludes next week, but it's clear the far right is going to take the most votes, but not enough to form a non coalition government.

And so the far right, globally, continues its rise.

July 1, 2024.

United Kingdom

Labor won the recent election and Sir Keir Starmer will become Prime Minister.

July 5, 2024.

Iran

Reformist candidate Masoud Pezeshkian won Iran’s runoff presidential election.

July 7, 2024.

France

In an amazing one week long rally, the French left and Macron's Ensemble stages a comeback with the left wing NFP now having the majority of seats in the French Assembly and Ensemble the second largest.  

None of the parties have enough seats to form a government, and nobody is certain what will occur.  If a government is to be formed, it will have to be a coalition government.

July 8, 2024.

Venezuela

Both sides have declared victory in the election for the nation's president, with the incumbent having the current reigns of power.  The election has been accused of having irregularities.

July 30, 2024.

Georgia

Georgia’s ruling Georgian Dream party has likely won a simple majority in the Georgian parliamentary election held on October 26, 2024, according to preliminary results. Partial preliminary results released by the Georgian Central Election Committee (CEC) on October 26 indicate that the Georgian Dream party will likely win the majority of seats in parliament, but the results are neither complete nor final.[1] The results suggest that Georgian Dream will form the new Georgian government, but that it will not have the 113 seats required to obtain the  “constitutional majority” it needs to pursue some of the goals it has outlined, including outlawing nearly all opposition parties.[2] The CEC reported that voter turnout was nearly 59 percent- the highest since 2012 when Georgian Dream first came to power.[3]

Institute for the Study of War.

October 26, 2024. 

Moldova

Pro Western President Maia Sandu has won a second term against a pro Russian opponent.

November 4, 2024

Thursday, November 2, 1944. The march of the Hungarian Jews.

Infantrymen moving through Hurtgen Forest near Vossenack, Germany. 2 November, 1944. Company E, 110th Infantry Regiment, 28th Infantry Division.

The Germans commenced a forced march of 50,000 Hungarian Jews from Budapest to Austria as Germany's ongoing amplification of mass murder against the Jews in the closing months of the war carried on.

Josip Broz Tito became the Prime Minister of Yugoslavia.

The 7th Army took Nompatelize.

The 5th Army took Casseta.

"American Red Cross worker Henry Eichman of Springfield, Mo., giving a pair of U.S.- made moccasins to a pig-tailed Italian girl. 2 November, 1944. Monghidoro, Italy."

Robert Edward Femoyer preformed the actions that resulted in his receiving a posthumous Medal of Honor.

For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty near Merseburg, Germany on 2 November 1944. While on a mission, the bomber, of which 2d Lt. Femoyer was a navigator, was struck by three enemy antiaircraft shells. The plane suffered serious damage and 2d Lt. Femoyer was severely wounded in the side and back by shell fragments which penetrated his body. In spite of extreme pain and great loss of blood he refused an offered injection of morphine. He was determined to keep his mental faculties clear in order that he might direct his plane out of danger and so save his comrades. Not being able to arise from the floor, he asked to be propped up in order to enable him to see his charts and instruments. He successfully directed the navigation of his lone bomber for 2 and one half hours so well it avoided enemy flak and returned to the field without further damage. Only when the plane had arrived in the safe area over the English Channel did he feel that he had accomplished his objective; then, and only then, he permitted an injection of a sedative. He died shortly after being moved from the plane. The heroism and self-sacrifice of 2d Lt. Femoyer are in keeping with the highest traditions of the U.S. Army.

The tanker Fort Lee was sunk in the Indian Ocean by the U-181.

Last edition:

Wednesday, November 1, 1944 Death of Greek Catholic Archbishop of Lviv and Metropolitan of Halych Andrey Sheptytsky

Labels: 1940s, 1944, British Army, Canadian Army, Catholic, Conscription, Conscription Crisis, Eastern Rite Catholic, Japan, Netherlands, Operation Infatuate, Personalities, religion, World War Two