The House of Lord voted to approve the Irish Free State Constitution Act of 1922 with only one dissenting vote. That came from Lord Carson, who had blocked Home Rule in 1914, thereby ironically bringing about the Anglo-Irish War a couple of years later, and guaranteeing that Ireland would become an independent state.
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Case Blue, the 1942 German summer offensive on the Eastern Front, came to an end having not achieved its goals, which had been to capture the oil fields of Baku, Grozny and Maikop.
The thought was that without oil, the Soviets couldn't fight, and the Germans would be able to. Indeed, taking Soviet oil production had been part of the original goal of Operation Barbarossa, with the thought being that the Germans needed it to wage war against the United Kingdom.
It's strategic aims, often criticized, were sound and grasped the importance of petroleum on the ability to wage modern war. Hitler had a major role in forming the campaign's development and direction and frankly, while the campaign is often criticized for redirecting German assets to southern Russia rather than the north, with the focus being Moscow, the plan demonstrated a good gasp on resources and modern warfare, and the protracted nature of the latter. Had the campaign succeeded in its goals, which were problematic in more ways than one, it would have at least deprived the Soviet Union of significant war fighting assets. It probably would not have succeeded in providing those to the Germans, however, as the Soviets would have destroyed oil production facilities prior to the Germans taking them. Whether the Germans had the capacity to restore production is doubtful.
The plan was, moreover, overambitious and its initial success caused the Germans to take actions which reduced its potential effectiveness.
In spite of its ultimate failure, the offensive was remarkably successful at first, which encouraged the Germans to overextend themselves. By November the offensive had lost steam, without succeeding in its goals, and Operation Uranus soon demonstrated that the Germans were now grossly overextended. The Soviets, additionally, managed to increase the size of their army throughout the campaign and by its end had over 1,000,000 more men in the field than the Germans did. The Germans, for their part, lost 200,000 men during the campaign and the Romanian army was effectively ground down to semi ineffective. By the campaign's end, moreover, the Germans were relying on Romanian, Hungarian and Italian troops to a dangerous extent.
The end of the campaign came with the Soviets launching a series of winter offensives.
Case Blue brought the Germans to their high water mark of World War Two. Its failure was followed by losing ground in the East in the winter of 1942, which they were also doing in North Africa at the same time. Indeed, due to its failure it should have been obvious to the Germans that wining the war was not impossible.
Rabbi Stephen Wise, president of the World Jewish Congress, held a press conference in which he revealed information leaked from Europe of German atrocities against the Jews.
Rabbi Wise had the information for three months, but has been asked not to reveal it by the U.S. Government as it could not be confirmed, which of course it could not. At this point, however, he correctly felt that releasing the information was necessary.
Wise had been born in Hungary, but came to the US as an infant with his parents. His father and grandfather were also rabbis.
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Peadar Kearney, writer of the Irish National Anthem A Soldiers Song, "Amhrán na bhFiann" died at age 58.
The Irish Free State, which had come into existence due to a bunch of (mostly) men carrying around weapons and assassinating figures of English authority, executed James Fisher, Peter Cassidy, Richard Tuohy and John Gaffney. for "unauthorized possession of revolvers" in violation of the Public Safety Bill.
The British Broadcasting Corporation delivered the first radio news report in the UK at 6:00 p.m. on this day. That would be 11:00 a.m. MST.
The news was full of interesting stuff, including the details of a train robbery a speech by Bonar Law, and a meeting with Winston Churchill.
On the same day, in the U.S., pro-Republican pickets protested regarding the self-imposed death by starvation of Lord Mayor MacSwiney of Cork. Defining that as murder may have been a bit much.
Jānis Čakste was approved by the Saeima, to become the first President of Latvia. He'd already acted as head of the Latvian state since 1918. He was a lawyer by profession.
On the same day, Kyösti Kallio became Prime Minister of Finland. He was a member of the Finnish Agrarian League, which today is its Centre Party. The party retains an agrarian position.
A delegation of various states' National Guards met with Pershing.
They all appeared in mufti.
The lovely actress Veronica Lake was born.
Constance Frances Marie Ockelman, her real name, was famous in the late 30s and 40s for her "peek a boo" hair style.
Erskine Childers, Ango Irish, English-born, Protestant, Irish Republican, was captured by the Irish Army in a nationwide roundup of IRA members.
Childers was an Irish revolutionary figure who went from being an ardent supporter of the British Empire who served in the Boer War, into a revolutionary. He was a member of the Anglo Irish aristocratic class, a lawyer, and a writer, who originally fit into the classic role of the period of English Empire loyalists, a view which he moved away from following the Boer War.
He helped smuggle German rifles into Ireland before the Great War, as he was by that time a supporter of home rule. When World War One came he was recalled into service and served first in the Royal Navy and then in the Royal Air Force. His nationalism known, he was already a figure in Irish efforts to secure independence, and following the war he ended up the secretary of the delegation which negotiated with the British for independence. He was an ardent opponent of the treaty with the UK.
He followed De Valera out of the Dail and published a pro-Republican journal following that while being a figure within Irish Republicanism. He was not popular, however, among the Republican rank and file who regarded him as English, not without some good reasons. He was not trusted with a military role in spite of being vastly experienced in the same.
He was arrested for carrying a .32 handgun and put to death under the Army Emergency Powers Resolution which made carrying a firearm without a license a capital offense, a supremely ironic law for a government that had come into existence through doing just that. He was executed on November 24, in what should be regarded as a supremely unjust act. He was 52 years of age
The Greek city of Saranta Ekklisies ("Forty Churches") in Thrace was turned over to the Turks, who renamed it at first "Kirk Kilise" ("Forty Churches"). Today it is Kirklareli, "The Place of 40"
The Marine Corps League was established.
The US released twenty vessels seized on the seas for carrying alcohol.
The United Kingdom and Iraq signed the Anglo-Iraqi Treat of 1922, creating "Irak". It only obtained limited self-government through the treaty, and the UK controlled its foreign relations.
Irish Catholic Bishops condemned the Irish Republican Army and issued an order denying them the sacraments. This began to cause a collapse in IRA membership.
On this day in 1922 the Turkish Army entered Smyrna, which would be renamed Izmir, ending hte military phase of the Greco Turkish War with a final Turkish victory.
By that afternoon, Turkish troops had started to riot. Bad went to worse, and massacres of the Armenians then commenced, with it being cut off from entry by Turkish troops. The Armenian Bishop Ghevont Tourian sought asylum in a Catholic institution.
It would get worse.
The third Dáil Éireann, the parliament of the Irish Republic, convened after long delay to ratify the treaty with the United Kingdom, which was a foregone conclusion.
A United Stated Geological Survey expedition was exploring the area around Glen Canyon.
On this day in 1942, the German U-375 stopped the Egyptian sailboat Turkian and sank her with 13 rounds from a deck gun.
All 19 crewmen were allowed to abandon ship.
British coast artillery replied, but to no effect.
A spectacular example of poor marksmanship on both sides and pointless destruction.
The Germans captured Novorossiysk.
Two policemen were shot dead in Belfast in day two of rising tensions in Ireland.
Arvid and Midlread Harnack, nee Fish, of the Red Orchestra were arrested.
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East German postage stamp commemorating the Harnack's.
Mildred was American born and had moved to Germany as an academic in the 1920s. Her husband Arvid Harnack was a German Communist and a lawyer. Their arrest effectively brought about the end of the Red Orchestra.
Dorothy Dandridge, the first African American actress to be nominated for an Academy Award, married Harold Nicholas in Hollywood. They would divroce in 1951.
Today in World War II History—September 2, 1942: Allied convoy PQ-18 departs Scotland for USSR, the first Arctic convoy with an escort carrier and the first since the PQ-17 disaster; 13/40 ships will be lost.
From Sarah Sundin's blog.
Escort carriers were game changers. While losing 13 out of 40 ships wasn't good, it was better than what the PQ-17 had experienced. With air cover, submarines were at a disadvantage. The PQ-18 task force was, in fact, the largest and most successful Arctic run up to that time.
The carrier was the HMS Avenger, as Sundin's blog entry notes.
The U-222 and the U-626, German training submarines, collided in the Baltic sinking the U-222 which took 42 of her crew with her.
The German 46th Infantry Division, which had been dishonored following an unauthorized withdrawal due to Soviet landings on the Kerch peninsula in December 1941, crossed the Kerch Straits while the German 17th Army advanced into Novorossisk, putting Soviet positions on the Eastern Black Sea coast at extreme risk. The Soviets began, on this night, evacuations from Black Sea ports which were harassed by German and Italian patrol boats.
The Germans sustained heavy material losses at Alam el Halfa resulting in an Afrika Korps withdrawal.
British commandos took a lighthouse and its occupants near Alderny without the Germans noticing and without loss in Operation Dryad.
Tom Williams of the Irish Republican Army was executed for the felony murder of Royal Ulster Constabulary officer Patrick Murphy. This occurred when an IRA unit Williams was in command of staged a diversionary action against the RUC in order to allow parades commemorating the Easter Rebellion to occur. Who killed Murphy is actually not known, but Williams was the acknowledged commander of the unit.
The Cubs held off the Phillies 26-23 in Wrigley Field after being up by 19. The game remains the highest-scoring game in major-league history. Marty Callaghan of the Cubs batted three times in a single inning.
W. T. Cosgrave became Chairman of the Provisional Government of the Irish Free State, replacing Michael Collins in that role.
An earthquake occurred in the Tel Atlas region of Algeria.
The Irish army, having made seaborne landings the day prior, took Cork, although the withdrawing IRA set it on fire first. The city had been burned during the Anglo-Irish War two years prior.
One of my great-grandmother's was from Cork, although she would have left the city, at age three, well before this time period.
On the same day, IRA men Joseph O'Sullivan and Reginald Dunne were executed in London for the June 22 assassination of Sir Henry Wilson.
The Sammarinese Fascist Party was founded by Giuliano Gozi. It would rule San Marino for twenty years, falling during the end of the Second World War, during which San Marino was a neutral tiny power.
While I'm not completely certain, I think the instructor depicted above is actually wearing hearing protection while his student shoots a Browning machine gun. Of interest, in spite of the lessons of the Great War, none of the men in these photographs, and they're all men, are wearing helmets.
On the same day, a photographer took photos of the Coast Guard Cutter Seneca.
Interesting how gold watches were a retirement tradition, but that seems to have passed.
105 men escaped Dundalk Gaol after the 4th Northern Division of the Irish Republican Army blasted a hole in the prison's walls.
On the same day, Oscar Traynor, an IRA officer, was arrested by the Free State. He'd later go on to be Minister of Defense and then Minister of Justice for post World War Two Irish governments.
Adolf Hitler was released from prison.
The Battle of Kilmallock, one of the largest conventional battles of the Irish Civil War, started. The battle would continue on until August 5 when the evenly matched forces would see the Irish Army prevail.
It was Laddie Boy's birthday.
The Provisional Irish Republican Army carried out 22 bombings in Belfast, killing nine people in what became known as Bloody Friday. The actions sparked a renewed British offensive against the IRA, which commenced the next day.
The "Provos" in some significant ways were able to conduct this sort of activity due to romanticized backing by Irish Americans. It claimed lineage from the Irish Republican Army of the Irish Civil War period, but it had an evolved Socialist agenda that put it in the far left political sphere, which would partially explain how it obtained backing from Libya at the time.
The IRA itself did in fact carry on in existence after the Irish Civil War, even conducting a bombing campaign in 1939 against the United Kingdom. In 1969, after the Troubles had commenced, the IRA split in two over the issue of abstentionism and forming a National Liberation Front with other left wing groups. The group that became the Provos refused to vote on the second item, and opposed the first. Sein Finn likewise split.
A press photographer in Washington, D. C. took a photo of men on motorcycles.
Another took a photograph of the dedication to Lt. Samuel J. Harris, U.S. World War One veteran who had died during an insurrection in Lithuania, where he was serving as a volunteer.
Around 1,000 Americans had volunteered to serve the Baltic nation against the Reds in the same time period.
Limerick was taken from the IRA by the Irish Army. The Irish Army also shelled IRA held Waterford.
