Monday, April 30, 1945. Adolf Hitler commits suicide.

A post war PPK, the same type of pistol that Hitler used to end his life.

The man responsible for the deaths of millions in Europe, Adolf Hitler committed suicide with a .32 ACP PPK.  His wife of one day, Eva Braun, also killed herself. Both deaths occurred  around 3.30 p.m..

Their bodies were taken outside of the bunker, liberally doused with gasoline, and burned in a pit.

The Red Army was less than 500m from the Führerbunker.  Soviet troops reached the Reichstag.

Karl Dönitz and Joseph Goebbels took on Hitler's former roles as Head of State and Head of Government of Germany in accordance with his wishes.

Such was the engine of the German state that, even though the Nazis would never have come to power without Hitler, and the war would never have occurred without Hitler, the war nonetheless continued on without him.

The Battle of Bautzen ended in a localized German victory.

The U-879, U-1107 and U-326 were all sunk.

Actors Osvaldo Valenti and Luisa Ferida were killed by Italian partisans due to their links to fascism.

Last edition:

Sunday, April 29, 1945. Dachau.

Labels: 1940s, 1945, Adolf Hitler, Dachau, Eva Braun, German SS, Italian partisans, Italy, Netherlands, Operation Chowhound, Operation Manna, Royal Air Force, The Holocaust, U.S. Air Force

Sunday, April 29, 1945. Dachau.

U.S. troops liberated Dachau.  In outrage over what they discovered, some SS Guards were executed along with the camp commandant.

Hitler married Eva Braun, his long time mistress.

Braun had been in a relationship with Hitler for a long time.  She was a photographer by picked up trade and relatively young when she met Hitler.  She had already attempted suicide twice in her relationship with the dictator by this point in time.

Braun's family survived the war.  Her mother Franziska, died aged 91 in January 1976.  Her father, Fritz, died in 1964. Her sister Gretl, left a widow by the execution of Fegelein, gave birth to a daughte on May 5 1945 and later married Kurt Beringhoff, a businessman.  She died in 1987.  Braun's elder sister was not part of the Hitler inner cricle and Ilse died in 1979.

Hitler's German Shepard Blondi was given cyanide capsules as a test of their lethality and died.

Germans signed the terms of surrender in Italy and Austria which provided that the fighting would end on May 2.  This effected the surrender of 1,000,000 Axis troops.

The Battle of Collecchio ended in Allied victory.

SS Obergruppenführer Matthias Kleinheisterkamp committed suicide after being captured by Soviet troops.

Italian fascist Achille Starace was killed by Italian partisans.

The Allies began dropping food to the people of the Netherlands:

29 April 1945

Last edition:

Saturday, April 28, 1945. The fate of the fascists.

Labels: 1940s, 1945, Army, Battle of Berlin, Berlin Germany, boats and ships, Clara Petacci, Eva Braun, German SS, Italian partisans, Italy, Mussolini, Philippines, Red Army, World War Two

Saturday, April 28, 1945. The fate of the fascists.

From Uncle Mike:

April 28-30, 1945: The Ends of the Dictators

Mike is covering two fateful days ine one post, April 28, when Mussolini was executed by Italian Partisans, and April 30, when Hitler killed himself.  In both instances they took a "significant other" with them, in Mussolini's case, that being his current mistress, Clara Petacci, age 33.

Mussolini and Petacci had been caught trying to cross into Switzerland by partisans, who executed them the following day.  They were shot, and then their bodies hung upside down.

Mussolini had been the first of the fascist dictators to hold power.  There had always been opposition to the one time socialist turned fascist, but armed Italian opposition only came about after the Allies had landed on Italian territory.  As with France, whose resistance swelled as it became obvious that the Allies would land, Italian opposition was heavily dominated by the far left, but there were other elements in it as well.  Mussolini, as already noted, had once been a member of the far left as well, and it's probable, frankly, that amongst those who watched and cheered his death were those who had once cheered him.

Often missed, Nicola Bombacci, Alessandro Pavolini and Achille Starace were also executed at the same time. Nicola Bombacci was an Italian Marxist revolutionary and later a fascist politician.  The others were prominent fascists.

Like Eva Braun, there's little to note about Petacci, other than that she was loyal, like Braun, to her dictator until death.  In Mussolini's case, that was not true of his spouse, whom he left when he left.

The U.S. Fifth Army took Alessandria and Vicenza.

Hitler ordered Himmler to be arrested, learning of his effort to make a deal in the West.

German and Soviet troops fought on in Berlin, where the Red Army was within a mile of the Fuhrerbunker.

The eccentric Rupprecht Gerngroß lead a military uprising against the Nazis in Munich, which failed.

Teh U-56 was sunk in an RAF raid on Kiel.

Hitler's brother in law, notorious SS figure Hermann Fegelein, was executed.  He was planning on taking off with what he could.

The 8th Army took Digos in the Philippines.

Last edition: 

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

Labels: 1940s, 1945, Allies, Army, Artillery, Austria, German SS, Heinrich Himmler, Italian partisans, Italy, Mussolini, Personalities, Philippine Resistance, Philippines, Red Army, The Holocaust, World War Two

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.

Thursday, April 26, 1945. Petain arrested.

Labels: 1940s, 1945, Battle of Berlin, Berlin Germany, Dachau, German SS, Italian partisans, Italy, Operation Exodus, Philippe Pétain, Prisoners of War, Rationing, Red Army, Vichy France, War Crimes, World War Two

Thursday, April 26, 1945. Petain arrested.

Philippe Pétain was arrested on the border between Switzerland and France as he entered France.

The 8th Guards Army and the 1st Guards Tank Army attacked Tempelhof Airport.

The Battle of Baguio ended in Allied victory and the Battle of Collecchio around the town of Fornovo di Taro, Italy began.

Italian partisans take Genoa and revolt in Milan.

British take Bremen, Germany.

RAF begins Operation Exodus, ferrying 75,000 British POWs home in Lancaster bombers in 469 flights through May 7.

Today In World War Two.

The Germans murdered 300 Polish POWs at Horka, Saxony.

Weird SS doctor Sigmund Rascher was executed at Dachau by the SS for fraud, amongst other things.

The war may have been winding down, but:

As demand for meat rises in liberated Europe, US rations all meats again except mutton and raises point values for most meats.

FWIW, when I was a kid I used to hear all the time "I was raised on mutton".  I've even heard it from people my own age.  It's pretty much baloney, but this may be a partial reason that people say that.

Also, I actually have had mutton, and I don't think it's bad at all.

Last edition:

Wednesday, April 25, 1945. Elbe Day.

Labels: 1940s, 1945, Adolf Hitler, Aircraft, Army, Elbe River, German Luftwaffe, Hanna Reitsch, Red Army

Today in World War II History—December 4, 1939 & 1944

Today in World War II History—December 4, 1939 & 1944: US Third Army crosses the Saar River at Saarlautern, Germany. Italian partisans liberate Ravenna in first major partisan attack in Italy.

Thursday, October 12, 1944. Heroes and explorers.

Ground was broken for St. Paul's Memorial Hospital in Evanston, Wyoming.

The Battle of Rovaniemi began between the Germans and Finns.

Finns arriving in a wrecked Rovaniemi.

The Germans arrested the American Fifth Army advance on Bologna at Mount Cavallara.

U.S. Army Sgt. Jack J. Pendleton performed the actions that resulted in him being awarded a posthumous Medal of Honor.

For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty on 12 October 1944. When Company I was advancing on the town of Bardenberg, Germany, they reached a point approximately two-thirds of the distance through the town when they were pinned down by fire from a nest of enemy machineguns. This enemy strong point was protected by a lone machinegun strategically placed at an intersection and firing down a street which offered little or no cover or concealment for the advancing troops. The elimination of this protecting machinegun was imperative in order that the stronger position it protected could be neutralized. After repeated and unsuccessful attempts had been made to knock out this position, S/Sgt. Pendleton volunteered to lead his squad in an attempt to neutralize this strongpoint. S/Sgt. Pendleton started his squad slowly forward, crawling about 10 yards in front of his men in the advance toward the enemy gun. After advancing approximately 130 yards under the withering fire, S/Sgt. Pendleton was seriously wounded in the leg by a burst from the gun he was assaulting. Disregarding his grievous wound, he ordered his men to remain where they were, and with a supply of handgrenades he slowly and painfully worked his way forward alone. With no hope of surviving the veritable hail of machinegun fire which he deliberately drew onto himself, he succeeded in advancing to within 10 yards of the enemy position when he was instantly killed by a burst from the enemy gun. By deliberately diverting the attention of the enemy machine gunners upon himself, a second squad was able to advance, undetected, and with the help of S/Sgt. Pendleton's squad, neutralized the lone machinegun, while another platoon of his company advanced up the intersecting street and knocked out the machinegun nest which the first gun had been covering. S/Sgt. Pendleton's sacrifice enabled the entire company to continue the advance and complete their mission at a critical phase of the action.

British paratroopers landed at Athens. 

Italian Catholic partisan Alfredo Di Dio was killed in action fighting in the defense of the breakaway Italian Ossola Republic.

The U.S. Navy struck targets on Formosa by air.

Norwegian born Canadian Arctic explorer Henry Larsen reached Vancouver after sailing from Halifax through the Northwest Passage over 86 days.

Last edition:

Wednesday, October 11, 1944. To Have and Have Not.

Labels: 1940s, 1944, 1944 at the Movies, actors and actresses, Hungary, Movies, Okinawa, U.S. Air Force, USSR

Tuesday, October 10, 1944. The murder of the Romani children.

800 Romani children were murdered at Auschwitz.

Aircraft from the USS Bunker Hill sank six Japanese midget submarines at Okinawa, along with numerous other ships.

Austrian industrialist and officers asked Reichsstatthalter Baldur von Schirach to declare Vienna an open city.

Alba was temporarily liberated from the Italian Social Republic by communist and monarchist partisans.

Last edition:

Monday, October 9, 1944. The Fourth Moscow Conference Commences.

Labels: 1940s, 1944, 1944 World Series, Canadian Army, Diplomacy, Fourth Moscow Conference, French Troupes de Marine, Marcus Island, Netherlands, Pacific, Red Cross, U.S. Navy, World War Two

Tuesday, October 3, 1944. Breaking the Siegfried Line.

Finnish forces captured Taivalkoski.

The Red Army took Hiuma Island, Estonia.

The 1st Army broke through the Siegfried Line north of Aachen.

The first large group of Nazi prisoners that were captured by the Americans following their breakthrough of the Siegfried Line. 3 October, 1944. 117th Infantry Regiment, 30th Infantry Division.

The RAF broke the dikes around Walcheren Island, flooding it.

Partisans attempted to kidnap fascist Italian Social Republic Minister of the Interior.Guido Buffarini Guidi with tragic unsuccessful results.

The ME 262 became operational.

October 3, 1944 The Littlest War Dog

The I-177 was sunk by the USS Samuel S. Miles

The USS Seawolf was sunk by the USS Richard M. Rowell in a friendly fire accident.

Pack mule train of 26th Indian Mule Co. with British 13th Corps, moving through town of Marradi.

Last edition:

Monday, October 2, 1944. The end of the Warsaw Rebellion.

Labels: 1940s, 1944, Army, Battle of Aachen, Battle of the Scheldt, Belgium, German Wehrmacht, Germany, Netherlands, Polish Home Army, Red Army, Warsaw Uprising, World War Two

Friday, September 29, 1944. Soviet amphibious operations and executions.

GIs with mess gear standing in the mud in Gothic Line in Apennines. 29 September, 1944. Fifth Army, Route 65, Italy.

The Red Army began the Moonsund Landing Operation, an amphibious operation to take German held Estonian islands.   Some Logistic support was provided by Finland.

The Battle of Arracourt ended with an American victory.

John William Harper preformed the actions that lead to a posthumous Victoria Cross.

The KING has been graciously pleased to approve the posthumous award of the VICTORIA CROSS to: —

No. 4751678 Corporal John William Harper, The York and Lancaster Regiment (Doncaster).

In North-West Europe, on 29th September, 1944, the Hallamshire Battalion of the York and Lancaster Regiment attacked the Depot de Mendicite, a natural defensive position surrounded by an earthen wall, and then a dyke, strongly held by the enemy. Corporal Harper was commanding . the leading section in the assault. The enemy were well dug in and had a perfect field of fire across 300 yards of completely flat and exposed country. With superb disregard for the hail of mortar bombs and small arms fire which the enemy brought to bear on this open ground, Corporal Harper led his section straight up to the wall and killed or captured the enemy holding the near side. During this operation the platoon commander was seriously wounded and Corporal Harper took over control of the platoon. As the enemy on the far side of the wall were now throwing grenades over the top, Corporal Harper climbed over the wall alone, throwing grenades, and in the face of heavy, close range small arms fire, personally routed the Germans directly opposing him. He took four prisoners and shot several of the remainder of the enemy as they fled. Still completely ignoring the heavy spandau and mortar fire, which was sweeping the area, once again he crossed the wall alone to find out whether it was possible for his platoon to wade the dyke which lay beyond. He found the dyke too deep and wide to cross, and once again he came back over the wall and received orders to try and establish his platoon on the enemy side of it. For the third time he climbed over alone, found some empty German weapon pits, and providing the covering fire urged and encouraged his section to scale the wall and dash for cover. By this action he was able to bring down sufficient covering fire *to enable the rest of the company to cross the open ground and surmount the wall for the loss of only one man. Corporal Harper then left his platoon in charge of his senior section commander and walked alone along the banks of the dyke, in the face of heavy spandau fire, to find a crossing place. Eventually he made contact with the battalion attacking on his right, and found that they had located a ford. Back he came across the open ground, and, whilst directing his company commander to the ford, he was struck by a bullet which fatally wounded him and he died on the bank of the dyke. The success of the battalion in driving the enemy from the wall and back across the dyke must be largely ascribed to the superb self sacrifice and inspiring gallantry of Corporal Harper. His magnificent courage, fearlessness and devotion to duty throughout the battle set a splendid example to his men and had a decisive effect on the course of the operations.

Otto Herfurth, Joachim Meichssner, Fritz von der Lancken, Wilhelm-Friedrich zu Lynar and Joachim Sadrozinski were hung for their rule in the July 20 Plot.

Virginia Turneli, Italian partisan, was burned to death.  

Last edition:

Thursday, September 28, 1944. The Belgrade Offensive and a last telegraph.

Labels: 1940s, 1944, Belgrade Offensive, Bill Mauldin, British Army, Bulgarian Army, Cartoons, Polish Home Army, Red Army, Warsaw Uprising, Winston Churchill, World War Two, Yugoslav Partisans

Wednesday, August 23, 1944. The Act of 23 August.

King Michael of Romania lead a coup that overthrew fascistic dictator Ion Antonescu in order that Romania could extract itself from its losing alliance with Germany.

It would become known as the Act of 23 August.

During the event, the King first met with Antonescu and asked him to sign an armistice with the Soviet Union.  When he refused, the King declared there was nothing that could be done, officers came in, and arrested Antonescu.

The King offered the Germans free passage out of the country, which they refused.  Within 24 hours the country would be successfully at war with Nazi Germany and an Allied power.

In spite of its success, the country would not be able to avoid the Soviet co-opting of the government, and Michael was deposed in 1947 when he was out of the country for the marriage of his cousin, Elizabeth of the United Kingdom.  He was allowed to return to Romania late in life, after Communism fell.

Antonescu was tried and executed in 1946. Constantin Sănătescu, who became Prime Minister up Antonescu being removed, died of cancer in 1947.

Italian partisans took Barceno, near Switzerland.

French partisans controlled most of Paris.

Allies were advancing everywhere in Europe.

American infantrymen move past a burning German motorized vehicle, in pursuit of the former operators of the vehicle. 23 August, 1944.

Eight German ships were sunk in the Battle of Audiene Bay The U-180 was sunk by some undetermined means in the Bay of Biscay.

The Japanese destroyer Asakaze was sunk by the USS Haddo in Paluan Bay.

Japanese resistance on Numfoor ends.

Last edition:

Tuesday, August 22, 1944. End of the German Navy in the Baltic, Strikes on the Tirpitz, Advances in France.

Labels: 1940s, 1944, Army, Falaise Pocket, France, German Army, German Kriegsmarine, Japan, Normandy Breakout, Operation Dragoon, Operation Goodwood, Romania, Royal Navy, World War Two

Thursday, March 23, 1944. Defeat at Cassino.

Offensive operations at Monte Cassino by the Allies were halted, and Allied troops withdrew to defensive lines.

In Rome, a bomb planted by Italian partisans killed 33 members of the SS.

In the skies above Italy, the Allies commenced Operation Strangle, an air offensive designed to cut German supplies to the Italian front.

A Japanese attack on Bougainville resulted in heavy Japanese losses.

The US bombarded the Japanese seaplane base on Elouae in the St. Matthias Islands.

Major General Leonard F. Wing, Commanding General, 43rd Division. South Pacific Area. 23 March, 1944.  Wing was unusual in that he was a division commander who was a Vermont National Guardsman, something Army prejudice generally prevented from occurring.  He was a lawyer in civilian life.  Wing is only 50 years old in this photograph.  He died just after World War Two at age 52, another senior figure whose life was seemingly cut short by the stress of command.

Richard Theodore Otcasek (March 23, 1944 – September 15, 2019), known as Ric Ocasek, was born in Baltimore.  He is best recalled as the vocalist for The Cars.

Last prior edition:

Wednesday, March 22, 1944. German defeat in the Battle of the Atlantic.

1940s, 1944, Aircraft, Battle of the Atlantic, Bougainville, Clothing, Geology, German Kriegsmarine, Italian Army, Monte Cassino, New Zealand Army, Rationing, The Holocaust, Theresienstadt, World War Two