Saturday, May 5, 1945. Balloon casualties.

The Prague Uprising and the Battle of Czechoslovak Radio began.  The Axis raised Russian Liberation Army switched sides and supported the Czech partisans.

The Bratislava–Brno Offensive ended in Soviet-Romanian victory.

The Battle for Castle Itter in Austria resulted in an Allied victory.

A Japanese balloon bomb killed the pregnant wife of Reverend Archie Mitchell, Elsie, age 26, and five children of their Sunday School class on Gearhart Mountain near Bly, Oregon, where they had gone for an outing.

The bomb had likely been in place for a month before it was discovered by the party.

Rev. Mitchell moved to Vietnam in 1947 with his new bride Betty, the older sister of two of the children killed by the fire balloon in Bly, where they served as missionaries.  They were kidnapped by the Viet Cong in 1962 and forced to serve as medics, and ultimately disappeared.

The cartoon character Yosemite Sam appeared for the first time in the Bugs Bunny animated short Hare Trigger.

Otto-Heinrich Drechsler, age 50, German Nazi Commissioner of Latvia committed suicide in British captivity.

Last edition:

Friday, May 4, 1945. The war ends in northwest Europe.

Labels: 1940s, 1945, Army, Austria, Bernard Law Montgomery, British Army, Czechoslovakia, German Wehrmacht, Red Army, World War Two, Yugoslav Partisans, Yugoslavia

Wednesday, April 22, 1925. Thought police.

The Peace Preservation Law was enacted in Japan allowing the Special Higher Police (Tokubetsu Kōtō Keisatsu or Tokkō) of the Home Ministry to arrest "anyone who has formed an association with the aim of altering the kokutai" (the "national essence" of Japan) or having "joined such an association with full knowledge of its object".

Criticism of the government could be considered an attempt to alter the national essence.

This is exactly the way the Republican Party is acting today.

A  "Thought Section" of the Tokubetsu was created to monitor "dangerous thoughts" or "thought crime" within Japan and its territories.

The Saltair pavilion,  in Saltair, Utah at the Great Salt Lake in the United States, was destroyed by fire.

Last edition:

Tuesday, April 21, 1925. The loss of the SS Raifuku Maru. Saudi Arabia wipes out the gravesites of members of the family Muhammad.

Labels: 1920s, 1925, boats and ships, Calvin Coolidge, Disaster, Islam, Kingdom of Hejaz, Saudi Arabia, technology

Babymetal?

 

Babymetal announce 24-date North American tour, with Jinjer and Bloodywood among supporting cast

According to Wikipedia; 

Babymetal (Japanese: ベビーメタル, Hepburn: Bebīmetaru) (stylized in all caps as BABYMETAL) is a Japanese kawaii metal band consisting of Suzuka Nakamoto as "Su-metal", Moa Kikuchi as "Moametal" and Momoko Okazaki as "Momometal". The band is produced by Kobametal from the Amuse talent agency. Their vocals are backed by heavy metal instrumentation, performed by a group of session musicians known as the "Kami Band" at performances.

What the crud?

Wednesday, April 11, 1945. US Army enters Buchewald.

U.S. forces entered Buchenwald.

Sherman tank in Schweinfurt, April 11, 1945.  This Sherman is an "Easy 8".

The multi Commonwealth Z Special Force launched Operation Copper which had the goal of capturing a Japanese officer for interrogation and discovering the location of two naval guns of Muschu Island, New Guinea. It was a failure, with seven out of eight men on the mission being killed.

Operation Opossum ended with the rescue of the Sultan of Ternate.

Chile declared war on Japan.

Last edition:

Tuesday, April 10, 1945. The Great Jet Massacre.

Labels: 1940s, 1945, Army, boats and ships, British Army, Buchenwald, Burma, France, German Luftwaffe, Okinawa, Philippines, Royal Air Force, World War Two

Monday, April 7, 1975. A meeting in Thailand.

Cambodian Prime Minister Long Boret met with representatives of the Khmer Rouge in Thailand.

Wives of Air Force men stationed in Japan volunteered to assist in Operation Babylift.

Last edition:

Sunday, April 6, 1975. "Election".

Labels: 1970s, 1975, Communism, North Vietnam

Saturday, April 7, 1945. Desperate efforts.

The Japanese Imperial Navy launched an ill advised doomed kamikaze attack with ten warships, including the Yamato off of Okinawa.  The Yamato was sun k with a loss of 2,055 of its 2,332 crewmembers, and five other Japanese ships went down as well.

The Luftwaffe also engaged in a suicide mission, sending out 120 student pilots about against a 1,000 plane US raid.  They were to ram their aircraft into the Americans ones, and hopefully parachute out.

Most of the pilots missed their targets and most were shot down.

Operation Amherst commenced which saw the Free French and SAS launch an effort to capture Dutch canals, bridges and airfields intact.

Kantarō Suzuki replaced Kuniaki Koiso as Prime Minister of Japan.

Last edition:

Friday, April 6, 1945. Operation Ten-Go.

Labels: 1940s, 1945, Australian Army, Bougainville, Imperial Japanese Navy, Italy, Kamikaze, Okinawa, Operation Grapeshot, Operation Ten-Go, U.S. Navy, World War Two

Thursday, April 5, 1945. Rebellion of the Georgian Legion.

The Soviet Union renounced the Soviet–Japanese Neutrality Pact of April 1941.

The Georgian Legion, a German foreign legion, rose up against the Germans on the Dutch island of Texel.  The battle would result in large-scale casualties incurred until the end of the war by both sides.

The uprising is regarded as heroic, but the late war uprising was naive.  It counted on an Allied landing which did not occur, and it presumed favorable post war treatment by the Allies.

Arrested officers.

African American members of the 477th Bombardment Group attempted to integrate an all-white officers' club at Freeman Field, Indiana, resulting in the predictable scuffles and arrests although the ultimate punishment was minor.

Gen. MacArthur was appointed control of all Army forces in the Pacific and Adm. Nimitz all naval forces.  The move was made in anticipation of the Invasion of Japan.

Japanese Prime Minister Kuniaki Koiso (小磯 國昭), frustrated in his attempts to be involved in military decisions, resigned.

The U-242 sank in St. George's Channel after hitting a mine.

Last edition

Wednesday, April 4, 1945. The Third Army liberates the Ohrdruf Subcamp.

Labels: 1940s, 1945, Army, Battle of Buchhof, Battle of Kassel, British Army, Buchenwald, Canadian Army, Conentration Camps, Okinawa, Red Army, The Holocaust, World War Two

Japanese Type 7 305mm gun, National Museum of Military Vehicles.

Last edition:

M103 Heavy Tank, National Museum of Military Vehicles.

Labels: 1950s, 1957, 1960s, 1970s, 1974, Army, National Museum of Military Vehicles, The Cold War, Tracked vehicles, United States Marine Corps, Wyoming (Dubois)

Sunday, March 18, 1945 Landings in the Philippines, the largest air attack on Berlin.

"First wave U.S. troops from the Americal Division's 3rd Battalion, 132nd Infantry during the landing on Talisay beach, Cebu. Alligator LVTs are visible rolling up in the background. View facing south, Signal Corps photograph SC 204236."

The Battle of the Visayas began in the Philippines, commencing with amphibious landings. The campaign would continue until the end of the war.

Japan closed its schools in Tokyo and ordered everyone over the age of six to report for war work.

The largest Allied bombing raid on Berlin during World War Two took place.  1,329 Allied bombers and 700 fighters were countered by the Luftwaffe using the new Me 262s and air-to-air rockets. 

The U.S. Eighth Air Force lost six Mustangs and 13 bombers while the Luftwaffe only lost two planes.  3,000 tons of bombs were dropped on the city.

The US 3d Army took Bingen and Bad Kreuznach.

The Battle of Kolberg ended in Soviet and Red Polish victory.

The Battle of the Ligurian Sea was fought between British and German naval forces in the Gulf of Genoa.

The U-866 was sunk by the U.S. Navy.

Last edition:

Saturday, March 17, 1945. The Ludendorff Bridge collapse.

Labels: 1940s, 1945, Eastern Front, German Kriegsmarine, World War Two

Wednesday, March 7, 1945. The Bridge at Remagen taken.

The United States Army took the bridge over the Rhine at Remagen intact, and by surprise.

The Battle of Remagen commenced.

The failure of the Germans to have destroyed the heavy railroad bridge, last used by U.S. forces in 1918, was a major failure and the bridge's capture a major event in the advance of the U.S. Army into Germany.

Romania declared war on Japan.

The U-1302 was sunk in the St. George's Channel by the Canadian frigates Strathadam and Thefford Mines.

Related thread:

December 13, 1918. Crossing the Rhine

Labels: 1910s, 1918, 1940s, 1945, Army, Canadian Army, Germany, Occupation of Germany 1918-1919, World War Two

Last edition:

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

Labels: 1940, 1940s, 1945, Burma, German Wehrmacht, Hungary, Nationalist Chinese Army, Operation Springi Awakening, Petroleum, Polish Government in Exile, Polish Home Army, Romania, USSR, War Crimes

March 1, 1945. Iran declares war on Japan.

 

9th Armored Division, 1 March 1945, Germany

Signal Corps Photo.  This appears to be a M26 with its turret pointing to the rear for travel.  The M26 was just coming into service at this time.

Iran declared war on Japan.

Franklin Roosevelt reported on the Yalta Conference.  He was unable to stand.

The Wehrmacht launched an offensive around Lauban.

The Ninth Army took Mönchengladbach.

"Infantrymen of the U.S. Third Army move through war-torn city of Prum, Germany, of which little is left but blasted buildings and debris-littered streets. 1 March, 1945. 22nd Infantry Regiment, 4th Infantry Division."

"After the town of Disternich, Germany, fell to units of the 9th Armored Division, civilians are gathered to be interrogated by military authorities. 1 March, 1945. Company A, 27th Armored Infantry Battalion, 9th Armored Division."  This is an interesting photograph for a variety of reasons, one of which simply is to note what's occurring, the interrogation of  civilians in the Westphalian town of Disternich.    Note the peasant like appearance of the German civilians.  Peasantry is probably exactly what they are. Note also the medic.  This was for an interrogation, but there must have been a concern that the civilians would be sick or injured. The soldier on the right with the M1 Garand provides us with a really good example of Maine Hunting Shoes in use by the U.S. Army.  Note also his armored division shoulder patch.

 

"Children of parents left destitute in wake of German retreat from Manheim, Germany, receive milk after civilians were able to round up food for themselves. Scene in sector held by 3rd Armored Division of 1st U.S. Army. 1 March, 1945. Photographer: W. B. Allen, 165th Signal Photo Co."  Note that the boy in the foreground is wearing a classic German mutze with some sort of cap device.

Michael Strank, one of the Marines photographed raising the flag on Iwo Jima, lost his life in the battle.

He was born in Czechoslovakia to a Rusyn family, and had immigrated to the US as a child with his family.

Last edition:

Wednesday, February 28, 1945. Saudi Arabia declares war.

Labels: 1940s, 1945, Army, Axis Powers, Heroes, Iwo Jima, Philippines, Prisoners of War, Red Army, Saudi Arabia, U.S. Navy, United States Marine Corps, World War Two

Monday, February 23, 1925. Puyi moves.

Deposed Chinese Emperor Puyi accepted a Japanese offer of projection and moved to the  moved to the Japanese concession of Tianjin.

An item from Reddit's 100 Years Ago Today sub:

Truly awful.

It's really the early 1920s, not the 1970s, that gave rise to a really powerful "women's liberation" movement, although you can find it building in the decades prior to that.  The 20s, however, saw it really blossom in much the same way that it would later, with much of the same goals.  As with the movement in the 70s, it met with some pretty nasty counter reactions.

Coeds themselves, meaning women in college, was a fairly new thing in this form.  It wasn't really until the post war economic boom of the 1920s that a lot of women began to leave home to attend college for a secondary education.  

I'm not a feminist, of course, but part of the horror of the Trump years is watching these sorts of attitudes creep back in and begin to be expressed openly.

Last edition:

Saturday, February 21, 1925. A Republican President declares American Forest Week.

Labels: 1920s, 1925, Art, Calvin Coolidge, Cartoons, Clothing, Conservation, Daily Living, Movies, Teenagers, United States Forest Service, Women

Thursday, February 22, 1945. Waiting.

Drivers of senior officers.  22 February 1945.

Turkey declared war on Germany and Japan.

This may be scoffed at a bit, but Turkey is traditionally an enemy of Russia, and at this point was watching the Soviet Union enter into areas bordering it.  It likely feared a Soviet intervention, and by throwing in with the Allies, albeit late, hoped to avoid that.

Uruguay also declared war on Germany and Japan.

Fighting continued on Iwo Jima.  Most, but not all, of the northern portion of the island was now in the hands of the Marines.

Last edition:

Wednesday, February 21, 1945. Sinking of the Bismark Sea.

Labels: 1940s, 1945, boats and ships, Burma, Iwo Jima, Kamikaze, U.S. Navy

Friday, February 16, 1945. Corregidor.

The U.S. Navy launched its first carrier raid against Japan itself.

The US launches an airborne and seaborn attack on Corregidor.

Lloyd G. McCarter performed the actions which caused him to be awarded the Medal of Honor.

He was a scout with the regiment which seized the fortress of Corregidor, Philippine Islands. Shortly after the initial parachute assault on 16 February 1945, he crossed 30 yards of open ground under intense enemy fire, and at pointblank range silenced a machinegun with hand grenades. On the afternoon of 18 February he killed 6 snipers. That evening, when a large force attempted to bypass his company, he voluntarily moved to an exposed area and opened fire. The enemy attacked his position repeatedly throughout the night and was each time repulsed. By 2 o'clock in the morning, all the men about him had been wounded; but shouting encouragement to his comrades and defiance at the enemy, he continued to bear the brunt of the attack, fearlessly exposing himself to locate enemy soldiers and then pouring heavy fire on them. He repeatedly crawled back to the American line to secure more ammunition. When his submachine gun would no longer operate, he seized an automatic rifle and continued to inflict heavy casualties. This weapon, in turn, became too hot to use and, discarding it, he continued with an M-1 rifle. At dawn the enemy attacked with renewed intensity. Completely exposing himself to hostile fire, he stood erect to locate the most dangerous enemy positions. He was seriously wounded; but, though he had already killed more than 30 of the enemy, he refused to evacuate until he had pointed out immediate objectives for attack. Through his sustained and outstanding heroism in the face of grave and obvious danger, Pvt. McCarter made outstanding contributions to the success of his company and to the recapture of Corregidor."

The U.S. Navy begins pre landing bombardment of Iwo Jima.

The Red Army captured Żagań.

The U-309 was sunk by the HMCS Saint John.

Last edition:

Thursday, February 15, 1945. Operation Solstice.

Labels: 1940s, 1945, Army, Ethnicities, German Wehrmacht, Heroes, Navy, Operation Solstice, Women, World War Two, Yugoslav Partisans