Saturday, June 26, 1943. Mutiny in Norway, Choosing Normandy, and Willie Gillis.

Today in World War II History—June 26, 1943: Allied commanders choose Normandy for invasion of France in 1944 and appoint Air Chief Marshal Sir Trafford Leigh-Mallory to prepare air plans for D-day.

Sarah Sundin, on her blog.

The crews of six U-boats based in Norway mutinied, refusing to put out to sea in light of high German submarine losses.  They were arrested and placed in Akershus Prison in Oslo.  The collapse of Imperial Germany began, of course, with sailor revolts in 1918.

Fritz Schmidt, age 39, the German Commissioner-General for Political Affairs and Propaganda in the occupied Netherlands died when he "fell, jumped, or was pushed out of a train".

"USS Newell (DE-322), launches sideways at Houston, Texas, June 26, 1943. The ship was named in honor of Naval Aviator Lieutenant Commander Byron Bruce Newell who was killed while serving onboard USS Hornet (CV-8) during the Battle of Santa Cruz Islands, October 26, 1942. Ship’s Sponsor was the widow. Photographed August 12, 1943. Official U.S. Navy photograph."

A famous Norman Rockwell illustration appeared on the cover of the Saturday Evening Post, depicting his everyman soldier figure, Willie Gillis,  showing the "cat's cradle" string trick to an Indian snake charmer.

Countdown on the Great War, November 6, 1918. Americans switch horses in the middle of the stream, Wyomingites vote to go dry, French and Americans take Sedan, the Kaiser urged to go.

1.  It happened the day prior, November 5, 1918, but on this day the news of the Republican landslide that swept the nation hit the press, including the Wyoming press, where GOP candidates swept the field.

The news was surprising in some ways.  Wilson had done nationally, as had the Democrats, in recent elections, following the Republican civil war that had caused the party to split.  But something about the war changed everything, as wars do, and even though Americans had solidly backed the war effort, or at least most Americans had, going into the peace they were rejecting the President and his party.

Even Robert Carey Jr. was benefiting from the Republican rise. Carey had been the subject of a lot of reporting in the Fall as Governor Houx had offered him the command of the Wyoming National Guard and he'd declined, and then belatedly accepted after that position had been filled (as it was, the Wyoming National Guard, like many Guard units, didn't not go to Europe as a single unit anyhow).  In an era in which people publicly shamed "shirkers" that Carey was able to politically survive this decision is really remarkable.  Indeed, as Carey was only forty years old in 1918, his declination is in fact somewhat inexcusable.  No matter, Houx went down in the election.

And this would matter in the upcoming effort to secure a peace. Wilson had outlined his vision in his Fourteen Points.  Would a GOP Congress support it?  As would be seen, it wouldn't.

And that wasn't the only big election news.

Wyomingites also voted to go dry, voting two to one in favor of the Constitutional amendment to bring in Prohibition.

2.  The leader of the Reichstag urged Kaiser Wilhelm II to abdicate, in favor of a new monarch, seeing the only alternative to be the success of a socialist revolution.

3.  The American and French armies took Sedan and the surrounding territory.  The French army too Rethel and Vervins. The Canadian army entered Belgium.  Foch assigns the American Army to advance into Lorraine.

4.  The Polish Soviet of Delegates, obviously styling themselves after the Soviets of the USSR, established the Provisional People's Government with Ignacy Daszynski as Prime Minister. As a body, it would exist only an additional week until it turned over its duties to Jozef Pilsudski, famous Polish revolutionary leader, who was newly freed from German imprisonment.  On the same day, polish peasants led by Communist Tomasz Dabal took control of Tarnobrzeg Galicia and proclaimed it an independent republic.

5. The Dutch cargo ship Bernisse struck a mine and sank.

6. The Kiel rebellion begins to spread wildly to various German cities. 

Countdown on the Great War, November 5, 1918. Heroism in the U.S. Army, Poland starts to form, German submarines hit again.

African American infantryman marching near Verdun, November 5, 1918.

1. The Allies inform Germany that negotiations may begin on the basis of President Wilson's Fourteen Points but that contact must be established through Marshall Foch.

2. Cpt. Marcellus H. Chiles engages in actions for which he would be awarded a posthumous Medal of Honor.  His citation reads:

When his battalion, of which he had just taken command, was halted by machinegun fire from the front and left flank, he picked up the rifle of a dead soldier and, calling on his men to follow led the advance across a stream, waist deep, in the face of the machinegun fire. Upon reaching the opposite bank this gallant officer was seriously wounded in the abdomen by a sniper, but before permitting himself to be evacuated he made complete arrangements for turning over his command to the next senior officer, and under the inspiration of his fearless leadership his battalion reached its objective. Capt. Chiles died shortly after reaching the hospital.

 Chiles entered the service from Denver Colorado.

 

Cpt. Chiles.

3.  The BEF cleared the Mormal Forest and the Canadians and British crossed the Grand Hornelle.

4.  The French take Chateau Porcien.

6. The Germans commence a retreat from the Meuse to Conde but order that the American Army is to be prevented from advancing north of Verdun.

7.  Enlisted sailors kill three officers and the captain of the battleship Koenig in the Baltic when they try to keep the sailors from hoisting a red flag as the sailors rebellion becomes increasing a radical Socialist one.  All German ships remaining in Kiel have the red flag hoisted on them on this day.

8.  The first Polish Soviet of Delegates meets to discuss establishing a Polish state. 

9.  The Lake Harris, an American armed merchant ship, was beached off of Lands End after a fire fight with a German submarine.  On the same day the Italian sailing ship Stavnos was sunk by the UC-74.

10.  Republicans win both houses of Congress by slim margins.  Due to the lack of instant reporting, however, you won't see any newspapers of today's date reporting that, as that would have to wait until the next day.

Countdown on the Great War, November 4, 1918: The last major battle on the Western Front and the Kiel Mutiny grows.

 New Zealanders scale the Sabre-Oise Canal wall in their last major action of World War One.  NOte that in this painting at least the officer at the bottom of the stairs is carrying a German P.08 and the one at the top appears to be as well.

1.  The British and French forces capture the Sambre-Oise, Le Qesnoy, and the towns of Guise  and Origney en Thierache in a series of abbltes known as the Battle of Sabmre, Second Battle of Guise and the Battle of Thierache.  Resistance was serious and heavy, but uneven, by the Germans and the British lost 1,150 men in the crossing of the canal.  Included in the causalities was the then unknown poet Wilfred Owen, whose poetry was actually not published until many years later.

The battles, featuring English, Canadian and New Zealand troops on the British side, French troops, and a few American troops, involved 28 Allied Divisions.  It was the last major battle for the Allies.  Following the battle Allied forces began to advance up to five miles per day.

This does not mean, however, that fighting had halted.  The Germans continued to resist, and sometimes stoutly.  And in the Meuse region the river had not yet been crossed.

2. American and French forces take Stenay and Dun sure Meuse

3. The Allies occupied the Tirol in Austria pursuant to the Armistice of Villa Giusti.  The Austrians further withdrew from Montenegro.

4.   German reservists were deployed to Kiel to put down the sailor's rebellion but large numbers of them joined the uprising upon reaching the city.  By the day's end the number of men declaring allegiance to the revolution number 40,000 and they issued fourteen demands upon the German government. The demands did not, interestingly, include the end of the monarchy, but they did demand that further defensive measures in the war not include bloodshed, which was tantamount to demanding a surrender.

5.  A massive late war dogfight over the western front occurred when forty German aircraft attacked nine British Sopwith Camels of No. 65 Squadron southeast of Ghent.  The British No. 204 Squadron joined the fight resulting in the loss of twenty two German aircraft.

6.  The Glacian region of Komancza (Eastern Lemko) declared itself a state with the intent of uniting itself to the West Ukranian People's Republic.  It would become part of Poland at the end of the Polish Ukranian War and today is part of Poland, Ukraine and Slovakia.

7.  The British ship War Roach collided with a mine and had to be beached off of Port Said, Egypt.

Countdown on the Great War, October 29,1918: Austria announces it wants to quit, the birth of Yugoslavia and the mutiny in the German navy spreads.

Headlines in Cheyenne informing readers that the Austrians were seeking to quit the war.

1.  Austria seeks an armistice from the Italians, and also with the Allies in general. 

The Casper Daily Press, no doubt under pressure from its other Casper competitors, announced that it was gong to a weekly in this same issue in which it spoke of Autro Hungaria's desire to get out of the war and the continued ravages of the Spanish Flu.

2.  The Allies occupied Vittorio Veneto, Italy.

3.  The German Navy abandoned its plans for final offensive operations.  Mutinous sailors would soon return to their ships and demonstrate their loyalty, at first.  Before that, however, the mutiny spread to Wilhelmshaven.

4. The State of the Slovenes, Croats, and Serbs proclaimed its independence from Austro Hungaria.  Czechoslovakia was also declared as a state on this date.

5.  The Ottomans held their positions at the Battle of Sharqat, the first time that they had done so for weeks.

Countdown on the Great War: October 28, 1918. The German Navy rebels and scuttles, the Hungarians quit Austria and the German army continues to take to the air.

1.  Having received orders to set sail to engage the British fleet, German sailors at Schillig Roads mutiny and refuse to prepare to get underway and refuse to weigh anchor  The crews of two of the ships, battleships, commit sabotage on their vessels.  What would become the Kiel Mutiny had commenced.

2.  The Germans scuttle seven submarines based at Pula, Austro Hungaria.  Another was scuttled at Trieste, Italy.

3.  Czechoslovakia declares independence from Austro Hungaria.

4.  Revolution breaks out in Hungary as the Hungarian National Council proclaims its independance from Austria.

Hungarian revolutionaries, including soldiers, with Aster flowers.  The flowers gave their name tot he rebellion, the Aster Revolution.

5.  The Austro Hungarian high command ordered a general retreat from all northern Italian positions.

6.  The Allies capture Makri and Evros in Macedonia.

7. The Germans established nine new air squadrons.