Showing posts with label Lapland War. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Lapland War. Show all posts

Wednesday, October 30, 2024

Monday, October 30, 1944. Pvt. Ross.

The British 8th Army reached Forli.

The U.S. 3d Army took Maizières-lès-Metz.


Then Pvt. Wilburn K. Ross preformed the actions which resulted in his winning the Medal of Honor:

For The President of the United States of America, in the name of Congress, takes pleasure in presenting the Medal of Honor to Private Wilburn Kirby Ross, United States Army, for conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at risk of life above and beyond the call of duty while serving with Company G, 2d Battalion, 30th Infantry, 3d Infantry Division, in action near St. Jacques, France. At 11:30 a.m. on 30 October 1944, after his company had lost 55 out of 88 men in an attack on an entrenched, full-strength German company of elite mountain troops, Private Ross placed his light machinegun ten yards in advance of the foremost supporting riflemen in order to absorb the initial impact of an enemy counterattack. With machinegun and small-arms fire striking the earth near him, he fired with deadly effect on the assaulting force and repelled it. Despite the hail of automatic fire and the explosion of rifle grenades within a stone’s throw of his position, he continued to man his machine gun alone, holding off six more German attacks. When the eighth assault was launched, most of his supporting riflemen were out of ammunition. They took positions in echelon behind Private Ross and crawled up, during the attack, to extract a few rounds of ammunition from his machinegun ammunition belt. Private Ross fought on virtually without assistance and, despite the fact that enemy grenadiers crawled to within four yards of his position in an effort to kill him with hand grenades, he again directed accurate and deadly fire on the hostile force and hurled it back. After expending his last rounds, Private Ross was advised to withdraw to the company command post, together with eight surviving riflemen, but, as more ammunition was expected, he declined to do so. The Germans launched their last all-out attack, converging their fire on Private Ross in a desperate attempt to destroy the machinegun which stood between them and a decisive breakthrough. As his supporting riflemen fixed bayonets for a last-ditch stand, fresh ammunition arrived and was brought to Private Ross just as the advance assault elements were about to swarm over his position. He opened murderous fire on the oncoming enemy; killed 40 and wounded ten of the attacking force; broke the assault single-handedly, and forced the Germans to withdraw. Having killed or wounded at least 58 Germans in more than five hours of continuous combat and saved the remnants of his company from destruction, Private Ross remained at his post that night and the following day for a total of 36 hours. His actions throughout this engagement were an inspiration to his comrades and maintained the high traditions of the military service.

He rejoined the Army after the war and was wounded in Korea.  He retired from the Army in 1964.

The Finnish Army took Muonio.

The Polish 1st Armored Division took Breda, Netherlands.

The Greek government banned the ELAS.

The US 24th Corps captured Abuyag in the Philippines and cleared Catmon Hill.

The U.S. Navy conducted air raids on Japanese targes in the Phillpines, with the Japanese responding with kamikaze attacks, hitting the USS Intrepid, USS Franklin and the USS Belleau Woods.   They all remained afloat.

The ballet Appalachian Spring premiered.

Last edition:

Sunday, October 29, 1944. Shelling chocolate bars.

Tuesday, October 29, 2024

Sunday, October 29, 1944. Shelling chocolate bars.

Knocked out Panther, October 29, 1944.  Oddly, it's labeled as to what it is.

The Red Army and the Romanian Army commenced the Budapest Offensive.

The Red Army prevailed in the Petsamo–Kirkenes Offensive.

The RAF tried for the Tirpitz again, and again without success.

Himmler ordered the gas chambers closed at Auschwitz and other death camps.  Keep in mind, most of the death camps were in the east, which the Red Army was now approaching.


The final of three acts by Pvt. Barney F. Hajiro occurred which resulted in his being awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor.

For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty. Private Barney F. Hajiro distinguished himself by extraordinary heroism in action on 19, 22, and 29 October 1944, in the vicinity of Bruyeres and Biffontaine, eastern France. Private Hajiro, while acting as a sentry on top of an embankment on 19 October 1944, in the vicinity of Bruyeres, France, rendered assistance to allied troops attacking a house 200 yards away by exposing himself to enemy fire and directing fire at an enemy strong point. He assisted the unit on his right by firing his automatic rifle and killing or wounding two enemy snipers. On 22 October 1944, he and one comrade took up an outpost security position about 50 yards to the right front of their platoon, concealed themselves, and ambushed an 18-man heavily armed, enemy patrol, killing two, wounding one, and taking the remainder as prisoners. On 29 October 1944, in a wooded area in the vicinity of Biffontaine, France, Private Hajiro initiated an attack up the slope of a hill referred to as "Suicide Hill" by running forward approximately 100 yards under fire. He then advanced ahead of his comrades about 10 yards, drawing fire and spotting camouflaged machine gun nests. He fearlessly met fire with fire and single-handedly destroyed two machine gun nests and killed two enemy snipers. As a result of Private Hajiro's heroic actions, the attack was successful. Private Hajiro's extraordinary heroism and devotion to duty are in keeping with the highest traditions of military service and reflect great credit upon him, his unit, and the United States Army.

NBC broadcast a Jewish religious service from US occupied Aachen.

D-ration chocolate bars and bottles of Halazone pills are packed into 105mm howitzer shells to be fired to men in an Infantry battalion that is cut off by Germans in the Belmont sector, France. 29 October, 1944. ABL Bat., 131st Field Artillery Battalion, 36th Infantry Division.

Last edition.

Saturday, October 28, 1944. Slovaks put down, French Resistance ordered to disarm, Bulgaria quits, Day of Liberation of Ukraine from Fascist Invaders (День визволення України від фашистських загарбників).


Sunday, October 13, 2024

Friday, October 13, 1944. Black Friday for the Black Watch.

L-R: Pfc. Edward J. Motyl, Scitico, Conn.; Pfc. Joseph Bukea, Merdon, Conn., and Cpl. Tony Marinaro, Waterbury, Conn., warm themselves at a fire near a wayside shrine. as Pfc. John Rogus of Merdon, Conn., gets acquainted with a French peasant girl of the vicinity. 13 October, 1944. Urcourt, Metz sector, Doncourt-Jarny vicinity.

A British-Greek force landed at Piraeus, Greece.

The British took Carpineta, Italy.

A patrol returning to Corretta, Italy. The soldier in the foreground has a toy wagon carrying his machine gun. 13 October, 1944. 1st Armored Division.

The Germans retreated from Rovaniemi.

The Red Army broke through German lines at Riga.

The Germans hit Antwerp with V1s and V2s for the first time.

German POWs in the UK.

The Black Watch of Canada attacks at Hoogerheide, Netherlands, with disastrous results.

Navy Task Force 38 hits Formosa again, with the Japanese attempting to counter attack by air.

Last edition:

Thursday, October 12, 1944. Heroes and explorers.

Saturday, October 12, 2024

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.

Tuesday, October 8, 2024

Sunday, October 8, 1944 Passing of Fr. Nicolò Cortese and Wendell Willkie

The Battle of Crucifix Hill was fought at Haaren, Germany, with the hill taken by elements of the 1st Infantry Division.

A large statuary Crucifix was on top of the hill.  In Sam Fuller's Big Red One his platoon takes a field with a large wooden Crucifix which is central to the story line, and which perhaps was inspired by the actual battle, if extremely loosely.

German resistance to Allied advances in the West was stiffening.

The nighttime Battle of Tehumardi was fought on the Estonian island of Saaremaa.  

The Germans retreated at Tornio.

The German counteroffensive at Nijemegen failed.

The British occupied Corinth and Samos and landed commandos on Nauplion.

Savy to the Greek political situation, in some ways the British were fighting a prelude to the Cold War in Greece in their actions.

The Finns occupied Kemi on the Gulf of Bothnia.

Fr. Nicolò Cortese, age 37, was killed in Trieste by the Gestapo for his role in aiding Jews and Italian partisans.

SS Enterprise (CV 6) being refueled by tanker in rough seas, October 8, 1944.

Wendell Willkie, age 52, died of a heart attack.

Willkie had run for President in 1940 and had attempted to secure the GOP nomination in 1944.  He had originally been a Democrat.  Roosevelt thought highly of him and had considered his a potential Vice Presidential candidate.  A heavy smoker and drinker, his health declined enormously in the summer and fall of 1944, and the heart attack that killed him was his third in three months, following a bout of pneumonia.

Willkie was a political liberal, authoring in 1943 the best seller One World, which espoused world federalism.  There would be no place for him in the modern Republican Party.


Last edition:

Saturday, October 7, 1944. Fighting in the Arctic.

Friday, October 4, 2024

Wednesday, October 4, 1944. Scorched Earth.

"Scene in a kitchen of a typical Russian family. These people are among the many who have been recently liberated by rapid Allied advances at the newly established Displaced Persons Center at Briey, France.  4 October, 1944."   There's obviously more to this story than what the caption provides.

Operation Nordlicht began in Finland by the German Army.  It was a planned withdrawal using scorched earth tactics, with the final line to be in  Lyngen Municipality in Troms county, Norway.

"This photo shows a GI relaying fire data for artillery back from forward observation post near Havert, Germany. 4 October, 1944. 29th Infantry Division."

The Battle of Morotai more or less ended, with the ending being an Allied victory.  Some fighting would continue to the end of the war.

Moscow asked for permission for the Red Army to enter Bulgaria.

The Serbian collaborationist government was dissolved.

Today in World War II History—October 4, 1944:British paratroopers land at Patras, Greece, and on Crete and Aegean islands.

The U-92, U-228 and U-437 were rendered inoperable by an RAF raid on Bergen.

Famous Democratic politician Al Smith died at age 70, five months after the death of his wife.

Last edition:

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

Thursday, October 3, 2024

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.

Tuesday, October 1, 2024

Sunday, October 1, 1944. Battle of Tornio starts.

Miss Betty Brittian, Pasadena, Calif., hands Cpl. Wm. B. Brooks, Clayton, Ga., inside the tank, a cup of coffee and doughnuts. 1 October, 1944. Company B, 609th Tank Destroyer Battalion.

The Battle of Tornio began with a Finnish attack on German positions in Lapland.

The U.S. Army took Monte Battaglia.  II and IV Corps launch an offensive towards Bologna.

The Germans commenced the Putten Raid in the Netherlands, removing 660 men in reprisals for a failed assassination attempt on a German official.

British commandos landed at Poros, Greece.  Greek troops landed at Mitilini, Lemnos, and Levita.

British General General Richard McCreery assumed command of the 8th Army, in Italy. General Oliver Leese, was assigned to command Allied Land Forces, Southeast Asia.

Gen. Rudolf Schmundt, age 48, died of wounds sustained in the July 20 plot.  He had been an adjutant to Hitler.

Sally Reed, Durham, Mass., a Red Cross worker somewhere in France, does a bit of KP on the large containers about her--and she doesn't believe in signs for they're all coffee urns. 1 October, 1944.

Last edition: 

Saturday, September 30, 1944. Counteroffensive at Nijmegen.

Sunday, September 15, 2024

Friday, September 15, 1944. Landing at Peleliu.

 


US forces invaded Peleliu.  Initial troops were from the 1st Marine Division, which would later be joined by the Army's 81st Infantry Division for the hard fought battle.  The landing on the island was in order to seize its airfields for the invasion of the Philippines.


The landings were bizarrely named Operation Stalemate II.

 Corporal William R. Scott, and Prince Doberman. Peleliu. 15 September, 1944.

American and Australian forces landed at Morotai near New Guinea.  The Battle of Morotai would go on until the end of the war.

The Battle of Gemmano in Italy ended in an Allied victory.

The Lapland War between Germany and Finland commenced when the Kriegsmarine attempted to take the island of Suursaari in order to secure the shipping routes in the Gulf of Finland.  Up until that time the German withdrawal from Finland had been going peacefully, although it was deteriorating as the Germans destroyed things on their way out.  The attempted German landing was resisted and the Finns withdrew their shipping from German evacuation efforts, although evacuation from Lapland to Norway, guaranteed by a secret agreement between the countries, continued peacefully at first.

The failed landings at Suursaari were an attempt to secure the island out of a fear the Soviets would.

Pvt. Stanley J. Zielonka fires an automatic rifle at a hidden sniper in Harze, Belgium. 15 September, 1944. 9th Infantry Division.  Like almost all BAR gunners, Pvt. Zielonka has removed the bipod and flash hinder from his BAR.  The unnamed soldier with a Thompson submachinegun has a short belt of machinegun ammunition around his neck.  The other two soldiers are armed with M1 carbines.  The one in front has a combat knife strapped to his lower leg.

The French Provisional Government issued arrest warrants for Philippe Pétain and his cabinet.

The Great Atlantic Hurricane made landfall on Long Island and Rhode Island.

Last edition:

Thursday, September 14, 1944. Dragoon concludes. More SOE agents executed. The toll of the 1944 Great Atlantic Hurricane increases.