Thursday, November 1, 1923. Walton arraigned, Krupp signs, Baltic treaties, Finnair founded, George Washington Cornerstone laid, the wages of sin.

Oklahoma was impeaching its anti Klan Governor.

Gustav Krupp signed an agreement with the French which established operating conditions for his mines in the Ruhr.  He was released from prison fourteen days later.

Estonia and Latvia signed a mutual defense treaty.

Finnair was founded as "Aero Osakeyhtiö".  It had one airplane at the time, a Junkers F.13 seaplane.

The George Washington Memorial cornerstone was laid.

Recently retired, at age 29, Irish mob gangster Bill Lovett was murdered in his sleep at an abandoned store in Brooklyn.  Lovett was a well-educated man who loved animals, and a distinguished World War One veteran, but a dedicated alcoholic who could be very temperamental when drunk.  He'd been in the Irish mob before and again after World War One, but had recently given up crime and drinking after marrying.  He fell off the wagon on October 31 while downtown for a job interview, and went to sleep in the store with a compatriot.  He was apparently murdered by other Irish mobsters.

Friday, October 8, 1943. Caserta Palace.

The British troops landed on Terceira Island, one of the Azores, in a little noted operation.

The Azores belong to Portugal and the population of the Azores are Portuguese.  The Allies had made plans to land there by force, much like they had in Iceland, but it proved unnecessary as the Portuguese agreed to lease air bases to the allies.

Portugal and the UK had been allies since the Napoleonic Wars, although Portugal had not entered the war.  They remained on friendly terms in spite of Portugal having a long sitting authoritarian government which would make one presume, in accurately, that it would have been sympathetic to the Germans.  In fact, at the start of the Second World War, Portugal announced that its 500-year-old plus treat with the UK remained in effect.  The UK, wisely, simply chose not to invoke it.  The British did begin, however, to occupy islands in the Azores starting in 1942 under lease from Portugal.

The Azores were known to Europeans prior to the 1370s.  Settlement by Portugal commenced in the 1439.

Today in World War II History—October 8, 1943: 80 Years Ago—Oct. 8, 1943: In Italy, US occupies Caserta Palace, future Headquarters of the US Fifth Army.

Sarah Sundin.

The British 8th Army took Lairon and Guglionesi. 

The last Jewish residents of the Liepaja Ghetto in Latvia were sent to the Kaiserwald concentration camp.

Wednesday, August 11, 1943. Retreats.

The Germans commenced withdrawing from Sicily.

Sarah Sundin notes this on her blog, also noting that 100,000 Axis troops would be evacuated to the Italian peninsula, a significant failure in the Allied campaign in that they were not able, in spite of attempting, to trap them in Sicily.  There were efforts to do so, as she also noted:

Today in World War II History—August 11, 1943: 80 Years Ago—Aug. 11, 1943: US Seventh Army makes amphibious landings at Brolo on Sicily’s north shore, but fails to cut off German retreat.

Hitler ordered the creation of an "Eastern Wall" to defend conquered territory in the Baltics.

Sunday, June 27, 1922. Bishop O'Rourke of the East passes away, Disaster at Huntington Beach, Lousy German troops.

The unlikely named former Catholic Bishop of Riga and later Bishop of Danzia, an opponent of the Nazis, died at age 66, in Rome, where he was living in exile.

Born in Minsk to a family of Irish heritage, which was also unlikely, he had resigned his position in Riga as a movement for a Latvian Bishop gained strength.  He clashed with the Nazis in Danzig, which had ultimately led to his relocation to Poland, where he was granted Polish citizenship.  When the Germans invaded Poland, he was on a journey to Estonia, and ultimately traveled to Italy.  He was not able to regain admittance to German occupied Poland.

A P-38 Lightening crashed into a crowd of beach goers at Huntington Beach, California, after its pilot had bailed out. Three people lost their lives and forty nine were injured.

Sarah Sundin noted that event, and others, on her blog:

Today in World War II History—June 27, 1943: French Resistance attacks Ateliers des Fives locomotive works at Lille. P-38 Lightning fighter plane crashes on Huntington Beach in CA, killing 4 children.

As odd as it is to consider that it even occurred, the 1943  German football championship was won by Dresdner SC.

Bill Downs, CBS Moscow correspondent, reported that Red Army troops were surprised by hte quantity of lice that captured German soldiers bore.

Monday, June 21, 1943. Spreading the Holocaust in the Baltic

Douglas SBD "Dauntless" dive bomber balanced on nose after crash landing on carrier flight deck, June 21, 1943.

Head of the SS Heinrich Himmler ordered that all remaining Jews in the Baltic States be transferred to slave labor camps.

Sarah Sundin notes, on her blog:

Today in World War II History—June 21, 1943: US Marines land unopposed at Segi Point, New Georgia, in the Solomon Islands. Detroit race riot begins between whites and Blacks.

The NFL approved the temporary Merger of the Eagles and the Steelers, something we reported on the other day.  The declined the proposal to merge the Bears and the Cardinals.

Occupied Greece saw action as the SOE destroyed a railway bridge over the Asopos and the Greek Liberation Army conducted an ambush in the Battle of Sarantaporos.

The US Supreme Court rules in Stack v. Boyle that a foreign born citizen could not have that citizenship revoked for joining the Communist Party.

Harvard rejected a proposal to admit women to its medical school.

Thursday, February 25, 1943. Around the clock bombing.

The Western Allies commenced "round the clock bombing" of the Third Reich.

A few things about this are worth noting.

It was essentially a massive upgrading of another theater, this one the skies over Germany, in which the Soviet Union, which lacked a heavy strategic bomber capacity, and which was not strategically placed to join in it, was absent.  The Soviets were of course also absent from the Battle of the Atlantic.

While it can't be expected that they would be in either, the fact that the Western Allies carried on these significant efforts benefited the USSR as well as the Western Allies, something that Soviet and now Russian recollections of the war choose to forget.

Also controversial is the extent to which the raids were actually effective.  German production went up during the war, so the question is whether strategic bombing depressed it from being higher, or simply disrupted it in other ways. The latter certainly occurred, but to what extent the former did is an open question.

The 15th Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS (1st Latvian), came into existence.  The unit was made up of Latvian volunteers, and conscripts, who harbored the naive hope that serving the Germans would lead to post-war Latvian independence.

While naive, and inexcusably associated with the SS, this is an example of the "war within a war" nature of the Second World War.  The Baltic States, along with Ukraine and Poland, would particularly be associated with various armed efforts against the Soviets, some of which were completely independent of association with the Germans, while some, outside of Poland, were.  Many of the partisan type movements, which this obviously was not, carried on fighting for some time after the war.

Of note, Latvian resistance to the Soviet Union remained fairly strong up until 1949 and remained a factor the Soviets had to consider into the early 50s.  The last violent acts by Latvian resistance forces occurred in the 1980s and the last Forest Brother, Jānis Pīnups, who had deserted from the Red Army during World War Two when wounded and left for dead, came in from hiding in 1995.

Regarding the Baltic States and the SS, during the war Estonia also contributed volunteers to "foreign legion" SS units, that being the 20th Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS (1st Estonian)   The Latvians would contribute a second one, that being the 19th Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS (2nd Latvian). Because the units contained conscripts, the US regarded them as not complicate in the criminal nature of the SS after the war.

Tuesday, November 14, 1922. The Beeb broadcast the news.

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.

Friday, July 28, 1922. A triple recognition.

The United States established diplomatic relations with all three Baltic States and appointed Evan E. Young as the ambassador to all three countries.

A political cartoon from the July 28, 1922 Chicago Tribune.

Tuesday, May 30, 1922. Lincoln Memorial Dedicated.

Today was Memorial Day for 1922, the date at that time coming on May 30 and not being tied to a Sunday.

The day features national, and local, celebrations.

On this day in 1922, the Lincoln Memorial was dedicated.

The event drew many notables, including the surviving son of the late President, Robert Todd Lincoln.

Speeches were delivered by a collection of dignatories, including former President Taft and current President Harding.

One of the big events was the Indianapolis 500, then as now.

On the same day, Germany flew its flags at half-mast outside of the Reichstag over the loss of Upper Silesia.

Latvia signed a concordat with the Vatican, allowing Catholics freedom to practice their faith.

Thursday, March 26, 1942. The Battle of Suursaari

The Finns commenced an offensive in the Battle of Suursaari to retake two islands in the Gulf of Finland, Gogland and Bolshoy Tyuteers, which they'd earlier been forced to cede to the Soviet Union. They were successful in the effort in an offensive conducted over the frozen gulf.

They were clearly Finnish islands.  Bolshoy Tyuteers had been a center of fishing for centuries and had become a tourism destination prior to the war.  It reverted to Russian possession after World War Two but is abandoned, heavily mined and littered with abandoned German equipment and heavy weapons.  

Gogland remains a tourist destination, but is also a Russian possession today.  Given that Finland's entry into the war had specifically been aimed at recapturing the territories it had lost in the Winter War, the attacks on the island garrisons were probably not a surprise.

The Germans murdered over 1,000 Jews in Latvia in the second part of a ghetto clearing action.

Monday, December 15, 1941. The filmed murder of Lativan Jews at Liepāja

War photographer Robert Capa with a 16mm movie camera, something we don't associate him with. 8mm film was literally 16mm cut in half for economy.

Mass murder of over 2,731 Jews at Liepāja Lativa was commenced by Einsatzgruppen, assisted by Lativan militia.  It would run for two days.  

The event was filmed by Kriegsmarine Sergeant Reinhard Wiener with his privately owned 8mm film camera.

Twenty-three communist party members were also murdered.

Amateur photography was a huge deal with Germans, and had been since cameras had become portable.  But movie film was another deal.  Sgt Wiener's film is accordingly unique. There is film of German authorities murdering Jews, but his was extensive and showed their full humiliation and abuse before being murdered.

The location itself was being used by the German Navy and many German Army soldiers were there.  The mood was festive by the Germans.

Things like this make it plain that by the early stages of Operation Barbarossa Germans knew what was going on and, while the recent meeting of German high officials emphasized their desire to complete the destruction of European Judaism, the program of mass extermination was fully in swing.  It was, moreover, already quite efficient.  And the attitude taken by the Germans was the plain acceptance of it. Authorities made no effort to stop it from being filmed here, and in other locations.  As film had to be processed commercially at home, it also meant that this was being done and was not being restrained.

So, in an event like this, regular German soldiers and sailors witnessed it, some filmed it, and some took their stories back home with them.  Others effectively published it by having what they recorded in film processed.

Things like this also make it plain that in much of Eastern Europe at least some percentage of the local population was willing to participate in Germany atrocities aimed at the Jews.

The Red Army retook Klin.

The following, from Today In World War Two History:

The American Federal of Labor adopted a policy of abstaining strikes in war industries for the duration of the war.

Universities started to go to three year courses of study for Bachelor degrees by full year courses of study.  This must have kicked in during the Spring, as the Christmas break was commencing.

The Soviet government returned to Moscow.  Stalin had never left.

Today in World War II History—December 15, 1941

The British Army encamped at Bir Halegh el Elba.

The British allowed 600 Japanese nationals to leave Singapore on a ship chartered by the Japanese government.

The Japanese attempted to land a reconnaissance party across the Lye Mun Channel at Hong Kong but were completely repulsed.  Japanese artillery strikes commenced.

Showing that yesterday's Coast Guard depth charge run wasn't as absurd as it might have sounded, a Japanese submarine shelled Kahului, Maui.  Another shelled Johnston Island, striking fuel at a seaplane base there.

The decision was made to hold this year's Rose Bowl at Durham, North Carolina.

All four American radio networks broadcast We Hold These Truths.

The radio program was in celebration of the anniversary of the Bill of Rights and had been planned prior to December 7.  An inquiry to the government on whether it should go forward brougth a reply that Franklin Roosevelt thought the program more important than ever.

Admiral Kimmel's illustration appeared on the cover of Time.  He'd already been relieved of his command in the Pacific.  Newsweek had a cover photo of a battleship noting that the "U.S. fleet's guns blaze", which wasn't true at the time.

A "Junior Miss" appeared on the cover of Life, which had obviously been laid out prior to the attack on Pearl Harbor.

A test air raid drill was held in New York City.

Tuesday, June 24, 1941. Latvia hopes, Madrid rejoices, the UK and the US confirm.

German General Nikolaus Von Falkenhorst meeting Finnish General Hjalmar Siilasvuo on June 24, 1941. Finnish Wartime Photograph Archive (sa-kuva.fi). Free to use for every purpose if the the source "SA-kuva" is mentioned.

On this day in 1941 Latvia, occupied by the Soviets since 1939, declared independence in hopes of having that supplied by the advancing German army.  It would not receive it, instead being part of the German Reichskommissariat Ostland. This was addressed somewhat in yesterday's post, but the overall plan in regard to Lativia was to kill its Jewish population, expel some of its population and "Germanize" the remainder.  The Germans considered the Latvians suitable for the latter as the country had been influenced by the Danes and Swedes in prior centuries and therefore were Europeanized, in the view of the Germans.  That Latvians, a people closely related to the Finns but with a unique history, didn't see themselves the same way.

On the same day, crowds in Madrid turned out to demonstrate in supporter of the German invasion of the USSR, something noted here:

Today in World War II History—June 24, 1941

As these entries show, not all peoples everywhere were in June 1941, of the same mind as the Allies.  Of course, what the German invasion would mean wasn't fully appreciated at the time either.

Elsewhere, British officials confirmed that the United Kingdom would provide aid to the Soviet Union. And the Franklin Roosevelt publicly confirmed the same.

Saturday, June 14, 1941. The Soviets commence mass Baltic deportations.

On this day in 1941 the Soviet Union, which was mere days away from being attacked by Germany, which was receiving warnings from its own intelligence as well as the United Kingdom, started mass deportations of its perceived internal enemies in the Baltic States.

Mass deportations in Estonia

Today in World War II History—June 14, 1941

Given the horrors of the Second World War, and coming so close in time to Germany's invasion, this event has largely been forgotten outside of the Baltic States. There the day is a national day of mourning in the three countries which were impacted.

Deportations were on a mass scale with the victims largely sent to Siberia.  Most never returned and many died quickly.  The Soviets were already massively unpopular in the Baltic States, which had been independent following the Russian Revolution until overrun by the USSR in 1939, but the deportations would have an impact that would find immediate anti Soviet expression within a few days, given the time at which they came.

 As the second item there notes, the US also froze German and Italian assets in the U.S., as well as the assets of certain other Axis powers and countries now occupied by Germany or the Soviet Union, b y way of an executive order issued by President Roosevelt.

It read:

By virtue of and pursuant to the authority vested in me by Section 5 (b) of the Act of October 6, 1917 (40 Stat. 415), as amended, by virtue of all other authority vested in me, and by virtue of the existence of a period of unlimited national emergency, and finding that this Order is in the public interest and is necessary in the interest of national defense and security, I, Franklin D. Roosevelt, President of the United States of America, do prescribe the following:

Executive Order No. 8389 of April 10, 1940, as amended, is amended to read as follows:

SECTION 1. All of the following transactions are prohibited, except as specifically authorized by the Secretary of the Treasury by means of regulations, rulings, instructions, licenses, or otherwise, if (i) such transactions are by, or on behalf of, or pursuant to the direction of any foreign country designated in this Order, or any national thereof, or (ii) such transactions involve property in which any foreign country designated in this Order, or any national thereof, has at any time on or since the effective date of this Order had any interest of any nature whatsoever, direct or indirect:

A. All transfers of credit between any banking institutions within the United States; and all transfers of credit between any banking institution within the United States and any banking institution outside the United States (including any principal, agent, home office, branch, or correspondent outside the United States, of a banking institution within the United States);

B. All payments by or to any banking institution within the United States;

C. All transactions in foreign exchange by any person within the United States;

D. The export or withdrawal from the United States, or the earmarking of gold or silver coin or bullion or currency by any person within the United States;

E. All transfers, withdrawals or exportations of, or dealings in, any evidences of indebtedness or evidences of ownership of property by any person within the United States; and

F. Any transaction for the purpose or which has the effect of evading or avoiding the foregoing prohibitions.

SECTION 2. A. All of the following transactions are prohibited, except as specifically authorized by the Secretary of the Treasury by means of regulations, rulings, instructions, licenses, or otherwise:

(1) The acquisition, disposition or transfer of, or other dealing in, or with respect to, any security or evidence thereof on which there is stamped or imprinted, or to which there is affixed or otherwise attached, a tax stamp or other stamp of a foreign country designated in this Order or a notarial or similar seal which by its contents indicates that it was stamped, imprinted, affixed, or attached within such foreign country, or where the attendant circumstances disclose or indicate that such stamp or seal may, at any time, have been stamped, imprinted, affixed, or attached thereto; and

(2) The acquisition by, or transfer to, any person within the United States of any interest in any security or evidence thereof ' if the attendant circumstances disclose or indicate that the security or evidence thereof is not physically situated within the United States.

B. The Secretary of the Treasury may investigate, regulate, or prohibit under such regulations, rulings, or instructions as he may prescribe, by means of licenses or otherwise, the sending, mailing, importing, or otherwise bringing, directly or indirectly, into the United States, from any foreign country, of any securities or evidences thereof or the receiving or holding in the United States of any securities or evidences thereof so brought into the United States.

SECTION 3. The term "foreign country designated in this Order" means a foreign country included in the following schedule, and the term "effective date of this Order" means with respect to any such foreign country, or any national thereof, the date specified in the following schedule:

(a) April 8, 1940 —Norway and Denmark;

(b) May 10, 1940 —The Netherlands, Belgium, and Luxembourg;

(c) June 17, 1940 —France (including Monaco);

(d) July 10, 1940 —Latvia, Estonia, and Lithuania;

(e) October 9, 1940 -Rumania;

(f) March 4, 1941 —Bulgaria;

(g) March 13, 1941 —Hungary;

(h) March 24, 1941 —Yugoslavia;

(i) April 28, 1941 —Greece; and

(j) June 14, 1941 —Albania,

Andorra, Austria, Czechoslovakia, Danzig, Finland, Germany, Italy, Liechtenstein, Poland, Portugal, San Marino, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, and Union of Soviet Socialist Republics.

The "effective date of this Order" with respect to any foreign country not designated in this Order shall be deemed to be June 14, 1941.

SECTION 4. A. The Secretary of the Treasury and/or the Attorney General may require, by means of regulations, rulings, instructions, or otherwise, any person to keep a full record of, and to furnish under oath, in the form of reports or otherwise, from time to time and at any time or times, complete information relative to, any transaction referred to in Section 5 (b) of the Act of October 6, 1917 (40 Stat. 415), as amended, or relative to any property in which any foreign country or any national thereof has any interest of any nature whatsoever, direct or indirect, including the production of any books of account, contracts, letters, or other papers, in connection therewith, in the custody or control of such person, either before or after such transaction is completed; and the Secretary of the Treasury and/or the Attorney General may, through any agency, investigate any such transaction or act, or any violation of the provisions of this Order.

B. Every person engaging in any of the transactions referred to in Sections 1 and 2 of this Order shall keep a full record of each such transaction engaged in by him, regardless of whether such transaction is effected pursuant to license or otherwise, and such record shall be available for examination for at least one year after the date of such transaction.

SECTION 5. A. As used in the first paragraph of Section 1 of this Order "transactions [which] involve property in which any foreign country designated in this Order, or any national thereof, has... any interest of any nature whatsoever, direct or indirect," shall include, but not by way of limitation (i) any payment or transfer to any such foreign country or national thereof, (ii) any export or withdrawal from the United States to such foreign country, and (iii) any transfer of credit, or payment of an obligation, expressed in terms of the currency of such foreign country.

B. The term "United States" means the United States and any place subject to the jurisdiction thereof; the term "continental United States" means the States of the United States, the District of Columbia, and the Territory of Alaska.

C. The term "person" means an individual, partnership, association, corporation, or other organization.

D. The term "foreign country" shall include, but not by way of limitation,

(i) The state and the government thereof on the effective date of this Order as well as any political subdivision, agency, or instrumentality thereof or any territory, dependency, colony, protectorate, mandate, dominion, possession, or place subject to the jurisdiction thereof,

(ii) Any other government (including any political subdivision, agency, or instrumentality thereof) to the extent and only to the extent that such government exercises or claims to exercise de jure or de facto sovereignty over the area which on such effective date constituted such foreign country, and

(iii) Any person to the extent that such person is, or has been, or to the extent that there is reasonable cause to believe that such person is, or has been, since such effective date, acting or purporting to act directly or indirectly for the benefit or on behalf of any of the foregoing.

E. The term "national" shall include,

(i) Any person who has been domiciled in, or a subject, citizen, or resident of a foreign country at any time on or since the effective date of this Order,

(ii) Any partnership, association, corporation, or other organization, organized under the laws of, or which on or since the effective date of this Order had or has had its principal place of business in such foreign country, or which on or since such effective date was or has been controlled by, or a substantial part of the stock, shares, bonds, debentures, notes, drafts, or other securities or obligations of which, was or has been owned or controlled by, directly or indirectly, such foreign country and/or one Or more nationals thereof as herein defined,

(iii) Any person to the extent that such person is, or has been, since such effective date, acting or purporting to act directly or indirectly for the benefit or on behalf of any national of such foreign country, and

(iv) Any other person who there is reasonable cause to believe is a "national" as herein defined. In any case in which by virtue of the foregoing definition a person is a national of more than one foreign country, such person shall be deemed to be a national of each such foreign country.

In any case in which the combined interests of two or more foreign countries designated in this Order and/or nationals thereof are sufficient in the aggregate to constitute, within the meaning of the foregoing, control or 25 per centum or more of the stock, shares, bonds, debentures, notes, drafts, or other securities or obligations of a partnership, association, corporation, or other organization, but such control or a substantial part of such stock, shares, bonds, debentures, notes, drafts, or other securities or obligations is not held by any one such foreign country and/or national thereof, such partnership, association, corporation, or other organization shall be deemed to be a national of each of such foreign countries. The Secretary of the Treasury shall have full power to determine that any person is or shall be deemed to be a "national" within the meaning of this definition, and the foreign country of which such person is or shall be deemed to be a national. Without limitation of the foregoing, the term "national" shall also include any other person who is determined by the Secretary of the Treasury to be, or to have been, since such effective date, acting or purporting to act directly or indirectly for the benefit or under the direction of a foreign country designated in this Order, or national thereof, as herein defined.

F. The term "banking institution" as used in this Order shall include any person engaged primarily or incidentally in the business of banking, of granting or transferring credits, or of purchasing or selling foreign exchange or procuring purchasers and sellers thereof, as principal or agent, or any person holding credits for others as a direct or incidental part of his business, or brokers; and, each principal, agent, home office, branch, or correspondent of any person so engaged shall be regarded as a separate "banking institution."

G. The term "this Order," as used herein, shall mean Executive Order No. 8389 of April 10, 1940, as amended.

SECTION 6. Executive Order No. 8389 of April 10, 1940, as amended, shall no longer be deemed to be an amendment to or a part of Executive Order No. 6560 of January 15, 1934. Executive Order No. 6560 of January 15, 1934, and the Regulations of November 12, 1934, are hereby modified in so far as they are inconsistent with the provisions of this Order, and except as so modified, continue in full force and effect. Nothing herein shall be deemed to revoke any license, ruling, or instruction now in effect and issued pursuant to Executive Order No. 6560 of January 15, 1934, as amended, or pursuant to this Order; provided, however, that all such licenses, rulings, or instructions shall be subject to the provisions hereof. Any amendment, modification, or revocation by or pursuant to the provisions of this Order of any orders, regulations, rulings, instructions, or licenses shall not affect any act done, or any suit or proceeding had or commenced in any civil or criminal case prior to such amendment, modification, or revocation, and all penalties, forfeitures, and liabilities under any such orders, regulations, rulings, instructions, or licenses shall continue and may be enforced as if such amendment, modification, or revocation had not been made.

SECTION 7. Without limitation as to any other powers or authority of the Secretary of the Treasury or the Attorney General under any other provision of this Order, the Secretary of the Treasury is authorized and empowered to prescribe from time to time regulations, rulings, and instructions to carry out the purposes of this Order and to provide therein or otherwise the conditions under which licenses may be granted by or through such officers or agencies as the Secretary of the Treasury may designate, and the decision of the Secretary with respect to the granting, denial, or other disposition of an application or license shall be final.

SECTION 8. Section 5 (b) of the Act of October 6, 1917, as amended, provides in part:

". . . Whoever willfully violates any of the provisions of this subdivision or of any license, order, rule or regulation issued thereunder, shall, upon conviction, be fined not more than $10,000, or, if a natural person, may be imprisoned for not more than ten years, or both; and any officer, director, or agent of any corporation who knowingly participates in such violation may be punished by a like fine, imprisonment, or both."

SECTION 9. This Order and any regulations, rulings, licenses, or instructions issued hereunder may be amended, modified, or revoked at any time.

Occupied Croatia joined the Axis powers.

Colliers magazine ran an article on Pearl Harbor which termed it "impregnable".  The reporter who wrote the admiring piece had been invited by the Navy to examine and review the installation.

January 5, 1920. The first Monday of the year. Ice, Raids, Long and Bobbed Hair, and Fighting the Reds

It was the first Monday of the New Year, and the New Decade, the date, being the first of a full work week, when the new year really begins, at least for adults.  

So how did it start off?

Joseph and Thomas Leiter skating on the basin, Joseph takes a fall.  Washington D. C., 1/5/20.

Washington D.C. was apparently having a cold snap, as the Tidal Basin was frozen and children were taking advantage of it for ice skating.

 Miss Betty Baker, daughter of the Secty. of War and Miss Annie Kittleson skating on the Tidal Basin, Washington D. C., 1/5/20.

Admiral Jellicoe was still making the rounds.

Admiral Jellicoe photographed in Secty. Daniels office at the Navy Dept.  1/5/20.

The Supreme Court upheld the Volstead Act thereby wiping out booze for good, or so it would seem, right down to the ultra light beer level.

At the same time, things were developing and heating up in Ireland, where separatists Republicans were fighting the British in their effort to form a separate republic.  A familiar map was beginning to take place there.

Closer to home the Palmer Raids were still being celebrated and a new effort was underway for a sedition act designed to take on home grown Reds, described by the Casper headline writer as "long haired men and short cropped women". That headline actually did catch a hair style trend in radical women, albeit on that was about to spread.  As described by Whitaker Chambers in Witness, radical women of the time bobbed their hair.  Soon, that style, perhaps boosted by the daring radicalism, would spread to the female population in general.

By 1924, bobbed hair would be a flapper thing.  In 1920, it was a Red thing.

Reds and their opponents were at it tooth and nail elsewhere.

In Poland the Battle of Daugavpils concluded with the Soviets retreating into Latvia and being taken into custody there. That was possible as Poland and Latvia, which had been fighting, had concluded an armistice in the struggle between them and had asked the Poles for help. The anti Red forces were approximately half Pole and half Latvian, and fought successfully under Polish command.

Mustered Polish armor in the form of French tanks at Daugavpils.

June 23, 1919. The collapse of things German.

On this Monday in June 1919, the German government confirmed it would sign the Versailles Treaty.

The German government had collapsed, as we've seen, over the issue which had required the Reichstag to form a new government.  In so doing, that body formally voted to accept the treaty by a comfortable margin.

It didn't happen, of course, before the German Navy took steps to sink itself, which was still in the headlines.  Less noted, German airmen took the same step with Zeppelins on this day, which was more in the nature of an act of defiance.  As it was, it hardly mattered as the day of the airship as an offensive weapon of war was over.

A person could debate these sentiments, but in the next war they wouldn't occur  Aircraft were advancing too fast and there was no escape from the carnage anywhere.

It was a day of defeat of German interest in general, as Estonian and Latvian forces defeated the Baltic German Landswehr, which had been their allies in their wars against the Reds but which had then gone on to install their own pro German government in Latvia, at the Battle of Cēsis. 

Member of the Baltic Landswehr carrying German equipment and uniformed in the German style.

This would end the Baltic German bid for control of the region and bring to an end a process that had started in the Medieval era.  Oddly,as the German empire collapsed German military interest had fought on, and then turned their effort over to the local Germans, with vague imperial aspirations in mind.

Baltic Germans would hang on the region thereafter but a series of resettlement programs commenced in 1939 and carried through during the Soviet administration of the in cooperation with Nazi Germany. Even after the Nazis captured the region after attacking the Soviet Union Baltic Germans were not allowed to return and by the wars end additional efforts were made to take them out, given the fate that the Nazis had dealt them. Today some Baltic Germans remain in the region but the numbers are quite small.

The day is celebrated as Victory Day in Estonia, which also traditionally celebrates the day as St. John's Day, an event that stands as a major holiday on the calendar in the region.  The day traditionally marks the commencement of summer.

Elsewhere in the north, more or less, Czech forces were being pulled out of Vladivostok.

Czechs on a tug in Vladivostok harbor waiting to board the Archer on their way out of Russia and war.