Thursday, November 26, 1942. Casablanca premiers, Battle of Brisbane

When I first posted this (written yesterday, went up early this morning) I failed to appreciate that this was Thanksgiving Day for 1942.

Now, of course, most of the day is gone.

Usually when something like this comes up, I ponder on what that must have meant for my family at the time, so I've added that below.

The legendary film Casablanca, truly one of the best movies ever filmed, premiered at the Hollywood Theater in New York in advance of its general release.

The movie is a fantastic film that holds up today.  Amazingly, the film as we know it barely came together, with casting changes and the like.  Paul Henreid proved aloof during the film, regarding the other actors as lessors, and the film was overall one that shouldn't have worked out as well as it truly did.

It's one of my favorite films.

Today In Wyoming's History: November 26: 1942  Lusk announces they will forgo outdoor Christmas lights in accordance with a request from the War Production Board.  Attribution.  Wyoming History Calendar.

Riots broke out in Brisbane, Australia, between US servicemen and Australian servicemen.

This was not a minor incident, and one Australian serviceman was killed.  While generally Americans and Australians got along well, the disproportionately high pay of American serviceman was a source of problems all over the world, as merchants would cater to them, and it gave them an advantage with local women.  American soldiers were also freer with physical affection towards Australian women which offended Australians even though, ironically, the culture was much more libertine in the same arena behind closed doors.  

Additionally, Americans were dismissive of Australian soldiers in general, even though at the time they were all volunteer and had served in the war since 1939.  Australians were disdainful in turn of Americans who had, right up until about this time, a record of defeat.

The whole thing came to a head, resulting in two days of riots, the news of which was later suppressed.

President Franklin Roosevelt ordered gasoline rationing expanded to include the entire United States, effective December 1.

Speaking of a situation that involved the use of fuel, German 6th Army Commander Paulus, trapped at Stalingrad with his troops, wrote to his superior, Von Manstein, as follows:

For the past thirty-six hours I had received no orders or information from a higher level. In a few hours I was liable to be confronted with the following situation:

(a) Either I must remain in position on my western and northern fronts and very soon see the army front rolled up from behind (in which case I should formally be complying with the orders issued to me), or else

(b) I must make the only possible decision and turn with all my might on the enemy who was about to stab the army from behind. In the latter event, clearly, the eastern and northem fronts can no longer be held and it an only be a matter of breaking through to the south-west.

In case of (b) I should admittedly be doing justice to the situation but should also - for the second time - be guilty of disobeying an order.

(3) In this difficult situation I sent the Fuhrer a signal asking for freedom to take such a final decision if it should become necessary. I wanted to have this authority in order to guard against issuing the only possible order in that situation too late.

...

The airlift of the last three days has brought only a fraction of the calculated minimum requirement (600 tons = 300 Ju daily). In the very next few days supplies can lead to a crisis of the utmost gravity.

I still believe, however, that the army can hold out for a time. On the other hand - even if anything like a corridor is cut through to me - it is still not possible to tell whether the daily increasing weakness of the army, combined with the lack of accommodation and wood for constructional and heating purposes, will allow the area around Stalingrad to be held for any length of time.

While Paulus was asking for freedom of action, in Von Manstein's view the 6th Army lacked sufficient fuel to accomplish even minor movements, making a breakout by the 6th Army impossible.

As noted, this was Thanksgiving Day for 1942.

That is, US Thanksgiving Day.

Unlike Americans seem to think, most countries have a Thanksgiving of some sort.  It's very common for Christian countries. The U.S. can't really claim to have had "the first Thanksgiving", although we do.

However, not all countries have Thanksgiving on the same day by any means, so this was the holiday date for the U.S. in 1942.

On this day I know my father's family would have gathered for a Thanksgiving Dinner and it would have been the traditional type, turkey, etc.  It likely would have been, however, just my father's immediate family, but which I mean his parents and siblings.  No aunts or uncles lived nearby, they were living in Scotsbluff, and the grandparents were in Denver and Iowa respectively.

My father and his siblings would have been on a holiday break from school of course.  It was the first Thanksgiving of the war, but none of them were old enough to really be directly impacted by it yet.

November 8, 1942. Operation Torch commences.

 Operation Torch commenced, that being the Anglo American invasion of French North Africa.

The landings were a compromise between British and American concerns, designed to knock the Axis out of North Africa by opening up the territory of theoretically neutral French North Africa. While it tends to be obliquely noted, it was an active of aggression against a party that had resisted going into war fully and which was not a declared belligerent.

The Western Task and Center Tasks Forces were made up of all American troops, while the Eastern Task Force included some British troops as well as Americans. The naval contingent was Anglo-American.  French loyalty to Vichy was already wavering and Admiral Duran, in Algiers, quickly convinced the Vichy authorities not to oppose the landings.  Duran was in Algiers at the time, visiting his son, which worked out freakishly well given that it was soon clear that Giraud did not have sufficient command over Vichy forces to influence them.  Casualties would be overall low for the operation, which lasted a little over a week.

Vichy France broke off diplomatic relations with the United States on this day, but as a practical matter this was the beginning of the end for Vichy, which had been fighting the British nearly continually in Africa for most of the year, and had been beaten by Japan in the Pacific.  It was reduced to a rump state after this, with the Free French increasingly being the legitimate French authority.

Sarah Sundin noted the day on her blog, of course, and included the naval Battle of Casablanca:

Today in World War II History—November 8, 1942: Operation Torch: 400,000 American and British troops land in Morocco and Algeria. In Naval Battle of Casablanca, US ships sink nine Vichy French warships.

The operation proved to be a masterful strategic and logistical success.  In very short order, it became clear that the tide that was already turning was rapidly rising.  And at that, it's worth noting that rolling back the Axis in Europe really started with British successes in North Africa, followed by Operation Torch, prior to the Red Army commencing to advance in any meaningful manner.  Having said that, simply holding the line by the fall of 1942 was a major Soviet success.

Torch, by the way, pitted 107,000 Allied troops against 125,000 mostly Vichy troops.  It was, therefore, spread out over a long axis and while the landing forces were concentrated, they were actually outnumbered in terms of overall numbers.  Armor landing in support of Torch was, moreover, weak.

Hitler, in a speech in Munich, declared Stalingrad to be in German hands.  The speech was his annual one to his "old fighters".

The Germans eliminated the Piaski ghetto, spreading their genocide further.

1942  Two United States Army Air Corp fighters conducted a demonstration over Lusk, with one of them being flown by a resident of Lusk, now in the USAAC.  Attribution:  Wyoming State Historical Society.

May 26, 1919. Monday scenes.

Oil brokers, May 26, 1919.  Wichita Falls Texas.

In Wichita Falls, oil brokers conducted their business on the busy curb side.

Treaty news still dominated, but other events were creeping in, including disaster and adventure.

As well as misbehavior and lust.  A Lusk businessman had departed that town with an 18 year old girl, still in school, and abandoned his wife and six children. The shamed couple had relocated to Venice California, where they'd opened a "root beer concession".

The youthful participant in the illicit tryst admitted she had "loved unwisely".  She was now with child.

 Hotel headquarters of the American Red Cross in Berlin.

The Red Cross was extending a helping hand in Germany, now that the war was over. And Germany certainly needed one.

Niobrara County Courthouse

This is the Niobrara County Courthouse, one of the oldest courthouses still in use here. Perhaps its the oldest one still in use. Anyhow, this is an example of how they used to be.

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Postscript. 

Perhaps simply because this is one of the first posts that I did on this blog it has remained, for some reason, one of the consistently most viewed.  Anyhow, in checking back on it, I realized that I didn't post a link to the photo of this courthouse up on Courthouses of the West, our companion blog, in the main thread, although I did add it in a comment.

Also, since posting this, I've learned that at the time I posted this photo there were at least two, and probably three, courthouses then in use that are older than this one.  One of those, the Johnson County Courthouse, just went out of use, as a new courthouse has been built.  Another one, however, in Uinta County is much older than this one, having been actually built in the 1870s.