February 19, 1724. Amalthéa Aristotelico-Scoticos

Franciscan John Constance Parnis of Malta finished his magnum opus, Amalthéa Aristotelico-Scoticos (A Compendium of Aristotelian-Scotist Philosophy).  

The handwritten work has never been transcribed or translated, although it has been read. The lack of transcription and translation means its never been fully studied.

Thursday, July 8, 1943. The execution of Jean Moulin, Looming Operation Husky, Stalled Operation Citadel, Bombing Wake, Smog in Los Angeles.

Jean Moulin.

Jean Moulin, the first President of the National Council of the Resistance, but for less than two months, was executed by the Germans.  He had been arrested due to a betrayal that's never been solved. He was one of the individuals who was tortured under Klaus Barbie.

General Eisenhower arrived in Malta in anticipation of Operation Husky, the Allied invasion of Sicily.

By this point, it was obvious that an imminent invasion of Sicily was coming. The Allies were bombing it heavily.  Nonetheless, German attention was focused on the East, at Kursk, which had entered its fourth day of fighting.  In the north, Ponyri station switched hands back and forth.  The 9th Army attacked the second Soviet line, which featured defense in depth, a Soviet tactic, and failed to breach it.  The 9th Army was in turn suffering critical losses.  Model was forced to commit the last of his armored reserves.

In the south, the Germans broke through the second defense line in the Oboyansk direction, but then withdrew after a strong counterattack.

B-24s operating from Midway bombed Wake Island in the first land based strike on Wake.

The escort carrier USS Casablanca was commissioned.

Smog became a problem for LA.

Friday, November 20, 1942. The Axis reels in defeat.

The Siege of Malta ended after 2.5 years.

The Axis effort to isolate and eliminate Malta as a British asset had been conducted principally from the air, but had also been heavily supported by the German and Italian navies.  For almost all the siege the defense of the of the island, which used numerically inferior numbers of aircraft, had been a strictly British affair, aided only in the end by the U.S. Navy assisting in ferrying aircraft to Malta.  It was a resolute British victory.

The tide had been turning since the British had been able to reinforce the island with new aircraft in 1942 and emergency supplies had been run in, keeping the island from starvation. The Germans had more or less given up in October, but Axis defeats in North Africa made maintaining the siege impossible, as the Axis had been required to switch its air assets to the failing campaign in North Africa.

Malta had been independent until 1798, having been governed by the monastic Order of Saint John, which lost power to Napoleon.  The Maltese rebelled and asked for British help, with the island becoming a British protectorate in 1800.  It became a Crown Colony in 1813, obtaining home rule in 1947 and independence in 1964.

The British 8th Army retook Benghazi, Libya.

The Red Army opened up phase two of Operation Uranus with Stalingrad Front commander Andrei Yeremenko opening up the southern prong after the fog lifted.  Again, Romanian troops failed and collapsed, with German forces attempting to react.  By then end of the day, only the 6th Romanian Cavalry Regiment stood between the Red Army and the Don.

The Alaska Highway officially opened.

Today In Wyoming's History: November 20: 1942 NHL abolishes regular season overtime until World War II is over.

Hockey fans weren't the only lonely ones.  Life magazine went to press with a black and white photograph of a woman smoking a cigarette and drinking coffee on its cover, entitled "Lonely Wife".

Joseph Robinette Biden was born in Scranton, Pennsylvania.  Norman Greenbaum, famous for his song Spirit In The Sky, was born in Malden, Massachusetts.

Joe Biden is the oldest person to ever be elected President.  In case a person wonders, he's only four years older, however, than Donald Trump.

Saturday, August 15, 1942. Ohio gets to Malta.

Today in World War II History—August 15, 1942: Allied “Pedestal” convoy arrives in Malta—only 5 of 14 cargo ships have survived (including tanker Ohio lashed to destroyers HMS Penn and HMS Ledbury).

From Sarah Sundin's blog. 

The Pedestal convoy was a major saga in 1942.  Even now, historians debate whether the huge convoy losses made the matter an Axis victory or the fact that some ships did get through, including the Ohio, made it an Allied one.  At the end of the day, the arrival of the Ohio was in fact materially important, and the supplies allowed Malta to carry on.

The Ohio after arriving in port.

Malta was in truth very near to being starved out of the war at this point and therefore, from my prospective, this was in fact a British naval victory, albeit one at a high cost.  The British could not afford to lose the island, however, and Pedestal prevented that and allowed it to go on to be used as an air and naval base to disrupt supplies going to the Afrika Korps.

Also on this day, the British submarine HMS Porpoise sank the Italian MV Lerici.  The U-705 sank the SS Balladier off of Ireland.  The Finnish patrol boat VMV 5 sank the Soviet submarine M-97 in the Gulf of Finland.

The Germans attacked Grozny.

The Marines, now suffering from short supplies, opened the captured Japanese airfield at Lunga Point, naming it Henderson Field.  On the same day, four ships arrived with much-needed supplies.

1942  The first landing at the Casper Air Base took place when Lt. Col. James A. Moore landed a Aeronca at the base.

Monday, August 3, 1942. Supplying Malta.

Today in World War II History—August 3, 1942: Lt. Cdr. Mildred McAfee is named the first director of the WAVES, becomes the first female officer in the US Naval Reserve.

From Sarah Sundin's blog.

The British launched Operation Pedestal, a naval operation designed to provide supplies to besieged Malta. The degree to which Malta was in desperate straights for much of 1941 and 1942 is often forgotten in the story of the war, as is the fact that the naval contest there was for a long time more evenly matched than we might otherwise remember.

Tuesday, June 16, 1942. Allied setbacks.

Winston Churchill left the UK by plane to the United States for a visit with Franklin Roosevelt.

He would not have left had he known how dire the British position in North Africa was becoming, something that he'd been reassured about by Gen. Auchinleck before he departed.  On the same day, the Afrika Korps attacked El Adem and Sidi Rezegh near Tobruk, which effectively cut it off from contact with other British forces.

German U-boats had another good day in the Atlantic and Caribbean.

Operations Vigourous and Harpoon, designed to relieve Malta, concluded, largely a failure.

The Germans obliterated Ft. Maxim Gorky's artillery at Sevastopol.

The RAF conducted an ineffective nighttime raid on Essen.

Sunday, May 10, 1942. The Battle of Malta and P40s to Ghana.

Operation Bowery sees British Spitfires delivered to Malta, quickly refuel, and take flight again.  The action was the turning point in the air battle over Malta that had been going on for months.  On this day, in fact, in the  Battle of Malta, an Italian bombing mission on Malta sustained heavy losses and daytime raids on Malta ceased.

Spitfire being readied to take off from the USS Wasp.

The mission was the successor to one which had only recently taken place, in which all of the Spitfires had been destroyed on the ground immediately after landing in Malta.

On the same day, 60 P40s were launched from the USS Ranger to take up station at Accra in Ghana.

P40s on the USS Wasp.

This is an aspect of a truly world war that we don't consider.  Probably even many people who are highly literate on the history of the Second World War don't know that the United States Army Air Corp stationed fighters in a West African nation, or rather British colony, but it did. These no doubt served principally as a deterrant to German submraines operating off of the South Atlantic coast, but also as a deterrant to the threat of Vichy operations in Africa.

Churchill, on the occasion of the second anniversary of his taking office as Prime Minister, declared that if the Germans used poison gas against the Soviets, the United Kingdom would regard it as having been used against it.

In spite of the fear that the Germans would use poison gas, they in fact never did, and the only incident of combat theater gas deaths during the war came when the Luftwaffe hit a ship of the US Navy off of Italy later in the war which was carrying a supply of poison gas.

Sarah Sundin notes on her blog the following:

Today in World War II History—May 10, 1942: Assembly center for Japanese-Americans opens at Stockton, CA. US celebrates Mother’s Day.

Noting that it was Mothers Day for 1942, she also had this interesting poster on her blog:

 

Tuesday, April 7, 1942. Race and the War in the United States.

Sarah Sundin, on her blog, related to incidents in the history of racism in the United States and more particularly during World War Two.

Today in World War II History—April 7, 1942: Representatives from 11 western states meet with War Relocation Authority to protest Japanese-Americans evacuating to their states.

As she goes on to note, only Colorado provided the exception to rule here, indicating its willingness to accept internees.  

Wyoming, which would end up with Heart Mountain, was very hostile to accepting them, but would end up with a camp nonetheless.

She also noted on her blog:

US Navy announces that Blacks can enlist for general service (Seabees, shore duty, stevedores), not just in the mess, as of 1 June 42, allowing time to build segregated facilities.

As we've noted in a detailed entry on this blog, the military was segregated at this time and black sailors were relegated to the mess, as noted.  The irony in the case of the Navy was that it had not been segregated in the 18th and 19th Centuries, but became segregated, and indeed beyond segregated in that it relegated blacks to the mess, with the onset of modern steel warship at the end of the 19th Century.  As we earlier noted:

The story for the Navy was somewhat similar, in that it saw the return of blacks to active combat service.  Starting off the war being relegated to secondary service roles, as the war progressed blacks were reincorporated, on a segregated basis, into combat service. By the war's end it was the case that even two ships had all black crews and blacks had

The all black enlisted crew of a submarine chaser.

Black sailors of the USS Mason, a ship crewed by all black enlisted men.

Under pressure from the Roosevelt Administration, the Navy also commissioned a handful of black officers for the first time since the Navy's early history.  The officers largely saw service limited to shore roles due to the segregated nature of the Navy, but at least one was assigned as an officer on board one of the two entirely black crewed ships.

The first black Naval officers during World War Two.

The Maltese capital of Valletta was heavily hit by a German air raid, destroying the famous Royal Opera House.

The Indian National Congress Working Committee rejected the Cripp's plan for Indian post-war independence, taking a position for something basically immediate.

Monday, April 6, 1942. The Japanese strike India.

From Sarah Sundin's excellent day-to-day history of World War Two blog:

Today in World War II History—April 6, 1942: 80 Years Ago—Apr. 6, 1942: Japanese air raid on Vizagapatam and Cocanada, India, helps tip India to support the Allies. Germany cuts ration of bread, meat, and fats. Due to heavy Luftwaffe raids, British Royal Navy begins to withdraw surface ships from Malta to Gibraltar and Alexandria. Seven hundred Japanese-Americans are assembled at Santa Anita Racetrack. First group of Japanese-Americans are evacuated from San Francisco.

I'd draw attention to the first one of these items in particular. 

The British were trying to secure the support of India which, while it remained part of the British Empire, was increasingly moving towards independence and achieving it by default.  It would end up, however, contributing an army to the Allies which was the largest in the war, in terms of sheer manpower.

India had of course contributed manpower in the form of the Indian Army to the British Empire in World War One. But, like other parts of the Empire, it was increasingly reluctant to become as engaged in World War Two, and unlike Canada, Australia and New Zealand (as well as Ireland, which remained neutral in the war) it was not a self-governing dominion with de facto independence.  Indeed, in spite of ultimately fully committing to the Allied cause, a substantial number of Indians would end up in a rebel Indian army that served under the Japanese, although not terribly effectively.

The Japanese strike fit into a series of actions which caused people who remained subject to colonial rule in Asia to reject the Japanese as worse rulers, for the most part, than the Europeans had been, with Indonesia, where the Japanese were generally preferred, being the exception.  

The war ultimately accelerated the demise of colonialism, which was exposed as too hypocritical in light of Allied war aims, let alone propaganda, and the arming of local forces made it effectively impossible to keep on in the former role after the war.  A major impact of the war, therefore, was to complete the global death of empire, even if they'd linger on in various locations for decades.

Saturday, March 21, 1942. The "last" British cavalry charge.

On this day in 1942 the last British "cavalry" charge. . . maybe . . .  occurred at Toungoo Burma.

This is sort of a well known historical footnote, which means that it's often not really very well understood.  The unit conducting the charge was a Sikh element of the Burma Frontier Force and was part of the Indian Army, although it's sometimes asserted that this unit was in the nature of paramilitary police.  The Frontier Force still exists today as part of the Pakistani Army.  That categorization, however, is probably improper, and the various unis of the Frontier Force did see extensive combat during the war.

The officer in command of the charge, Cpt. Arthur Sandeman, was an officer of the Central Indian Horse.  The battle at Taungoo itself was actually principally between the Chinese Nationalist Army, which had been given the task of defending Burma, and the Japanese.  Indeed, the charge occurred when the unit, which was actually a column of mounted infantry, not cavalry, mistook a Japanese unit for a Chinese one while on patrol.  The patrol accordingly went to close with what they thought were their Chinese allies when it turned into a charge by necessity.  Sandeman and most of his men were killed in the ensuing charge.

The Frontier Force was not the only cavalry unit involved in the battle, which would prove to be a Chinese defeat, as the Chinese had committed a motorized cavalry unit to the action.

It could well be argued, of course, that this charge was not a British one, although it was British led.

Malta, which had been besieged from the air for months, suffered its heaviest air raid today.

Entrapped German troops at Demyansk attempt a breakout.

Wednesday, February 4, 1942. Men of miscalculation.

In North Africa, an odd event known as the Abdeen Palace Incident occurred, as was reported by Sarah Sundin in her blog:

February 4, 1942: In North Africa, British retreat ends at Gazala, Libya. Japanese take Ambon, Netherlands East Indies, from a small Australian garrison. British troops surround Egyptian palace in Cairo to force King Farouk to abdicate.

I'd note, FWIW, that I disagree with that date for the Japanese taking Ambon, I think it was February 3.  But the date for the British coup in regard to King Farouk is quite correct, although he did not abdicate.  Rather, he was forced to accede to a new government.  He remained the king for another decade.

King Farouk in 1946.  He as a member of the Turco-Circassian elite in the country, which owned 3/4s of the land at the time.

Farouk was, suffice it to say, an interesting figure who was the king over an interesting country.  He was of Circassian, Turkish, French, Albanian and Greek descent, meaning he lacked Arab or Egyptian genetic heritage.  His bodyguards were Albanians, the only people he trusted in that role.  His actual heritage was more Circassian than anything else, due to the presence of various Circassian slave girls in his heritage.  He became king at age 16 and never got along with the country's British representative, Miles Lampson.  He strongly favored Italians over the British.

Egypt had technically been an Ottoman possession until World War One, and after that was technically independent but was in fact a quasi British satellite with various treaty obligations to the British.  It was not a declared combatant in the war, but treaty rights in which the British had the right to station troops there to defend it meant that it was in fact a combat theater.  Beset by a complicated domestic travails, including the lack of a male heir, he lived a lavish lifestyle which, early in the war, caused him to lose favor with the Egyptian people who were aware that the British royals were sacrificing during the war.  His palace did not adhere to blackout provisions in Cairo.

The British exerted heavy pressure over who would hold office in the Egyptian government and Farouk generally yielded to them, but on this day their displeasure over the makeup of the government boiled over.  Farouk asked his military leaders how long they could hold out against the British if they refused British demands, and were informed that they could only do so for two hours.  On this night, the British presented Farouk with an ultimatum and troops surrounded his place.  Ultimately, they stormed it.  Farouk capitulated and a new Egyptian government was formed.  The British representative, unbeknownst to him, was lucky to leave with his life, as Farouk's body guards were hidden in the room, ready to open fire if he was touched.

Ironically, the event caused the Egyptian people to rally behind Farouk, who resented the obvious British termination of their chosen government in favor of one that would do the British bidding. Farouk did not rise to the occasion, however, and the event marked part of his slide into increased gross personal excess in every imaginable fashion.  It also marked a turning point in Egyptian politics as Egyptian military leaders became opponents of ongoing British presence, something that would ultimately lead them to depose Farouk and take over the country, with their rule effectively continuing on to the present day.

Farouk's popularity with Egyptians did not last, and he was deposed in 1952 as noted, spending the rest of his life in Italy.  The entire matter ultimately proved to be a British disaster.

As an aside, his sister, Princess Fawzia Faud, would be Queen of Iran in an arranged political marriage with the Shah of Iran from 1941 to 1948. The marriage brought Iran added status, not Egypt, as the latter was the more important state. That marriage ended in divorce.  She remarried an Egyptian army officer/diplomat and lived the rest of her life in Egypt, dying in 2013.

Also on this Wednesday, February 4, 1942, Hermann Goering met with Benito Mussolini regarding the invasion of Malta.  Mussolini wasn't impressed.

Suffice it to say, the day for German invasions had really passed.  The Germans had essentially concluded that it was incapable of invading Great Britain and had turned its eyes East, oddly partially, at least, for that reasons.  That of course brought about the invasion of the Soviet Union, which was not going well.  

The Germans and Italians were not going to invade Malta.

In North Africa, however, the Germans and Italians were doing fairly well, which perhaps gave rise to the delusion that they'd be in the position for a Maltese offensive.  On this day they took Dema, Libya.  British lines, however, were forming.

Lord Beaverbrook was appointed head of the Ministry of War Production, which had been created on this day.  He resigned after occupying the office for two weeks.  The Ontario native clashed with another figure in the administration and determined to depart the agency.

January 10, 1941. War Materials.

The Germans ordered the registration of all Jews in the Netherlands take place on this day in 1941.

In the United States, the Lend Lease Act passed Congress.

The bill was premised on the thesis that the United States had, or could build, war materials that it could then loan to the Allied powers. This was a big step towards war and that was appreciated at the time.  Lending a person a gun in a fight is pretty close to being in the fight yourself.  The act acknowledged that the Allies, and at that time particularly the British, were struggling to keep themselves supplied with weapons in their fight against the Germans and Italians, but of course the act would soon apply to the USSR as well.

Related to the problems of supply, the Royal Navy launched Operation Excess in the Mediterranean.  The effort was a supply effort for forces on Malta and Greece. The Royal Navy encountered the Luftwaffe for the first time in the operation.

HMS Illustrious.

During the operation the HMS Illustrious was damaged by a Ju87, Stuka dive bomber, attack.  We tend not to think of the Stuka engaging ships in World War Two, but this gives us an early instance of that occurring.   The Illustrious was defended by Fairey Fulmars, a combination fighter and reconnaissance aircraft, which did engage the Stukas during their second run, but largely unsuccessfully.

Fulmars on the Illustrious.

The Fulmar itself was frankly not a great plane, but it reflected the state of Royal Navy aviation at the time.  The Royal Navy had a lot of ships, with some of them being very modern, and some not, but their aviation was not as advanced either technologically or conceptually as the United States' or Japan's at the time.

In spite of the successful Luftwaffe attack the convoy run was successful and no British ships were lost. The Italians, however, lost the Vega, a torpedo ship, which was destroyed in a surface engagement.  Of her 128 crewmembers, only 6 survived.

More on this can be read about here:

10 January 1941: Luftwaffe Swoops on Convoy – Illustrious an Inferno

The British effort reflected the fact that fighting was going on in Greece and Malta was threatened.  This is important, however, in that the Italians were getting beat by the Greeks, a fact that was altering Germany's tactical thinking.  On this day Greek forces took Kilsura Pass in Albania.  Albania had been invaded by Italy in April, 1939, for reasons that would only make sense to fascist Italy.  Now Greece was advancing into Albania.

Greek troops at Kilsura Pass.

More on the events of World War Two on this day can be read here:

Today in World War II History—January 10, 1941

And here:

Day 498 January 10, 1941

And in the United States, preparation for the coming war continued.

Hanger under construction on this day at Alaska's Ft Wainright.  B17 in the foreground.

On the same day, Arsenic and Old Lace premiered on Broadway.

December 27, 1940. Kitty Foyle

The movie Kitty Foyle was released, which had the byproduct of popularizing the Kitty Foyle Dress.

You can also read about that event here:

Today in World War II History—December 27, 1940 & 1945

Kitty Foyle dress.

It was a second frustrating day for Adolf Hitler.  On the 26th he'd met with French Admiral Duran and threatened him about Vichy not entering the war alongside of Germany.  On this day, German Admiral Raeder expressed severe doubts about attacking the Soviet Union before the United Kingdom was defeated.

Some other things going on, on that day:

Day 484 December 27, 1940

27 December 1940: Cold and Wet Threatens Morale in Malta