Saturday, February 12, 1944. Canaris fired.

Wilhelm Canaris was dismissed as head of the Abwehr.  Technically the Abwehr, the German military intelligence ministry, was abolished on the same day and its functions were taken over by the Ausland-SD, but this doesn't seem to have been really the case to some degree, and most sources show the Abwehr continuing on until the end of the Third Reich.

By Bundesarchiv, Bild 146-1979-013-43 / CC-BY-SA 3.0, CC BY-SA 3.0 de, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=5419101

Canaris was opposed to the execution of Jews and registered complaints regarding it.  He also passed information on to the Allies and was involved in efforts to overthrow Hitler.  He was one of the most highly placed sources of intelligence for the Allies inside the Nazi regime.  An Abwehr deputy, Hans Oster, was also a figure in the German resistance.

His role would ultimately cost him his life, as he'd be arrested and executed later in 1944.  His wife, Erika, would relocate to Spain, where she would live until 1970.  Halina Szymańska, a Switzerland based Polish spy working for the British, whom Canaris used to pass on information, and who was also Canaris' paramour, and who was a widow of a Polish officer, would move to the UK after the war, marry an exiled Polish officer, and lived until 1989.

Canaris has always been a very difficult personality to grasp. Some regard him as being very heroic, as he was in fact carrying out resistance efforts from the very heart of Nazi Germany.  Others find him less so, wondering why he didn't go further given his central position.  He had briefly supported the Nazis, given their anticommunism, but had parted from them very early.  He had used his position to shield Dietrich Bonhoeffer, and he seems to have been motivated in his opposition to the Nazis partially by faith. Regarding that, he was a Lutheran in keeping with a conversion from Catholicism that his grandfather had made, but he had referred to himself as a "Catholic Mystic" and was fascinated with Spanish castles.  Neither faith would condone carrying on an extramarital affair.  He believed himself to be of Greek descent, but in fact he was of Italian descent.

The German III Panzerkorps took Vinograd and Lysianka in its effort to relieve the Korsun pocket.

 F6F’s on the flight deck of USS Gambier Bay (CVE 73) en-route to the South Pacific, February 12, 1944.

Marines captured Gorissi on New Britain.  Allied forces landed on Rooke Island in the Bismark Archipelago as well.  In the Marshalls the US landed on the Arno Atoll.

The German ship Oria sank in a storm in the Mediterranean, taking over 4,000 Italian prisoners of war down with it.

The New Zealand Corps replaced the US 2nd Corps at Cassino.  

Defenses at Anzio were reconfigured given recent German successes, but no major fighting occured on this day.

The British troopship Khedive Ismail was sunk by the I-27 in the Indian Ocean, taking 1,297 troops down with it.  One of them was Kenneth Gandar-Dower, age 35, who was an English sportsman, explorer and author.  He was on board as a war correspondent.

Wendell Willlkie announced his candidate for President, back in an era when the Presidential election cycle didn't begin insanely early.  No Democratic candidate had yet been announced, although his name had been put forward for some primaries.

A lawyer by profession and the child of two lawyers, Willkie had been in the Democratic Party until 1939, and indeed Roosevelt had considered him, even after that, as a Vice Presidential candidate.  By 1944 his health was rapidly declining, something accelerated by heavy drinking and smoking, and he would, in fact, not be alive by the November election.

Margaret Woodrow Wilson, age 57, the daughter of Woodrow Wilson, died on this day of uremia.  She was living in India, where she had become a devotee of a Hindu sect.

Thursday, February 3, 1944. Formation of the New Zealand Corps, Victory at Kwajalien.

Today in World War II History—February 3, 1944: 80 Years Ago—Feb. 3, 1944: In Italy, New Zealand Corps is formed under Lt.-Gen. Sir Bernard Freyberg, over New Zealand 2nd Division and Indian 4th Division.

Freyberg was born in the United Kingdom but raised in New Zealand.  He was a championship swimmer when young, and was licensed as a dentist in New Zealand in 1911.  He left New Zealand in 1914 to join the Villista's, and served as a Captain in those forces.  He left the fighting in Mexico, however, in August of that year upon learning that World War One had broken out, taking time to win a swimming championship in Los Angeles, and having earned passage to the UK by boxing.  He served first in a ground unit of the Royal Navy, and then transferred to the British Army.  He remained in the British Army between the wars.

A controversial general outside of British circles, he's somewhat emblematic of the British Army of the period in that his nationality was pretty fluid, but always British.  He was appointed Governor General of New Zealand after World War Two, and passed away in 1963.

German POW's, Anzio.  February 3, 1944.  Note the mixed uniforms, and also that some of these men are wearing camouflage smocks.  German POWs at this stage of the war often look very bitter about having been captured.

The Germans sealed off the Anzio beachhead.

Eniwetok, February 3, 1944.

The U.S. prevailed at Kwajalein.  Task Group 58 raided Eniwetok.  US forces landed on Burton Island.

Soldier's of the 7th Infantry Division moving a light artillery piece on Kwajalein.  Note the mid to late war characteristic baggy clothing of the US Army, with cargo pockets appearing.

75mm Pack howitzer on Kwajalein.

Bangalore torpedo team, 7th Infantry Division, Kwajalein.  February 3, 1944.

The Red Army encircled the Germans at the Korsun Pocket, where Hitler, on the same day, ordered them not to retreat.  Manstein organized an armored force with the goal of relieving the pocket.

The movie The Fighting Sullivan's was released, memorializing the November 1942 death of the Sullivan brothers, which we've discussed previously.

Off of the Solomon's, the Japanese sank the U.S. Navy light cruiser Juneau, which took 687 men with it, including five brothers of the Irish Catholic Sullivan family of Iowa.

The Sullivans.

It's commonly asserted that after this the U.S. military would not allow siblings to serve together, but in fact many siblings were already serving together in combat in North Africa as members of Federalized National Guard units. Entire towns would end up loosing huge numbers of their male citizens in the combat actions to come. There was a policy change, which relieved a sole survivor from military service, but it did not come until 1943, and was partially due to the deaths of the Borgstrom brothers of Utah as well.  Indeed, the Navy already had a policy precluding siblings from serving on the same vessel, but they did not actively enforce it.

A sister of the Sullivan brothers remained in Navy service.  Indeed, their enlistment in the Navy, or in once case a reenlistment, was to avenge the death of her boyfriend, who died at Peal Harbor.

The Sullivan family was not informed of the death of their sons until 1943, at which time their father was informed of all of their deaths at one time.  The Navy would commission a ship in their honor during the war, and oddly enough, one of the sons of the one of the men lost would later serve as a post-war officer aboard it. That ship has been decommissioned, but a second The Sullivans was commissioned to take its place.  

The current The Sullivans.

The tragic story was also made into a patriotic movie during the war itself, which was released in 1944.

The Sullivan story was the inspiration for the film Saving Private Ryan, although it's obviously in a much different setting.

The Renunciation Act of 1944 made it possible for a US citizen to renounce their citizenship during time of war by applying to the US Attorney General.  The hope was that interned Japanese Americans would do so, so that they could be deported to Japan.

It's doubtful that many would have ever exercised that option, but it should be noted that by this time of the war, the news was dealing with American advances in the Pacific nearly daily.  Hard fighting was occurring, but the Japanese were losing and that was fairly obvious.  Internees had full access to the news and to the extent that this tempted anyone, that surely would have reduced that desire.

Australian lumberjacks, February 3, 1944.  New South Wales.

Monday, January 31, 1944. Landings at Kwajalein.

The Battle of Kwajalein commenced with landings by the 4th Marine Division and the 7th Infantry Division under the command of Marine Corps General Holland "Howlin Mad" Smith, an acknowledged expert on amphibious warfare that some have called the "father of amphibious warfare".

Smith went to Auburn University, graduating in 1901, but his goal was to become an Army officer.  He was already a cavalry 1st Sergeant in the Alabama National Guard.  Nonetheless, following his undergraduate degree, he went to law school and obtained a Bachelor of Laws degree (JD's were not yet common) from the University of Alabama.  He thereafter practiced law in Montgomery, Alabama for a year.

Apparently he had second thoughts about that and determined to revive his interest in joining the Army.  He sought a commission, but none were available, so he instead obtained one from the Marine Corps, entering the Corps on March 20, 1905.  He'd later claim not to have known of the existence of the Marine Corps until the Army recruiter told them they were not accepting applicants, and referred him to the Marine recruiter down the block, although that's almost certain false.  The Marines were well known by 1905, and as he was seeking entry through a direct commission, an application process would have existed, rather than simply joining.

His first assignment as a Marine was in the Philippines.  He first saw action in 1916 in the Dominican Republic.  He was deployed to France in World War One in June 1917.  He was awarded the Purple Heart for service in the Great War, for merit, something that was not done after World War One.  During World War Two, he became instrumental in training both Marine and Army units in amphibious operations.

Smith, during World War Two, tended not to plan for disengagement of his forces once they were committed, something the Army regarded as foolhardy but which reflected the reality of amphibious operations.  The "no plan for retreat" ethos, however, crept into the Marine Corps as a result, and was evidenced in it long after.

He retired in 1946, and lived until 1967, dying at age 84.  His wife had already passed, but he was survived by a son, Rear Admiral John V. Smith, a 1934 Naval Academy graduate.

Sarah Sundin's entry on this event:

Today in World War II History—January 31, 1944: US Army and Marines land on Kwajalein & Majuro in the Marshall Islands, with the first use of the DUKW amphibious vehicle in the Pacific .

The Allies took Majuro in the Marshall's.

U.S. ships at Majuro.

The landing force had expected opposition, but the Japanese had withdrawn to Kwajalein and Eniwetok, leaving a single warrant officer as a caretaker in what must have been an anxiety filled roll.  He was captured, and along with him, one of the largest anchorages in the Pacific. 

The U-592 was sunk by three Royal Navy sloops. All hands were lost.

Saturday, January 29, 1944. The USS Missouri launched.

The USS Missouri was launched.  The long serving ship is now a Museum Ship in Pearl Harbor.

USS Missouri, Pearl Harbor Hawaii

 USS Missouri viewed from the USS Arizona Memorial.

 Small trailed mortar, probably of a Japanese pattern.

 Dual Bofars 40mm Anti Aircraft guns formally on the USS Missouri.

 The "tears" of the USS Arizona.  Oil slick from oil leaking from the bunkers of the Arizona.

 The spot on which World War Two came to an end on the decks of the Missouri.

 The instrument of surrender.

 Oil from the USS Arizona alongside the USS Missouri.

 Tomahawk Missile platform.

 The location on the USS Missouri where she was hit by a Kamikaze aircraft.  The result was this dent in the side.  The Japanese pilot was buried in a formal burial at sea the following day.

 While not labeled on the ship, these are powder bags for 16 in guns.

USS Missouri viewed from the hangers at Ford Island.

While occasionally taken out of service, she's serve all the way through 1998 in various recalls.  

The massive battleship was far larger than the pre-war US battleships.

The Battle of the Green Islands began when American and New Zealand reconnaissance forces landed on the islands, which are located between Bougainville and New Ireland.  They'd only remain for 24 hours and then withdraw, with larger operations to begin on February 5.

In the Marshalls, US Task Force 58 bombed and shells Japanese targets on Roi, Namur, Maloelap and Wotje.  Land-based aircraft bomb Jaluit and Mille.

The Red Army captured Chudovo.

Soviet Partisans killed 38 civilians in German occupied Koniuchy, Lithuania.

The HMS Spartan was sunk off of Anzio by a Hs 293.

The U-364 was sunk in the Ba of Biscay by an RAF Halifax.