Thursday, December 16, 1943. The murder of Elfriede Scholz.

Elfriede Scholz, sister of novelist Erich Maria Remarque, was beheaded for "undermining the war effort" by refusing to renounce her brother.

Her brother was a refugee in the United States due to his anti-war and anti-Nazi views.  She was an outspoken anti-Nazi in her own right.

The Stars and Stripes, December 16, 1943:

Note that the Sergeant is carrying, in Mauldin's depiction, a M1903 Springfield.

The cartoon was a comedic depiction of conditions in Italy.

In Italy, Sarah Sundin's blog notes:

Today in World War II History—December 16, 1943: 80 Years Ago—Dec. 16, 1943: US Fifth Army takes Monte Lungo in Italy, almost encircling San Pietro, but the third attack on San Pietro fails.

She also notes that the RAF lost 29 returning Lancaster bombers in landings in fog on this day, the worst RAF accident loss of the war.

The U-73 was sunk by the U.S. Navy off of Oran, Algeria.

Crash of FM1, Bu# 46789, on flight deck of USS Manila Bay, December 16, 1943.

Friday, November 26, 1943. The sinking of the HMT Rohna.

The HMT Rohna was struck by a HS-293 guided bomb and sank, killing 481 officers men in the initial explosion and 534 who subsequently drowned.  Details of the death of the 1,015 men off of the coast of North Africa were not released until after the war.

HMT Rohna.

Yank published "Jungle Mop Up" in its November 26, 1943 edition, with photographs of combat on the Islands of Arundel and Sagekasa in the New Georgia Group.

Wounded, now dead, Japanese soldier left by withdrawing comrades

.

Company commander spotting artillery fire on mortar fire.

U.S. machine gun crew with M1919 machine gun.

The Red Army took Gomel, Belarus.

Medal of Honor winner and the Navy's first ace of World War Two, Lieutenant Commander Edward Henry O'Hare, failed to return from a combat mission, being a casualty of it.

A 7.2 magnitude earthquake resulted in the deaths of nearly 3,000 people in Turkey.

The MGM hit musical comedy Girl Crazy was released.

Sunday, October 19, 1943. Prisoner Exchange.

For the first time in the war, the United Kingdom and Germany engaged in a prisoner exchange.  4,340 Allied POWs, all sick or injured, were exchanged for 835 German POWs.  The Swedish Red Cross supervised the exchange, which took place in Sweden.  Seventeen Americans were included in the group.

On the same day, Allied aircraft sank the German-controlled cargo ship MS Sinfra in the Mediterranean.  Ironically, the 2,000 casualties were mostly Italian internees.

The Red Army broke out of the Kremenchug bridgehead.

Paul Robeson.

Paul Robeson made his Broadway debut, portraying Othello.  Robeson was a great singer, and a great, if tortured and misguided, intellect.  He obtained a law degree from Columbia Law School in 1923 while playing for hte NFL, which was integrated far earlier than baseball was.

Streptomycin was first isolated in a laboratory.

Sunday, August 22, 1943. Gertie from Berlin.

Irish army recruiting poster during World War Two.  Note the odd shade of the uniform, which was a very grass shade of green, a color unique to the Irish Army, but well suited for the island nation.  This depiction shows an Irish soldier after the adoption of the British style helmet, which came at the UK's request.  Before that the Irish had used a British Vicker's produced version of the German M1916 helmet, which was in fact a better pattern.  Ireland had a hard time staffing its Army during "the Emergency" as military aged men joined the British Army in such large numbers.

Sarah Sundin reports, on her blog:

Today in World War II History—August 22, 1943: German 10th Army is activated in southern Italy under Gen. Heinrich von Vietinghoff. 

In the Mediterranean, all fighter groups and medium bomb groups in the US Ninth Air Force are transferred to the Twelfth Air Force.

The Germans began to withdraw from Kharkiv to avoid encirclement.

Andrei Gromyko was named Ambassador to the United States, replacing Maxim Litvinov who had returned to the Soviet Union under Stalin's orders in May.  Gromyko was Belarusian.

US forces occupied islands in the Gilbert and Ellice Islands including Nukufetau and Namumea without opposition.

George S. Patton thanked the troops of his Army for their efforts in Sicily, noting:

As a result of this combined effort, you have killed or captured 113,350 enemy troops. You have destroyed 265 of his tanks, 2324 vehicles, and 1162 large guns, and, in addition, have collected a mass of military booty running into hundreds of tons.

English language German radio propagandist "Gertie from Berlin" was revealed to be Gertrude Hahn, a native of Pittsburgh who had gone to Germany in 1938 when her family returned to their native country.

The United Islamic Society of America formed in Newark, New Jersey.

Friday, June 11, 1943. Pantelleria calls it quits, the U.S. Army Air Force takes a pounding, Coal minters go on strike once again, Losses at sea.

The Italian island of Pantelleria was unconditionally surrendered to the Allies at 11:40 am local time.  

It was an historic surrender in that no boots were on the ground.  It was made solely in the face of an ongoing, and heavy, areal campaign, which is somewhat deceptive.  At this point in time the U.S. Army Air Force was of the mind that it could win the war without an invasion of Europe, which was obviously incorrect, and something like this tended to emphasize that mistaken view.

The surrender was significant in that it provided a staging area for the invasion of Sicily.

The island is closer to North Africa than it is to Sicily, but it can be regarded as midpoint.  The fact that it would call it quits is significant in and of itself, as it pretty clearly telegraphed that Italy was done.

On the same day the press reported that the Germans were planning a massive offensive in the East. They in fact were, but not in the location noted.

The RAF bombed Düsseldorf and Münster in its heaviest attack up to that time.  The U.S. 8th Air Force made a daylight raid on Wilhelmshaven and Cuxhave with 225 airplanes, losing 85 of them in a record loss ration at the time.

This emphasized the British point that daylight raids, which the U.S. favored as they were in favor of "precision bombing", and justifiably concerned about the immorality of nighttime targeting, were doomed due to heavy losses, in spite of having just agreed to the same in the Pointblank Directive.  On the other hand, this emphasized also the American view that the British fighter command was completely unhelpful in its refusal to do anything to extend the range of fighter escorts and make them suitable for long range penetration.

Indeed, it's worth noting that the Supermarine Spitfire and the P51 Mustang shared the same Rolls Royce Merlin engine. Had the RAF fighter command been less narrow-minded, the Spitfire, not the Mustang, would likely be remembered as the premier escort fighter of World War Two, and the P51 would have faded by late 1943 into obscurity.

U.S. coal miners went on strike again, with the support of their union President John L. Lewis.

Super patriotism at work. . . not.

Roosevelt would halt the strike, temporarily, by threatening to draft the miners.

In the popular imagination World War Two was free of labor strife, but in reality, it wasn't.

The German submarine U-417 was sunk in the North Atlantic by a B-17 of No. 206 Squadron RAF, the Japanese submarine I-24 was sunk off Shemya, Alaska by the U.S. Navy subchaser Larchmont, the Australian corvette HMAS Wallaroo sank off Fremantle after a collision with the American Liberty ship Henry Gilbert Costin.

The technicolor musical Coney Island was released.  It was nominated, but did not win, an Academy Award for best musical score in 1944.

Tuesday, May 18, 1943. Reaching out.

The Allies commenced bombing Pantelleria, 100 miles from Tunis and 60 miles off of Sicily.  

On a clear day, Tunisia is actually visible from Pantelleria.  The island, while it has had some occasional human residences since pre historic times, has been continually occupied since taken by the Carthaginians at the beginning of the 7th Century, B.C.

Pope Pius XII

Pope Pius XII appealed to Franklin Roosevelt to spare Rome from bombing.

Sunday, April 18, 1943. A vengeful Palm Sunday.

Admiral Yamamoto's airplane was ambushed by American P-38s in Operation Vengeance, which brought the plane down over Bougainville, killing him.

It was a very rare targeted action, in which Yamamoto was the purpose of the mission.  The mission remains somewhat debatable as a result.  Adm. Yamamoto was a very capable Japanese commander, and perhaps for that reason it was justified, although he also held mixed feelings about the war itself.

The intercept was made possible by the U.S. having broken the Japanese naval code and, for that  reason, it was also a bit risky as it may have revealed that fact to the Japanese as the P-38s were really beyond their normal range and their presence peculiar.

Sarah Sundin covered this in her blog as well.

Today in World War II History—April 18, 1943: Adm. Isoroku Yamamoto, commander of Japanese Combined Fleet, is killed when his plane is shot down by US Thirteenth Air Force P-38s over Bougainville.

She also covered the "Palm Sunday Massacre" in which the Allies shot down over half of an Axis 100 plane supply mission from Sicily to North Africa.

The Soviets denied the Katyn Massacre.

It was Palm Sunday, 1943.  Both of my parents would have attended Palm Sunday Mass with their families.

Friday, April 16, 1943. Mercader starts his wait.

Photo of a B-18 that had done a gear up landing, April 16, 1943.

The Battle of Cigno Convoy occurred off of Sicily, in which a Royal Navy attempt to interdict an Italian convoy resulted in the loss of the British destroyer Pakenham. The Italians lost a torpedo boat.

U.S. submarines under construction.

Swiss biochemist Albert Hofmann accidentally ingested LSD, making him the first human to do so.  He'd repeat the experiment and endure a "bad trip" two days later.

Hofmann was an advocate for the drug, hoping it would find some use, which it never did.

Ramón Mercader, a.k.a. Jacques Monard, was sentenced to 20 years in prison by Mexican authorities for murdering Leon Trotsky.  Mercader would serve out his term and ultimately move to the Soviet Union, where he was employed by the USSR and regarded as a hero. Before his death in 1978 he noted;  "I hear it always. I hear the scream. I know he's waiting for me on the other side."

Friday, March 12, 1943. Patton in command.

3-12-43 (Friday) We left Rabat one week ago to day.  We have done a lot but much remains to be done.  Freedenhal just exited he did not command and with few exceptions his staff was worthless due to youth and lack of leadership.

Bradley got back last night.  Ike has three plans. One that I should keep on with II Corps and have Bradley replace me at Rabat.

I said no on that one as it is unfair to Kemp.  Though possibly safer for me.

Plan 2.  For Bradley to go to Rabat and plan with Kemp and when this show is over to have me go back to [?] Haskey and B. take II Corps. Note that as utterly crazy.

Plan 3. For B to stay on as Deputy Commander with me get him a staff to work in with mine and then when this battle is over  to have me go [?] with my staff to [?] Haskey and Bradley take over. Kemp to plan until I get [?]

I accepted this as best. I am not at all sure that this show will run  according to plan and feel that as long as it is interesting Alexander will keep me. If it [?] down I can get out.

If Rommel attacks first that will be something different -- [?] may.

Wrote Gen Orders to Troops. [?] came to lunch. After lunch I went with him and inspected 2[?]th Inf. Col Taylor & 18th Inf Col. [?].  The 2[?]th been  badly shot up but seemed fine.  18th has done well and  is quite [?]

Terribly cold took a drink to get warm.

Gen [?] called at 2100 to tell me he had heard on the radio that I was a LIEUTENANT GENERAL.  [?] [?] [?] a [?] I am sleeping under  the three stars.  When Iwas a little boy at home I used to wear a wooden sword and say to myself.  "George S. Patton for Lieut Gen" at that time I did not know there were [?] [?] Now I want and will get five  stars.

Diary of George S. Patton.

The Royal Navy lost the HMS Lightening off of Algeria. She was attacked by E-boats.  The Turbulent was sunk by a mine off of Sardinia.

The U-130 was sunk by the USS Champlin off of the Azores.

The Red Army took Vyazma.  The Italian Army destroyed the Greek village of Tsaritsani, lilling 40 civilians.

Friday, January 8, 1943. Ultimatum

Gen. Konstantin Rokossovsky of the Red Army sent an ultimatum to Gen. Friedrich Paulus at Stalingrad, demanding the German surrender by 10:00 on January 9.  The message promised food and medical assistance to the German command if it surrendered, but destruction if they did not.  

Paulus contacted Hitler by radio, who refused permission to surrender.  Paulus was in an event skeptical fo the Soviet offer.

The Soviets continued to advance in the Caucasus, and the Free French continued to gain in southern Libya.

Sarah Sundin reports, on her blog:

Today in World War II History—January 8, 1943: British turn over control of Madagascar, except Diego Suarez area, to the Free French. Axis convoys between Naples, Italy, and Tripoli, Libya, are suspended.

Sunday, September 6, 1942. Positioning

Irish Army recruiting poster.  By this point, the Irish Army could really have needed a hand, given that so many military age men had entered the British Army that Ireland was effectively incapable of defending itself, and was relying on overage, and underage, men in the Home Guard.

On this day in 1942, the German U-375 stopped the Egyptian sailboat Turkian and sank her with 13 rounds from a deck gun.

All 19 crewmen were allowed to abandon ship.

British coast artillery replied, but to no effect.

A spectacular example of poor marksmanship on both sides and pointless destruction.

The Germans captured Novorossiysk.

Two policemen were shot dead in Belfast in day two of rising tensions in Ireland.

Arvid and Midlread Harnack, nee Fish, of the Red Orchestra were arrested.

East German postage stamp commemorating the Harnack's.

Mildred was American born and had moved to Germany as an academic in the 1920s.  Her husband Arvid Harnack was a German Communist and a lawyer.  Their arrest effectively brought about the end of the Red Orchestra.

Dorothy Dandridge, the first African American actress to be nominated for an Academy Award, married Harold Nicholas in Hollywood.  They would divroce in 1951.

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.

Friday, August 14, 1942. Eisenhower named to command Torch.

While there are different dates for this that seem to be given, and this is just one of them, it seems that on this date Dwight Eisenhower, career U.S. Army officer who had been a Colonel prior to the built up for World War Two, and who had never been in combat, was chosen to lead Operation Torch, the planned fall 1942 amphibious landings by Anglo-American troops in North Africa.

Maj. Gen. Eisenhower, at that time, in 1942.

That this was being planned shows the degree to which, in planning, the tide of the war was turning, in spite of the evidence on the ground.

On the ground, British commandos conducted a nighttime raid on anti-aircraft and radar sites at Pointe de Saire, France.  The raiders crossed the channel in a British motor torpedo boat and did not sustain any losses.

The Ohio, mentioned yesterday, and the day before, doesn't sink, is reboarded and taken back under tow.  Further attacks break the towline, but they're repaired, and the towing keeps on, lashed to warships near her.

British freighter MV Brisbane Star, part of Pedestal as well, makes it to Malta at 4:15 P.M. in spite of being heavily damaged.

The Australians retreat from Deniki in New Guinea.   The Japanese land 3,000 additional troops.

From Sarah Sundin's blog:

Today in World War II History—August 14, 1942: Two P-38 Lightnings of the US 1st Fighter Group shoot down a German Fw 200 Condor bomber off Iceland—the first US claim against the Luftwaffe

Tuesday, August 11, 1942. Inventive Actress, Distressed Convoy, No Vino.

This is a particularly interesting day for entries on Sarah Sundin's blog.

First, she notes:

Today in World War II History—August 11, 1942: Actress Hedy Lamarr and musician George Antheil receive a patent for a frequency-hopping system to prevent interception and jamming of radio communications.

This is, I'd note, a big deal.

Sundin goes on to note that the technology did not go on to be used in World War Two, but it is in cellular phones.

Lamarr, born Hedwig Eva Maria Kiesler, was an Austrian by birth.  Her father was Jewish and from Lviv, in what is now Ukraine, and her mother had been born Jewish and converted to Catholicism, and was from Budapest.  Her film career commenced in Czechoslovakia where she received notoriety for the film Ecstasy, which featured a plot involving a neglected young wife.  The film included brief nude scenes, which the 18-year-old Lamarr may have been genuinely tricked into through the use of high power lenses, as they clearly embarrassed her.  The film became a sort of blue hit in Europe, but was not allowed to be shown in the United States or Germany.

Ultimately married six times, she fled to Paris to escape her first husband in 1937.  He was a wealthy Austrian ammunition manufacturer whom she had married when she was 18, and before Ecstasy was released.  Highly controlling, the marriage fell apart for that reason.  Her American discovery, so to speak, came in London when she ran into Louis B. Mayer, who put her under contract.

Inventive by nature, the frequency hopping design noted above was designed to prevent the detection of torpedoes.  It was adopted ultimately by the Navy, but not until the 1960s.

Larmarr had a notable American career in film during Hollywood's Golden Age.  That career went into a steep decline in the 1950s which effectively ended it.  She began to descend into reclusiveness, with her final marriage, to her divorce lawyer, ending in 1965.  She became estranged from one of her children when he was only 12.  In her final years she was nearly a complete reclusive, but did reach out by telephone, spending up to six hours a day talking to other people in that fashion.  She was 85 when she died in 2000, and her ashes were spread in an Austrian forest according to her wishes.

Her unusual stage name became an odd comedic trope in Mel Brook's film Blazing Saddles, with one of the characters being named "Headley Lamar" and therefore needing to constantly correct the pronunciation of his name.

The stricken HMS Eagle.

Sundin also notes that the HMS Eagle went down in the Mediterranean.  The Eagle was an aircraft carrier and part of the convoy that we noted yesterday that was headed to attempt to relieve Malta's material shortages.  She took only four minutes to sink after being hit by four torpedoes fired from the U-73.

The Japanese dispatched a large naval task force from Tokyo to Truk Lagoon, where they are tasked with escorting troops and supplies to Guadalcanal.

The Soviets began desperately evacuating the port of Novorossisk on the Black Sea in advance of oncoming German forces.

Sundin also notes in her blog that the U.S. War Production Board ordered that the entire American grape wine crop for the year be diverted into raisins for the military.

This recalls actions by the U.S. Government to prohibit brewing and distilling during World War One in order to divert the use of cereals for food, rather than alcohol.

Monday, August 10, 1942. Churchill takes lunch in Iran.

Today in World War II History—August 10, 1942: Germans cross the Don River and enter outskirts of Stalingrad. Kaiser Richmond Field Hospital opens for employees of Kaiser Shipyard in Richmond, CA.

From Sarah Sundin's blog.  The Germans also took Maikop unopposed due to a Brandenburger Commando unit posing as NKVD troops, who ordered the Red Army unit there to retreat.

Meanwhile, the Battle of the Atlantic was raging, with U-boats taking impressive tolls daily.

In that context, on a day full of shipping losses, a heavily escorted British convoy of thirteen freighters including the American oil tanker SS Ohio passed through the Straits of Gibraltar headed towards Malta.  The Germans and Italians deploy submarines to intercept.

Winston Churchill, on his way to Moscow, stopped in Iran and had lunch with the Shah.

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.

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 14, 1942. A Naval First.

 

USS Roper.

Today in World War II History—April 14, 1942: Off North Carolina, destroyer USS Roper sinks U-85 in the first US naval victory over a German U-boat (all 46 killed).

From Sarah Sundin's blog.  A U.S. Navy victory in the Battle of the Atlantic.  The U-85 was the first casualty for the Germans in Operation Drumbeat.   The U-252 went down the same day in the Atlantic when attacked by ships of the Royal Navy.  The British submarine Upholder was sunk, however, by the Italians in the Mediterranean.

On the same day, Philippe Petain reinstated Pierre Laval as Vice Premier of France due to German pressure to do so.

Friday, February 6, 1942. The USDA discusses sharing, the Graf Zeppelin is photographed by the RAF, the HMS Utmost in Holy Loch, and members of the 6 AGH.

 The USDA delivered a Friday message on sharing.

Amin al-Husseini, the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, arrived in Italy with Iraqi politician Rashid Ali al-Gaylani.  They had both been in Germany, and they obtained an audience with Benito Mussolini.

Both men, in this regard, were bad judges of history, although it would oddly not impact them as much as might be supposed.  They both lived out their natural lives, with Al-Hamdani even managing to avoid a death sentence via pardon, which was given to him due to a post World War Two attempts to affect a coup in Iraq.

The German aircraft carrier Graf Zeppelin was photographed from the air.

The German aircraft carrier was in the category of pointless resource wasting endeavors by this point, although that may not have been as obvious as it now appears.  Part of a German effort to build two carriers, which would have gone on to more, the German Navy had not anticipated the war starting in 1939. It was planning for war in 1943.  At this point, the thought probably still lingered, however, that such ships would be useful in a future anticipated offensive against the United Kingdom as the war with the Soviet Union, launched partially in the belief that the USSR could be quickly defeated and all hope would be lost to the British, still held out hopes for a German victory.  

By August, the vessel would be the target of British air raids.

The ship came into the possession of the Soviets after the war, who considered finishing it off, but who ultimately sank as a target.  Its fate was not, however, known for decades outside of the USSR.

The British submarine HMS Utmost made a port call to Holy Loch.  The happy crew's luck would run out in November when she'd be sunk off of Sicily, probably by hitting a mine, and all of these young men would perish.

Troops of the 6th Australian General Hospital were photographed.

Monday January 5, 1942. The Soviet Counterstrike

On this day in 1942, the Soviets launched a theater wide counter offensive, although some place that date as January 7.

The British scored several naval victories with submarines in the Mediterranean, including sinking the troopship Citta Di Palermo which went down with 600 Italian troops.

US and Filipino forces fell back to a defensive line on Bataan.