Sunday, February 27, 1944. The Khaibakh Massacre

Weather prevented over 700 Chechen villagers from Khaibakh from being convoyed in the Soviet mass deportation of Chechens, meaning they could not meet the absurdly short deadline set by Lavrentiy Beria so they were shot.  The order was given by Mikhail Gvishiani, an officer in the NKVD.

Beria, a loyal Stalin henchman, was a first class weirdo who was also a mass rapist, something his position allowed him to get away with.  He fell after Stalin's death, was tried, and executed for treason.

Gvishiani survived the fall of Stalin, but probably only because his son, Dzhermen Gvishiani, was married to the daughter of Communist Party Central Committee member Alexei Kosygin.

It was the start of National Negro Press Week.

The U.S. Office of Strategic Services commenced Operation Ginny I with the objective of blowing up Italian railway tunnels in Italy to cut German lines of communication.

The OSS team landed in the wrong location and had to abandon the mission.

Hitler ordered the Panzerfeldhaubitze 18M auf Geschützwagen III/IV (Sf) Hummel, Sd.Kfz. 165, "Hummel" renamed as he did not find the name Hummel, i.e. bumblebee to be an appropriate name.

You would think that Hitler would have had other things to worry about at this point.

The Grayback was sunk off of Okinawa by aircraft.

Tuesday, October 28, 1941. Lend Lease gets an office, How Green Was My Valley gets a film.

P-39L-1BE 44-4673 on its way to the Soviet Union. The P39 was a favorite of the Soviet Air Force, but never really well liked by the U.S.

The Office of Lend Lease Administration was established on this day in 1941 to oversee that effort, something I only am aware of due to the link below:

Today in World War II History—October 28, 1941

Lend Lease was a massive effort, suffice it to say, and was one of the primary ways in which the US helped bring about the Allied victory.

In the US, the classic film How Green Was My Valley, about Welsh miners, was released. The John Ford epic is highly regarded, as is the semi biographical book it is taken from, but I've not read the book nor seen the film myself.

The Germans reached Tula south of Moscow, but were stopped there. They would not take the city.

The troops that reached the border of the city were under Guderian's command.  While I can't find it offhand, I think that Tula is the city which Guderian made the really odd comment about "Tula, long drive, blond girl".

I have no idea what that means.

Lavrentiy Beria, Soviet Georgian, rapist, murderer and head of the Soviet NKVD had twenty former Soviet military officers and politicians executed in Kuybyshev.

In his capacity as an official murderer (rape was his hobby, being the bloody head of the NKVD his occupation) he was responsible for the deaths of thousands, but would go on to be executed following the death of his murderous patron, fellow Georgian Stalin, by natural. . . maybe, causes.

Australia opened its first diplomatic mission to China, opening it in Chunking due to wartime conditions in the country.

December 20, 1920. Red Russia turns Redder.

Felix Dzerzkhinsky in Switzerland, 1918, with his wife and son.  The son was born in 1911 in prison where Sophia Dzerzkhinsky was a political prisoner.

On this day the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service was created as a special section of the Cheka.  Felix Dzerzhinkshy was at its head.

Dzerzhinkshy was a Pole of noble birth who was radicalized at some point in his early years and went on to a blood stained role in the early Soviet Union.  He died of a heart attack at age 59 in 1926.