Sunday, November 30, 1941. War Warnings

On this day in 1941 Sunday newspaper readers in Hawaii woke up to read that war with Japan was imminent.  Indeed, headlines in the Hilo Tribune and Honolulu Advertiser read that Japan might strike that next weekend, the weekend of December 6/7.  In fact, the Emperor had issued permission to Tojo to proceed to war.

The Germans retreated near the Mius after the Soviets successfully took back Rostov.  Gerd von Rundstedt issued the order and then continued the retreat in spite of having received direct orders from Hitler to stop it.  On the same day, the commander of the German Army Group Center, Fedor von Bock, directly quested German intelligence estimates of the forces opposing him, which he correctly guessed to be inaccurate.

Also, on the same day they commenced mass murder in Rumbula, Latvia, of the area's Jewish population.  Ultimately, 25,000 people would die.

Two Faced Woman was released. The movie would be Greta Garbo's last appearance.  The film was a bomb, featuring Garbo as a woman posing as her own, fictitious, twin engaged in an effort to recapture the affections of her ex-husband.  The movie met with poor reviews and with the condemnation of the Legion of Decency.  Given the latter, the film was withdrawn and recut, but still bombed.

Thursday November 20, 1941. Thanksgiving Day.

 This was Thanksgiving Day in 1941. . . unless it wasn't.

The situation was pretty confused, it's easier to read about it here:

Thanksgiving in World War II

American Thanksgiving is a fairly late Thanksgiving to start with. As has been noted here on earlier posts, this holiday is much less unique to the US than Americans think it is.  Most nations do it earlier, however.

It has moved around in the US case.  The Library of Congress's "Wise Guy" posts, summarize it as follows:

Is it time to buy the turkey? In 1939, it would have been difficult to plan your Thanksgiving dinner for 12.

Today, Thanksgiving is celebrated on the fourth Thursday of November. But that was not always the case. When Abraham Lincoln was president in 1863, he proclaimed the last Thursday of November to be our national Thanksgiving Day. In 1865, Thanksgiving was celebrated the first Thursday of November, because of a proclamation by President Andrew Johnson, and, in 1869, President Ulysses S. Grant chose the third Thursday for Thanksgiving Day. In all other years, until 1939, Thanksgiving was celebrated as Lincoln had designated, the last Thursday in November.

Then, in 1939, responding to pressure from the National Retail Dry Goods Association to extend the Christmas shopping season, President Franklin D. Roosevelt moved the holiday back a week, to the next-to-last Thursday of the month. The association had made a similar request in 1933, but at that time, Roosevelt thought the change might cause too much confusion. As it turns out, waiting to make the change in 1939 didn't avoid any confusion.

At the time, the president's 1939 proclamation only directly applied to the District of Columbia and federal employees. While governors usually followed the president's lead with state proclamations for the same day, on this year, 23 of the 48 states observed Thanksgiving Day on November 23, 23 states celebrated on November 30, and Texas and Colorado declared both Thursdays to be holidays. Football coaches scrambled to reschedule games set for November 30, families didn't know when to have their holiday meals, calendars were inaccurate in half of the country, and people weren't sure when to start their Christmas shopping.

After two years of confusion and complaint, President Roosevelt signed legislation establishing Thanksgiving Day as the fourth Thursday in November. Roosevelt, recognizing the problems caused by his 1939 decree, had announced a plan to return to the traditional Thanksgiving date in 1942. But Congress introduced the legislation to ensure that future presidential proclamations could not affect the scheduling of the holiday. Their plan to designate the fourth Thursday of the month allowed Thanksgiving Day to fall on the last Thursday in five out of seven years.

This was the last  year of the confusion, and the split dates.  Sarah Sundin, on her blog, noted:

This was a hugely unpopular decision. While 32 states adopted the earlier date, 16 refused to. In 1939, 1940, and 1941, two dates were celebrated, depending on the state. The later original date was nicknamed “Republican Thanksgiving” and the new early date “Democrat Thanksgiving” or “Franksgiving.”

By mid-1941, Roosevelt admitted the earlier date had no effect on retail sales figures. On October 6, 1941, the House of Representatives voted to move Thanksgiving back to the last Thursday of November. The Senate amended the bill on December 9, 1941 (despite the previous day’s declaration of war on Japan) to make the holiday fall on the fourth Thursday, an accommodation for five-Thursday Novembers. The president signed the legislation on December 26, 1941.

So what about Wyoming in 1941?  Did we do Democratic Thanksgiving or Republican Thanksgiving this year?

Today.

Indeed, it's a little surprising, at least in a modern context, but Wyoming recognized today as the Thanksgiving Holiday for 1941. While Wyoming had a Republican legislature, and a Republican Governor, Nels H. Smith, serving his single term, it followed the Federal lead.

Lots of Americans were having their second military Thanksgiving.

Troops training in the field gathered around cook who is cooking turkey's with a M1937 field range.

Holidays in large wartime militaries, and while the US was not fully at war yet, this really was a wartime military, are a different deal by definition. The service does observe holidays and makes a pretty good effort at making them festive, but with lots of people away from home without wanting to be, they're going to be a bit odd.  Some troops, additionally, are going to be on duty, training, or deployed in far off locations.

As noted above, we've included a wartime photo of a cook in what is undoubtedly a staged photo cooking two turkeys in a M1937 field range, a gasoline powered stove.

They continued to be used through the Vietnam War.

Holiday or not, talks resumed in final earnest between the United States and Japan, with Japanese representatives presenting this proposal to the United States

1. Both the Governments of Japan and the United States undertake not to make any armed advancement into any of the regions in the South?eastern Asia and the Southern Pacific area excepting the part of French Indo-China where the Japanese troops are stationed at present.

2. The Japanese Government undertakes to withdraw its troops now stationed in French Indo-China upon either the restoration of peace between Japan and China or the establishment of an equitable peace in the Pacific area.

In the meantime the Government of Japan declares that it is prepared to remove its troops now stationed in the southern part of French Indo-China to the northern part of the said territory upon the conclusion of the present arrangement which shall later be embodied in the final agreement.

3. The Government of Japan and the United States shall co-operate with a view to securing the acquisition of those goods and commodities which the two countries need in Netherlands East Indies.

4. The Governments of Japan and the United States mutually undertake to restore their commercial relations to those prevailing prior to the freezing of the assets.

The Government of the United States shall supply Japan a required quantity of oil.

5. The Government of the United States undertakes to refrain from such measures and actions as will be prejudicial to the endeavors for the restoration of general peace between Japan and China.

The Germans captured Rostov on the Don in Russia and slowed the British advance in North Africa.

Monday, November 10, 1941. American Guide Week.

It was the start of American Guide Week, which had the purpose noted.  It seems odd that the Administration was boosting tourism right before World War Two, but it was.

On the same day, the British launched a commando raid on Rommel's headquarters, the same being Operation Flipper.  The mission by No. 11 Commando was designed to be a raid on the headquarters of Erwin Rommel on November 18.

The raid, timed with the commencement of a British offensive, was a flop.  Rommel had moved his headquarters weeks earlier and, by the time of the raid itself, was vacationing in Italy with his wife in celebration of his 50th birthday.  Two of the commandos were killed and 28 wounded in what was a fairly pointless endeavor.  The raid resulted in one posthumous Victoria Cross which has been criticized as, contrary to the norm, the report was not written by a witness and is contradicted by actual witnesses.

The German's launched an effort to take Sevastopol.  Elements of the Japanese naval force destined to raid Pearl Harbor started leaving Kure, their base in Japan.

Winston Church commented on this day that "should the United States become involved in war with Japan, the British declaration will follow within the hour."   The full speech read:

Alike in times of peace and war the annual civic festival we have observed to-day has been, by long custom, the occasion for a speech at Guildhall by the Prime Minister upon foreign affairs. This year our ancient Guildhall lies in ruins. Our foreign affairs are shrunken, and almost the whole of Europe is prostrate under the Nazi tyranny. The war which Hitler began by invading Poland, and which now engulfs the European Continent, has broken into the north-east of Africa, and may well engulf the greater part of Asia-nay, it may soon spread to the remaining portions of the globe. Nevertheless, in the same spirit as you, my Lord Mayor, have celebrated your assumption of office with the time-honoured pageant of Lord Mayor's Day, so I, who have the honour to be your guest, will endeavour to play, though very briefly-for in war-time speeches should be short-the traditional part assigned to those who hold my office.

The condition of Europe is terrible in the last degree. Hitler's firing parties are busy every day in a dozen countries-Norwegians, Belgians, Frenchmen, Dutch, Poles, Czechs, Serbs, Croats, Slovenes, Greeks, and above all, in scale, Russians are being butchered by thousands and by tens of thousands after they have surrendered, while individual and mass executions in all the countries I have mentioned have become part of the regular German routine.

The world has been intensely stirred by the massacre of the French hostages. The whole of France, with the exception of that small clique whose public careers depend upon a German victory, has been united in horror and indignation against this slaughter of perfectly innocent people. Admiral Darlan's tribute to German generosity falls unseasonably at this moment on French ears, and his plans for loving collaboration with the conquerors and murderers of Frenchmen are quite appreciably embarrassed.

Even the arch-criminal himself, the Nazi ogre Hitler, has been frightened by the volume and passion of world indignation which his spectacular atrocity has excited. It is he, and not the French people, who has been intimidated. He has not dared to go forward with his further programme of killing hostages.

This, as you will have little doubt, is not due to mercy, to compassion, to compunction, but to fear and to a dawning consciousness of personal insecurity rising in a wicked heart. I would say generally that we must regard all these victims of the Nazi executioners in so many lands, who are labelled Communists and Jews-we must regard them just as if they were brave soldiers who died for their country on the field of battle. Aye, in a way their sacrifice may be more fruitful than that of the soldier who falls with his arms in his hands. A river of blood has flowed and is flowing between the German race and the peoples of nearly all Europe. It is not the hot blood of war, where good blows are given and returned. It is the cold blood of the execution yard and the scaffold, which leaves a stain indelible for generations and for centuries.

Here, then, are the foundations upon which the "new order" of Europe is to be inaugurated. Here, then, is the house-warming festival of the Herrenvolk. Here, then, is the system of terrorism by which the Nazi criminals and their quisling accomplices seek to rule a dozen ancient, famous cities of Europe, and if possible all the free nations of the world. In no more effective manner could they have frustrated the accomplishment of their own designs. The future and its mysteries are inscrutable, but one thing is plain-never, to those bloodstained, accursed hands, will the future of Europe be confided.

Since Lord Mayor's Day last year very great changes have taken place in our situation. We were then the sole champion of freedom in arms. Then we were ill-armed and far out-numbered even in the air. Now a large part of the United States Navy, as Colonel Knox has told us, is constantly in action against the common foe. Now the valiant resistance of the Russian nation has inflicted most frightful injuries upon German military power, and at the present moment, the German invading armies, after all their losses, lie on the barren steppes exposed to the approaching severities of the Russian winter. Now we have an Air Force which is at least equal in size and numbers, not to speak of quality, to the German air power.

Rather more than a year ago I announced to Parliament that we were sending a Battle Fleet back into the Mediterranean for the destruction of the German and Italian convoys. The Admiralty brings us to-day news of the destruction of another Italian destroyer. The passage of our supplies in many directions through the sea, the broken morale of the Italian Navy-all these show that we are still masters there.

To-day I am able to go further. Owing to the effective help we are getting from the United States in the Atlantic, owing to the sinking of the Bismarck, owing to the completion of our splendid new battleships and aircraft carriers of the largest size, as well as the cowing of the Italian Navy already mentioned, I am able to announce to you that we now feel ourselves strong enough to provide a powerful naval force of heavy ships, with its necessary ancillary vessels, for service if needed in the Indian and Pacific Oceans.

We stretch out the long arm of brotherhood and motherhood to the Australian and New Zealand people, and to the Indian people, whose army has already been fighting with so much distinction in the Mediterranean theatre. This movement of our naval forces, in conjunction with the United States main Fleet, may give practical proof to all who have eyes to see that the forces of freedom and democracy have not by any means reached the limit of their power.

I must admit that, having voted for the Japanese Alliance nearly 40 years ago-in 1902-and having always done my very best to promote good relations with the island Empire of Japan, and always having been a sentimental well-wisher of Japan and an admirer of her many gifts and qualities, I would view with keen sorrow the opening of a conflict between Japan and the English-speaking world.

The United States' time-honoured interests in the Far East are well known. They are doing their utmost to find a way of preserving peace in the Pacific. We do not know whether their efforts will be successful, but if they fail, I take this occasion to say-and it is my duty to say-that should the United States become involved in war with Japan the British declaration will follow within the hour.

Viewing the vast, sombre scene as dispassionately as possible, it would seem a very hazardous adventure for the Japanese people to plunge, quite needlessly, into a world struggle in which they may well find themselves opposed in the Pacific by States whose populations comprise nearly three-quarters of the human race.

If steel is a nation's foundation of modern war it would be rather dangerous for a Power like Japan, whose steel production is only about 7,000,000 tons a year, to provoke quite gratuitously a struggle with the United States, whose steel production is now about 90,000,000 tons a year. And I take no account of the powerful contribution which the British Empire can make in many ways. I hope devoutly that the peace of the Pacific will be preserved in accordance with the known wishes of the wisest statesmen of Japan, but every preparation to defend British interests in the Far East and to defend the common cause now at stake has been, and is being, made.

Meanwhile, how can we watch without emotion the wonderful defence of their native soil, and of their freedom and independence, which has been maintained single-handed for five long years by the Chinese people under the leadership of that great Asiatic hero and commander, General Chiang Kai-shek. It would be a disaster of the first magnitude to world civilization if the noble resistance to invasion and exploitation which has been made by the whole Chinese race were not to result in the liberation of their hearths and homes. That, I feel, is a sentiment which is deep in our hearts.

To return for a moment to the contrast between our position now and a year ago. I do not need to remind you here in the City that this time last year we did not know where to turn for a dollar across the American Exchange. By very severe measures we had been able to gather together and to spend in America about £500,000,000 sterling. But the end of our financial resources was in sight; nay, had actually been reached. All we could do at that time-a year ago-was to place orders in the United States without being able to see our way through, but on a tide of hope, and not without important encouragement.

Then came the majestic policy of the President and Congress of the United States in passing the Lease-Lend Bill, under which, in two successive enactments, about £3,000,000,000 was dedicated to the cause of world freedom, without-mark this, because it is unique-without the setting up of any account in money. Never again let us hear the taunt that money is the ruling power in the hearts and thoughts of the American democracy. The Lease-Lend Bill must be regarded without question as the most unsordid act in the whole of recorded history.

We for our part have not been found unworthy of the increasing aid we are receiving. We have made unparalleled financial and economic sacrifices ourselves, and now that the Government and people of the United States have declared their resolve that the aid they are giving us shall reach the fighting lines, we shall be able to strike with all our might and main.

Thus we may, without exposing ourselves to any charge of complacency, without in the slightest degree relaxing the intensity of our war effort, give thanks to Almighty God for the many wonders which have been wrought in so brief a space of time, and we may derive fresh confidence from all that has happened and bend ourselves to our task with all the force that is in our soul and with every drop of blood that is in our veins.

We are told from many quarters that we must soon expect what is called a peace offensive from Berlin. All the usual signs and symptoms are already manifest, as the Foreign Secretary will confirm, in neutral countries, and all those signs point in one direction. They all show that the guilty men who have let Hell loose upon the world are hoping to escape with their fleeting triumphs and ill-gotten plunder from the closing net of doom.

We owe it to ourselves, we owe it to our Russian Allies and to the Government and people of the United States, to make it absolutely clear that whether we are supported or alone, however long and hard the toil may be, the British nation and his Majesty's Government at the head of that nation, in intimate concert with the Governments of the great Dominions, will never enter into any negotiations with Hitler or any party in Germany which represents the Nazi regime. In that resolve we are sure that the ancient City of London will be with us to the hilt and to the end.

Churchill's statement was no doubt true. ..  for lots of reasons, but it cannot realistically be regarded as that great of an offer of help.  The US was as far into the war in the Atlantic in aid of the British as conceivably possible and a Japanese attack on the US, while it would cause British setbacks, and it did, also just made that near belligerent status a full belligerent status.

In fact, as the item below notes, on this date the US commenced escorting a British troop convoy from Halifax, Nova Scotia, to India.  Escorting a convoy of troops at war is an act of war, irrespective of where those troops were going.

Today in World War II History—November 10, 1941

Also, according to that entry, the US adopted the famous M1 helmet and the "Parson's" field jacket on this date in 1941, which while that might not seem like much to many, actually are big events in material history.

The M1 helmet was a huge improvement over the Brodie pattern M1917 helmet that had been adopted during World War One, and which was of the type still used by the British.  The M1 had full head coverage and was a great helmet.  The M1 covered the head fully, and could be separated from its liner to be used as a basin, a not insignificant feature.

It wasn't adopted on this date, however. That date was June 6, 1941. By this date in 41, thousands had already been produced.  It was in use for decades and worn by millions of servicemen. . .including me, my father, and three of my uncles.

The M1941 field jacket, i.e., the "Parson's", was adopted, as the designation indicated, in 1941 as well.  I'd question whether it was this late in 41, but it was adopted in 41.  FWIW, this was the second model of the jacket, not the first, so this type of jacket had been in service for a while.

Based on civilian "wind breakers" the wool lined jacket was much more practical than the Army Service Coat which had replaced the Service Coat of World War One.  For nearly inexplicable reasons, the Army, in the early 1920s adopted a service coat which replaced the closed collar service coat of the Great War which soldiers wore for nearly any service. The new service coat more closely resembled an Edwardian business suit jacket, with an open collar, and was designed to be worn with a tie. It even featured brass buttons, as opposed to the earlier subdued blackened ones.  In addition, a separate distinct patter was introduced for officers of a dark green with khaki colored trousers.

This uniform doubled as a dress and field uniform, but it was completely lacking in suitability for the latter.  Indeed, it was much less suitable in this role than its predecessor.  By the late 30s this was extremely obvious, and the Army took a giant step in a more practical direction, replacing the service coat for "field" use with a "field jacket", of which the M1938 was the first.  This was, we should note, before the build up of the service for the war had commenced, as the war had not commenced.

In 1941 the new pattern was adopted with some changes that, if nothing else, made it appear a bit more military than the prior jacket had. The same year the Army adopted the M1941 Winter Coat, which was also a wool lined jacket.  This jacket became popular with armored vehicle crewman and is mistakenly associated with them.  It was in fact used by all branches.

We could go on at length, as the topic of World War Two Army coats is surprisingly complicated, but we will simply note that in 1943 the Army adopted the M1943 field jacket which became the pattern for every Army field jacket for decades and of which there is still an authorized version.  The M1943 was designed as part of a paratroopers uniform, but the Army was wisely concluding by that point that was good for paratroopers worked for everybody else.  What you can take from all of this is that things were very much in a state of uniform flux by this point in the US military, and would be throughout the rest of the war.

Sunday November 9, 1941. Force K intercepts an Axis Convoy.

On this day in 1941 Force K of the Royal Navy, led by the HMS Penelope, devastated the German/Italian convoy Duisburg in the Mediterranean, sinking seven transport and tanker ships headed to resupply the Africa Korps.  Two Italian destroyers also went down. 

The Penelope would be sunk by a U-boat in 1944, loosing over 400 of her crew.

A lot of British ships of the period bore names from Greek mythology or works of antiquity.  Why, I don't know.  Given that, Penelope was certainly named after the character from The Odyssey, although the name was one that was used by the Greeks well past that and spread into general use in modern times.

On the same day, the Germans took Yalta, but the Soviets completed the evacuation of 23,000 troops from the Crimea.

All of these events are noted here:

Today in World War II History—November 9, 1941

Another site notes that by this day in 1941 German radio had quite broadcasting that troops would return from the Eastern Front by Christmas.  The Germans were certainly still advancing, but they were having a much harder time digesting Soviet territory, and indeed there has always been pockets of stout resistance. The recent massive Soviet parade in Moscow was a demonstration of absolute defiance of German hopes, and even in the south combined German and Romanian troops were slowing down in their advances.

Thursday, October 30, 1941. A Change In Material Circumstances

 

On this date in 1941, T-34s began to appear in action in numbers for the first time.

In other technological, if you will, news, Northrup received a contract for one full-scale mockup, and one actual flying experimental example, of its flying wing design.

Northrup XB-35 experimental flying wing bomber.

The revolutionary design would not fly until after the war and would not see adoption until modern stealth technology arrived, at which time Northrup's design would reappear, evolved, as the Northrup B-2 Spirit.

At Tula, the Germans attempted a pitched massive assault but Soviet forces, some of which were militia, turned them back in spite of suffering heavy losses.  The Soviets used anti tank guns and anti-aircraft guns in the effort.

The Germans and Romanians commenced the Siege of Sevastopol.  It would take the Axis forces until July to take the city.

Charles Lindbergh spoke to an anti-war rally crowd of 20,000 in Madison Square Garden.  His speech was very harsh on Franklin Roosevelt, whom he accused of attempting to draw the United States into war and of using dictatorial measures.

USO Camp Shows commenced on this day in 1941, as discussed in the link below:

Today in World War II History—October 30, 1941

A u-boat damaged the USS Salinas, a U.S. Navy fleet oiler, but the vessel managed to escape without sinking.

Pearl Harbor, October 30, 1941.

Monday, October 27, 1941. Navy Day. Chicago Tribune limits Japanese capacity to strike, Germans break out.

Honolulu prior to World War Two.

President Roosevelt called for the arming of merchant ships in his Navy Day address on this day in 1941.

Five months ago tonight I proclaimed to the American people the existence of a state of unlimited emergency.

Since then much has happened. Our Army and Navy are temporarily in Iceland in the defense of the Western Hemisphere.

Hitler has attacked shipping in areas close to the Americas in the North and South Atlantic.

Many American-owned merchant ships have been sunk on the high seas. One American destroyer was attacked on September 4. Another destroyer was attacked and hit on October 17. Eleven brave and loyal men of our Navy were killed by the Nazis.

We have wished to avoid shooting. But the shooting has started. And history has recorded who fired the first shot. In the long run, however, all that will matter is who fired the last shot.

America has been attacked. The U. S. S. Kearny is not just a Navy ship. She belongs to every man, woman, and child in this Nation.

Illinois, Alabama, California, North Carolina, Ohio, Louisiana, Texas, Pennsylvania, Georgia, Arkansas, New York, Virginia -- those are the home States of the honored dead and wounded of the Kearny. Hitler's torpedo was directed at every American, whether he lives on our seacoasts or in the innermost part of the Nation, far from the seas and far from the guns and tanks of the marching hordes of would-be conquerors of the world.

The purpose of Hitler's attack was to frighten the American people off the high seas -- to force us to make a trembling retreat. This is not the first time he has misjudged the American spirit. That spirit is now aroused.

If our national policy were to be dominated by the fear of shooting, then all of our ships and those of our sister republics would have to be tied up in home harbors. Our Navy would have to remain respectfully -- abjectly -- behind any line which Hitler might decree on any ocean as his own dictated version of his own war zone.

Naturally, we reject that absurd and insulting suggestion. We reject it because of our own self-interest, because of our own self-respect, because, most of all, of our own good faith. Freedom of the seas is now, as it has always been, a fundamental policy of your Government and mine.

Hitler has often protested that his plans for conquest do not extend across the Atlantic Ocean. But his submarines and raiders prove otherwise. So does the entire design of his new world order.

For example, I have in my possession a secret map made in Germany by Hitler's government -- by the planners of the new world order. It is a map of South America and a part of Central America, as Hitler proposes to reorganize it. Today in this area there are 14 separate countries. The geographical experts of Berlin, however, have ruthlessly obliterated all existing boundary lines; and have divided South America into five vassal states, bringing the whole continent under their domination. And they have also so arranged it that the territory of one of these new puppet states includes the Republic of Panama and our great life line - the Panama Canal.

That is his plan. It will never go into effect.

This map makes clear the Nazi design not only against South America but against the United States itself.

Your Government was in its possession another document made in Germany by Hitler's government. It is a detailed plan, which, for obvious reasons, the Nazis did not wish and do not wish to publicize just yet, but which they are ready to impose a little later on a dominated world -- if Hitler wins. It is a plan to abolish all existing religions - Protestant, Catholic, Mohammedan, Hindu, Buddhist, and Jewish alike. The property of all churches will be seized by the Reich and its puppets. The cross and all other symbols of religion are to be forbidden. The clergy are to be forever silenced under penalty of the concentration camps, where even now so many fearless men are being tortured because they have placed God above Hitler.

In the place of the churches of our civilization, there is to be set up an international Nazi church -- a church which will be served by orators sent out by the Nazi government. In the place of the Bible, the words of Mein Kampf will be imposed and enforced as Holy Writ. And in place of the cross of Christ will be put two symbols -- the swastika and the naked sword.

A god of blood and iron will take the place of the God of love and mercy. Let us well ponder that statement which I have made tonight.

These grim truths which I have told you of the present and future plans of Hitlerism will, of course, be hotly denied tonight and tomorrow in the controlled press and radio of the Axis Powers. And some Americans - not many - will continue to insist that Hitler's plans need not worry us and that we should not concern ourselves with anything that goes on beyond rifle shot of our own shores.

The protestations of these American citizens -- few in number -- will, as usual, be paraded with applause through the Axis press and radio during the next few days in an effort to convince the world that the majority of Americans are opposed to their duly chosen Government and in reality are only waiting to jump on Hitler's band wagon when it comes this way.

The motive of such Americans is not the point at issue. The fact is that Nazi propaganda continues in desperation to seize upon such isolated statements as proof of American disunity.

The Nazis have made up their own list of modern American heroes. It is, fortunately, a short list. I am glad that it does not contain my name.

All of us Americans, of all opinions, are faced with the choice between the kind of world we want to live in and the kind of world which Hitler and his hordes would impose upon us.

None of us wants to burrow under the ground and live in total darkness like a comfortable mole.

The forward march of Hitler and of Hitlerism can be stopped - and it will be stopped.

Very simply and very bluntly, we are pledged to pull our own oar in the destruction of Hitlerism.

And when we have helped to end the curse of Hitlerism, we shall help to establish a new peace which will give to decent people everywhere a better chance to live and prosper in security and in freedom and in faith.

Each day that passes we are producing and providing more and more arms for the men who are fighting on actual battle fronts. That is our primary task.

And it is the Nation's will that these vital arms and supplies of all kinds shall neither be locked up in American harbors nor sent to the bottom of the sea. It is the Nation's will that America shall deliver the goods. In open defiance of that will, our ships have been sunk and our sailors have been killed.

I say that we do not propose to take this lying down.

Our determination not to take it lying down has been expressed in the orders to the American Navy to shoot on sight. Those orders stand.

Furthermore, the House of Representatives has already voted to amend part of the Neutrality Act of 1937, today outmoded by force of violent circumstances. The Senate Committee on Foreign Relations has also recommended elimination of other hamstringing provisions in that act. That is the course of honesty and of realism.

Our American merchant ships must be armed to defend themselves against the rattlesnakes of the sea.

Our American merchant ships must be free to carry our American goods into the harbors of our friends.

Our American merchant ships must be protected by our American Navy.

It can never be doubted that the goods will be delivered by this Nation, whose Navy believes in the traditions of "Damn the torpedoes; full speed ahead!"

Yes; our Nation will and must speak from every assembly line. Yes; from every coal mine -- the all-inclusive whole of our vast industrial machine. Our factories and our shipyards are constantly expanding. Our output must be multiplied.

It cannot be hampered by the selfish obstruction of any small but dangerous minority of industrial managers who perhaps hold out for extra profits or for "business as usual." It cannot be hampered by the selfish obstruction of a small but dangerous minority of labor leaders who are a menace - for labor as a whole knows that that small minority is a menace -- to the true cause of labor itself, as well as to the Nation as a whole.

The lines of our essential defense now cover all the seas; and to meet the extraordinary demands of today and tomorrow our Navy grows to unprecedented size. Our Navy is ready for action. Indeed, units of it in the Atlantic patrol are in action. Its officers and men need no praise from me.

Our new Army is steadily developing the strength needed to withstand the aggressors. Our soldiers of today are worthy of the proudest traditions of the United States Army. But traditions cannot shoot down dive bombers or destroy tanks. That is why we must and shall provide, for every one of our soldiers, equipment and weapons -- not merely as good, but better than that of any other army on earth. And we are doing that right now.

For this -- and all of this -- is what we mean by total national defense.

The first objective of that defense is to stop Hitler. He can be stopped and can be compelled to dig in. And that will be the beginning of the end of his downfall, because dictatorship of the Hitler type can live only through continuing victories - increasing conquests.

The facts of 1918 are proof that a mighty German Army and a tired German people can crumble rapidly and go to pieces when they are faced with successful resistance.

Nobody who admires qualities of courage and endurance can fail to be stirred by the full-fledged resistance of the Russian people. The Russians are fighting for their own soil and their own homes. Russia needs all kinds of help -- planes, tanks, guns, medical supplies, and other aids -- toward the successful defense against the invaders. From the United States and from Britain, she is getting great quantities of those essential supplies. But the needs of her huge army will continue - and our help and British help will have to continue.

The other day the Secretary of State of the United States was asked by a Senator to justify our giving aid to Russia. His reply was: "The answer to that, Senator, depends on how anxious a person is to stop and destroy the march of Hitler in his conquest of the world. If he were anxious enough to defeat Hitler, he would not worry about who was helping to defeat him."

Upon our American production falls the colossal task of equipping our own armed forces, and helping to supply the British, the Russians, and the Chinese. In the performance of that task we dare not fail. And we will not fail.

It has not been easy for us Americans to adjust ourselves to the shocking realities of a world in which the principles of common humanity and common decency are being mowed down by the firing squads of the Gestapo. We have enjoyed many of God's blessings. We have lived in a broad and abundant land, and by our industry and productivity we have made it flourish.

There are those who say that our great good fortune has betrayed us; that we are now no match for the regimented masses who have been trained in the Spartan ways of ruthless brutality. They say that we have grown fat, and flabby, and lazy, and that we are doomed.

But those who say that know nothing of America or of American life.

They do not know that this land is great because it is a land of endless challenge. Our country was first populated, and it has been steadily developed, by men and women in whom there burned the spirit of adventure and restlessness and individual independence which will not tolerate oppression.

Ours has been a story of vigorous challenges which have been accepted and overcome, challenges of uncharted seas, of wild forests and desert plains, of raging floods and withering drought, of foreign tyrants and domestic strife, of staggering problems, social, economic, and physical; and we have come out of them the most powerful Nation, and the freest, in all of history.

Today in the face of this newest and greatest challenge of them all we Americans have cleared our decks and taken our battle stations. We stand ready in the defense of our Nation and the faith of our fathers to do what God has given us the power to see as our full duty.

The Chicago Tribune on this day in 1941 dismissed the possibility of Japan attacking the United States, even noting that an attack on the Hawaiian Islands was beyond Japanese capabilities.

The German 11th Army broke into the Crimean Peninsula.  On the same day, they captured the city of Plavsk.

Friday October 26, 1941. The Germans enter Kharkov.

The German Army took Kharkov.

That event is the subject of a blog post here:

Today in World War II History—October 24, 1941

The entry is really worth looking at for the photograph that goes along with it.

Monday. October 20, 1941. Borodino.

The Germans took Bordino outside of Moscow, the site of the early September 1812 pyhrric French victory over the Russians

French losses at Borodino on September 7, 1812, had been at a rate of 2 to 1 to the Russian forces. They won the battle, but the losses were unsustainable.  Notably, they had arrived at Borodino over a month prior to the Germans on the calendar.

Japanese battleship Yamato running trials off Bungo Strait, 20 October 1941.

Thursday, October 16, 1941. Odessa taken, deportations in full swing.

 Romanians and Germans took Odessa after a two-month siege of the Black Sea port.

It had been principally a Romanian operation and indeed was the largest such operation by a German ally on the Easter Front.  The overall performance of Romanian troops resulted in a call to cease offensive operations by Romanian troops against the Soviets, although that was ignored by the country's military dictator.

Deportations of European Jews to the East started for many of them on this day in 1941, with the wholesale relocation of European Jews having started the day prior.  The order included German Jews as well as those living in other western European countries that were controlled by Nazi Germany.

Franklin Roosevelt addressed the nation's draft enrollees.

On this day more than sixteen million young Americans are reviving the three-hundred-year-old American custom of the muster. They are obeying that first duty of free citizenship by which, from the earliest colonial times, every able-bodied citizen was subject to the call for service in the national defense.

It is a day of deep and purposeful meaning in the lives of all of us. For on this day we Americans proclaim the vitality of our history, the singleness of our will and the unity of our nation.

We prepare to keep the peace in this New World which free men have built for free men to live in. The United States, a nation of one hundred and thirty million people, has today only about five hundred thousand-half a million-officers and men in Army and National Guard. Other nations, smaller in population, have four and five and six million trained men in their armies. Our present program will train eight hundred thousand additional men this coming year and somewhat less than one million men each year thereafter. It is a program obviously of defensive preparation and of defensive preparation only.

Calmly, without fear and without hysteria, but with clear determination, we are building guns and planes and tanks and ships-and all the other tools which modern defense requires. We are mobilizing our citizenship, for we are calling on men and women and property and money to join in making our defense effective. Today's registration for training and service is the keystone in the arch of our national defense.

In the days when our forefathers laid the foundation of our democracy, every American family had to have its gun and know how to use it. Today we live under threats, threats of aggression from abroad, which call again for the same readiness, the same vigilance. Ours must once again be the spirit of those who were prepared to defend as they built, to defend as they worked, to defend as they worshipped.

The duty of this day has been imposed upon us from without. Those who have dared to threaten the whole world with war-those who have created the name and deed of total war-have imposed upon us and upon all free peoples the necessity of preparation for total defense.

But this day not only imposes a duty; it provides also an opportunity-an opportunity for united action in the cause of liberty-an opportunity for the continuing creation on this continent of a country where the people alone shall be master, where the people shall be truly free.

To the sixteen million young men who register today, I say that democracy is your cause-the cause of youth.

Democracy is the one form of society which guarantees to every new generation of men the right to imagine and to attempt to bring to pass a better world. Under the despotisms the imagination of a better world and its achievement are alike forbidden.

Your act today affirms not only your loyalty to your country, but your will to build your future for yourselves.

We of today, with God's help, can bequeath to Americans of tomorrow a nation in which the ways of liberty and justice will survive and be secure. Such a nation must be devoted to the cause of peace. And it is for that cause that America arms itself.

It is to that cause-the cause of peace-that we Americans today devote our national will and our national spirit and our national strength.

Friday October 10, 1941. Stalin reassigns Zhukov.

 

Marshal Georgy Zhukov replaced Ivan Konev as commander of the Soviet Western Front.  

Zhukov was one of the truly great generals of World War Two.  His military career had started when he was conscripted into the Imperial Russian Army during World War One.  A cavalryman in the Imperial Russian Army, he joined the Bolsheviks in 1917 and became an officer later in the Red Army. Still in the cavalry branch between the wars, he was able to escape Stalin's purge as the members of his cavalry army were oddly protected during the purge.

A major figure during World War Two, he fell from grace after the war due to Stalin's distrust of any rivals of any sort.  Following Stalin's death, however, he rose again and was part of the effort that lead to the trial and execution of Beria.  His second rise lasted until 1957 when he was retired after having increasingly asserted the independence of the Red Army from the Communist state.

On the same day, Hitler issued a directive reorganizing the German forces in the Arctic.  In the German Sixth Army, Walter von Reichenau issued the "Severity Order" against Jews, another instance of the German Army being fully complicit in the Holocaust.

Von Richenau, a cross country runner, experienced a stroke in 1941 while engaged in that activity.  An airplane that subsequently was obtained to fly him to medical attention crashed en route and he died due to one of the two incidents.

Tuesday October 7, 1941. Stalin relents on religion.

Patriarch Tikhon of Moscow, the de facto head of the Russian Orthodox Church in 1941.

On this day in 1941, former Russian Orthodox seminarian, later revolutionary and mass murderer, Joseph Stalin lifted the prohibitions on religious worship in the Soviet Union in order to, the story is usually told, boost morale in his besieged nation.

Today in World War II History—October 7, 1941

It's also inescapably true that in spite of the brutality of the German invasion, large numbers of Russians and Ukrainians welcomed the Germans as they advanced.  Much of this was prior to their becoming aware of the virulent racial hatred of the Germans, but large numbers of Soviet citizens would aid the Germans, and even fight with them, right up until the end of the war.

Indeed, while I'm not putting it up, as I'm uncertain of its rights' status, a well-known photo of a smiling German tanker with smiling Ukrainian women and slices of bread was taken on this day in 1941.

Religious loyalty had remained strong in the Russian people in spite of Communism's brutal efforts to stamp it out.  To at least some degree, Stalin's actions may have been calculated to acknowledge that and to attempt to arrest defections to the Germans, or even forestall a potential coup.  As for Stalin himself, there's reason to doubt that he was actually an atheist, and he made at least one recorded statement that would strongly suggest that he was not.

On the Eastern Front, Army Group Center was dealing with snowfall that had come down the night prior, the first time it had to do so.  The 7th and 10th Panzer Divisions completed their encirclement of Vyazma.

John Curtin.

In Australia, John Curtin became Prime Minister.  The change in leadership which brought the Labor Party's Curtin to power was due to a parliamentary move, rather than an election.  Curtin would remain the Prime Minister for the remainder of his life, dying just before the end of the war in 1945.  He was 60 at the time.

Curtin had started off as a Socialist politician and was part of Australia's strong Socialist movement in the 20th Century.  The son of an Irish immigrant policeman who had a troubled career, Curtin had left school at age 13 and become in left wing politics and unions thereafter.  Indeed, while not really recalled outside Australia, the country had a very strong left wing movement that teetered on the edge of Communism throughout this period, although Curtin himself was a Labor Party figure in his later years, and at the time of his leading the country.   This perhaps makes him an odd figure in that he brought the country close to the United States during the war, pulling way from the United Kingdom, while also building a welfare state during the war.  Left wing parties were strongly anti-Catholic in Australia, a legacy which remains there and which has figured in recent news from the country, and even though Curtin was raised as a Catholic and educated in Catholic schools, he personally became anti-Catholic in his adult years to a rather pronounced degree.  While a Socialist, he also strongly reflected the Australia if his age, and was a strong backer of its "white's only" immigration policy.

He did survive an election that was called in 1943, and  therefore at that point he was Prime Minister in an elected fashion.  Lest it seem odd that he came to power in a parliamentary move, it was also the case that Winston Churchill did as well.  Cutin then overplayed his hand and sought a referendum to give his government control of the Australian economy for a five-year period following the end of the war, which failed.

Curtin's health, like Franklin Roosevelt's, was declining rapidly in the later stages of the war and like Roosevelt's his passing was not a surprise to those who knew him well.

Monday October 6, 1941. Yankees take the series, snow in the East.

 The Yankees beat the Dodgers, taking the 1941 World Series.

The House of Representatives voted to fix the date of Thanksgiving as the last Thursday in November, nearly placing it where it currently is.  It's later become the fourth Thursday in November, which is only slightly different.

I learned that here:

Today in World War II History—October 6, 1941

The first recorded snowfall on the Russian Front occurred on the night of October 6/7, 1941, an event that couldn't have been unexpected, but which carried a lot of significance.  Operation Barbarossa had always been a race against the meteorological clock, as well as a battle against the Soviets.

Life Magazine ran a cover illustration for its issue that hit the stands today featuring a pretty girl captioned "Farmer's Daughter". The issue contained photographs of South Dakota, and presumably she was from there.  It's interesting in that it's tempting to conclude that this was sufficiently before the pornification of the culture that the endless series of dirt "farmer's daughter" jokes weren't in wide circulation, but the same issue had an article on the "G String Murders", which was some work by Gypsy Rose Lee. That included photos of a staged fight scene with women in their underwear, although pretty tame by modern standards, but that reminds us that the decline was already on, and this was of course the cheap detective pulp novel era.

Sunday October 5, 1941. Game Four of the 1941 World Series, Louis Brandeis passes away, the sitaution in the East grows grimmer.

I managed to miss the first three games here on the blog.

In game 1, the Yankees beat the Dodgers 3 to 2.  In game 2, the Dodgers beat the Yankees 3 to 2.  In game 3, the Yankees beat the Dodgers 2 to 1.

In this game, the Yankees beat the Dodgers 7 to 4 at Ebbets Field.

You could have listened on the radio, of course, but there were also other things to listen to.

October 5, 1946, Radio Listings

Louis Brandeis, former Supreme Court Justice, died at age 84.  He'd retired from the court in 1939.

Brandeis remains a legend from the court, although probably few people could really define what he stood for now.  He was a progressive when that term had been defined by Theodore Roosevelt's politics. He was appointed to the court by Woodrow Wilson.  He was a wealthy man, but was opposed to consumerism and felt it influence corrupting.  He was also an opponent of big finance and big corporations.  He was personally very reserved.

He was the first Jewish Supreme Court Justice, although his parents were members of the heretical Frankism sect. The rest of his family was not, and it does not appear that Brandeis himself was.  He was married to a cousin of his and had two children.

On the same day, the New York Times ran an article that things were worsening for Jews in Eastern Europe, an understatement if ever there was one, but an understandable understatement given that Western news outlets hadn't had free access to Eastern Europe for twenty years at the time, and the Germans weren't about to give it to them.  Herman Hoth, a German general, was appointed commander of the German 17th Army where he would be a strong proponent of the war of annulation against the Jews and the Communists, whom he made no distinction between.  Hoth was tried after the war for war crimes and tried to excuse his actions as ones that that were sales puffery only, which was quite a stretch.  He served 15 years in prison for war crimes and died in 1971.

Weekly German propaganda poster released on this day in 1941.  The text reads, loosely; "Farmers and Soldiers stand hand in hand together, to give to the Volk their day bread, and to the Reich freedom through room.  The poster is a ghastly perversion of Christian ideals in regard to its reference to "daily bread" and bizarrely has the sword not beat into a plowshare, but anchored to a plot.

Of note, if you were in the West reading the news from this period, it'd have been hard not to conclude the Germans were going to win the war.  Now, of course, we realize that they were already in trouble in the Soviet Union, but that wouldn't have been obvious from reading the newspapers.

Friday September 26, 1941. The Establishment of the Military Police Corps.

Today is the founding day of the Military Police Corps, something I only know about due to the blog post found here:

Today in World War II History—September 26, 1941

There were predecessors, it should be noted, but the official establishment dates to this date.

Sarah Sundin, on her blog, also had this excellent poster, which I can't resist also posting.

The poster, I'd note, has a good representation of 155 "Long Tom" M1 howitzers, a classic American gun that was a recent introduction into the American artillery stable.  It was the predecessor of other related long range large artillery, and an 8in variant also existed, a depiction of which also exists in this poster to its far right.  The U.S. had the best artillery of any army in the Second World War.  Indeed, this poster fairly accurately depicts the technology used by the US in the war, albeit in a very dramatic fashion.

The Germans took Kiev.  It was a major German victory, and it would soon result in the expansion of the German's murder of the Jews.

For a really interesting look at the German Army of 1941 and how it walked into Russia, see the following item, if you can, or at least look at the photo.

The exhausting march East

It's often not appreciated the degree to which the German Army was a shoe leather army.  Of course, at this point in the war, the Red Army was as well.

German propaganda during the Second World War was so good at depicting their forces as highly mechanized that it not only created that myth at the time, the myth has endured.  In reality, German infantry walked in, and German artillery was largely towed in by horse, just as the French forces had been in 1812 in their invasion of Russia.  Indeed, while the Germans certainly had motorized support, even much of their logistical support was horse drawn.

In 1941, this was also true of the Red Army, and indeed for Soviet infantry it would remain largely true throughout the war.  The Soviets, however, had a massive industrial based created by Stalin's forced industrialization of the country, and additionally it had the huge industrial base of the United States and the British Commonwealth behind it.  Soviet mechanization would advance during the war, German mechanization would retreat.

Friday September 19, 1941. The Germans take Kiev

On this day in 1941 Kiev fell and with it 500,000 soldiers of the Red Army went into captivity.

Only shortly before this, the Germans had put Soviet POWs on a lower ration scale than those provided to POWs of other nations.

A massive geomagnetic storm caused spectacular nighttime light displays and disrupted radio and telegraph communications.

Thursday, September 11, 1941. Starts and Finishes.

 Ground was broken for the Pentagon on this day in 1941.

1942 Construction.

President Roosevelt gave a fireside speech on the Greer incident, you can listen to it HERE.

In it, he announced:

In the waters which we deem necessary for our defense, American naval vessels and American planes will no longer wait until Axis submarines lurking under the water, or Axis raiders on the surface of the sea, strike their deadly blow -- first.
Upon our naval and air patrol -- now operating in large number over a vast expanse of the Atlantic Ocean -- falls the duty of maintaining the American policy of freedom of the seas -- now. That means, very simply, (and) very clearly, that our patrolling vessels and planes will protect all merchant ships -- not only American ships but ships of any flag -- engaged in commerce in our defensive waters. They will protect them from submarines; they will protect them from surface raiders.
This situation is not new. The second President of the United States, John Adams, ordered the United States Navy to clean out European privateers and European ships of war which were infesting the Caribbean and South American waters, destroying American commerce.
The third President of the United States, Thomas Jefferson, ordered the United States Navy to end the attacks being made upon American and other ships by the corsairs of the nations of North Africa.

Stalin fired Semyon Budyonny as Commander in Chief of the Soviet Southwest Direction.

Budyonny in 1943.

Budyonny was a former Imperial Russian cavalryman of peasant background.  He was one of Stalin's favorites and amazingly lived out his life until his final days, long outliving his patron.  In the course of his life he managed to survive World War One, the Russian Civil War, and more amazingly Stalin's bloody decimation of the Red Army in the late 1930s.  Married three times, his first wife died under odd circumstances by a gunshot wound, his second wife, half his age, was arrested in Stalin's mass arrests and charged with espionage, after which he divorced her and married her cousin, 33 years his junior.

He was a survivor, and also an expert on horses.

Sunday, September 7, 1941. A National Day of Prayer, Excusing Murder, and a Roosevelt Personal Tragedy

Whiel it doesn't show up as an official National Day of Prayer in the UK during World War Two, some sort of National Prayer Day was observed in the United Kingdom on this Sunday in 1941.  As part of it, a parade was  held in London.

There were several National Days of Prayer proclaimed by the government during the war, with this not being the first one.  The tradition is an ancient one and there have been appeals for National Days of Prayer to be proclaimed in recent years.  For that matter, Prime Minister Boris Johnson has made appeals to Christianity which have been much more direct than any made by U.S. Presidents in recent years.

Canadian wartime poster.

While there seems some doubt on the exact date (it may have been a few days earlier), Hitler issued his Directive No. 35 which ordered an advance on Moscow and that its capture be accomplished prior to the onset of winter.

The problem, of course, is that Hitler had already stopped the advance on Moscow several weeks earlier and it was really too late to restart it.

On the same day, the German government chose as its poster of the week a prediction from Hitler that if "International Financial Judaism" started another war, it would result in Judaisms destruction.  The thought was, of course, deluded as Jews weren't responsible for any of Europe's wars in its entire history and did not control its finances.  Indeed, most of the Jews murdered by the Germans during World War Two were of modest means, to say the least.

This issuance of the poster at this point was interesting in part as the Germans had already murdered enormous numbers of Easter European Jews by this point and the numbers were increasing every day.  The massacres were so large that they could hardly be kept a secret.  There has to be some element at work here that would suggest the Nazi government was working on providing an excuse to the German public for the horrific bloodbath that people must have been whispering about, or soon would be.

Sara Roosevelt, the mother of Franklin Roosevelt, passed away.  She was nearly 87.  Franklin was her only child, although he did have a much older half brother, James, who had died in 1927 at age 72.  She was the second wife of her husband, James, who was 26 years her senior and who had passed away in 1900.  His first wife had passed away four years prior to their marriage. As seems to have been common with the Roosevelt's, both of his wives were related to him, with Sara being a sixth cousin of his.  This means, by extension, that Franklin was the son of distant cousins and married a cousin himself.

Franklin Roosevelt wearing mourning arm band a few days after his mother's death.

Saturday, August 30, 1941. Far away places.

For various reasons, I missed putting up the Anglo Soviet invasion of Iran when it occurred.  It commenced on August 25, 1941.

Soviet cavalry meeting British tankette.

On this day, it concluded with a ceasefire. The country would be occupied by the British and the Soviets for the remainder of World War Two.

Russian T-26 tank in Iran.

The Iranian military did resist, but ineffectively. The country would be occupied by the British and the Soviets throughout the war, with the British withdrawing on time in March 1946 but the Soviets refusing to do so, citing security concerns.  A complaint to the United Nations from Iran on this became the first such complaint filed with that then newly founded body. The Soviets withdrew in May, 1946.

British troops inspecting a Soviet 26, Soviet soldier on deck of tank.

Ultimately Iran became an Allied power and declared war on Germany.  The US contributed to the forces in Iran during the occupation, which assuaged Iranian fears of being absorbed as a colony by the occupying powers.  The Soviets did sponsor Communist groups that did create problems for the Iranian government, so it cannot be claimed that the occupation was wholly benign.

The Soviets launched a major counterattack near Smolensk which was successful, as to its objectives, but which sustained high casualties. The Germans also sustained high casualties.

The British conducted the first of two small nighttime commando raids on the Pas-de-Calais.