An RAF Mosquito raid destroys the Central Population Registry building in The Hague, destroying the records of the Gestapo.
The Red Army captures Dzhankoy and Kerch, Crimea.
The USS Redfin sank the Akigumo.
The U-108 was destroyed in its pen at Stettin in a U.S. Army Air Force air raid.
Last prior edition:
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.
The Bialystok Ghetto uprising commenced when the SS surrounded the ghetto in that city to deport its residents. The Jewish underground of the Polish city revolted and fought back, resulting in a battle that lasted five days.
There's a common myth, for some reason, that European Jews did not resist the Holocaust, often attributed to a lack of their being armed. In fact, they did resist, sometimes causing the Germans significant casualties.
Taking a page from the American book, British forces made a small amphibious landing on Sicily's east coast, but it failed to cut off retreating Axis forces. On the same day, US elements reached Messina.
The Red Army took Zhidra.
The Air Transport Command commenced ferrying Elanor Roosevelt on a tour of the Pacific Theatre. The plane involved was a C-87, a cargo variant of the B-24.
Featured earlier, this Canadian soldier examined a Japanese machine gun on Kiska:
The Joint Chiefs of Staff approved the Strategic Plan for the Defeat of Japan.
Count Fleet won the Preakness.
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The great Western The Ox-Bow Incident premiered. Featuring Harry Morgan and Henry Fonda, the film was partially what inspired Fonda to join the Navy.
The book by Walter Van Tilburg Clark is excellent as well.
Hitler and Mussolini met at Schloss Klessheim.
Mussolini was sick and Hitler babbled on. Il Duce suggested that perhaps the pair approach Uncle Joe about a separate peace, but Hitler would have none of it.
The Japanese conducted massive air raids in the Solomons on this day, although they were not a complete surprise due to American radio intercepts. Marine Corps pilot James E. Swett would be awarded the Medal of Honor for his actions. His citation reads:
FIRST LIEUTENANT JAMES E. SWETT
UNITED STATES MARINE CORPS RESERVE for service as set forth in the following CITATION:
For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty, as a division leader in Marine Fighting Squadron TWO TWENTY-ONE in action against enemy Japanese aerial forces in the Solomon Islands Area, April 7, 1943. In a daring flight to intercept a wave of 150 Japanese planes, First Lieutenant Swett unhesitatingly hurled his four-plane division into action against a formation of fifteen enemy bombers and during his dive personally exploded three hostile planes in mid-air with accurate and deadly fire. Although separated from his division while clearing the heavy concentration of anti-aircraft fire, he boldly attacked six enemy bombers, engaged the first four in turn, and unaided, shot them down in flames. Exhausting his ammunition as he closed the fifth Japanese bomber, he relentlessly drove his attack against terrific opposition which partially disabled his engine, shattered the windscreen and slashed his face. In spite of this, he brought his battered plane down with skillful precision in the water off Tulagi without further injury. The superb airmanship and tenacious fighting spirit which enabled First Lieutenant Swett to destroy eight enemy bombers in a single flight were in keeping with the highest traditions of the United States Naval Service.
Born in 1920, Swett was a prewar private pilot before joining the Navy, and then transferring following flight school to the Marine Corps. Swett remained in the Marine Corps following World War Two but left for the reserves folloiwng the Marine Corps' decision not to deploy him to Korea during the Korean War as he was a Medal of Honor recipient. He died in California in 2009 at age 88.
The British government published a report by John Maynard Keynes about the global postwar economy, proposing an international monetary fund.
Allied forces prevailed at Wadi Akarit
Bolivia declared war against the Axis powers.
There were still a fair number of foreign language newspapers in the U.S., even in languages which had been officially unpopular during the prior World War. This one printed in German fraktur, which interestingly was now officially prohibited in Germany itself.
Today In Wyoming's History: April 7: 1943. On this day, the sale of coffee was banned in Cheyenne and Casper due to violations of wartime rationing restrictions.
The Carras (Greek), Glendalough (UK), Lulworth Hill (UK), and Matthew Luckenbach (US) went down in the Atlantic. So did the U348, which was sunk by a British B-17.
Sarah Sundin notes, in her blog:
Today in World War II History—March 19, 1943: U-boats break off attacks on convoys HX-229 and SC-122, ending largest convoy battle of the war.
The HMS Derwent, Ocean Voyager (UK) and Varvara went down in the Mediterranean.
The U-5 went down in a diving accident off of Pilaue, East Prussia. The Soviet TKA-35 collided with another torpedo boat and sank.
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The Japanese lost the Kowa Maru, Takachiho and Zogen Maru, all merchant ships, to two submarines. The USS Wahoo sank two of them. She would be lost in December 1943.
The Japanese losses demonstrate that the Japanese were enduring in the Pacific what the Allies were in the Atlantic, shipping losses due to submarines. However, the Japanese were never able to adjust to it to the extent that the Allies ultimately did.
Sundin also noted:
Today in World War II History—March 19, 1943: Henry H. Arnold is promoted to four-star general.
Arnold was a career airman and had in fact received flight instruction from the Wright Brothers. A West Point graduate, he had wanted to be a cavalryman, but his initial assignment was to infantry. He switched to aviation in 1911, but did not receive any sort of World War One overseas assignments, being used in other roles, much like Eisenhower, until 1918 at which time he became ill with Spanish Flu. He arrived in Europe right at the time of the Armistice.
He became chief of the Air Corps in 1938.
56 at the time of this promotion, he was in ill health and starting in 1943 he would have the first of four severe wartime heart attacks which should have caused him to be required to leave the service, but he was allowed to stay due to intervention by President Roosevelt.
He was appointed to General of the Army in December 1944, and General of the Air Force, although retired in 1949. He's the only person to have held five-star rank in the Air Force, and the only one to hold five star rank in two services.
He retired in 1947, before the establishment of the Air Force as a separate branch, and died at age 63 in 1950.
The Albanian Communist Party formed the Sigurimi which gathered intelligence in the fight for Albanian freedom, and then was used post-war to stamp out any chance of Albanian freedom.
Frank Nitti, cousin of and mobster with, Al Capone, died by suicide the day before a scheduled grand jury appearance.
Nitti had risen high up in the Chicago mob due to Al Capone, although he was not exclusively active with it. He did become a very significant member of it and was more than mere muscle, contrary to the way he has been portrayed in film. Born in Italy, and raised in the US under rough circumstances, he was perhaps a natural for crime.
Contrary to what is sometimes assumed, Nitti and Capone were not in the mafia and were not eligable to be as they were not Sicilians or of Sicilian extraction.
So stated the message from Gen. Alexander Patch to Adm. Bill Halsey, marking the end of operations in Guadalcanal.
The Japanese had sustained 24,000 combat deaths on the island. The US, 1,653.
The Japanese troops ship Tatsuta Maru went down due to a torpedo from the U.S. submarine USS Tarpon. 1,223 soldiers and passengers and 198 crewmen died in the sinking, which was during a storm, rivaling the U.S. loss in taking Guadalcanal.
President Roosevelt ordered a wartime work week of 48 hours in 32 U.S. cities that had a shortage of employees. Employees would receive time and a half for working over 40 hours
Two big events came out of Casablanca on this day, as reported by Sarah Sundin:
Today in World War II History—January 24, 1943: In the Casablanca Declaration, the Allies demand the unconditional surrender of the Axis. At the Casablanca Conference, Allies commit to the invasion of Sicily.
The agreement was made, but as Roosevelt and Churchill's presence in Morocco was still a secret, news of it was not yet released.
The German Völkischer Beobachter and the Börsen Zeitung reported commentary from journalist and propagandist Karl Megerle that "For the first time in this war, Germany faces reverses of a certain importance" and German radio started to play mourning music between news broadcasts. The fact that this occurred meant that the Germans regarded the news from the Eastern Front as not only disastrous, but plainly so. No doubt, the impending collapse at Stalingrad played at least a partial role in the decision to prepare the German public for the news of German reversals.
The USS Radford became the first ship to shoot down an aircraft while not seeing it. The spotting was solely by radar.
The first use of the revolutionary VT fuse in combat occurred when the USS Helena shot down a Japanese dive bomber with a projectile equipped with the fuse.
Designed for surface-to-air and ground to ground use, the VT used radar to detonate when close to the target. The Navy's use came first, as it was feared that the fuse would fall into enemy hands if used in ground combat. Amazingly, use by ground forces of the joint British-American fuse would not come until late 1944 when it was deployed during the Battle of the Bulge. There was some reluctance to use it even then, but its revolutionary features were never discovered by the Germans or Japanese.
The fuse is widely used today.
Gen. Kenneth Walker led a heavy bomber raid on Rabaul to hit Japanese shipping, the presence of which the US was aware of due to decoding of Japanese radio transmissions. Eight Japanese merchant ships and two destroyers were hit during the raid by B-17s and B-24s. Gen. Walker's aircraft, in which he was riding as an observer, was brought down by Japanese antiaircraft fire, and he was killed.
Walker was 44 years old at the time of his death. Born in New Mexico, he grew up in Denver, Colorado in a home maintained by his mother, as his father left the family. He attended a variety of schools in Denver. He entered the Army during World War One and was commissioned as an airman in 1918.
The Department of Agriculture ordered that 30% of all butter production be reserved for the Armed Forces.
George Washington Carver, prominent American scientist and African American, died at approximately age 78.
The Red Army continued to advance in the Caucasus. British paratroopers and commandos took the high ground near Mateur, Tunisia. Free French forces advanced in southern Libya.
Today in World War II History—October 21, 1942: Maj. Gen. Mark Clark lands by submarine at Cherchel, Algeria, for a clandestine meeting with the Vichy French in preparation for the upcoming Allied invasion.
The Germans took control of the Stalingrad Tractor Factory. Fighting for the factory had been at the epic level, but the Germans took control of the factory earlier in the battle than I'd realized.
B-26 Marauders sank the Japanese destroyer Oburo northeast of Kiska.
The Oburo.
Washington D. C. experienced flooding due to heavy rain.
Adolph Hitler, demonstrating increasing concern of the increasingly slow rate of advance on the Eastern Front, and thereby demonstrating a better understanding of the tactical situation than he is sometimes given credit for, sacked Franz Halder of the Chief of Staff of the OKH.
Long term, this proved to be a lucky break for Halder who had a role complicit with German atrocities in the East. Losing his position in 1942, he became a favorite of Western militaries post-war and was involved in the creation of the "Clean Wehrmacht" myth. He lived until 1972.
He was replaced by Kurt Zeitzler. Zeitzler was a professional staff officer who grew increasingly frustrated in his role and came to be estranged from Hitler. He sought to resign in 1944 and ultimately was allowed to do so, to be followed by Hitler cashiering him from the German Army in January 1945. Zeitzler was somewhat unusual in that he did not serve any time at all after the war unlike most very senior German generals. He was called as a witness for the defense in the Nuremberg Trails. He died in 1963.
The German Army broke through at Stalingrad, advancing to the Volga, and cutting the Red Army 62nd Army in two.
The Japanese landed on Maliana in the Gilberts.
The last entry on the excellent World War Two Day-By-Day Blog, linked in down in our disconnected blog's thread, was on this day, which provided:
Day 1120 September 24, 1942
In the North Atlantic 300-500 miles East of the tip of Greenland, U-432 sinks American SS Pennmar at 1.44 AM (1 man is crushed between a raft and the ship and another drowns, 59 survivors picked up later in the day by US Coast Guard cutter USCGC Bibb), U-617 sinks Belgian SS Roumanie at 1.58 PM (36 crew and six British gunners killed, chief engineer Suykerbuyk is found on a raft and taken prisoner by U-617) and U-619 sinks American SS John Winthrop with 5 torpedoes and the deck gun (all 39 crew and 13 gunners lost).
At Stalingrad, German 94th Infantry and 24th Panzer Divisions wipe out the Soviet defenders in the pocket in South of the city. Furious at the delay in taking Stalingrad and lack of success reaching oilfields in the Caucasus, Hitler dismisses General Halder as OKH Chief of Staff, replacing him with General Kurt Zeitzler.
In the Mediterranean, Greek submarine RHS Nereus sinks small Italian freighter Fiume 7 miles Southwest of Rhodes. At 11.35 PM 36 miles Southwest of Tiros, Lebanon, U-561 sinks Egyptian Sailing ship Sphinx with 22 rounds from the deck gun.
Off the coast of British Guyana, South America. American SS Antinous (torpedoed yesterday by U-515) is taken in tow by British rescue tug HMS Zwatre Zee (most powerful tug in the world at 4200 Horse Power) but is sunk at 6.25 PM by U-512. At 9.24 AM, U-175 sinks American SS West Chetac (22 crew and 9 gunners drown trying to abandon ship, 17 crew and 2 gunners on 3 rafts picked up on October 1 20 miles off Trinidad by US destroyer USS Roe and landed at Port of Spain).
At 1.30 PM, a Japanese fighter spots Australian destroyer HMAS Voyager beached at Betano Bay, East Timor. At 4 PM, Japanese bombers return and damage HMAS Voyager beyond recovery (no casualties) but the 400 Australian commandos (2/4th Independent Company) have already landed safely.
On Guadalcanal, Japanese General Kawaguchi has regrouped 4000 troops (following the failed assault on Edson’s Ridge 10 days ago) in the Matanikau Valley, 5 miles West of the US positions at Henderson Field. US Marine General Vandegrift sends out 2 battalions to ‘mop up’ what he believes are only 400 Japanese in Matanikau Valley (Colonel ‘Chesty’ Puller 1st Battalion, 7th Marine Regiment will go inland over 1200-foot high Mont Austen while 1st Raider Battalion under Colonel Samuel Griffith takes the coastal route into the Valley).
US bombers Douglas Dauntless dive bombers from Henderson Field (Marine squadron VMSB 231 and Naval squadron VS 3) attack Japanese destroyers Umikaze and Kawakaze on a “Tokyo Express” run, bringing troops and supplies to Guadalcanal from Shortland Island at the Western end of the Solomon Islands. Umikaze is damaged by a near miss (8 killed) forcing the convoy to abort landings and causing Umikaze to be repaired Truk. USAAF B-17 bombers raid the Japanese naval base on Shortland damaging Japanese seaplane carrier Sanuki Maru.
British destroyer HMS Nizam sinks a Vichy French merchant ship Southwest of Madagascar.
220 miles West of the tip of India, Japanese submarine I-165 sinks US freighter Losmar (3 killed, 14 survivors rescued by British ship Louise Moller on October 5 and another 7 survivors reach the West coast of Ceylon on October 17).
That entry came a decade ago, and then the entries suddenly ceased.
YB-29s.
Today in World War II History—September 21, 1942: British and Indian troops launch assault into the Arakan Peninsula in Burma. First test flight of Boeing XB-29 Superfortress heavy bomber, Seattle, WA.
From Sarah Sundin's blog.
The B-29 was one of the great aircraft of the Second World War and was also, during the war, one that was downright dangerous to fly due to its frequent engine failures and fires. It's loss rate early on in China, from which many were flown, was appalling. Nonetheless, they were an advance that could be regarded as generational.
Forever associated with Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the plane became the world's first nuclear bomber, a status it retained for a while post-war. By the Korean War, however, they were beginning to show their vulnerabilities in the new jet and rocket age. The B-36 resulted in them being reclassified as a medium bomber, an odd thought, and the B-29 was retired in 1960, and overall long run for a bomber of that period. A late variant, the B-29D, which was reclassified as the B-50, continued on in limited use until 1963. Ironically, a version copied by the Soviet Union from an example that landed on their territory during the war, the TU-4, remained in active service slightly longer and also saw service with the Red Chinese, meaning that for a time the airplane equipped both sides in the Cold War.
Weiße Rose, or in English White Rose, began distributing its anti-Nazi pamphlets in Munich.
Comprised principally, but not exclusively of students, it was heavily inspired by Catholic thought, although not all of its members were Catholic.
Winston Churchill arrived back in the United Kingdom and a joint statement was issued on the results of the recent Washington Conference.
It was another day of much German submarine activity, but it also saw the USS Nautilus sink a Japanese minesweeper just 60 miles sought of Tokyo Bay.
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Dwight D. Eisenhower arrived in London to assume command of the European Theater of Operations United States of America, replacing James E. Chaney.
In fact, Eisenhower had only recently returned to the United States on a fact finding mission, along with Hap Arnold, on the United Kingdom in which he expressed a lack of confidence in Chaney. He was assigned to replace Chaney and sent right back to the UK.
