"British 61st Heavy Regt., 31 Btry., "A" Sub. 7.2 howitzer firing. Gabbiano area, Italy. 5 February, 1945. Photographer: Schmidt, 3131st Signal Service Co."
It was Monday, and news magazines were out. Stalin was on the cover of Time. German POWs were featured on Newsweek. A smiling young woman in a swimsuit was on the cover of Life, which had an article on Florida.
Ecuador declared war on Japan.
The Red Army crossed the Oder at Brzeg.
The US 7th Army and linked up with French forces splitting the Colmar pocket.
SOE agents Denise Bloch, Lilian Rolfe, and Violette Szabo were executed at Ravensbrück concentration camp. All three women were heroic.
Szabo.
High ranking SOE figure, Vera Atkins, dedicated her immediate post war efforts to detecting who was responsible for all three agents deaths. A woman of great mystery herself, she was Romanian and Jewish, but easily passed for English.
Bloch, who was as French Jewish refugee.
Violette Szabo is particularly well remembered and was the topic of at least one movie.
Rolfe.
The SOE tends to be well remembered, but it had been penetrated causing some agents, such as Szabo, to be picked up nearly as soon as they were left on the ground. Who the leak was, was never detected.
The U-41 was sunk by the HMS Antelope off of Lands End.
Hard fighting occured near Manila, where Lt. Robert M. Vale would perform the actions that would lead to a posthumous Medal of Honor being conveyed to him.
He displayed conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity above and beyond the call of duty. Forced by the enemy's detonation of prepared demolitions to shift the course of his advance through the city, he led the 1st platoon toward a small bridge, where heavy fire from 3 enemy pillboxes halted the unit. With 2 men he crossed the bridge behind screening grenade smoke to attack the pillboxes. The first he knocked out himself while covered by his men's protecting fire; the other 2 were silenced by 1 of his companions and a bazooka team which he had called up. He suffered a painful wound in the right arm during the action. After his entire platoon had joined him, he pushed ahead through mortar fire and encircling flames. Blocked from the only escape route by an enemy machinegun placed at a street corner, he entered a nearby building with his men to explore possible means of reducing the emplacement. In 1 room he found civilians huddled together, in another, a small window placed high in the wall and reached by a ladder. Because of the relative positions of the window, ladder, and enemy emplacement, he decided that he, being left-handed, could better hurl a grenade than 1 of his men who had made an unsuccessful attempt. Grasping an armed grenade, he started up the ladder. His wounded right arm weakened, and, as he tried to steady himself, the grenade fell to the floor. In the 5 seconds before the grenade would explode, he dropped down, recovered the grenade and looked for a place to dispose of it safely. Finding no way to get rid of the grenade without exposing his own men or the civilians to injury or death, he turned to the wall, held it close to his body and bent over it as it exploded. 2d Lt. Viale died in a few minutes, but his heroic act saved the lives of others.
In the same battle, then TSgt Donald E. Rudolph would perform the actions that would lead to the same award.
Second Lt. Rudolph (then TSgt.) was acting as platoon leader at Munoz, Luzon, Philippine Islands. While administering first aid on the battlefield, he observed enemy fire issuing from a nearby culvert. Crawling to the culvert with rifle and grenades, he killed three of the enemy concealed there. He then worked his way across open terrain toward a line of enemy pillboxes which had immobilized his company. Nearing the first pillbox, he hurled a grenade through its embrasure and charged the position. With his bare hands he tore away the wood and tin covering, then dropped a grenade through the opening, killing the enemy gunners and destroying their machine gun. Ordering several riflemen to cover his further advance, 2d Lt. Rudolph seized a pick mattock and made his way to a second pillbox. Piercing its top with the mattock, he dropped a grenade through the hole, firing several rounds from his rifle into it, and smothered any surviving enemy by sealing the hole and the embrasure with earth. In quick succession he attacked and neutralized six more pillboxes. Later, when his platoon was attacked by an enemy tank, he advanced under covering fire, climbed to the top of the tank, and dropped a white phosphorus grenade through the turret, destroying the crew. Through his outstanding heroism, superb courage, and leadership, and complete disregard for his own safety, 2d Lt. Rudolph cleared a path for an advance which culminated in one of the most decisive victories of the Philippine campaign.
Rudolph survived the war and completed a career in the Army, retiring in 1963.
The RAF Balloon Command was disbanded.
The Japanese carrier-battleship Ise, was damaged by a mine off Indochina.
The USAAF hit Iwo Jima again.
The Greek Communist Party accepted the governments terms for amnesty.
The US-bred filly Big Racket set the world record for fastest average speed set by a racehorse at the Clasico Dia del Charro held at Mexicos Hipodromo de las Americas.
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Labels: 1940s, 1945, Battle of Manila, British Army, Burma, Indian Army, Iwo Jima, Joseph Stalin, Philippines, Roosevelt, U.S. Air Force, Winston Churchill, World War Two, Yalta Conference
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