Neon lighting was introduced at the Paris Motor Show, but not, of course, for automobiles.
It was a Saturday.
Last edition:
This entire controversy, largely forgotten outside of Belgium, where it would simmer for years, is hard to grasp, but it started with the unpopular move of surrendering to Germany, which was not supported by the Belgian people. He did not cooperate with the Nazis during the war and in fact was imprisoned during the war, but that did not suffice for people to forgive him. Additionally, he remarried during the war, being a widower, which people also held against him, as the poster above alludes to.
Churchill, Truman and Stalin continued to confer on politics and strategy,
US troops landed and took Balut Island in the Philippines.
Air raids over Japan continued, with P-51s now joining the effort as fighter bombers.
The Central Executive Committee of the USSR issued a decree prohibiting the possession of almost all firearms, with the exception of shotguns for hunting, although much hunting in much of Russia, which was fairly common, was in fact done with rifles by necessity.
Following 1933, the penalty for violation was five years imprisonment. In 1935 knives were added to the list.
During World War Two the ban was expanded with all firearms being required to be turned over to the state, although following the war, the USSR was awash in captured German weapons.
Presently, rifles may be registered for hunting.
The USSR/Russia we might note, shares this status with Ireland, in being a country whose freedom, if you will, was brought about through the private exercise of arms, that then went around banning them. In the USSR's case it isn't too surprising, as armed resistance against the Communists continued on into the 1930s in some areas and revived during the Second World War, to continue on until nearly 1950 after the war.
Truly, there's a lesson here.
The first issue of the weekly Saudi Arabian newspaper Umm Al-Qura, the official newspaper of the Saudi government, was published
Last edition.
In a mission months in the making, members of the SOE and Cretan resistance kidnapped Heinrich Kreipe.
Originally directed at Gen. Friedrich-Wilhelm Müller as a reprisal for actions committed under his orders, Kreipe had succeeded him by the time the SOE team arrived. Kreipe's kidnapping would cause Müller to return and order mass reprisals, something that had not occurred under Kreipe.
In short, it was a pointless action and poorly thought out, with ultimately tragic results.
Kreipe would be reunited with his kidnappers in a 1972 Greek television program.
In New Guinea, American beachheads at Tanahmerah Bay and Humboldt Bay were linked up. Australian forces took Alexishafen.
The Yoshida Maru No. 1 was sunk by the USS Jack resulting in the loss of 2,669 men.
The U-488 was sunk off of Cape Verde by the U.S. Navy.
The I-180 was sunk off of Chirikof Island by the USS Gilmore.
The Royal Navy, in an effort to attack the Tirpitz which failed due to weather, found a coastal convoy instead and sunk three ships in it.
The POW camp in Hoopeston, Illinois, received its first prisoners.
Last prior edition:
- Published March 6, 2012
They Were Neighbors: Annie O’Connell and The Irish Block
.png)
The Australian Army captured Shaggy Ridge in New Guinea.
From Sarah Sundin's blog:
Today in World War II History—January 25, 1944: Soviets surround 60,000 German troops in Korsun-Cherkassy pocket in Ukraine. US II Corps successfully crosses the Rapido River north of Cassino in Italy.
The USS Ponape sank the destroyer Suzukaze
Parts of the world experienced an eclipse.
The USS Liscome Bay was torpedoed at 05:10 by the Japanese submarine I-175. 644 men were killed in the initial explosion or the rapid 23 minute sinking. The aircraft carrier had been supporting the landings on Makin Island in the Gilberts. The losses due to the attack far outstripped the US losses in the ground operation.
Most of the naval task force supporting the landing had withdrawn, as the operation had successfully completed, but the Liscome Bay had remained in support of ongoing operations. Japanese submarines had been rushed to the area, withdrawn from other areas of the Pacific, in a near panic by the Japanese Navy, which had been caught off guard by the landings. Included amongst those losses were the commander of the ship and Navy Cross winner Doris Miller. It was the deadliest attack on an aircraft carrier in the history of the U.S. Navy.
The shock of Tarawa and Makin was in part because the US had simply chosen to leap up into the Central Pacific without completing operations in the Southern Pacific. Indeed, operations on Bougainville, where the Japanese mounted a small counter-attack on this day, never concluded.
In San Francisco, Leopold Stokowski conducted an all-Russian concert with the San Francisco Symphony.
The Provisional Government of Azad Hind ("Free India") was declared with Subhas Chandra as president. Its territory, such as it was, were those portions of Indian occupied by Japan.
It immediately declared it was entering the war on the Japanese side, an example of really not grasping the direction things were headed in, and in fact already well advanced towards.
On the same day, Japan began drafting high school and university students.
The Germans began liquidating the Minsk Ghetto as they were retreating from Belarus.
The RAF made a highly destructive raid on Kassel.
Algerian Jews, 140,000 in number were restored French citizenship, which had been restricted, along with the same for Algerian Arabs, on March 17, 1942 by Gen. Henri Giraud. Arabs had to apply for restoration of their French citizenship.
The Germans murdered 1,313 Jewish former residents of the Bialystok Ghetto at Auschwitz. Most of them were children. Bialystok's ghetto had seen a failed uprising.
Over 100 people, mostly Italian civilians, were killed when a bomb planted by the Germans went off at the post office in Naples.
The Japanese murdered 97 American civilians who had been held on Wake Island under the orders of Japanese naval commander Shigematsu Sakaibara (酒井原 繁松). He'd be sentenced to death for the event after the war.
Sakaibara believed an American landing was imminent, which would not justify in any fashion the murders. It was, however, what led him to give the order. After at first denying the murders had occured, he would ultimately confess to them and express regret, but also maintain that the Allies had no authority to try him and that his sentence was unjust following the American use of nuclear weapons.
The New Georgia Campaign came to an end with an Allied victory.
Lassie Come Home, the first Lassie film, was released.
.jpg)
The U.S. 5th Army entered Naples. The Germans burned the University of Naples and the Teatro di San Carlo on the way out.
Today in World War II History—October 1, 1943: In Italy, US Fifth Army and British X Corps enter Naples. US Third War Loan Drive ends, raising $19 billion (quota $15 billion).
W. Averll Harriman was named Ambassador to the USSR
The Germans executed Plan Asche, evacuating 25,800 German troops from Sardinia to Corsica.
This yielded the island's important airfields to the Allies.
The Germans began mass deportation of Jews from Paris and the liquidation of Jews in Minsk commenced.
The British occupied the Aegean islands of Simi, Stampalia and Icaria.
The Red Army took Soviet forces capture Priluki, Lubny and Romodan Pavlograd, Krasnograd, Pologi and Nogaysk.
Sarah Sundin, on her blog, notes:
Today in World War II History—September 18, 1943: US opens Central Pacific offensive as Seventh Air Force Navy Task Force 15 aircraft begin bombing Tarawa, Makin, and Apemama in the Gilbert Islands.
Heinrich Himmler issued his "scorched earth" order requiring that German forces completely denude areas in the East they were retreating from in every sense.
Scorched early orders are surprisingly common in warfare, and are designed to prevent an advancing army from using a conquered area's resources. More than most armies of World War Two, both the Germans and the Soviets depended on local resources. For some areas in the East this would be the second time they'd been subjected to this during the war, as the Soviets also practiced it, and for Ukraine, it was part of an ongoing series of disasters afflicting residents of the region.
Sarah Sundin notes for this day:
Today in World War II History—September 7, 1943: German 17th Army begins evacuating the Kuban bridgehead in southern Russia as the Soviets advance. Actor Orson Welles marries actress Rita Hayworth.
I honestly didn't know that Welles and Hayworth had ever been married.
The event also featured entertainment from James Cagney, Ethel Merman, Cab Calloway, Milton Berle, Joe E. Lewis, Carole Landis and Ralph Bellamy.
Babe Ruth hit his last home run during the game, more of which can be read about here:
1943 All Pacific Recreation Fund – Service All-Stars vs Los Angeles & Hollywood
The 800 million dollars was equivalent to over 10.7 billion dollars in current funds.
The Germans occupied the Alpine passes with Italy in anticipation of the Italians surrendering.
The USSR recognized Egypt.
The US, Canada and British governments give limited recognition to the Free French Committee of National Liberation.
Sarah Sundin reports, on her blog:
Today in World War II History—August 22, 1943: German 10th Army is activated in southern Italy under Gen. Heinrich von Vietinghoff.
In the Mediterranean, all fighter groups and medium bomb groups in the US Ninth Air Force are transferred to the Twelfth Air Force.
The Germans began to withdraw from Kharkiv to avoid encirclement.
Andrei Gromyko was named Ambassador to the United States, replacing Maxim Litvinov who had returned to the Soviet Union under Stalin's orders in May. Gromyko was Belarusian.
US forces occupied islands in the Gilbert and Ellice Islands including Nukufetau and Namumea without opposition.
George S. Patton thanked the troops of his Army for their efforts in Sicily, noting:
As a result of this combined effort, you have killed or captured 113,350 enemy troops. You have destroyed 265 of his tanks, 2324 vehicles, and 1162 large guns, and, in addition, have collected a mass of military booty running into hundreds of tons.
English language German radio propagandist "Gertie from Berlin" was revealed to be Gertrude Hahn, a native of Pittsburgh who had gone to Germany in 1938 when her family returned to their native country.
The United Islamic Society of America formed in Newark, New Jersey.
John Curtin, Prime Minister of Australia, retained his position as the Australian Labor Party took 49 of 74 seats in the Australian House of Representatives and 19 out of 36 in the Australian Senate.
Australian troops on New Guinea took Komiatum, southwest of Salamaua.
Frankly Roosevelt and McKenzie King announced that U.S. and Canadian forces had retaken Kiska.
The recapture effectively put the continental United States and the Canadian provinces out of reach of Imperial Japanese forces.
Hal Block, Bob Hope, Barney Dean, Frances Langford and Tony Romano met General George S. Patton at a USO show in Sicily at which Patton asked Hope to tell his radio audience “that I love my men", perhaps hoping to counter the bad publicity that the slapping incident had caused.
You didn't see that in Patton.
From Sarah Sundin's blog:
Today in World War II History—August 21, 1943: First “UT” convoy sails from New York, heavily escorted convoys carrying troops to England in build-up for Operation Overlord (D-day).
President Roosevelt, via Executive Order, revoked deferments for striking defense plant workers.
The RAF hit Peenemünde with three waves of bombers in Operation Hydra. Damage was so extensive that Luftwaffe General Jeschonnek, charged with defense of the Reich's airspace and well ware of his failings in that regard, and further having an inwardly timid personalty masked by a harden affectation, killed himself the following day, leaving a note that stated; „Mit dem Reichsmarschall kann ich nicht mehr zusammenarbeiten. Es lebe der Führer!“ ("I can no longer work together with the Reichsmarschall. Long live the Führer!"). He left a further note excluding Ulrich Dieseing and Bernd von Brauchitsche from his funeral. A memorandum he left called upon Hitler to change leadership in the Luftwaffe, but was confiscated by Göring.
Ultimately, in some way, Jeschonnek was a victim of his personality, knowing internally that the air war was lost, but lacking the will to do something about it.
Sarah Sundin noted Jeschonnek's fate on her blog, and also noted the following:
Today in World War II History—August 18, 1943: Army Air Force barrage balloon battalions are inactivated in the US. Betty Smith’s bestselling novel A Tree Grows in Brooklyn is published.
The U.S. Navy bombarded Palmi and Gioai Taura in Italy.
The Allies prevailed in the Battle of Mount Tambu.
46,000 mostly Jewish Greeks arrived at Auschwitz.
A two week Allied hiatus of bombing of Italian targets came to an end. Milan and Turin were struck by the RAF, which also struck Berlin for the first time since May 21. U.S. bombers began a heavier attack on Rome and a precision bombing attack on Italian rail yards at San Lorenzo and Vittorio. The US bombed an Austrian target for the first time.
Fr. Jakob Gapp, age 46, was executed by the Germans.
Fr. Gapp was an Austrian with outspoken anti-Nazi views and had gone into exile, first in France and then in Spain, as a result. He'd been kidnapped by German agents posing as refugees needing help to cross the Spanish border and sentenced to death. He was beatified on November 24, 1996.
In Natrona County, the high was 87.4 F and the low 52.3F.
