Saturday, December 23, 1944. German command worries.

The US First Army withdrew from St. Vith.

US aircraft are able to hit ground targets over Belgium.  C-47s dropped supplies into Bastogne.

By this point, Model, Guderian and Von Rundstedt have all recommended a halt to the offensive.

"Capt. Chaplain Connolly says mass for members of 127th Inf. Regt., 32nd Div., outside of Lonoy, Leyte, P.I. Mass was held two days before Christmas because the regiment was moving across country to push on to the west coast and would be unable to attend on Christmas. 23 December, 1944. 127th Infantry Regiment, 32nd Infantry Division. Photographer: Pfc. Jack Traub.

Twenty five German POWs escaped from Papago Park Camp in Arizona with a plan to float a river all the way to Mexico, apparently not appreciating that by this point Mexico was an Allied power.  They would be on the run until January 28, which is impressive, but their plan failed.

Today In Wyoming's History: December 23: 1944  All horse racing in the US is banned in an effort to save labor.

Last edition:  

Friday, December 22, 1944. "Nuts!".

Labels: "Wacht am Rhein", 1940s, 1944, Army, Artillery, Bastogne, Battle of the Bulge, Communism, German Army, Hungary, law, Paratroopers, Siege of Bastogne, The written word, Vietnam

Sunday, December 17, 1944. SS murders in Belgium.

 

Soldiers of SS Kampfgruppe Peiper murdered eighty-four U.S. prisoners of war at Malmedy.

Peiper survived the war and a death sentence for war crimes, which was commuted and oddly took up residence in France.  In spite of clear warnings that he should get out, he stayed, and was murdered himself on Bastille Day, 14 July 1976, by French communists who also set fire to his house.

Peiper is also associated with the 1943 Boves Massacre in Italy.

On the same day, eleven 11 African-American prisoners of war were murdered by members of the 1st SS Panzer Division at Wereth, Belgium.

The Germans took Lanzerath Ridge.  U.S. resistance held the Germans up for an entire day.  While the Germans were advancing, things were already going wrong.

Eisenhower released the 82nd and 101st Airborne Divisions from reserve and committed them to the Ardennes.  Elements of the 12th Army Group were redeployed as well.

"An anti-tank gun is rapidly put into position in a forward area on the German-Belgium border, to repel a strong German counter attack in the First Army sector. 1st Battalion, 26th Infantry Regiment, 1st Infantry Division, V Corps, First U.S. Army. 17 December, 1944.

The Germans took 9,000 US pows at Ecternach.

The RAF hit Ulm in a nighttime raid for the first time.

The Army's Western Defense Command rescinded orders to incarcerate people of Japanese ancestry from the West coast.

Last edition:

Saturday, December 16, 1944. Wacht am Rhein

Labels: "Wacht am Rhein", 1940s, 1944, Battle of Mindoro, Battle of the Bulge, George C. Marshall, German Wehrmacht, Mussolini, World War Two

Thursday, December 14, 1944. The tragedy of Lupe Vélez.

The great Mexican actress Lupe Vélez, pregnant with the baby of her recent fiance,  Harald Ramond (Harald Maresch) committed suicide after a dinner with friends in Los Angeles, leaving this note:

To Harald, May God forgive you and forgive me too, but I prefer to take my life away and our baby's before I bring him with shame or killing him. – Lupe.

How could you, Harald, fake such a great love for me and our baby when all the time, you didn't want us? I see no other way out for me, so goodbye, and good luck to you, Love Lupe.

Ramond confessed confusion, declaring that even after their recent break up he had promised to marry her.  In spite of the official ruling of suicide, there has been ongoing speculation about her death.

She had, at one time, been married to Johnny Weismuller.

May God rest her soul, and that of her child.

The Japanese murdered 150 Allied Prisoners of war near Puerto Princesa in the Philippine province of Palawan to prevent their liberation by American troops.

The Japanese attempted, but failed, to mount a large scale air attack on the U.S. Navy's invasion task force heading to Mindoro.    The U.S. Navy hit airfields on Luzon.

The HMS Aldenham was sunk in the Adriatic by a mine.  It was the last Royal Navy destroyer lost in World War Two.

Congress authorized the five start senior officer rank to address American commanders technically being junior to high ranking British ones.

The Germans banned the use of electricity in Holland.

Last edition:

Wednesday, December 13, 1944. USS Goshen commissioned.

Labels: 1940s, 1944, 1947, 1960s, 1968, 1970s, 1973, Battle of Kesternich, Battle of Metz, Battle of Mindoro, Blog Mirror, boats and ships, Imperial Japanese Navy, U.S. Navy, Weather, World War Two

Wednesday, November 29, 1944. Prisoner Exchange.

"American Red Cross representative Andrew G. Hodges talks with German officers during the exchange of prisoners near Pernic, France. 54 German prisoners were exchanged for 19 Americans, 30 French, and 3 British. 29 November, 1944."

"Pvt. George M. Leg, Birmingham, England, has his bag of personal effects inspected by a German noncom before his release during the exchange of Allied and German prisoners near Pernic, France. 29 November, 1944."

Quebec nationalist René Chaloult stated that Quebec should secede from Canada if the province was not allowed to decide its own policies on conscription.  Oddly enough, the Terrace Mutiny ended the same day.

The liberation of Albania was completed by Albanian partisans.

US forces successfully counterattack at Kilay Ridge on Leyte.

The USS Archerfish sank the carrier Shinano in waters off Honshu.

Last edition:

Tuesday, November 28, 1944. Antwerp opens.

Labels: 1940s, 1944, Antwerp Belgium, Battle of Leyte, boats and ships, Hungary, Philippines, Red Army, World War Two

Monday, November 27, 1944. Accidents.

The Battle of Peleliu finally ended in an American victory.

Detonation of explosives at the RAF Fauld underground munitions depot killed around 70 people in one the largest non nuclear explosions of all time.

The captured Norwegian ship Rigel was sunk by aircraft of the Royal Navy, resulting in the deaths of 2,571 people, mos tof whom were prisoners of war.

A mine sank the U-479 in the Gulf of Finland.

A V2 killed 157 people in Antwerp.

Last edition:

Sunday, November 26, 1944. Covering up a crime against humanity.

Labels: 1940s, 1944, Army, Auschwitz, Germany, Heinrich Himmler, Mediterranean and Middle East Theatre, Nazi Germany, Red Army, The Holocaust, World War Two

Tuesday, November 21, 1944. Vive La France.

Jeep of the French 1st Army, November 21, 1944.

The French 1st Army took Belfort.

German POWs, November 21, 1944.

The battlecruiser Kongō and destroyer Urwakaze were sunk in the South China Sea by the  USS Sealion.

Albanian partisans occupied Tirana and Durazzo.

Last edition:

Monday, November 20, 1944. The sinking of the Mississinewa.

Labels: 1940s, 1944, Adolf Hitler, boats and ships, British Army, China, Eastern Front, France, French Army, Greece, Imperial Japanese Navy, Kosovo, Republic of China, U.S. Navy, World War Two

First U.S. Armor Engagement of World War Two Display, National Museum of Military Vehicles.

 Last edition:

M3 Stuart Light Tanks. Outside Display. National Museum of Military Vehicles.

Labels: 1940s, Armor, Army, British Army, National Museum of Military Vehicles, North Africa, Tracked vehicles, United States Marine Corps, World War Two, Wyoming (Dubois)

Saturday, October 21, 1944. The Nemmersdorf Massacre.

Troops of the Red Army killed 74 German civilians as well as 50 French and Belgian POWs at Nemmersdorf (Mayakovskoye, Kaliningrad Oblast). As was typical for the Red Army, females victims were first raped.  The POWs had been detailed to care for German horses, and its likely that the Soviets were unaware that they were Allied POWs.

Mass rape, as well as the murder of German civilians and the murder of raped women, would soon become a feature of the Red Army advance into Germany. Rape and murder would also be a feature of its advance into Hungary.  The Red Army in many ways was a very primitive fighting force with mob aspects and declined into barbarous behavior.

Aachen was taken by the US.

This German prisoner of war was one of the many who surrendered with the capture of Aachen, Germany. Here he smokes a cigar as he proudly displays a torpedoman's medal he won as a former sailor in the Nazi Navy. 21 October, 1944.

Organized Japanese resistance on Angaur ends.

Sgt. Howard Preuss, Bronx, N.Y., one of the engineers, leads Filipinos who are being evacuated to Dulag, Leyte Island, P.I. 21 October, 1944.

The US took Dulag airfield on Leyte.

Franklin Roosevelt rode 51 miles in an open car in the rain in New York, which was foolish, but which was to demonstrate he was fit enough for another term of office, which of course, her really was not.

Last edition:

Friday, October 20, 1944. "This is the Voice of Freedom, General MacArthur speaking. People of the Philippines: I have returned."

Labels: 1940s, 1944, Battle of Leyte, Belgrade Offensive, Douglas MacArthur, Guatemalan Revolution, Operation Pheasant, Operation Sho-go, Philippines Campaign, Red Army, World War Two, Yugoslav Partisans, Yugoslavia

Monday, September 18, 1944. Eindoven taken.

Distraught German medic at scene of German surrender, Orléans, September 18, 1944.

The 101st Airborne Division liberated Eindoven.

Lieutenant Colonel Robert George Cole, who would receive the Medal of Honor for his actions during Operation Overlord, was killed by a German sniper during Market Garden.  He was 29 years old.

Another American combatant would be killed in an action that resulted in his posthumously receiving the Medal of Honor.

The President of the United States of America, in the name of Congress, takes pride in presenting the Medal of Honor (Posthumously) to Private First Class Charles Howard Roan (MCSN: 504236), United States Marine Corps Reserve, for the conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty while serving with the Second Battalion, Seventh Marines, First Marine Division, in action against enemy Japanese forces on Peleliu, Palau Islands, 18 September 1944. Shortly after his leader ordered a withdrawal upon discovering that the squad was partly cut off from their company as a result of the rapid advance along an exposed ridge during an aggressive attack on the strongly entrenched enemy, Private First Class Roan and his companions were suddenly engaged in a furious exchange of hand grenades by Japanese forces emplaced in a cave on higher ground and to the rear of the squad. Seeking protection with four other Marines in a depression in the rocky, broken terrain, Private First Class Roan was wounded by an enemy grenade which fell close to their position and, immediately realizing the eminent peril to his comrades when another grenade landed in the midst of the group, unhesitatingly flung himself upon it, covering it with his body and absorbing the full impact of the explosion. By his prompt action and selfless conduct in the face of almost certain death, he saved the lives of four men. His great personal valor reflects the highest credit upon himself and the U. S. Naval Service. He gallantly gave his life for his comrades.

The Battle of Arracourt commenced in France.

The US dropped supplies from B-17s to resistance fighters in Warsaw, the only such mission permitted by the Soviets.  The aircraft flew on to Soviet held territory.

It's often been speculated, not without reason, that Stalin allowed the uprising to bleed itself out as it was resulting in the deaths of a present combatant, the Germans, and a feared future one, the Poles.

The Jun'yō Maru was sunk off Sumatra by the British submarine Tradewind resulting in the deaths of 5,620 people, most of whom were Allied POWs or Japanese slave labor.  The event is one of the worst naval disasters of all time, taking into account the lives lost were largely innocent.

Last edition:

Sunday, September 17, 1944. Operation Market Garden commences.

Labels: 1940s, 1944, Animals, Battle of Arnhem, Battle of Nijmegen, Cats, Netherlands, Operation Market Garden, Operation Paravane, Palau, Paratroopers, San Marino, Tallinn, World War Two, Wyoming (LaGrange)

Thursday, September 7, 1944. Hungary declares war on Romania. The Chinese Army prevails at The Battle of Mount Song (松山戰役), The Shin'yō Maru incident.

Hungary declared war on Romania and invaded southern Transylvania.

Vichy's government relocated to Sigmaringen Castle in Germany.

The Japanese cargo ship SS Shin'yō Maru was torpedoed and sunk in the USS Paddle.  The ship was carrying US POWs.  688 out of 750 died.

The Battle of Mount Song (松山戰役) saw the Nationalist Chinese Army prevail, resulting in the reopening of the Burma Road.

The understrength Japanese unit had held the area for three months.

Last edition:

Wednesday, September 6, 1944. Closing in and winding down. . .

Labels: 1940s, 1944, Army, Belgium, British Home Guard, Canadian Army, French Army, Heroes, Italy, Palau, Polish Home Army, Red Army, Romania, Tartu Offensive, U.S. Navy, Warsaw Uprising, World War Two, Yugoslavia

Thursday, August 31, 1944. Montgomery promoted. The Red Army in Bucharest. The Mad Gasser in Mattoon, Illinois.

The Red Army entered a Bucharest already cleared of German troops by the Romanian Army.  Crowds cheered the arrival of the Red Army.

Romania would be one of the tragic examples of the Red Army not leaving where it appeared following the war. It would take a revolution in the USSR, more or less, and definitely in Romania, to restore Romanian sovereignty and establish Romanian democracy.

Bernard Law Montgomery was promoted to Field Marshal.

Almost slandered by American historians since the war, Montgomery was a great man and a strategic genius who had mastered the ability to fight with an economy of resources.  Born in England, but raised in Australia (his father was an Episcopal Bishop), he was truly one of the greatest Allied commanders of the war.

The 5th Army crossed the Arno.

Slovene partisans rescued 105 Allied POWs in the Raid at Ožbalt.

The US prevailed in the Battle of Sansapor.

Task Force 38.4 attacked Japanese positions on Iwo Jima and Chichi Jima.

The first of the Mad Gasser of Mattoon incidents in Mattoon, Illinois.

Jimmy Akin's Mysterious World has a good episode on this really weird event.

Last edition:

Wednesday, August 30, 1944. End of Operation Overlord.

Labels: 1940s, 1944, British Army, Italy, Operation Overlord, Petroleum, Philippines, Polesti Romania, Red Army, Romania, World War Two