Thursday, June 1, 1944. Chanson d'automne.

 

LST's loading for Overlord, June 1, 1944.

Today in World War II History—June 1, 1944: Countdown to D-day: BBC sends first coded message to warn French resistance of the coming invasion. US Fifth Army opens final offensive for Rome.

The coded message was taken from lines of Chanson d'automne and the Germans were aware of its meaning, but failed to respond to it.

The poem:

Les sanglots longs

Des violons

De l'automne

Blessent mon cœur

D'une langueur

Monotone.

Tout suffocant

Et blême, quand

Sonne l'heure,

Je me souviens

Des jours anciens

Et je pleure;

Et je m'en vais

Au vent mauvais

Qui m'emporte

Deçà, delà,

Pareil à la

Feuille morte.

 

Rangers file through a Red Cross canteen prior to embarking on landing craft, June 1, 1944.

Quarantined U.S. troops cleaning small arms, June 1, 1944.

The British took Frosinone in Italy.  They also dropped 60 men of the 2nd Parachute Brigade behind German lines in the Abruzzo region in order to interdict supply lines, which met with an oversized German response.

Allied advances caused Kesselring to order a withdrawal from Rome to defensive positions north of the city.

Adolf Hitler dissolved the Abwehr and transferred its functions to the Reich Security Main Office.  This placed its duties under Heinrich Himmler.

German forces that were on the attack near Jassy were pushed back by counterattacks of the Red Army, which regained ground recently lost.

A German convoy bound to Crete from Greece was attacked from the air, losing several ships.

On Biak US forces began to gain ground with armored support, while around the Aitape beachhead US forces continued to fall back under heavy attack.

The USS Herring was sunk by Japanese coastal batteries on Matua Island, in the Kuril's.

Two U.S. Navy K-class blimps completed the first transatlantic crossing by non-rigid airframe, flying from the US to Morocco in 80 hours.

Last prior edition:

Wednesday, May 31, 1944. Advances in Italy.

Labels: 1940s, 1944, Army, Blog Mirror, boats and ships, Canadian Army, India, Italy, Operation Overlord, Polesti Romania, Royal Navy, U.S. Air Force, U.S. Navy, World War Two

Wednesday, February 2, 1944. Roi and Namur taken. Battle of Narva begins.

American forces completed offensive actions at Roi and Namur.

Lieutenant Colonel Donald L. Dickson puts up flag on coconut stump. The sign says Namur Press Office. On right is Staff Sergeant Martin Kivel, a Marine Corps Combat Correspondent. February 2, 1944.

Fighting on Kwajalien carried on.

Today in World War II History—February 2, 1944: Soviets enter German-occupied Estonia. In Italy, US II Corps enters outskirts of Cassino town and takes Italian barracks area at Montevilla.

Sarah Sundin's Today in World War II History—February 2, 1944.  Indeed, the Soviets took Vanakula.

As part of this, the Battle of Narva and the Battle for Narva Bridgehead began.

The German force was heavily represented by SS forces, with non-German SS units participating. The German resistance was fierce, and the battle would go on for months.  Estonian conscripts were also used on the Axis side.

The Germans won the Battle of Cisterna, part of the Battle of Anzio, wrecking the Rangers deployed to it.

 PT-216 taking Lieutenant General Mark Clark to the advance command post at the Anzio Beachhead, February 2, 1944.

While an American loss, it did disrupt German plans to launch an assault on the Anzio beachhead.  In a way, therefore, while a German victory, it was a Pyrrhic one.

Kingfisher launch, February 2, 1944.

Sunday January 30, 1944. Offensives and a Conference.

The Krasnoye Selo-Ropsha Offensive ended, the objective of aiding in the lifting of the Siege of Leningrad having been obtained.

The Nikopol–Krivoi Rog Offensive in Ukraine began.

The Battle of Cisterna, a portion of the Battle of Anzio, also began.

Gen. Lucas would deploy Rangers in the battle as a spearhead, resulting in the lightly armed formations being destroyed and the Ranger units committed to Italy disbanded.

The British 5th Division broke through the Gustav Line on this day and captured Monte Natal.

The U-278 sank the destroyer HMS Hardy.  The HMS Meteor and the HMS Whitehall sank the U-314.

Hitler spoke on the radio, in recognition of the 11th year of the Nazi's coming to power in Germany.  The topic was on Germany being Europe's only bulwark against Communism, in his view.  He didn't discuss the war much.

The Brazzaville Conference meeting of the Free French took place in Brazzaville, a city in then French Equatorial Africa, which is famously mentioned in the film Casablanca.

The conference convened to deal with the topic of the post-war future of the French colonies.  Independence was rejected completely in favor of a post-war association which keep the French Empire intact, but allow for semi autonomous assemblies in the colonies, equal rights with French citizens, the right to vote in elections for the French National Assembly, civil service positions for the native populations, and economic reforms making the colonies less dependent upon France.

The positions were never fully implemented, with Algeria being a good example. Average Algerians never received the equal rights promised by the conference.  The French Empire, of course, began to fly apart during the war itself.

Sunday, January 23, 1944. Halting at Anzio.

British infantrymen meeting U.S. Army Rangers outside of Anzio.  In the early hours of the operation there was little resistance and things were very fluid.  Both Rangers in the foreground are carrying M1 Garands and wearing the "Jacket, Combat, Winter", which is  erroneously associated with tanker s today.  At least the Ranger on the right is wearing a pair of winter trousers as well.  The soldier on the right has a large "H' on his helmet cover, which is an identifying mark I'm not familiar with.  The soldier on the left appears to have the same mark.  Both British solders are wearing leather jerkins.

36,000 Allied troops had already disembarked by the prior midnight, 13 had been killed, and 200 German prisoners of war taken, including a drunk German officer and orderly who had driven his staff car into an Allied landing craft.  There'd be 50,000 troops on the ground by the end of the day.

Allied troops, under Lucas' command, took up forming defensive positions in anticipation of a counterattack, a decision that was soon controversial, and frankly, a mistake.  This is interesting for a variety of reasons, one of which is that Lucas was originally a cavalry officer, with cavalry being the only branch in the U.S. Army that was dedicated to battlefield mobility and had a doctrine of always moving forward.That view as not shared by the other branches.  Having said that, Lucas had transferred out of the cavalry after World War One.

The German forces did debate what to do.  Kesselring, in command in Italy, believed the Gustav Line could be held along with the beachhead at Anzio. Von Vietinghoff favored withdrawing from the Gustav Line.  The German High Command, meanwhile, allocated reserved from France, northern Italy and the Balkans to the effort.

By the week's end, the Allies would be facing 8 German divisions at Anzio.

The HMS Janus as sunk off shores by a Fritz X.

The Australian Army took Maukiryo in New Guinea.

The Detroit Red Wings beat the New York Rangers 15 to 0, which apparently remains a hockey record.

Pistol Packin' Mama was number one on the country charts.

23-year-old New Zealand er Linda Malden working on a windmill while managing her parent's farm.  No men were left to do what was traditionally a male role, due to wartime manpower demands. Public domain, State Library of New South Wales.

Monday, March 23, 1943. Last sighting of the Xerces Blue.

The last spotting of the Xerces Blue butterfly was made. The species is believed to have gone extinct due to the expansion of San Francisco into its habitat.

Sarah Sundin's blog has a number of interesting items:

Today in World War II History—March 23, 1943: RAF drops 2000 tons of bombs on Dortmund, Germany. At El Guettar in Tunisia, US 1st Infantry Division manages to defeat German armor (10th Panzer Division).

She also discusses the Danish parliamentary elections, which took place in spite of Nazi occupation. The German occupation of Denmark, it might be noted, was quite odd in that Denmark retained its government and even retained its army while occupied.

The Social Democrats took 66 out of 148 seats.  The Danish Nazi Party received a mere 3.3% of the vote.

The British troopship RMS Windsor Castle was sunk by an HE 111 off of Algiers.  All on board save one of 2,700 were rescued by the Royal Navy.

The multinational commando raid styled Operation Roundabout, made up of two enlisted members of No. 12 Commando, four enlisted men of the 29th Ranger Battalion, and four Norwegian soldiers, commanded by a British officer and with an American officer in support, failed in its mission to destroy a bridge over a fjord when a Norwegian soldier dropped his machine gun magazine.  The sound altered the Germans.

The 29th Ranger Battalion was short lived, existing only in 1943.  It was made up of volunteers from the 29th Infantry Division and was trained by the British. The unit was successful but it did not have the supporter of higher headquarters and therefore was disbanded in October 1943 with its men sent back to their units.

29th in training.

The combination of hydrocodone and acetaminophen marketed as Vicodin was approved by the FDA.

Sunday, March 21, 1943. A second assassination attempt.

Hard on the heels of a plot to kill Adolph Hitler by blowing his airplane out of the sky with explosives contained in a bottle of alcohol, Generalmajor Rudolf Christoph Freiherr von Gersdorff attempted to kill him by detonating a time fused bomb on his person while escorting Hitler through an exhibition of Soviet war materials as the Zeughaus in Berlin.  A detailed coup d'état was to follow the assassination.

By Bundesarchiv, Bild 146-1976-130-51 / Unknown author / CC-BY-SA 3.0, CC BY-SA 3.0 de, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=5482858

It was expected that the tour would take thirty minutes, and Gersdorff set the fuse ten minutes prior to Hitler's arrival.  Hitler rushed through the exhibit in two minutes, and Gersdorff defused the bomb in a restroom.

Gersdorff was, amazingly, never mentioned by the July 20 conspirators, even though he had participated in the plot.  He therefore survived the war.  His role becoming known post-war, he was denied admission to the Bundesherr and therefore devoted the remainder of his life to charitable causes, dying in 1980 at age 74.  He was a paraplegic the last twelve years of his life due to a riding accident.

Sarah Sundin reports, in her blog:

Today in World War II History—March 21, 1943: Cornelia Fort becomes first WAFS member (precursor of the WASPs) to be killed, in a midair collision while ferrying a BT-13 in Texas.

She also notes that on this day the Rangers took Gafsa and New Zealanders bypassed the  bypass the Mareth Line 

Thursday, March 18, 1943. 1st Rangers take El Guettar.

The U.S. 1st Ranger Battalion, "Darby's Rangers", took El Guettar Tunisia from surprised Italian forces.

William O. Darby, their commander, was a pre-war artilleryman who was exposed to British Commandos while stationed in Northern Ireland.  Darby sought and was granted a leadership role in the 1st Ranger Battalion when it was formed in 1942.  The Rangers at that time were heavily made up of volunteers from the 34th Infantry Division, which was a National Guard division made up of units from several states.  That the rangers had this origin is often missed.

Darby was killed in action in Italy shortly before the war ended.

United States Army Air Corps bombardier Jack Warren Mathis was killed in action.  He'd be awarded the Medal of Honor for his actions on this day. The citation reads:

For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity above and beyond the call of duty in action with the enemy over Vegesack, Germany on 18 March 1943. First Lt. Mathis, as leading bombardier of his squadron, flying through intense and accurate antiaircraft fire, was just starting his bomb run, upon which the entire squadron depended upon for accurate bombing, when he was hit by the enemy antiaircraft fire. His right arm was shattered above the elbow, a large wound was torn in his side and abdomen, and he was knocked from his bombsight to the rear of the bombardier's compartment. Realizing that the success of the mission depended upon him, 1st Lt. Mathis, by sheer determination and willpower, though mortally wounded, dragged himself back to his sights, released his bombs, then died at his post of duty. As the result of this action the airplanes of his bombardment squadron placed their bombs directly upon the assigned target for a perfect attack against the enemy. First Lt. Mathis' undaunted bravery has been a great inspiration to the officers and men of his unit.

Mathis had joined the Army in 1940 and had served as an enlisted artillerymen until his brother joined the Air Corps.  He then transferred to it. 

The German recapture of Kharkiv was completed.  The Red Army evacuated Belgorod.

Of note, now regarded as a Russian city, it had been a Ukrainian one prior to the USSR redrawing the map.

The British Canadian Star, Clarissa Radcliiffe, Dafila, Kaying, the US SS Ogelthorpe, Molly Pitcher, Walater Q. Gresham and  the DutchTerkolei went down in the Battle of the Atlantic.

The Vichy administration of French Guiana was deposed.

American Nazi leader, German-born Fritz Kuhn, was stripped of his U.S. citizenship.

Deportation of Jewish residents of Bulgarian occupied Thrace commenced.

Friday, June 19, 1942 . James Dougherty and Norma Jean Baker marry. The Second Washington Conference commenced. The Germans execute Eliáš,

The then Norma Jean Dougherty, as she looked when she appeared in Yank, as an employee of the Radio Plane Company

James Dougherty, then serving in the U.S. Navy, married Norma Jean Baker in Los Angeles, California.  He was 21, she was 16.  Their marriage prevented her from having to return to an orphanage following the relocation of her foster parents.

The sixteen-year-old had, as her living situation would indicate, a rough start in life.  Her parentage was uncertain, although her birth certificate had indicated that it was one Edward Mortenson, her mother's second husband.  In any event, Mortenson abandoned her mother when he learned of the pregnancy.  She was given up to a family by the last name of Boelender when only twelve days old to be raised until her mother, who had fallen into depression, had recovered enough to resume her role when she was somewhat older.  During this period of time, she acquired the last name of Baker.   Her mother's depression returned and became worse, and the child was raised in a series of foster homes.

While Dougherty was serving overseas, Baker dropped out of high school and went to work, something typical for service spouses, although the very young age of her marriage was unusual. She was noticed by photographer David Conover while taking photographs for Yank, which we discussed just the other day.

Dougherty did follow Conover's advice, and was quickly offered a modeling job by the Blue Star Agency. A provision of it required that she be unmarried, so she filed for divorce.  Her husband was still in the Navy, serving overseas.

And Conover's advice turned out to be good advice, in terms of her aspirations. As a model, her beauty was rapidly noticed, and she was in fact noticed by Hollywood and introduced into acting.  In the meantime, she'd changed her name to Marilyn Monroe.

Dougherty dismissed his wife's ambitions upon receiving divorce papers, but there wasn't much he could do about it.  He was, effectively, one of thousands of servicemen whose marriages had gone wrong during the war.  Effectively, he'd married a high schooler of obvious beauty and then departed from her, understandably, for years.

Probably the only one of the Conover photographs in which Monroe is actually recognizable in regard to her later appearance.

It was a story that repeated itself, but quietly, all over the United States.

Dougherty went on to become a significant figure in the Los Angeles Police Department.  He never spoke ill of his first wife, and after her death was of the opinion that she was too gentle of a person to survive in Hollywood.

The Second Washington Conference, a conference between the British headed up by Winston Churchill and the Americans headed by Franklin Roosevelt, convened.  Military matters were the topic.

The 1st Ranger Battalion came into existence.

World War Two Ranger shoulder patch.  By Zayats - Own work, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=11400404

The brainchild of cavalryman Lucian Truscott, the Rangers were modeled on the example of British commando forces and supposed to fulfill a similar role.  Named after the examples of Rangers, light backwoods infantry of the French and Indian, and Revolutionary Wars, the several battalions of Rangers were formed during World War Two.  Most of them were comprised of volunteers, but at least one that was formed in the Pacific was an amalgamation of existing units that had served other purposes, including a disbanded pack artillery unit.

After the war they were disbanded but then reformed during the Korean War. The Army has retained Ranger units since. The British example is similar, in this regard, to the SAS and the SBS.

German Maj. Joachim Reichel went down behind Soviet lines in a crash landing, putting documents pertaining to an upcoming German offensive in Soviet hands. The Germans didn't change them, and the Soviets didn't believe what they captured was genuine.

The Germans executed Alois Eliáš, a former Czech general who was the prim minister of the German puppet state of  the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia, for underground activities.  He was in fact working against German interests and had participated in the attempted poisoning of some collaborationist reporters, resulting in the death of one of them.

Movies In History: Saving Private Ryan

Saving Private Ryan

This film did to war movies what Lonesome Dove did to Westerns, it revolutionized them to such an extent that everything that came after had to meet its standard.

Set during Operation Overlord during World War Two, this film, featuring a fictionalized story based on an American Ranger unit, went to great lengths to get material details  right and mostly did.  Almost every item of equipment in the film is correct, something highly unusual for most war movies filmed before it.  This is so much the case that watching films made prior to it almost invariably bring out a bit of realization of that fact, even where they are really good, simply due to Saving Private Ryan's precision.  Details are so precise that the Rangers are shown, accurately, wearing some items of clothing that were unique to them alone.  The paratroopers are likewise correctly attired, as are regular U.S. infantrymen.

Still, as accurate as the film is, it amazingly isn't quite perfect in these regards.  The movie messes up significantly in material details in the case of the sniper character, who is shown having two scopes, which would not have been the case, and perhaps in that one them appears to be a large Unertl scope, which was an item used by the Marines but not the Army.  Scopes affixed to M1903A5 sniper rifles sued by the U.S. Army were generally Lyman Alaskans, which one of the scopes in the film does appear to be.  That particular scope featured a small diameter barrel and is correspondingly something that looks odd to the modern eye, which may explain the incorporation of a Unertl scope in the film, given their giant size.  Swapping out scopes, however, which is referenced in the film, would not have occurred.

Additionally the film makes a goof typical to films in that the sniper keeps shooting even when the five shot magazine capacity of his rifle is exhausted.

On material details the film also departs from being fully correct, as good of film as it is, in that two weapons in use in the Ranger squad unit are inappropriate for their use.   The senior NCO of the unit carriers an M1 Carbine, but M1 Carbines were not used by enlisted Rangers or infantrymen during World War Two, or at least weren't supposed to be.  That would be an appropriate weapon for the Tom Hanks character, who is a captain, but he carriers a Thompson submachinegun, which is also outside the TO&E.  Having said that, submachineguns did show up in sues that they were not supposed to official have, so that use may not be that unrealistic, which is likewise the case for one that is shown being used by an airborne officer.

Still, this movie is so well done that every war film since it has had to meet its standards or appear to be a failure, and even those filmed prior to it are hard to watch without being aware of how they fail to measure up.  The slight departures noted here are so slight that even mentioning them tends to overemphasize them.

In terms of historical details, the movie scores very high marks.  Operational details are generally correct, and only minor ones (such as a very early criticism of Montgomery before any U.S. officer would have been likely to have done that), show up.

An excellent film. And the one that basically sets the bar for films of this type.