Friday, May 12, 1944. Heroism in Italy. End of the war in the Caucasus.

The two-year-long Battle of the Caucasus ended in a Soviet victory.  

What's partially amazing about this is that the Soviets and Axis forces were fighting a war that was effectively far behind the real front lines by this point.  The Axis forces should have withdrawn from this region months prior to this.

The war in Italy at this point was remarkably multinational, with the US 5th Army including a wide variety of western units, including units of the Indian Army. Sepoy Kamal Ram won the Victoria Cross in Italy for single handely wiping out a German machinegun post, causing a second one to surrender a,d n assisting a feelow soldier in the destruction of a third.

His citation.

In Italy, on 12 May 1944, after crossing the River Gari overnight, the Company advance was held up by heavy machine-gun fire from four posts on the front and flanks. As the capture of the position was essential to secure the bridgehead, the Company Commander called for a volunteer to get round the rear of the right post and silence it. Volunteering at once and crawling forward through the wire to a flank, Sepoy Kamal Ram attacked the post single handed and shot the first machine-gunner; a second German tried to seize his weapon but Sepoy Kamal Ram killed him with the bayonet, and then shot a German officer who, appearing from the trench with his pistol, was about to fire. Sepoy Kamal Ram, still alone, at once went on to attack the second machine-gun post which was continuing to hold up the advance, and after shooting one machine-gunner, he threw a grenade and the remaining enemy surrendered. Seeing a Havildar making a reconnaissance for an attack on the third post, Sepoy Kamal Ram joined him, and, having first covered his companion, went in and completed the destruction of this post. By his courage, initiative and disregard for personal risk, Sepoy Kamal Ram enabled his Company to charge and secure the ground vital to the establishment of the bridgehead and the completion of work on two bridges. When a platoon, pushed further forward to widen the position, was fired on from a house, Sepoy Kamal Ram, dashing towards the house, shot one German in a slit trench and captured two more. His sustained and outstanding bravery unquestionably saved a difficult situation at a critical period of the battle and enabled his Battalion to attain the essential part of their objective.

He was 19 years old at the time, and would remain in the Indian Army after the war, retiring in 1972.  He died in 1987 at the age of 57. 

The 5th Army made progress against the Gustav Line.  The French Expeditionary Corps captured Monte Faito. The British 13th Corps crossed the Rapido opposite of Cassino.

Frederick Schiller Faust, better known by his pen name Max Brand, was killed by artillery while working as a writer attached to U.S. infantry, a request he'd made some weeks earlier.  He was 51 years old.

The United States Army Air Force hit synthetic oil plants at Leuna-Merseburg, Bohlen, Zeitz, Lutzkendorf and Brux.

ME 410 photographed from a B-17 over Brux.

A20 hit by flak over France.  Pilot 1st Lt Robert E. Stockwell and gunner S/Sgt Hollis A. Foster were killed. Bombardier Lt. Albert Jedinak and gunner S/Sgt. Egon W. Rust bailed out and were captured.

The State Department was busy trying to find a way to save Rome from destruction.

German U-boat commander Oskar Kusch was executed for holding views critical of Adolf Hitler.

Last prior edition:

Thursday, May 11, 1944. Operation Diadem.

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Wednesday, May 10, 1944. New Medals.

Chinese forces, while under assault elsewhere in China, crossed the Salween River near the Burmese border in an offensive.

The Japanese destroyer Karukaya was sunk in the South China Sea by the USS Silversides.

Soviet General Aleksandr Vasilevsky was wounded in the head at Sevastopol when his car drove over a mine.  He recovered and later served again in high command, and went on to be Stalin's post-war Minister of War, a position he lost with Stalin's death.  He died in 1977.

A series of Merchant Marine medals were established, recognizing their very dangerous service in various theaters.

Last prior edition:

Tuesday, May 9, 1944. Sevastopol liberated.

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Tuesday, May 9, 1944. Sevastopol liberated.

The Red Army took Sevastopol.  Axis troops fall back on Cape Kersonessky for evacuation.

Brig. Gen. Andrés Ignacio Menéndez became President of El Salvador after Maximiliano Hernández Martínez fled the country.   He'd only serve until October, when he'd fall in a coup and be exiled to Guatemala.  He'd ultimately move to New York, where he died in 1962 at the age of 83.

J79.

General Electric’s XJ79 turbojet engine makes its first flight in the NB-45 test aircraft over Sche­nectady, N.Y. 

The same engine was developed into the j79 which was used in the Convair B-58, the Lockheed F-104, and the McDonnell Douglas F-4. 

Pretty amazing really.

Last prior edition:

Monday, May 8, 1944. Red Army defeated in Romania again.

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Sunday, May 7, 1944. Hitting Berlin, Assaulting Sapun.

The 8th Air Force conducted a 1,500 plane raid on Berlin.  The 15th Air Force and Bomber Command attacked railway sites in Bucharest.  The 9th Air Force attacked the railway yards at Mezieres-Charleville with B-26s and P-38s.

The 46th Infantry Division occupied Cape Hopkins Airfield on the Bismark Archipelago.  The Japanese offered no resistance.

The Red Army carried out an assault on Sapun Mountain May 7, 1944 in the Battle of Sevastopol.

Polish Gen. Anders visited the 15th Vilnius Rifle Battalion "Wilków" and attended Mass with them.

The RCN Valleyfield was sunk by the U-548 off of Cape Rice.  129 out of 167 crewmembers died in the attack.

"Georgetown, D.C. President Franklin D. Roosevelt, rested and tanned after a four week vacation at Shangri-La, returned to the White House. The President rested a month in the 23,000 estate. His residence was a guarded secret until he was safe back in Washington. It was a fishing and bathing vacation with the nearest telephone five in good health and good spirits, all traces of his bronchitis from which he suffered during the winter months having disappeared, May 7th, 1944. Shown: U.S. Marine standing guard at Shangri-La, Maryland."

The Marine guard is wearing an early pattern field jacket and carrying a M50 Reising submachinegun.

Sarah Sundin, on her entry Today in World War II History—May 7, 1944 notes that another D-Day exercise, Exercise Pigeon, commenced.

A  B-25 crashed in bad weather and one mile north of West Chester, Pennsylvania, killing all seven on board.

Last prior edition:

Saturday, May 6, 1944. Shelling Sevastapol.

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Saturday, May 6, 1944. Shelling Sevastapol.

Reconnaissance photograph, Normandy.

The Red Army began its attack on Sevastapol with a massive artillery strike, the Red Army norm.

The Biltmore Conference opened in New York City. It was a convention of Zionist meeting in the context of the Second World War at a point at which the mass murder of Jews was fairly openly known, and was certainly known amongst Jews.  The topic was the British Palestinian Mandate.

The USS Gunard attacked the Take Ichi convoy, sinking three freighters.

The U-473 was sunk southeast of Ireland by the Royal Navy.

The first flight of the Mitsubishi A7M, the intended replacement for the famous A6M "Zero", occured.  Only seven of the carrier planes would be built before the end of the war.

The U66 was rammed and sunk by the USS Buckley off of Cape Verde.

Pensive won the Kentucky Derby.

MGM released the Million Dollar Cat episode of Tom and Jerry.

Last prior edition:

Friday, May 5, 1944. Counterattack at Imphal.

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Tuesday, May 2, 1944. Sensing a change.

As true now, as then.

The Second Battle of Târgu Frumos began in Romania, which would provide another example of the Red Army not doing well in its Romanian campaigns at this point in the war.

A Swordfish sank a second German submarine, the U-674, in consecutive days, in the Arctic.

The USS Parrott collided with the John Morton at Norfolk, Virginia and was severely damaged. It was never repaired.

Span stopped exporting tungsten to Germany under Allied pressure, a move that was risky given the German proclivity for invading allies that attempted to pack out of association with them.

In perhaps an even riskier move, the management of the Aubert and Duval steel works at Ancizes, France shut the plant down in cooperation with the French Resistance.

Or was it that it was obvious in France, and Spain, that the Germans would soon be leaving?

Last prior edition:

Monday, May 1, 1944. Unmet expectations.

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Tuesday, April 11, 1944. Plowing.

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.

 USS Altamaha (CVE-18). Crash of TBM April 11, 1944.

Last prior edition:

Monday, April 10, 1944. Odessa taken by the Red Army.

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Holy Saturday, April 8, 1944. The invasion of Romania, maybe. Luftwaffe trans Russia flights, maybe. Battle of the Tennis Court,

The Red Army commenced the First Jassy-Kishinev Offensive, the invasion of Romania.

Or maybe it did. This is asserted by historian David Glanz, but the Soviets themselves don't really acknowledge it, perhaps because the effort was botched, as will be seen.

It seems to me that Glanz is likely correct.

Ju 290 A-9

The Luftwaffe began cargo flights from Polish airfields to Manchuria, using Junkers Ju 290 A-9 aircraft.  Or at least maybe they did.  This is fairly consistently asserted, but the details are obscure and there are obvious problems with the assertion, as common as it is.  For one thing, even at very high altitude, it would be surprising that the Red Army would not have shot at least one of the planes down.  Sill, at least some experts on the Luftwaffe claim it occured.  Others are skeptical.

I'm pretty skeptical.

For one reason, Imperial Japan was at peace with the Soviet Union, and I don't imagine that it would have wanted to risk that in 1944 when it was already losing in the Pacific.  It was doing okay in China and in Southeast Asia, but it didn't have the manpower to add the USSR to its list of enemies, particularly over something of such doubtful utility.

Secondly, flying clean over the USSR and not getting shot down would be tough.  Even if we assume, and we probably can, that for much of the flight it would not have encountered any opposition, early on it certainly might, and then again nearer its destination.

Finally, the Germans kept records on everything they did, and such records seem to be lacking here.

The Red Army began a determined assault into Crimea through its land bridge with Ukraine.

The Battle of the Tennis Court happened within the Battle of Kohima.  It was a pitched, hand to hand, battle that went on for several days.  It has been referred to as one of the greatest battles in history, and a British/Indian Thermopylae

The German submarine U-2 hit the German trawler Helmi Söhle and sank off of Pilau.

The U-962 was sunk off of Cape Finisterre by the Royal Navy.

Last prior edition:

Good Friday, April 7, 1944. The Vrba-Wetzler Report.

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Thursday, April 6, 1944. German withdrawal from the Kamenets-Podolsky Pocket, Army Day.

The Germans pull off a major successful fighting withdrawal from Hube's Pocket (Kamenets-Podolsky Pocket).  200,000 German troops escaped Zhukov's forces, losing a lot of equipment, but also destorying a lot of Soviet equipment on the way.

An RAF Spitfire raid destroyed a substantial number of aircraft at Banja Luka field, Yugoslavia.

The French resistance shut down Timken ball bearing production at Paris.

The U-302 was sunk in the Atlantic by the Royal Navy.  The U-455 went down in the Ligurian Sea due to a mine.

US troops on Bougainville, April 6, 1944.

It was Army day pursuant to a proclamation earlier issued by President Roosevelt.

Proclamation 2610—Army Day, 1944

March 22, 1944

By the President of the United States of America

A Proclamation

Whereas America's valiant soldiers have been welded by the fire of battle into a mighty army of liberation; and

Whereas the men and women of the American Army, of different races and creeds but one in their love of freedom and their devotion to the goals for which the United Nations are striving, must face during the coming year a burning test of their courage, their resourcefulness, and their physical prowess; and

Whereas the Congress, by Senate Concurrent Resolution 5, 75th Congress, agreed to by the House of Representatives March 16, 1937, has recognized April 6 of each year as Army Day and has requested that the President issue a proclamation annually with respect to that day:

Now, Therefore, I, Franklin D. Roosevelt, President of the United States of America, do hereby proclaim Thursday, April 6, 1944, as Army Day, and do invite the Governors of the various States to issue proclamations calling for the appropriate observance of that day.

And I urge the civilians of the Nation to reconsecrate themselves on that day to the task of producing in fullest measure and with the greatest possible speed the weapons and ammunition and the materials and supplies required to equip our Army and to sustain it unto final victory.

In Witness Whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of the United States of America to be affixed.

Done at the city of Washington this 22nd day of March, in the year of our Lord nineteen hundred and forty-four, and of the Independence of the United States of America the one hundred and sixty-eighth.

Signature of Franklin D. Roosevelt

FRANKLIN D ROOSEVELT

By the President:

CORDELL HULL

Secretary of State.

Rose O'Neill, cartoonist and creator of the Kewpie character, died at age 69.

Last prior edition:

Wednesday, April 5, 1944. I want to be useful or bring enjoyment to all people, even those I’ve never met. I want to go on living even after my death! And that’s why I’m so grateful to God for having given me this gift, which I can use to develop myself and to express all that’s inside me! When I write I can shake off all my cares. My sorrow disappears, my spirits are revived!

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Palm Sunday, April 2, 1944. Soviets enter Romania, Rebellion in El Salvador.

Sgt. Walter Holden, Haleyville, Ala., Pfc. Raymond Holler, Route 1, Lenoir, N.C., and Pvt. John Mart, Route 2, Sanford, N.C. of the 3d Infantry Division in an obviously staged photograph at Anzio.  All three men are wearing the new M1943 uniform, which the photo was probably intended to illustrate.  The uniform featured the M1943 field jacket, the M1943 field trousers, and the M1943 combat boot.  It remained the essential Army pattern of uniform for decades, and indeed to the present day, with modifications.  Replacing earlier uniform variants would, however, take months.

Today in World War II History—April 2, 1944: Soviet troops enter Romania. First US B-29 Superfortress bomber arrives at Kharagpur, India, near Calcutta. Armed revolt erupts in El Salvador.

From Sarah Sundin's blog.

The entering of Romania was more proof, if anymore was needed, that the Third Reich was in its final act.  Romania had sought to exit the war, but had been dissuaded from doing so by the Germans.  It would start pondering that once again in earnest. 

Romania, although somewhat forgotten in the West, was not a minor power in some significant ways.  The country had the third-largest army in the Axis in Europe, behind Italy and Japan, until Italy's 1943 surrender, at which time it was the second-largest Axis power.  Its army was in fact the fourth largest in the world.  It was plagued with internal problems, however, with a rank and file that was woefully uneducated and an officer corps that was condescending towards its men.  Generally, Romanians fought better under German officers and NCO's.

It was a monarchy, but a monarchy which was, at the time, led by a military dictator.

Hitler issued his directive 54 with the topic of stopping the Russian advance, which obviously wasn't going to happen.

The rebellion in El Salvador was a pro-democracy one against the country's fascist military dictator Maximiliano Hernández Martínez and included significant military elements.  Martinez admired Mussolini and Hitler, and like Hitler he was a vegetarian.  El Salvador declared war on the Axis in December 1941, but it took no actual part in the fighting and refused US requests to station troops there.

The rebellion would be violently put down, but it would nonetheless lead to Martinez' fall a month later.

Martinez was killed in a labor dispute with his taxi driver in 1966 while living in exile in Honduras.

The Japanese 15th Army (Mutaguchi) continued to advance.

The Italian Communist Party declared its support for the Badoglio government.

The 1944 Tour of Flanders bicycle race commenced.

Last prior edition:

Saturday, April 1, 1944. The closing curtain for the Axis.

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Thursday, March 30, 1944. Operation Desecrate One

 The US Navy launched Operation Desecrate One, an airborne assault on and around Palau.

The action was in preparation for the invasion of Western New Guinea and saw the  USS Enterprise (CV-6), USS Bunker Hill (CV-17), USS Hornet (CV-12), USS Yorktown (CV-10), USS Lexington (CV-16), USS Monterey (CVL-26), USS Belleau Wood (CVL-24), USS Cowpens (CVL-25), USS Cabot (CVL-28), USS Princeton (CVL-23), and USS Langley (CVL-27)  in action.

Thirty-six Japanese ships were sunk or damaged in the attacks.  Navy aircraft liad minefields by air for the first time in World War Two.

US forces occupy Pityilu Island.

96 of 795 RAF bombers were shot down in an ineffective raid of Nuremberg, the worst bomber command loss of the war.

Hitler replaced Erich von Manstein and Paul Ludwig Ewald von Kleist with Walter Model and Ferdinand Schörner in a command shake up.

Von Manstein was a difficult commander for Hitler, and was sometimes insubordinate.  Often regarded as one of the best German generals of the war, he tried to distance himself post-war from the Nazis, but it can't really be done.  Oddly enough, Hitler recognized his abilities at the time of reliving him, awarding him the Swords of the Knight's Cross at the same time.  Upon being relieved Hitler actually acknowledged his abilities but said he couldn't use him, to which Von Manstein replied:

My Führer ... please believe me when I say I will use all strategic means at my disposal to defend the soil in which my son lies buried.

The reference was to his son, who had died on the Russian Front. As earlier noted, Von Manstein was buried with full military honors at the time of his death in 1973 in spite of being a war criminal.  He was 85 at the time of his death.

While I've probably mentioned it before, an oddity of his biography is that his father was German general Eduard von Lewinski and his mother his spouse, Helene Pauline von Sperling.  He was given to his aunt and uncle, General Georg von Manstein and Hedwig von Sperling, sister to Helene, upon birth, as they were childless, which is flat out weird.  You can't psychoanalyze the dead, but I wonder if that act of betrayal caused his dog like loyalty to Hitler.

Like Von Manstein, Von Kleist would also not return to service.  Unlike Von Manstein, however, he was turned over to the Soviets after the war and died in 1954 in prison in the Soviet Union at the age of 73.

The Red Army took Chemovtsky.

Sophia Bulgaria endured its heaviest bombing, by the U.S. Army Air Force, of the war.

The U-223 sank the HMS Laforey.  The U-223 was in turn sunk by British destroyers.

The U.S. Public Health Service released To The People of the United States, a short film about a pilot who contracts syphilis.  The film won an Academy Award for documentary short, but drew the ire of the Catholic Legion of Decency for failing to stress the immoral conduct giving rise to the disease.

Last prior edition:

Wednesday, March 29, 1944 Cutting off Imphal.

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