Tuesday, November 24, 1942. The end of Case Blue.

Case Blue, the 1942 German summer offensive on the Eastern Front, came to an end having not achieved its goals, which had been to capture the oil fields of Baku, Grozny and Maikop.

The thought was that without oil, the Soviets couldn't fight, and the Germans would be able to.  Indeed, taking Soviet oil production had been part of the original goal of Operation Barbarossa, with the thought being that the Germans needed it to wage war against the United Kingdom.

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It's strategic aims, often criticized, were sound and grasped the importance of petroleum on the ability to wage modern war.  Hitler had a major role in forming the campaign's development and direction and frankly, while the campaign is often criticized for redirecting German assets to southern Russia rather than the north, with the focus being Moscow, the plan demonstrated a good gasp on resources and modern warfare, and the protracted nature of the latter.  Had the campaign succeeded in its goals, which were problematic in more ways than one, it would have at least deprived the Soviet Union of significant war fighting assets.  It probably would not have succeeded in providing those to the Germans, however, as the Soviets would have destroyed oil production facilities prior to the Germans taking them.  Whether the Germans had the capacity to restore production is doubtful.

The plan was, moreover, overambitious and its initial success caused the Germans to take actions which reduced its potential effectiveness.  

In spite of its ultimate failure, the offensive was remarkably successful at first, which encouraged the Germans to overextend themselves.  By November the offensive had lost steam, without succeeding in its goals, and Operation Uranus soon demonstrated that the Germans were now grossly overextended. The Soviets, additionally, managed to increase the size of their army throughout the campaign and by its end had over 1,000,000 more men in the field than the Germans did. The Germans, for their part, lost 200,000 men during the campaign and the Romanian army was effectively ground down to semi ineffective.  By the campaign's end, moreover, the Germans were relying on Romanian, Hungarian and Italian troops to a dangerous extent.

The end of the campaign came with the Soviets launching a series of winter offensives.

Case Blue brought the Germans to their high water mark of World War Two.  Its failure was followed by losing ground in the East in the winter of 1942, which they were also doing in North Africa at the same time.  Indeed, due to its failure it should have been obvious to the Germans that wining the war was not impossible.

Rabbi Wise.

Rabbi Stephen Wise, president of the World Jewish Congress, held a press conference in which he revealed information leaked from Europe of German atrocities against the Jews.

Rabbi Wise had the information for three months, but has been asked not to reveal it by the U.S. Government as it could not be confirmed, which of course it could not.  At this point, however, he correctly felt that releasing the information was necessary.

Wise had been born in Hungary, but came to the US as an infant with his parents. His father and grandfather were also rabbis.

Peadar Kearney, writer of the Irish National Anthem A Soldiers Song, "Amhrán na bhFiann" died at age 58.

Monday, November 23, 1942. Operation Uranus concludes.

The Red Army completed encircling the German 6th Army, which was trapped in Stalingrad.

In a matter of mere days, the Red Army had blasted through Romanian lines north and south of the city and completely routed it. German efforts at counter-attacks failed.  250,000 German troops were besieged in the city.  It was a brilliantly planned and executed Red Army offensive, featuring massive use of artillery and rapid advancement of armor and horse cavalry.

Romanian stamp showing a Romanian and German servicemen serving in the "Holy War against Bolshevism."  The designer of the stamp probably didn't realize that the symbol that he put on the German's helmet would make him part of the Luftwaffe.

The offensive also showed that the Germans had committed a fatal error in trusting the front near Stalingrad to their allies. To the north of the city the front was defended by Romanian, Hungarian and Italian armies. To the south, Romanian. The Romanian Army had already shown itself to be worn out earlier in 1942.

The Governor General of French West Africa accepted the authority of Admiral Darlan.

Japanese general Tomitarō Horii, age 52, was swept out to sea after trying to canoe to his troops in the Battle of Buno-Gona.  This resulted in his death due to drowning.

Friday, November 20, 1942. The Axis reels in defeat.

The Siege of Malta ended after 2.5 years.

The Axis effort to isolate and eliminate Malta as a British asset had been conducted principally from the air, but had also been heavily supported by the German and Italian navies.  For almost all the siege the defense of the of the island, which used numerically inferior numbers of aircraft, had been a strictly British affair, aided only in the end by the U.S. Navy assisting in ferrying aircraft to Malta.  It was a resolute British victory.

The tide had been turning since the British had been able to reinforce the island with new aircraft in 1942 and emergency supplies had been run in, keeping the island from starvation. The Germans had more or less given up in October, but Axis defeats in North Africa made maintaining the siege impossible, as the Axis had been required to switch its air assets to the failing campaign in North Africa.

Malta had been independent until 1798, having been governed by the monastic Order of Saint John, which lost power to Napoleon.  The Maltese rebelled and asked for British help, with the island becoming a British protectorate in 1800.  It became a Crown Colony in 1813, obtaining home rule in 1947 and independence in 1964.

The British 8th Army retook Benghazi, Libya.

The Red Army opened up phase two of Operation Uranus with Stalingrad Front commander Andrei Yeremenko opening up the southern prong after the fog lifted.  Again, Romanian troops failed and collapsed, with German forces attempting to react.  By then end of the day, only the 6th Romanian Cavalry Regiment stood between the Red Army and the Don.

The Alaska Highway officially opened.

Today In Wyoming's History: November 20: 1942 NHL abolishes regular season overtime until World War II is over.

Hockey fans weren't the only lonely ones.  Life magazine went to press with a black and white photograph of a woman smoking a cigarette and drinking coffee on its cover, entitled "Lonely Wife".

Joseph Robinette Biden was born in Scranton, Pennsylvania.  Norman Greenbaum, famous for his song Spirit In The Sky, was born in Malden, Massachusetts.

Joe Biden is the oldest person to ever be elected President.  In case a person wonders, he's only four years older, however, than Donald Trump.

Thursday, November 19, 1942. Operation Uranus launched.

 

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The decisive turning of the tables on the Eastern Front commenced on this day in 1942 with the Red Army launched Operation Uranus, their 1942 winter offensive in the Stalingrad region.

The massive attack had been postponed for two days while the air element of the offensive was fully readied.  When it commenced on this day, initial operations were against the Romanian Army that held the positions north of Stalingrad.

The Romanians broke by the end of the day and the massive pincer movement's north claw, therefore, started to advance.

The fact that the Germans had placed the Romanians in such an important position itself was a stunning failure showing either hubris or a real lack of understanding of the situation they were in.  The Romanian Army was primitive in comparison to the German army and its rank and file was made up of peasantry.

Much further to the north, the Red Army began an advancement on Velikiye Luki designed to relieve it.

The British launched a glider assault on Telemark. The gliders did not land near their objective, Operation Freshman was a failure, and 41 British soldiers were killed.  The attack was aimed at trying to sabotage the chemical plant at Telemark in order to disrupt any German nuclear plans associated with it.

Polish artist and literary critic Bruno Schultz was murdered by a Gestapo agent in a bizarre act of personal revenge.

Schultz was Jewish, but had been extended protection by Gestapo agent Felix Landau in exchange for Schultz painting a mural for Landau in his children's bedroom.  On this day, however, another Gestapo agent, Karl Günther, shot and killed him in an act of revenge against Landau for Landau having murdered Gunther's "personal Jew", who was a dentist.  The murals were painted over, but have since been rediscovered.

The entire matter shows how perverse Nazi Germany really was.

Landau, an Austrian by birth, survived the war and served a decade in the 1960s for his crimes.  He died a natural death in 1983 at age 72.  He kept a diary which documented the plight of the Jews, including his own crimes in regard to them.

Fashion designer Calvin Klein was born.

Tuesday, May 19, 1942. Kerch falls, Doolittle decorated, a day for submarines.

On this day in 1942 the Battle of the Kerch Peninsula ended with an Axis victory as active campaigning very much resumed on the southern Eastern Front.

Red Army soldiers going into what would prove to be a grim captivity after surrendering at Kerch.  CC BY-SA 3.0 de File:Bundesarchiv B 145 Bild-F016237-0022A, Krim, russische Soldaten bei Gefangennahme.jpg Created: May 1942date QS:P571,+1942-05-00T00:00:00Z/10

The effort had been going on for four months.  Germany and Romania took 38,000 losses in the battle, the Soviets took 570,000.

Sarah Sundin reports the following for this Tuesday in May of 1942:

Today in World War II History—May 19, 1942: Lt. Col. James Doolittle receives the Medal of Honor, revealing who led the US air raid on Tokyo. New York City discontinues night baseball games.

The Italian submarine Cappellini sank the Swedish ship MV Tisnaren which was clearly marked as a Swedish vessel.  It was carrying Scotch whiskey from Manchester England to South America.

The U-751 sank the US SS Isabela in the Caribbean.  The U-103 sank the SS Orgontz off of Mexicao.  The U-506 sank the SS Heredia off of Guatemala.

The HMS Thrasher sank the Italian merchant ship Penelope.

The RAF ineffectively raided Mannheim Germany in a night raid while the Luftwaffe attacked Hull.

Thursday, October 30, 1941. A Change In Material Circumstances

 

On this date in 1941, T-34s began to appear in action in numbers for the first time.

In other technological, if you will, news, Northrup received a contract for one full-scale mockup, and one actual flying experimental example, of its flying wing design.

Northrup XB-35 experimental flying wing bomber.

The revolutionary design would not fly until after the war and would not see adoption until modern stealth technology arrived, at which time Northrup's design would reappear, evolved, as the Northrup B-2 Spirit.

At Tula, the Germans attempted a pitched massive assault but Soviet forces, some of which were militia, turned them back in spite of suffering heavy losses.  The Soviets used anti tank guns and anti-aircraft guns in the effort.

The Germans and Romanians commenced the Siege of Sevastopol.  It would take the Axis forces until July to take the city.

Charles Lindbergh spoke to an anti-war rally crowd of 20,000 in Madison Square Garden.  His speech was very harsh on Franklin Roosevelt, whom he accused of attempting to draw the United States into war and of using dictatorial measures.

USO Camp Shows commenced on this day in 1941, as discussed in the link below:

Today in World War II History—October 30, 1941

A u-boat damaged the USS Salinas, a U.S. Navy fleet oiler, but the vessel managed to escape without sinking.

Pearl Harbor, October 30, 1941.

Thursday, October 16, 1941. Odessa taken, deportations in full swing.

 Romanians and Germans took Odessa after a two-month siege of the Black Sea port.

It had been principally a Romanian operation and indeed was the largest such operation by a German ally on the Easter Front.  The overall performance of Romanian troops resulted in a call to cease offensive operations by Romanian troops against the Soviets, although that was ignored by the country's military dictator.

Deportations of European Jews to the East started for many of them on this day in 1941, with the wholesale relocation of European Jews having started the day prior.  The order included German Jews as well as those living in other western European countries that were controlled by Nazi Germany.

Franklin Roosevelt addressed the nation's draft enrollees.

On this day more than sixteen million young Americans are reviving the three-hundred-year-old American custom of the muster. They are obeying that first duty of free citizenship by which, from the earliest colonial times, every able-bodied citizen was subject to the call for service in the national defense.

It is a day of deep and purposeful meaning in the lives of all of us. For on this day we Americans proclaim the vitality of our history, the singleness of our will and the unity of our nation.

We prepare to keep the peace in this New World which free men have built for free men to live in. The United States, a nation of one hundred and thirty million people, has today only about five hundred thousand-half a million-officers and men in Army and National Guard. Other nations, smaller in population, have four and five and six million trained men in their armies. Our present program will train eight hundred thousand additional men this coming year and somewhat less than one million men each year thereafter. It is a program obviously of defensive preparation and of defensive preparation only.

Calmly, without fear and without hysteria, but with clear determination, we are building guns and planes and tanks and ships-and all the other tools which modern defense requires. We are mobilizing our citizenship, for we are calling on men and women and property and money to join in making our defense effective. Today's registration for training and service is the keystone in the arch of our national defense.

In the days when our forefathers laid the foundation of our democracy, every American family had to have its gun and know how to use it. Today we live under threats, threats of aggression from abroad, which call again for the same readiness, the same vigilance. Ours must once again be the spirit of those who were prepared to defend as they built, to defend as they worked, to defend as they worshipped.

The duty of this day has been imposed upon us from without. Those who have dared to threaten the whole world with war-those who have created the name and deed of total war-have imposed upon us and upon all free peoples the necessity of preparation for total defense.

But this day not only imposes a duty; it provides also an opportunity-an opportunity for united action in the cause of liberty-an opportunity for the continuing creation on this continent of a country where the people alone shall be master, where the people shall be truly free.

To the sixteen million young men who register today, I say that democracy is your cause-the cause of youth.

Democracy is the one form of society which guarantees to every new generation of men the right to imagine and to attempt to bring to pass a better world. Under the despotisms the imagination of a better world and its achievement are alike forbidden.

Your act today affirms not only your loyalty to your country, but your will to build your future for yourselves.

We of today, with God's help, can bequeath to Americans of tomorrow a nation in which the ways of liberty and justice will survive and be secure. Such a nation must be devoted to the cause of peace. And it is for that cause that America arms itself.

It is to that cause-the cause of peace-that we Americans today devote our national will and our national spirit and our national strength.