Wednesday, January 26, 1944. Gatchina

Machine gun position, Borgen Bay, New Britain. January 26, 1944.

The Red Army captured Krasnogvardeisk.   The Germans set fire to Gatchina Palace and vandalizing much of the town's park on the way out.

Two days later, its pre-1923 name of Gatchina would was restored.

The US II Corps established a bridgehead over the Rapido.  The Free French Corps captured Colle Belvedere and advanced toward Monte Abate.

From Sarah Sundin's blog:

Today in World War II History—January 26, 1944: British landing ship LST-422 is damaged by a mine off Anzio; of 700 aboard, 454 US soldiers & 29 British sailors are killed.

Argentina severed diplomatic relations with the Axis powers.

 A.T.F. 9 Ordnance Section. 26 January, 1944. Kiska.

US Communist figure Angela Davis was born in Birmingham, Alabama.

She remains a radical leftist and is a professor at the University of California, Santa Cruz currently.

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.

Tuesday, December 28, 1943. Battle of the Bay of Biscay.

The Battle of the Bay of Biscay was fought between the Royal Navy and the Kriegsmarine. Numerically outmatched, two British light cruisers fought a destroyer and a torpedo boat flotilla of the German Kriegsmarine, the British sank the T26, T25 and the destroyer Z27.  The German contingent included a combined eleven destroyers and torpedo boats and had been intended to escort the blockade runner Alsterufer, which had been sunk the day prior.

Mickey Rooney visited the USS Intrepid.

Mickey Rooney on board USS Intrepid (CV 11), December 28, 1943.

The Australian Army prevailed in the Battle of the Pimple in New Guinea.

The Soviet Union began the forcible relocation of 100,000 Kalmyk's to Siberia, having abolished the Kalmyk Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic the prior day, as punishment for a Soviet conception that they had supported the Germans. Survivors were allowed to return in 1957 and the region granted autonomy again in 1958.

The Kalmyk's are the only traditionally Buddhist ethnic group in Europe, having relocated originally from Northern China.

The Battle of Ortuna ended in a Canadian victory.

U.S. Army Air Force pilot Lt. Douglas McDow and aviation cadet Clarence A. Thompson disappeared on a training mission after taking off from Douglas, Arizona.  The wreckage of their plane, and their remains, were not located until 1974.

Navy dance, Oregon.

Sunday, December 26, 1943. Boxing Day. The Battles of Cape Gloucester and North Cape

Marine at Cap Gloucester, December 26, 1943.

Marines landed at Cape Gloucester on New Britain.

Marines wading ashore at Cape Gloucester.

The USS Brownson was attacked by Japanese aircraft during the landings, and sunk.

The Moro River Campaign in Italy ended in a stalemate.  The Germans were holding their own against, in this case the British 8th Army, but also against the U.S. 5th Army, which did take Monte Sammucro on this day.

The German battleship Scharnhorst was torpedoed and sunk by the HMS Duke of York.  All but 36 of her 1,943-man crew perished.  The action was termed the Battle of North Cape.

The NFL Championship Game was played, with this coming after Christmas for the first time in the NFL's history.  The Bears beat the Redskins 41-21.

Thursday, December 23, 1943. Moving toward railroad seizure.

The Great Hall of Union Station, Toronto, Canada, December 23, 1943.

Three out of five railroad unions rejected Franklin Roosevelt's offer of arbitration in their wage dispute.

Accordingly, President Roosevelt ordered Attorney General Francis Biddle to being the process of seizing the railroads effective December 30.

The Red Army prevailed in the Battle of the Dnieper.

The Canadian 1st Division seized most of Ortona.  Other 8th Army elements captured Arielli.

The HMS Worcester hit a mine in the North Sea and was rendered a loss.

Wednesday, December 22, 1943. Beatrix Potter, author and farmer.

Beatrix Potter, author of the Peter Rabbit books, died at age 77.

Potter was from a family that held extensive agricultural lands and was, in addition to being an author, a sheep farmer.  She married in 1914 over the disapproval of her family, as her husband, a country solicitor, was regarded as being beneath her status.  Never having had any children, she left most of her large landholdings to the National Trust.  Her husband, who died in 1945, left the balance of them to the National Trust.

Good people.

Some not so good people, including one Adolf Hitler issued a Führerbefehl creating the Nationalsozialistische Führungsoffiziere who were charged with getting German soldiers to believe in final victory, even if they were clueless on how that would come about.

Hmmm. . . .

On the same day the German government ordered that males down to 16 years of age register for conscription.

Hmmm. . . .

The Red Army completed its victory in the Second Battle of Kiev.

The German light cruiser Niobe was sunk off of Siba Yugoslavia by British torpedo boats.

Thursday, November 18, 1943. The (Airborne) Battle of Berlin commences.

The RAF commenced the airborne Battle of Berlin on this day in 1943, hitting Berlin with 440 Lancaster bombers in a nighttime raid.  The raid killed 131 Berliners, caused light damage and resulted in the loss of nine aircraft with 53 airmen.   Raids would continue through March, 1944.

Cordell Hull addressed a joint session of Congress on the Moscow Conference.

The Germans opened the Ebensee concentration camp, with the first prisoners being non-Jewish.

The 1st Panzer Division pushed the Red Army out of Zhytomyr.

The U.S. Army issued a report on a newly encountered rifle, the FG42

German Paratrooper's Rifle F.G. 42" from Tactical and Technical Trends

German paratrooper in raid to free Mussolini carrying a FG42. By Bundesarchiv, Bild 101I-567-1503A-01 / Toni Schneiders / CC-BY-SA 3.0, CC BY-SA 3.0 de, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=5412659

Never completely finished in terms of design, the FG42 was arguably the world's first battle rifle, although it is often called an assault rifle. The selective fire rifle, firing the standard full sized German 8x57 round and was designed to fill the role of rifle, light machinegun and submachinegun.  It was made in fairly limited numbers.

Following World War Two, the concept would be adopted by NATO countries, in part because of the U.S. rejection of intermediate sized rounds.  The FAL, G3, Stg 57, BM59 and M14 are all examples of post war battle rifles.

The Army also reported on German armored cars:

"German Four-Wheeled Armored Cars" from Tactical and Technical Trends

British soldiers exam a disabled SdKfz 222, the most common German four-wheel armored car.

The Germans, like the British, liked armored cars and used four wheel, six wheel and eight wheel varieties, the latter of which proved influential after World War Two and which inspired armored cars currently in use by the U.S., Canada and Germany.  Their four wheeled variants were in the Leichter Panzerspähwagen class and used for reconnaissance.

The U-718 accidentally rammed and sank the U-476 in the Baltic.

The Greek sailing vessels Agios Demetrios  and Kanelos were shelled and sunk south-east of the Kassandra peninsula and Strati, Greece by the Royal Navy, although I don't know why.

The HMS Chanticleer was torpedoed off Portugal and damaged beyond repair.

The Empire Dunstan was torpedeoed and sunk in the Ionian Sea.

German patrol boats sank the Soviet No. 35 motor boat in the Black Sea.

The Columbian Ruby was sunk by the U-516.

The Liberty Ship Sambridge was sunk by the I27 in the Gulf of Aden, where you don't really think of Japanese submarines operating.

The Sanae, a Japanese destroyers, was sunk by U.S. submarines.

French aircraft carrier off of Roosevelt Roads, Puerto Rico, November 18, 1943.

1943  The Wyoming Department of Education released the results of a survey revealing that the state was short 70 teachers, no doubt the result of teachers having joined the armed forces during World War Two.  Attribution. Wyoming History Calendar.

Saturday, November 13, 1943. Coconut Grove.

The Germans commenced a counterattack at Kyiv that would run for forty days.  The Red Army reached Zhytomyr which threatened the norther flank of German Army Group South.

The first XP-80 was completed.

Lulu Belle, the first XP-80.

The Kelly Johnson design would go into service in 1945, too late for the Second World War, but would see service in Korea, by which time it was already eclipsed by later designs.

The Battle of Coconut Grove commenced on Bougainville between Marine Corps elements and the Imperial Japanese Army.

On the same day, the third wave of the US invasion forced landed, which included the balance of the 37th Infantry Division and the 21st Marine Regiment.  The USS Denver was hit during the operation by a torpedo launched by a Japanese aircraft, rendering her incapable of operating under her own engines.

Gen. Mark Clark informed his superior Gen. Alexander that operations in Italy should be halted temporarily.

The Japanese I-34 was sunk by the British submarine Taurus off of the Strait of Malacca.

HMSM Taurus.

The HMS Dulverton was scuttled after being hit by a HS 293 glide bombs off of Leros.

Tuesday, November 2, 1943. The Battle of Empress Augusta Bay.

The Battle of Empress Augusta Bay occured as the Imperial Japanese Navy responded to the invasion of Bougainville, which had in fact caught the Japanese off guard, by sending in a naval task force.  U.S. Navy Task Force 39 was on sight.

The U.S. Navy had radar, the Japanese did not.  This overcame the Japanese nighttime advantage, which was based on training, resulting in a complete Japanese defeat. The U.S. pursuit ended with first light and with it naval action in the Philippines. The Japanese Navy would not significantly reappear.

The US sustained nineteen killed, one cruiser damaged, and two destroyers damaged.  The Japanese lost one light cruiser, one destroyer sunk, and one heavy cruiser was damaged, one light cruiser was damaged, two destroyers heavily damaged, twenty-five aircraft shot down and somewhere between 200 and 650 killed.

The heavy cruiser Haguro in Simpson Bay, Rabaul.  She had been damaged at Empress Augusta Bay the previous night.  November 2, 1943.

The Allies began bombing Rabaul in what was termed Bloody Tuesday.  The 71st Bomb Squadron, 38th Bomb Group, 5th United States Army Air Force attacked Japanese shipping, inflicting heavy losses but sustaining them as well.  It also resulted in a posthumous Medal of Honor being awarded to Maj. Raymond Wilkins.  His citation reads:

For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity above and beyond the call of duty in action with the enemy near Rabaul, New Britain, on 2 November 1943. Leading his squadron in an attack on shipping in Simpson Harbor, during which intense antiaircraft fire was expected, Maj. Wilkins briefed his squadron so that his airplane would be in the position of greatest risk. His squadron was the last of 3 in the group to enter the target area. Smoke from bombs dropped by preceding aircraft necessitated a last-second revision of tactics on his part, which still enabled his squadron to strike vital shipping targets, but forced it to approach through concentrated fire, and increased the danger of Maj. Wilkins' left flank position. His airplane was hit almost immediately, the right wing damaged, and control rendered extremely difficult. Although he could have withdrawn, he held fast and led his squadron into the attack. He strafed a group of small harbor vessels, and then, at low level, attacked an enemy destroyer. His 1,000 pound bomb struck squarely amidships, causing the vessel to explode. Although antiaircraft fire from this vessel had seriously damaged his left vertical stabilizer, he refused to deviate from the course. From below-masthead height he attacked a transport of some 9,000 tons, scoring a hit which engulfed the ship in flames. Bombs expended, he began to withdraw his squadron. A heavy cruiser barred the path. Unhesitatingly, to neutralize the cruiser's guns and attract its fire, he went in for a strafing run. His damaged stabilizer was completely shot off. To avoid swerving into his wing planes he had to turn so as to expose the belly and full wing surfaces of his plane to the enemy fire; it caught and crumpled his left wing. Now past control, the bomber crashed into the sea. In the fierce engagement Maj. Wilkins destroyed 2 enemy vessels, and his heroic self-sacrifice made possible the safe withdrawal of the remaining planes of his squadron.

 

Wilkins had originally intended to be a physician, but had joined the Army in 1936 after two years of pharmacy studies.  He served in the Army Air Corps from that point on, becoming a pilot in 1941.

The U.S. Fifth Army reached the Garigliano River in Italy.

The U-340 had to be scuttled after engaging a British warship off of Morocco.]

The US Comptroller issued the following finding:

B-37793, NOVEMBER 2, 1943, 23 COMP. GEN. 329

TRAVELING EXPENSES - FARES - ROUND-TRIP TICKETS WHERE IT IS SHOWN THAT DUE TO EMERGENCY WAR CONDITIONS AN OFFICIAL TRAVELER WAS UNABLE TO OBTAIN ADVANCE RESERVATIONS ON TRAINS AND WAS REQUIRED TO SECURE ONE-WAY TICKETS FOR EACH STEP OF THE JOURNEY, IT MAY BE CONCLUDED THAT THE SECURING OF A ROUND-TRIP TICKET WAS NOT "PRACTICABLE" WITHIN THE MEANING OF PARAGRAPH 16 OF THE STANDARDIZED GOVERNMENT TRAVEL REGULATIONS, REQUIRING TRAVELERS TO SECURE ROUND-TRIP TICKETS WHENEVER PRACTICABLE AND ECONOMICAL.

COMPTROLLER GENERAL WARREN TO C. P. KNAPP, DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR, NOVEMBER 2, 1943:

REFERENCE IS MADE TO YOUR LETTER OF OCTOBER 16, 1943, AS FOLLOWS:

THE ATTACHED VOUCHER FOR $98.15, IN FAVOR OF H. M. HUFFMAN, PRINCIPAL PHYSICAL CHEMIST OF THE BUREAU OF MINES EXPERIMENT STATION, BARTLESVILLE, OKLAHOMA, HAS BEEN PRESENTED TO THIS OFFICE FOR ADMINISTRATIVE EXAMINATION AND CERTIFICATION.

MR. HUFFMAN TRAVELED FROM BARTLESVILLE, OKLAHOMA, TO CHICAGO, ILLINOIS, DETROIT, MICHIGAN, WASHINGTON, D.C., PITTSBURGH, PENNSYLVANIA, CHICAGO, ILLINOIS, AND RETURN TO BARTLESVILLE, OKLAHOMA, ISSUING GOVERNMENT TRANSPORTATION REQUESTS FOR ONE-WAY TICKETS FOR THE VARIOUS STEPS OF THE JOURNEY INSTEAD OF PURCHASING ROUND-TRIP TICKETS, WHENEVER PRACTICABLE AND ECONOMICAL, AS REQUIRED BY PARAGRAPH 16 OF THE STANDARDIZED GOVERNMENT TRAVEL REGULATIONS. HE FURNISHES THE FOLLOWING JUSTIFICATION FOR THE PURCHASE OF ONE-WAY TICKETS FOR THE VARIOUS STEPS OF THE JOURNEY:

" DUE TO THE FACT THAT I WAS UNABLE TO OBTAIN ADVANCE RESERVATIONS, THE LOCAL TICKET AGENT ADVISED THE PURCHASE OF ONE-WAY TICKETS. AT EACH STEP IN THE TRAVEL IT WAS NECESSARY TO TAKE WHATEVER RESERVATIONS THAT COULD BE OBTAINED FOR THE NEXT STEP OF THE JOURNEY. SINCE IT WAS IMPOSSIBLE TO TELL WHICH RAILROAD THE JOURNEY WOULD BE MADE ON, IT SEEMED ADVISABLE TO MAKE THE TRIP ON ONE-WAY TICKETS.'

A RULING IS REQUESTED AS TO WHETHER ADMINISTRATIVE APPROVAL AND CERTIFICATION MAY BE MADE OF THE VOUCHER IN THE AMOUNT CLAIMED.

WHILE YOU DID NOT SIGN YOUR LETTER IN THE CAPACITY OF AUTHORIZED CERTIFYING OFFICER, IT IS UNDERSTOOD THAT YOU OFFICIALLY OCCUPY SUCH STATUS; HENCE, YOUR LETTER WILL BE REGARDED AS A REQUEST MADE IN THAT CAPACITY FOR DECISION PURSUANT TO THE PROVISIONS OF SECTION 3 OF THE ACT OF DECEMBER 29, 1941, 55 STAT. 876, WHICH GRANT TO CERTIFYING OFFICERS "THE RIGHT TO APPLY FOR AND OBTAIN A DECISION BY THE COMPTROLLER GENERAL ON ANY QUESTION OF LAW INVOLVED IN A PAYMENT ON ANY VOUCHERS PRESENTED TO THEM FOR CERTIFICATION.'

PARAGRAPH 16 OF THE GOVERNMENT TRAVEL REGULATIONS PROVIDES:

THROUGH TICKETS, EXCURSIONS, TICKETS, REDUCED RATE ROUND-TRIP OR PARTY TICKETS SHOULD BE SECURED WHENEVER PRACTICABLE AND ECONOMICAL.

IN VIEW OF THE EXPLANATION FURNISHED BY THE TRAVELER REGARDING THE DIFFICULTY OF MAKING ADVANCE RESERVATIONS ON TRAINS--- A CONDITION WHICH IS A MATTER OF COMMON KNOWLEDGE AT THIS TIME, ARISING FROM THE EMERGENCY WAR CONDITIONS--- IT MAY BE CONCLUDED THAT IT WAS NOT "PRACTICABLE" WITHIN THE PURVIEW OF THE REGULATIONS, SUPRA, TO HAVE OBTAINED ROUND-TRIP TICKETS IN RESPECT OF THE INVOLVED TRAVEL. ACCORDINGLY, SO FAR AS THE QUESTION RELATES TO THE MATTER OF THE PURCHASE OF ONE-WAY TICKETS FOR THE LOWEST FIRST-CLASS ACCOMMODATIONS INSTEAD OF ROUND-TRIP TICKETS, THE VOUCHER, IF OTHERWISE CORRECT AND PROPER, MAY BE CERTIFIED FOR PAYMENT.

New Yorkers went to the polls, where the following items were on their ballot:

Proposed Amendment No. 1 Admin of Government. Establishes a department of commerce in the state government

It was approved

Proposed Amendment No. 2 Taxes Authorizes the legislature to establish a fund or funds for tax revenue stabilization

It was also approved

Proposed Amendment No. 3 Redistricting Relates to the creation of assembly districts in counties that have been apportioned a greater number of assemblyman then there are towns

It was defeated

Proposed Amendment No. 4 Direct Democracy Changes residence requirements for voting purposes

It was approved.

Proposed Amendment No. 5 Direct Democracy Relates to residence requirements for election to the state assembly or senate in the first election after redistricting

It was approved

Proposed Amendment No. 6 Judiciary Relates to the jurisdiction of the court of appeals and the regulation of appeals by that court

It was approved.

The following recordings were made on this day on the Decca label, all from the movie Girl Crazy.

But not for me. Judy Garland  

Treat me rough Judy Garland ; Mickey Rooney  

I got rhythm Judy Garland

Hollywood, for promotional purposes, spent a fair amount of time trying to promote the concept that Garland and Rooney were a couple, which they weren't.

A really rough looking Gen. Clair Chennault appeared on the cover of Look.

Monday, October 25, 1943. Another October day.

The Red Army's 3d Ukrainian Front captured Dnepropetrovsk.

From Sarah Sundin's blog:

Today in World War II History—October 25, 1943: 80 Years Ago—Oct. 25, 1943: Adm. Sir Bertram Ramsay becomes Allied Naval Commander-in-Chief Expeditionary Force (ANCXF) for Operation Overlord (D-day).

The U.S. Army Air Force raided airfields near Rabaul destroying twenty Japanese aircraft on the ground.

Hong Beom-do (홍범도; Хон Бом До) Korean hunter who became a revolutionary, died on this day at age 75.

Reacting to the Japanese ban on Koreans owning firearms, which precluded hunters from their trade, he formed the 1907 Righteous Army of Jeongmi.  Upon Japanese annexation of Korea in 1910 he moved to China and became, by 1919, the commander of the Korean Independence Army.  It did well, but ultimately was forced to retreat to the Soviet Union in 1921, which resulted in the disarming of the army.  He joined the Red Army in hopes that it might liberate Korea from the Japanese, a forlorn hope at the time.

In 1937 he was deported along with other Koreans to Kazakhstan where he died on this day.  His body was repatriated to Korea in 2021.

Akcja Fruhwirth (Operation Fruhwirth) was attempted by the Polish underground. The aim was to assassinate S-Scharführer Engelberth Frühwirth but SS-Scharführer Stephan Klein was shot by mistake.  He was, however, also a target of the Polish underground.

The newspaper comic strip Batman and Robin debuted.

Sunday, October 24, 1943. The murder of Leonard Siffleet and H. Pattiwal

Australian POW, commando Sgt. Leonard Siffleet and Ambonese private H. Pattiwal  were murdered by the Japanese.

Their story is an odd one, as they were basically turned over to the Japanese by New Guinea natives who had ambushed them, once again demonstrating that native populations were not universally hostile to the Japanese.  They were interrogated and tortured, and then executed under the orders of Vice Admiral Michiaki Kamada.  The officer committing the murders had the process photographed.  His fate is unknown.

British psyop radio channel Soldatensender Calais, broadcasting on German frequencies, went on the air at 5:57 local time, filling the gap, with British broadcasts, every time Radio Deutschland was off the air due to bombing raids.

The Battle of Finschhaften resulted in an Allied victory

The U.S. Army captured Sant'Angelo in Italy.

The HMS Eclipse was sunk by a mine in the Aegean, resulting on the loss of 119 sailors and 134 soldiers it was carrying

The Japanese destroyer Mochizuki and five merchant ships were sunk southwest of Rabaul by American aircraft.

The U-566 was sunk in the Atlantic by a Vickers Wellington.

Fiday, October 22, 1943 Kurt.

Today in World War II History—October 22, 1943: Maj.-Gen. Robert Laycock becomes British Chief of Combined Operations. A German meteorological team lands in Labrador, to establish weather station “Kurt."

From Sarah Sundin's blog. 

The automated weather station would operate for only a month before failing due to unknown causes.  It was discovered in 1977.

Royal Navy HMS Charybdis which was lost in action on this day.

The Battle of Sept-Îles was fought near the French coast between the Royal Navy and the Kreigsmarine when British ships were ambushed in the Channel Islands area. The Royal Navy lost a cruiser and a destroyer to no German losses as a result of the action.

Saturday, October 9, 1943. Last Stuka success against the UK.

HMS Panther.

The HMS Panther was sunk by a German Ju 87.  The sinking would be the last Stuka victory over a significant British target.

Heavy air action occured between the USAAF aircraft and the Luftwaffe off of the Rhodes.  Over twenty Ju87s were shot down, but they did sink the HMS Panther.  One US P-38 was lost.  The German dive bombers were attempting to attack ships of the Royal Navy that were detailed to support the Dodecanese campaign.

The very large land based dive bomber had been a huge success from its entry into service prior to World War Two.  It was first deployed in action in Spain, during the Spanish Civil War, but by this point its slow speed and the lack of a German ability to escort it meant that it was rapidly becoming undeployable in the West. This wold not be true in the East, where it would continue on, particularly in an anti tank role, until the end of the war.

The USS Buck was sunk off of Salerno by the U-616.  

SS operative Herbert Kappler was informed that the removal of Rome's Jews was directly ordered by Adolf Hitler.  Kappler asked for them to remain and be employed on construction projects in the city.

While the Ju87 was reaching its eclipse in the west, the USAAF bomber fleet was increasing its influence.

9 October 1943

The Land Battle of Vella Lavella ended in an Allied victory.

The Jesselton Revolt on British Borneo began with a guerilla uprising against the Japanese by the Kinabalu Guerrillas.

The USS Buck was sunk off of Salerno by the U-616.  

The Germans successfully completed their evacuation of the Kuban Pennensual. JE

Tuesday, September 14, 1943. Mussolini at the Wolf's Lair.

Mussolini was flown to the Wolf's Lair for a meeting with Hitler, who informed Il Duce that it was imperative that he form a new fascist government.  Mussolini, at this point, would likely have preferred to go into retirement in a neutral country.

Following up on a string of Luftwaffe successes in recent days, the HMS Warspite was badly damaged by another Fritz X.  It would be back in action before Operation Overlord.

Taking advantage of the Italian surrender, German collaborators Ibrahim Biçakçiu, Bedri Pejani and Xhafer Deva declared Albania independence from Italy.

The Germans began the Viannos massacres on Crete which would result in 500 civilians being murdered in two days.

Thursday, September 13, 1943. Wunderwaffe

The HMHS Newfoundland, a hospital ship, was hit by a German glide bomb in the Mediterranean, while the HMS Uganda was hit by a guided German bomb.

The new German areal munition technology was taking quite a toll.

The HMS Uganda.

The Newfoundland had to be scuttled.  The Uganda was heavily damaged, but returned to service in 1944 as a Canadian ship. She'd see service again during the Korean War as the HMCS Quebec.

The US began to distribute residents of the Tule Lake Relocation Center, which was being converted to a maximum security detention center for Nisei regarded as a significant threat.

Hitler told his aid Karl Wolff that he wanted Pope Pius XII deported to Germany.  On the same day, German emissary to the Vatican Ernst von Weiszacker delivered Hitler's assurances to the Vatican that its sovereignty would be respected.

German counterattacks at Salerno came within one mile of the beaches before being stopped by naval gunfire.  Units from the 82nd Airborne were parachuted in as reinforcements.

In Greece, the Italian Acqui Division resisted German efforts to disarm it.

American actor David Bacon was murdered in Santa Monica.  Surviving a knifing long enough to attempt to drive off, he was found barely alive in his car, wearing only a swimsuit.  He left a pregnant wife. Twenty-nine years old at the time, the mystery has never been solved.

Thursday, August 16, 1923. Antarctic Governor

With at least an element of hubris, Viscount Jellicoe, the Governor General of New Zealand, was designated the Governor of the Ross Dependency in Antarctica.

There is something so British about this, it isn't funny. . . or rather it is.

Jellicoe commanded the Royal Navy at the Battle of Jutland, the singular great naval battle of the Great War, which by any rational definition was a Royal Navy victory and which demonstrated, beyond that, that the the surface fleet of the Imperial German Kreigsmarine was an expensive waste of resources. So he was due his honors.

Still, Jellicoe nearly defines the high empire age, which started to dwindle following World War One.

More locally, headline use of "last rights" was incorrect, but the grief was genuine.

Saturday, August 11, 1973. American Graffitti

American Graffiti was released on this day in 1973.  It's on our Movies In History list, which discusses it here:

American Graffiti

Like The Wonder Years, I've made frequent reference to this film recently.  I was surprised when I started doing that, that I'd never reviewed it.

American Graffiti takes place on a single night in Modesto California in 1962.  It's the late summer and the subject, all teenagers, are about to head back to school or already have, depending upon whether they're going to high school or college. Some are going to work or already working.  They're spending the summer night cruising the town.  That's used as a vehicle to get them into dramatic situations.

The story lines, and there are more than one, in the film are really simple.  One character, played by Richard Dreyfus, is about to leave for college and develops a mad crush, in a single night, for a young woman driving a T-bird played by a young Suzanne Summers.  Another plot involves a young couple, played by Ron Howard and Cindy Williams, who are struggling with his plan to leave for college while she has one more year of school.  Another involves an already graduated figure whose life is dedicated to cars, even though its apparent that he knows that dedication can't last forever.  The cast, as some of these names would indicate, was excellent, with many actors and actresses making their first really notable appearances in the film.

What's of interest here is the films' portrayal of the automobile culture of American youth after World War Two. This has really passed now, but it's accurately portrayed in the film.  Gasoline was relatively cheap and access to automobiles was pretty wide, which created a culture in which adolescents spent a lot of time doing just what is depicted in this movie, driving around fairly aimlessly, with the opposite sex on their minds, on Friday and Saturday nights.  This really existed in the 1960s, when this film takes place, it dated back at least to the 1950s, and it continued on into the very early 1980s. At some point after that, gasoline prices, and car prices, basically forced it out of existence.

For those growing up in the era, this was a feature of Fridays and Saturdays either to their amusement or irritation.  As a kid, coming into town on a Friday or Saturday evening from anything was bizarre and irritating, with racing automobiles packed with teenagers pretty much everywhere.  Grocery store parking lots were packed with parked cars belonging to them as well.  "Cruising" was a major feature of teenage life, and nearly every teenager participated in it at least a little big, even if they disavowed doing it.  While they did this, in later years they listened to FM radio somewhat, but more likely probably cassette tape players installed after market in their cars.  In the mid 1970s it was 8 track tape players.  In the 50s and 60s, it was the radio.

So, as odd as it may seem to later generations, this movie is pretty accurate in terms of what it displays historically.  And, given that the film was released in 1973, a mere decade after the era it depicts, it should be.  The amazing thing here is that by 1973 American culture had changed so much that a 1973 film looking back on 1962 could actually invoke a sense of nostalgia and an era long past.

The music and clothing are certainly correct, as is the cruising culture.  I somewhat question the automobiles in the movie, as most of those driven by the protagonists are late 1950s cars that wouldn't have been terribly old at the time the movie portrays, but a person knowledgeable on that topic informed me once that vehicles wore out so fast at the time that people replaced them fairly rapidly, which meant that younger people were driving fairly recent models.  Indeed, looking back on myself, I was driving early 1970s vintage vehicles in the late 1970s.

The music, which is a big feature of the movie, is also correct, which ironically often causes people to view this as a movie about the 1950s, rather than the early 1960s.  The music of the early 60s was the same as that of the late 50s, and music from the 50s was still current in the early 1960s, so this too is correct.

This movie was a huge hit, and it remained very popular for a very long time.  It's justifiably regarded as a classic.  More than that, however, it's one of the few movies that influences its own times.

Already by the 1970s there was some nostalgia regarding the 1950s.  Sha Na Na, the 50s reprisal do wop band, actually preformed at Woodstock, as amazing as that seems now.  By the late 1960s seems felt like such a mess that people were looking back towards an earlier era which they regarded as safer, ignoring its problems.  American Graffiti tapped into that feeling intentionally, although it has some subtle dark elements suggesting that not all is right with the world it portrays (the film clearly hints that a returned college graduate student is involved with his teenage female students).  George Lucas, when he made the film, couldn't have guess however that it would fuel a nostalgia boom for the 1950s like none other.

From our entry:

Movies In History: American Graffiti, and other filmed portrayals of the Cultural 1950s (1954-1965).

One of the really remarkable things about this film, well worth noting, is that it depicted a night in 1962.  That means, of course, that it was depicting, with nostalgia, something that had happened only ten years prior and yet already seemed like an earlier era.

Do we feel that way about 2013?  I doubt it.

This demonstrates that our perception of the decades not only depends upon years, and the years we've lived but also on events and eras.  What made the 1962 seem like history in 1973?

Well, probably quite a lot.  The US entered the Vietnam War and had just left the country in defeat, although the collapse of South Vietnam was yet to come.  The US had landed men on the moon more than once.  The Great Society had come and gone.  A U.S. president had died violently.  Inflation was racking the nation.

And 1968, which is to say "the 60s" had come, and was just leaving, although that was not apparent.

By the 80s, those who had "experienced the 60s" were looking back on some of it fondly, although they weren't looking back on the Vietnam War fondly.  So the process slightly repeated itself. But by 1973 people were really aware that the post World War Two world had really passed.  It wasn't as carefree as depictions of the 1950s would have it, not by a long shot.  But a lamenting of what had been lost was starting, and in some ways, has very much returned.

Looking forward, it was on this day that "hip hop", or "rap" was born when Jamaican born Olive Campbell introduced the form under the stage name DJ Kool Herc at a party organized by Campbell and his sister, that being the Bronx, New York, Back To School Jam.

The Soviet Union sentenced for men to death and three to prisoner terms for collaboration with the Germans while they were members of the Red Army during World War Two.

The Icelandic Coast Guard ship  ICGV Óðinn rammed the Royal Navy's HMS Andromeda off the Icelandic coast in a violent exchange in the Cod Wars.

Saturday, July 10, 1943. Seaborne landings on Sicily. Battle at Enogai.

Early morning view on July 10, 1943.  U.S. Navy photograph.

The main landing force started disembarking in Operation Husky, the Allied invasion of Sicily.

Weather conditions were poor, featuring high winds, which served to cause the Axis forces, under Italian command, to assume that landings could not be conducted, which would be the first of two such bad assumptions on the same basis Axis forces would make in Europe during the war in regard to an amphibious landings.  Landings commenced at 02:45 on 26 beaches spread out over a distnace of a stunning 105 miles, making the landings the largest of World War Two in terms of both the sizeof the landing zone and the number of Allied divisions landed on D-Day.  The landing Allied troops, consisting of British, Canadian and American soldiers, generally encountered weak resistance, althought there were some Italian exceptions.

51st Highland Division unloading stores from tank landing craft on Operation Husky D-Day

By any rational measure, the massive operation meant that the Western Allies had returned to the European continent after having been pushed out of Greece in June 1941.  The operation also demonstrated the ability of the Western Allies to conduct very large-scale amphibious and airborne operations, although imperfectly.

The battle would also bring into increased prominence, and not always in a good way, the names of a vareity of Allied commanders who would dominate the news from the ETO for the remainder of the war.

Husky was under the overall command of Gen. Eisenhower, but operational command of hte invasion force was under British command.  Often lost to American understanding, at this stage of the war the British Commonwealth forces in Europe were larger and more experienced than American ones. 

The two-day Battle of Enogai took place on New Guinea between US Marines and Japanese solders. A Marine Corps victory would result on the second day, which featured Marines turning captured Japanese automatic weapons on Japanese forces, something that was somewhat unusual for US forces to do.

Dead Japanese machine gun crew at Enogai.

Monday, May 31, 1943. You can crack that tank.

The Army put out its weekly summation of the war news, with helpful tips on taking on tanks.

The tank illustration really is interesting, as I've sometimes wondered about the topics noted, particularly causing the tank to button up.  German armor, like American armor, did not normally fight buttoned up as the visibility is so poor.

Expecting an infantryman to have a Molotov Cocktail, however, seems like a bit much.

Sarah Sundin reports:

Today in World War II History—May 31, 1943: British ships begin naval bombardment of island of Pantelleria between Tunisia and Sicily, adding to the aerial bombardment started May 18.

 Archie Andrews, of comic book fame, appeared on the radio for the first time.

Friday, April 30, 1943. Operation Mincemeat

The body of "Major Martin", a fictional British Major carrying fictional papers, was released from the British submarine HMS Seraph off of Spain.  In reality, the body was that of Glyndwr Michael, a vagrant who had died from eating rat poison.

The operation, known as Operation Mincemeat, was designed to deceive the Axis on plans for the invasion of Sicily, and was highly successful.

The US took Hill 609 in Tunisia.

The Bermuda Conference concluded.  The topic of the conference between the US and UK, which had commenced on April 19, was Jewish refugees who had been liberated by the Allies, and the remaining Jews in Axis controlled territory.  No substantial agreement on what to do was reached, other than to win the war, US immigration quotas would not be raised, and the British would not lift the prohibition on Jewish refugees going to Palestine.

Participants in the conference.