Wednesday, April 26, 1944. Pyrrihic Kidnapping.

Example of wartime propaganda aimed at the Japanese.

In a mission months in the making, members of the SOE and Cretan resistance kidnapped Heinrich Kreipe.

Originally directed at Gen. Friedrich-Wilhelm Müller as a reprisal for actions committed under his orders, Kreipe had succeeded him by the time the SOE team arrived.  Kreipe's kidnapping would cause Müller to return and order mass reprisals, something that had not occurred under Kreipe.

In short, it was a pointless action and poorly thought out, with ultimately tragic results.

Kreipe would be reunited with his kidnappers in a 1972 Greek television program.

In New Guinea, American beachheads at Tanahmerah Bay and Humboldt Bay were linked up.  Australian forces took Alexishafen.

The Yoshida Maru No. 1 was sunk by the USS Jack resulting in the loss of 2,669 men.

The U-488 was sunk off of Cape Verde by the U.S. Navy.

The I-180 was sunk off of Chirikof Island by the USS Gilmore.

The Royal Navy, in an effort to attack the Tirpitz which failed due to weather, found a coastal convoy instead and sunk three ships  in it.

The POW camp in Hoopeston, Illinois, received its first prisoners.

Last prior edition:

Tuesday, April 25, 1944. The Blood for Goods deal extended, Air disaster at Montreal, the death of George Herriman.

1940s, 1944, 1944 at the Movies, Brazil, Commandos, Munich Germany, New Guinea, Personalities, Prisoners of War, Royal Air Force, Special Boat Service, Switzerland, United States Air Force, World War Two

Wednesday, June 23, 1943. Arrests in France, Elections in Ireland.

The "Prosper" network of SOE agents in France, including French woman Andrée Borrel, Francis Suttill, and Gilbert were arrested by the Gestapo after being betrayed by an informer.

Borrel.

 

They'd be executed on July 6, 1944.  Execution would have been legal under the norms of war of the day, as they were spies, but the method was bizarre in that they were rendered unconscious through injection and then burned alive.

As previously noted, the SOE, which frankly was quite amateurish in Europe, had been penetrated by the Germans.

Sarah Sundin reports:

Today in World War II History—June 23, 1943: President Roosevelt establishes American Commission for the Protection and Salvage of Artistic and Historic Monuments in War Areas (“Monuments Men”).

She also notes that the coal strike in Appalachia was settled, but that President Roosevelt threatened to conscript the miners if it occurred again. 

In Ireland's general election t Fianna Fáil, led by Éamon de Valera, failed to gain a majority but was able to form a minority government.

Monday, June 21, 1943. Spreading the Holocaust in the Baltic

Douglas SBD "Dauntless" dive bomber balanced on nose after crash landing on carrier flight deck, June 21, 1943.

Head of the SS Heinrich Himmler ordered that all remaining Jews in the Baltic States be transferred to slave labor camps.

Sarah Sundin notes, on her blog:

Today in World War II History—June 21, 1943: US Marines land unopposed at Segi Point, New Georgia, in the Solomon Islands. Detroit race riot begins between whites and Blacks.

The NFL approved the temporary Merger of the Eagles and the Steelers, something we reported on the other day.  The declined the proposal to merge the Bears and the Cardinals.

Occupied Greece saw action as the SOE destroyed a railway bridge over the Asopos and the Greek Liberation Army conducted an ambush in the Battle of Sarantaporos.

The US Supreme Court rules in Stack v. Boyle that a foreign born citizen could not have that citizenship revoked for joining the Communist Party.

Harvard rejected a proposal to admit women to its medical school.

Wednesday, May 27, 1942. Dorie Miller receives the Navy Cross. Reinhard Heydrich attacked.

Dores "Dorie" Miller became the first African American to receive the Navy Cross, which he received for manning 

For distinguished devotion to duty, extraordinary courage and disregard for his own personal safety during the attack on the Fleet in Pearl Harbor, Territory of Hawaii, by Japanese forces on December 7, 1941. While at the side of his Captain on the bridge, Miller, despite enemy strafing and bombing and in the face of a serious fire, assisted in moving his Captain, who had been mortally wounded, to a place of greater safety, and later manned and operated a machine gun directed at enemy Japanese attacking aircraft until ordered to leave the bridge.

Miller grew up on his parent's farm in Texas and had joined the Navy at age 20 in 1939. He would not survive the war, being killed when a ship he was later assigned to was hit by a torpedo in 1943, setting off the ship's munition's stores.

His curious legal name was the result of a midwife being convinced he'd be born a girl, although even at that the family decision to stick with the name is odd.  It didn't fit him at all, as Miller grew to be a giant of a man.  His nickname is a matter of dispute, and may not have actually come about at all until press reports misstated his name, although there are other explanations for the name.

Reinhard Heydrich, one of the architects of the "Final Solution", was badly wounded in an assassination exercise by Czech operatives in an SOE planned operation.  He'd die on June 4.  Heydrich was drenched in evil, but the assassination did not in any way stop the Holocaust, and it resulted in massive German reprisals.

Heydrich vehicle following the attack.

Jews in Belgium were ordered to wear the yellow Star of David.

As with almost any day in this period, the Battle of the Atlantic raged, with submarines taking their toll.

Wednesday January 14, 1942. Canadian Internment, Operation Drumbeat, Operation Posmaster and Executive Order on Enemy Aliens.

On this day in 1942, the Arcadia Conference concluded.

Canada began a Japanese internment program

As discussed here:

Today in World War II History—January 14, 1942

Canada designates a 100-mile security zone in British Columbia; all males of Japanese ancestry ages 18-45 are ordered to vacate; 23,000 men will be sent to labor camps; women and children are deported to six inner BC towns; Japanese-Canadians also banned from fishing and using shortwave radios.

While this story is well known in Canada, it is not in the United States.  It's significant to Canadian history for a lot of reasons, but also to US history in regard to the atmosphere at the time.

The US had not yet begun internment of Japanese residents, but it did commence registration of enemy aliens on this day in 1942.

President Roosevelt issued an order requiring the registration of enemy aliens.

By the President of the United States of America

A Proclamation 

Whereas section 21 of title 50 of the United States Code provides as follows: 

Whenever there is a declared war between the United States and any foreign nation or government, or any invasion or predatory incursion is perpetrated, attempted, or threatened against the territory of the United States by any foreign nation or government, and the President makes public proclamation of the event, all natives, citizens, denizens, or subjects of the hostile nation or government, being of the age of fourteen years and upward, who shall be within the United States and not actually naturalized, shall be liable to be apprehended, restrained, secured, and removed as alien enemies. The President is authorized in any such event, by his proclamation thereof, or other public act, to direct the conduct to be observed, on the part of the United States, toward the aliens who become so liable; the manner and degree of the restraint to which they shall be subject and in what cases, and upon what security their residence shall be permitted, and to provide for the removal of those who, not being permitted to reside within the United States, refuse or neglect to depart therefrom; and to establish any other regulations which are found necessary in the premises and for the public safety. 

Whereas by sections 22, 23, and 24 of title 50 of the United States Code further provision is made relative to alien enemies; 

Whereas by Proclamation No. 2525 of December 7, 1941, and Proclamations Nos. 2526 and 2527 of December 8,1941, I prescribed and proclaimed certain regulations governing the conduct of alien enemies; and 

Whereas I find it necessary in the interest of national defense to prescribe regulations additional and supplemental to such regulations: 

Now, Therefore, I, Franklin D. Roosevelt, President of the United States of America, acting under and by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution of the United States and the aforesaid sections of the United States Code, do hereby prescribe and proclaim the following regulations, additional and supplemental to those prescribed by the aforesaid proclamations of December 7, 1941, and December 8, 1941: 

CERTIFICATES OF IDENTIFICATION REQUIRED; DUTIES AND AUTHORITY OF THE ATTORNEY GENERAL 

All alien enemies within the continental United States, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands are hereby required, at such times and places and in such manner as may be fixed by the Attorney General of the United States, to apply for and acquire certificates of identification; and the Attorney General is hereby authorized and directed to provide, as speedily as may be practicable, for the receiving of such applications and for the issuance of appropriate identification certificates, and to make such rules and regulations as he may deem necessary for effecting such identifications; and all alien enemies and all other persons are hereby required to comply with such rules and regulations. The Attorney General in carrying out such identification procedure, is hereby authorized to utilize such agents, agencies, officers, and departments of the United States and of the several states, territories, dependencies, and municipalities thereof and of the District of Columbia as he may select for the purpose, and all such agents, agencies, officers, and departments are hereby granted full authority for all acts done by them in the execution of this regulation when acting by the direction of the Attorney General. After the date or dates fixed by the Attorney General for completion of such identification procedure, every alien enemy within the limits of the continental United States, Puerto Rico, or the Virgin Islands shall at all times have his identification card on his person.

The British pulled off Operation Postmaster, an SOE operation, which involved hijacking three ships in a port in Spanish Guinea.  While military insignificant, it boosted the reputation of the SOE in particular, and the British in general, for eclectic raiding.

German U-boats began to make some successful strikes off of the near US and Labradorean/PEI/Newfoundland coast as part of a new submarine offensive, Operation Drumbeat.  The U-123 sank the Panamanian tanker MV Norness off of Long Island.  Across the Atlantic, the U-43 sank the three vessels, including the Panamanian flagged SS Chepo.