Monday, September 11, 1944. Communist usurpation in Poland.

Communist Pole Boleslaw Bierut became the usurper president of the Russian backed Polish provisional government.

 Scouting around in the small Belgian town of Battice, Belgium, on the way to Aachen (25km away) are L-R: T/Sgt. Frank F. Kitts, Chambersburg, Pa.; Pfc. Durward F. Oakly, Tocum, Ky.; Pfc. Leon Mooers, 174 Franklin Ave., Hartford, Conn., and Cpl. Tom. H. Graham, Scranton, S.C., all members of an infantry outfit. 11 September, 1944. Company B, 1st Battalion, 16th Infantry Regiment, 1st Infantry Division.

The U.S. Army entered Germany in a patrol by the 2nd Platoon, Troop B, 85th Cavalry Reconnaissance Squadron, 5th Armored Division.  No Germans were encountered.

The US 1st Army took Malmedy.  The 7th Army took Digon and linked up iwth the 3d Army, uniting the forces of Overlord and Dragoon.

South Africans captured Pistoia, Italy.

The Octagon Conference between Churchill and Roosevelt started in Quebec.

Last edition:

Sunday, September 10, 1944. Reaching Germany, Freeing Luxembourg, Continuation War lost.

Labels: 1940, 1940s, 1944, Army, Belgium, boats and ships, Bougainville, Continuation War, Diplomacy, Finland, Luxembourg, Operation Paravane, Red Army, Royal Air Force, USSR, World War Two

Thursday, August 4, 1944. The Frank's arrested.

The Jewish Frank family was arrested in Amsterdam by German police.  Only Otto Frank would survive the war, going on to publish his daughter Anne's diary.

They were betrayed by somebody, but it remains a mystery as to who it was.

The Germans retreated from Florence leaving only the Ponte Vecchio bridge entact.  The South African elements of the British 13th Corps entered the city.

The Germans counterattacked between Riga and Jelgava, reestablishing communications.

Polish poet Krzysztof Kamil Baczyński was killed in the Warsaw Uprising.

The solider in the foreground carries an M1 Garand and a bazooka.  The armored vehicle is a M10 tank destroyer.

The 3d Army occupied Rennes.  The British 21st Army captured Evrecy and Villers Bocage.

Baron Carl Gustaf Emil Mannerheim assumed the Finnish presidency, paving the way for Finland to exit the war.

The British 2nd Division took Tamu, Burma.

The U-671 was sunk by the Royal Navy in the English Channel.

The Matsu was sunk by the U.S. Navy off of Chichijima.

Last edition:

Wednesday, August 3, 1944. Advances in Burma and Normandy.

Labels: 1940s, 1944, boats and ships, Burma, Diplomacy, Education, German Kriegsmarine, Lebanon, Nationalist Chinese Army, Normandy, Normandy Breakout, Operation Overlord, Royal Navy, United Kingdom, USSR, World War Two

Sunday, July 26, 1942. Gene Autry joins the Army.

Today in World War II History—July 26, 1942: In a live radio broadcast, Gene Autry, cowboy singer/actor, is inducted into the US Army Air Force as a technical sergeant.

Via Sarah Sundin's blog.

I had no idea that Gene Autry had served in the military during World War Two.

I'm not an Autry fan, and indeed when I first read this in the early morning hours, I confused Autry with Roy Rogers.  Roy Rogers didn't serve in World War Two.  He was a few years younger than Autry, who did.

The other blog which had this correct, I'd note, noted this regarding Rogers:

Rogers and Wayne "are forever tainted with the stigma of opting out[,] unlike so many of their contemporaries from the Hollywood community who put country first before family [and] career," Bruce Hickey wrote. Seventy years later, people still have heated opinions about it. Wayne's lack of service has been written about more extensively than Rogers', but both are perennial topics of speculation, justification, and scorn.

I posted on the entry twice, once in error, and then to correct my error.

I suspect that Autry wasn't inducted as a Technical Sergeant so much as becoming one.  He was a private pilot and really wanted to be an Army Air Force pilot, and eventually did so in 1944, then holding the rank of Flight Officer.  He flew a C-109, a cargo variant of the B-24, which was not an easy plane to fly, and moreover, was one of those who flew "over the hump" in the CBI.

By the way, Autry did join the Army on a Sunday.  As readers of this blog may have noted, a lot of official government business of all types was conducted on Sunday during World War Two.  I don't know what the official policy was, but the government was clearly working at least partially seven days a week.

At El Alamein the British launched the counteroffensive Operation Manhood, with the combined British, South African and New Zealand forces taking most of their initial objectives.

The Japanese defending forces at Oivi on the Kokoda track, with the Papuan and Australian forces conducing a delaying action.

The German 6th Army broke through the Red Army's 62nd and 64th armies, reaching the Don just south of Stalingrad.

The Royal Air Force conducted a nighttime raid on Hamburg which resulted in the destruction of 823 homes, and which rendered 14,000 of its residents homeless.

Monday, July 13, 1942. Von Bock relieved.

Today in World War II History—July 13, 1942: Nazis massacre 5000 Jews in Rovno, Ukraine. Italian frogmen swim 5 km to Gibraltar and plant limpet mines, sinking three Allied ships.

And Feodor von Bock, as Sundin also reports on her blog, was relieved of command of Army Group B, although that became effective on July 15. 

Von Bock was not a Nazi, and indeed personally disliked the Nazis, but he was also passive in regard to their atrocities within his command.  That command included several officers who later were participants in the July 20 plot, which he was invited to participate in, but he declined to do so.

He was killed at the extreme end of the war when a vehicle he was in, along with his wife and stepdaughter, was strafed.

The German 21st Panzer division was repulsed by Australian and South African forces in an attack featuring heavy losses at Tel el Eisa and the El Alamein "box".

The USS Seadragon, still off of Cam Ranh Bay, sank the transport Shinyo Maru.

The RAF bombed Duisburg during thunderstorms, but missed the industrial areas.

Thursday, November 12, 1914. Wanted horses.

Sheridan rancher O. O. Wallop, a member of British royalty, was advertising for horses. . . for British remounts.

And civil war seemed to be breaking out in Mexico.

South African troops under Louis Botha defeated Boer rebels under Christiaan de Wet.

Botha as a Boer commander during the Boer War.

More on this event:

Boer Rebel De Wet Defeated at Mushroom Valley

Last edition:

Wednesday, November 11,. 1914. Cavalry at Ypres.

Labels: 1910s, 1914, Bergmann Offensive, Blog Mirror, British Army, cavalry, First Battle of Ypres, German Army, Indian Army, Iraq, Islam, Ottoman Army, Ottoman Empire, religion

Wednesday, October 28, 1914. Collapsing Maritz Rebellion.

Rebel Boer units were attacked by the South African Army, forcing Boer general Christian Frederick Beyers to disperse his forces.

The Germans suspended attacks at Ypres to regroup.

Exhaustion and language difficulties frustrated a British effort at Neuve-Chapelle.

French troops held at Armentières in spite of a two day German artillery bombardment.

Last edition:

Tuesday, October 27, 1914. Massive Central Powers losses in the East.

Labels: 1910s, 1914, Austro Hungarian Army, Battle of the Vistula, boats and ships, Eastern Front, German Army, Imperial Russian Army, Royal Navy, The written word

Saturday, September 26, 1914. FTC created.

The Federal Trade Commission was established by the Federal Trade Commission Act. 

Modern populists probably regard it as government overreach, as they seemingly think everything is in their ignorance.

Belgian infantry and cavalry attempted to cut off the retreating German Landwehr but failed to do so at Buggenhout.

German South West African troops defeated troops of the Union of South Africa at the Battle of Sandfontein in Namibia.

Last edition:

Friday, September 25, 1914. Battle of Buggenhout.

Labels: 1910s, 1914, Antwerp Belgium, Battle of Buggenhout, Belgian Army, Cameroon, French Army, German Empire, Oregon, Rodeo, Sports

Tuesday, September 15, 1914. Wilson: Vámonos. Beyers: Ek het opgehou.

President Wilson ordered American forces out of Veracruz.

The pro German Boer Maritz rebellion started in South Africa when Commandant General of the Union Defence Force Christian Frederic Beyers resigned from his commission in protest of the South African government's decision to provide military support to the British Empire.

Beyers, along with General Koos de la Rey then traveled to the armory at Potchefstroom to meet with commanding officer Major Jan Kemp. De la Rey was killed by police fire on the way.

Allied forces in France commenced digging trenches, the first ones dug in the Great War.

Gertie, the Wonderfully Trained Dinosaur, premiered.

Unlike the advertisements, it was in black and white.

Last edition:  

Sunday, September 13, 1914. Improved Allied Positions In The West.

Labels: 1910s, 1914, Antwerp Belgium, Battle of the Frontiers, Canadian Arctic Expedition, First Battle of the Aisne, First Battle of the Masurian Lakes, Germany, Ireland, World War One