Monday, July 14, 1941. Bastille Day and the Armistice of Saint Jean d'Acre

On this day in 1941 French forces in Lebanon and Syria officially ended hostilities with the British Commonwealth in what is known as the Armistice of Saint Jean d'Acre.  

It was Bastille Day.

The day was marked in British Palestine at a hospital for Free French troops.

That day had been transformed into a sort of memorial day by the Vichy regime.  It remained on France's official calendar of holidays, but was altered from a celebration of the initiation of the French Revolution to one commemorating France's war dead.  This was part of an overall Vichy struggle with republican symbols and holidays that saw efforts to recast many such things, where they were not discarded.

Hitler, if he took note of the day at all, obviously didn't celebrate it.  Rather, he was still pondering the imminent defeat of the Soviet Union, revised his directive of the previous day with a part "A", which read:

The Führer and Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces

Führer Headquarters, 14th July 1941. 13 draft copies

On the basis of my intentions for the future prosecution of the war, as stated in Directive 32, I issue the following general instructions concerning personnel and equipment :

1. General:

Our military mastery of the European continent after the overthrow of Russia will make it possible considerably to reduce the strength of the Army. Within the limits of this reduced Army, the relative strength of the armoured forces will be greatly increased.

The manning and equipment of the Navy will be limited to what is essential for the direct prosecution of the war against England and, should the occasion arise, against America.

The main effort of equipment will be devoted to the Air Force, which will be greatly strengthened.

2. Manpower:

The future strength of the Army will be laid down by me, after receiving proposals from Commander-in-Chief Army.

The Replacement Army will be reduced to conform with the diminished strength of the Army.

The Chief of the High Command of the Armed Forces will decide, in accordance with my directives, on the employment of the manpower which will become available for the Armed Forces as a whole and for the armaments industry.

The Class of 1922 will be called up at the latest possible date, and will be distributed by the High Command of the Armed Forces in accordance with the future tasks of the various branches of the Armed Forces.

3. Arms and Equipment:

(a) The Armed Forces as a whole.
The arming and equipment of troops will be reduced to the requirements of the situation in the field, without reference to existing establishment scales.

All formations not intended for actual combat (security, guard, construction, and similar units) will be armed basically with captured weapons and second line equipment.

All requests for 'general Armed Forces equipment' will be immediately reduced or rejected in relation to available supplies, need, and wear and tear. Continued manufacture of such weapons as can be proved to be necessary will be decided in agreement with the Minister for Armaments and Munitions.

Plant (buildings and machine tools) already in use will not be expanded unless it can be shown that existing equipment cannot be put to full use by the introduction of shift working.

Work on all such permanent buildings for industry and the Armed Forces as are intended for use in peace-time, rather than for the immediate prosecution of the war and for the production of arms, will be halted. Construction directly necessary for the conduct of the war and for armaments will remain subject to the regulations of the General Plenipotentiary for Building. Buildings erected by civilian contractors will be limited by him to such as are most essential to the war effort.

Contracts of all kinds which do not comply with these principles will be immediately withdrawn.

The manpower, raw materials, and plant released by these measures will be made available for the main tasks of equipment and placed, as soon as possible, at the disposal of the Minister of Armaments and Munitions for use elsewhere.

(b) Army:
The extension of arms and equipment and the production of new weapons, munitions, and equipment will be related, with immediate effect, to the smaller forces which are contemplated for the future. Where orders have been placed for more than six months ahead all contracts beyond that period will be cancelled. Current deliveries will only continue if their immediate cancellation would be uneconomic.

The following are exceptions to these limitations:

The tank programme for the motorised forces (which are to be considerably reinforced) including the provision of special weapons and tanks of the heaviest type.

The new programme for heavy anti-tank guns, including their tractors and ammunition.

The programme for additional equipment for expeditionary forces, which will include four further armoured divisions for employment in the tropics, drawn from the overall strength of the armoured forces.

Preparations for the manufacture of equipment unrelated to these programmes will be halted.

The Army's programme for anti-aircraft guns is to be co-ordinated with that of the Air Force, and represents a single unified scheme from the manufacturing point of view. All available plant will be fully employed in order to achieve the delivery targets which I have laid down.

(c) Navy:
The Navy will continue its submarine programme. Construction will be limited to what is directly connected with this programme. Expansion of the armaments programme over and above this is to be stopped.

(d) Air Force:

The overall armaments program will concentrate on carrying out the expanded 'Air Armaments program' which I have approved. Its realization up to the spring of 1942 is of decisive importance for the whole war effort. For this purpose all available manpower from the Armed Forces and industry will be employed. The allocation of aluminum to the Air Force will be increased as far as possible.

The speed of the programme, and the extent to which it can be fulfilled, will be linked to the increased production of light metals and mineral oil.

4. The programme for powder and explosives will concentrate upon the requirements of the Air Force (bombs and anti-aircraft ammunition) at the expense of the requirements of the Army. Buildings will be restricted to the barest essentials and confined to the simplest type of construction.

Production of explosives will be limited to the existing basis.

5. It is particularly important to ensure supplies of raw materials and mineral oil. Coal production and the extension of the light metal, artificial rubber, substitute materials, and liquid fuel industries will be supported by the Armed Forces in every way, particularly by the release of miners and specialist workers. The construction of the necessary plans for the extended air armaments industry will be developed simultaneously.

6. The allocation of manpower, raw materials, and plant will be made in accordance with these principles.

7. The Chief of the High Command of the Armed Forces will issue the necessary orders for the Armed Forces, and the Minister for Armaments and Munitions for his sector, in mutual agreement.

signed: ADOLF HITLER

These directives are interesting not only in that he thought he'd won the war, by this time, against the Soviet Union, but that in he thought it would still require some prosecution against the British, and perhaps the United States, about which he didn't seem overly concerned.  That war, in his mind, was going to be primarily an air and naval war, and his decisions to start shrinking the German army as soon as possible reflected that.

In New York some kids were still acting normal.

Vladeck Houses, Madison St., New York City.   This was a housing project.

Saturday July 12, 1941. The Vichy end in Syria and Lebanon, the USSR and UK come to an agreement.

The Battle of Beirut brought to an end the British Commonwealth Syria-Lebanon campaign with a successful Commonwealth outcome.  An armistace between the Vichy French and the British Commonwealth would be signed that day.

An interesting overall feature of this campaign is that it never resulted in a declaration of war by Vichy France.  The fighting was outright, of course, but the French held back on formally entering the war in spite of it.

The Soviet Union and the United Kingdom signed an agreement that they would render each other assitance and that neigther would negotiate a seperate peace.

Tuesday, July 1, 1941. The dawn of the Television commercial.

On this date in history, the first television commercial ran, which you can now watch above.

It was an interesting day in the history of television overall:

Today in World War II History—July 1, 1941

On this day in 1941 a Federal photographer was photographing defense housing in Marrimack Park, Virginia.  You can tell which photographer it is by the fact that one of them consistently could never fully focus his camera.  Perhaps it was his equipment, but the photos are always out of focus.

Defense housing. Merrimack Park, Norfolk, Virginia. This project to house married enlisted personnel of the Norfolk naval base has 500 units which include single-story detached dwellings, two family houses, two-story group houses and apartments. Built at a cost of $1,980,000 by the US

Defense housing. Merrimack Park, Norfolk, Virginia.   Enlisted housing.

On the same day, the British took took the Syrian location of Palmyra.

British troops in Palmyra.

The battle featured mechanized British cavalry, and the Arab Legion, which would become famous post war in regard to the early Arab Israeli conflicts.  The location was inhabited since vastly ancient times, but was abandoned in 1932.

A press photographer photographed a convalescent home for British officers.  One of the photos appears here:

Lady MacMichael, at the Knights of St. John's Br. Red Cross, convalescent house for officers.

The Germans and Finns were also advancing, in the northernmost front of the war.  They jointly commenced Operation Arctic Fox, which aimed to capture Murmansk.  The operation would run until November, and fall short of its goal.

That failure was significant, as was the Finnish participation in the effort to seize the port.  The seizure would have choked off Allied supplies from that port, one of the most significant routes to the Red Army by sea.

The Vichy French government froze Soviet assets in France.

The Germans killed a small number of Polish academics and their families in Lwow, a targeted strike against the Polish intellectual community.  The death tole was 25, small in comparison to the number of people being executed elsewhere, but its still significant nonetheless.

Saturday, June 21, 1941. Revealing open secrets

On this day in 1941 mine layers of the German navy, the Kreigsmarine, deployed from Finland's Archipelago  Sea and deployed to large marine minefields across the Gulf of Finland, followed by the Luftwaffe mining Leningrad's harbor that night. 

While German troops would not commence operations until 0300 the following morning, Operation Barbarossa was effectively on, although Finland itself would not commence offensive operations until July, and after the Soviets had conducted air operations against Finnish targets.

Finnish troops in July 1941.

Earlier in the day in 1941 Hitler informed Mussolini that Germany would invade the Soviet Union the following day, although he claimed that the decision would be held until 7:00 p.m. Berlin time.  In doing so, he stated:

I earnestly beg you, therefore, to refrain, above all, from making any explanation to your Ambassador at Moscow, for there is no absolute guarantee that our coded reports cannot be decoded. I, too, shall wait until the last moment to have my own Ambassador informed of the decisions reached

Mussolini seems to have already known somehow, probably due to Italian intelligence and certainly on troop movements, that a German invasion of the Soviet Union was immanent.  None the less, one can only image what he must have felt knowing that his only solid ally was about to commit to an invasion that, historically, had a bad chance of working out.

Italy would also sustain a loss of its consulates in the US, a reprisal for it joining Germany in closing its, which was in reaction to the US closing of German consulates.

On the same day, the Vichy forces were defeated at Damascus.  Vichy, however, also limited its Jewish university population to 3% of the overall total.

Churchill relieved Wavell and replaced him with Auchinleck.  Wavell went to India, replacing Auchinleck there.

Thursday June 19, 1941. Blackout

U.S. Tank in training accident in Tennessee, June 19, 1941.  The US was engaged in full scale training in anticipation of war at this time.

Germany and Italy retaliated for the closure of German and Italian consulates in the US by closing US consulates in the two countries, something no doubt expected.  We learned of that here:

Today in World War II History—June 19, 1941

As you can also see from that item, the Soviet Union, realizing that things were looking ominous along its long border with the Axis, ordered a nighttime blackout on the border and camouflaged its airfields.

The Battle of Merdjayoun commenced in southern Lebanon, pitting British Commonwealth forces against Vichy French and Colonial Lebanese forces.

Australian artillery during the Battle of Merjayoun.

Wednesday June 18, 1941. The Middle East

 The Battle of Damascus began on this day in 1941.

Free French Circassian cavalry in Damascus.

The battle pitted Allied forces, lead by Indian troops on the ground, but including various Commonwealth countries and Free French forces against Vichy French and colonial Syrian troops.

The battle ran until June 21 and resulted in the surrender of the Vichy French administration to the Allies, thereby closing an Axis rear door in North Africa.

Germany and Turkey signed a treaty of friendship.

The treaty closed the door to the possibility, in German minds, of the Allies wooing Turkey, which was unlikely in the first place. Turkey, for its part, was on a dedicated path of neutrality.

The treaty would benefit both Germany and Turkey, with the Turks benefitting in some unexpected ways.  The Germans received a guaranteed supply of chromite from turkey through the treaty, putting the Turks basically in the same position as the Swedes in buying neutrality through raw materials, although in both instances the countries would have been a handful for the Germans to attack if they'd thought it necessary.  Indeed, in Turkey's situation the country was far more valuable to Nazi Germany as a neutral than as a combatant, as that closed the door to the British to the south who, as can be seen from the above, were defeating the Vichy French in Syria and who had already defeated an attempt at fascism in Iraq.  Unbeknownst to the Turks, the treat also shortened German lines, already pretty stretched, for Operation Barbarossa, which was just about to commence.

The Turks received cash, for chromite, but they also received a large guaranteed supply of arms which, in the dangerous world in which they were living, were something they very much needed.  Germany actually took advantage of this provision to supply the Turks with a large supply of unfinished Polish arms, which were of very high quality.  Polish small arms were partially based on German designs and the Germans themselves had put them to use in their own armed forces, but Poland had used "small ring" Mausers rather than the "large ring" ones used by the Germans which made finishing them off unattractive to the Germans.  This was not the case for the Turks.

The treaty did not preclude other nations, including belligerents, from trading with Turkey and the treaty would inspire a chromite buying effort on the part of the Allies.

The treaty's term was ten years, but the Turks would terminate the agreement in 1944, seeing which way the war was going, and they declared war on Germany on February 23, 1945.  Their declaration did not mean that they contributed troops in the final months of the war but can be seen as a means of attempting to protect themselves against a potential Soviet incursion into their territory.

Joe Louis knocked out Billy Conn in a heavyweight boxing match.

Monday, June 16, 1921. German consulates closed, Iceland occupied, Yeomanry patrol, Washington National opened.

The United States ordered all German consulates closed by July 10, 1941, along with all German news and propaganda organs.  The order did not apply to its embassy.

Today in World War II History—June 16, 1941

The US was clearly walking closer and closer to entry into the war.

In another example of that, the US commenced occupying Iceland, a Danish possession at that time (it'd declare independence in 1944).  This ends up being contrary to an earlier entry here, but this is likely the correct date for the commencement of the U.S. occupation of Iceland.  

This was done by way of a request from the United Kingdom which had been occupying the country, much to its discontent, both with its own troops as well as with Canadian ones.

Our earlier, and I believe mistake containing entry, stated the following:

4,000 Marines, a substantial number, arrived in Iceland to replace British troops garrisoning the country.

USS New York off of Reykjavik, July 1941.

Iceland had not regarded the British invasion of their island, done to keep the Germans from seizing it, as a favor.  US forces were not invited either, but were better tolerated under the circumstances.

The occupation remains controversial in Iceland today.  It lead to Icelandic independence and had a predictable economic development aspect for the island.  It also lead to cultural connections, of all types, with a group of people who were highly self isolated and who remain so to a degree today.

In a much warmer place, the Cheshire Yeomanry, a British Army reservists unit mobilized for the war, was photographed on patrol in Syria.

Winston Church accepted an honorary degree from Rochester University in the US and delivered a speech directed at an American audience from London, by radio.

A significant American airport opened on this day in 41.

July 16, 1941. The Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport opened.

It was the Washington National Airport in 1941.

The airport opened, obviously, just before the United States' entry into the Second World War, it's 1941 opening partially explained by a prohibition in airport funding that was lifted in 1938.

Washington National in 1944.

It was built on grounds near Arlington that had been part of a large plantation, but its location very much constrains it size, so it remains a shockingly small airport in spite of its signficance.

It was renamed for President Ronald Reagan in 1998.  

I've personally never flown into it, having landed at the nearby Baltimore airport once.

Sunday June 15, 1941 Battle of Kissoué and Operation Battleaxe. The death of Evelyn Underhill.

 The Second World War became, for a time, a French civil war at the Battle of Kissoué where French "Free" forces fought "Vichy" forces in Syria. The Free French forces were part of an overall Allied force which flanked the Vichy forces and caused them to withdraw.

Fort Capuzzo.

On the same day the British launched Operation Battleaxe in North Africa which had the goal of relieving Tobruk. While it gained ground, and the British retook Ft. Capuzzo, it suffered disastrous armor losses and was an overall failure.  The results proved German superiority in the use of armor, and perhaps the superior nature of German armor itself, and lead to the British quietly sacking their command structure in Libya.

Also on this day Anglican writer  Evelyn Underhill died at age 65.  She is highly regarded in Anglican circles, having a place on the Church of England's and the US Episcopal Church's calendars on this day.  As an Anglican writer, she is regarded as being in the Anglo Catholic category.  

Anglo Catholicism was a strong movement within the Anglican Communion, particularly in England itself, in the second half of the 19th Century and emphasized the Anglican Communion's Catholic roots to the extent that it sought to emphasize that it shared Apostolic succession and, therefore, was a full Catholic church, somewhat sharing the status of the Orthodox Church, or perhaps even closure to Rome than that.  It ultimately resulted in a Vatican decree that its holy orders were "completely null and utterly void", which it has reacted to on more than one occasion by seeking ordinations from clearly valid Bishops in other denominations  The movement still exists within the Anglican Communion.

June 13, 1941. The Lutzow damaged, the Resistance receives supplies from the air, Vichy arrests Jewish residents

The Royal Air Force commenced dropping supplies to the French Resistance.

Today in World War II History—June 13, 1941

The Australians defeated the French in the Battle of Jezzine in Lebanon.  

On the same day, the French announced the commencement of a campaign to arrest 12,000 Jews for "plotting to hinder Franco-German cooperation".

In spite of a Luftwaffe escort, the RAF torpedoes and damages the German battleship Lutzow, which then returns to port.

The Lutzow torpedoed by Coastal Command

The Lutzow would return to service and end up being sort of emblematic of the German surface navy.  In 1943 she was involved in a failed effort to intercept a convoy off of Norway which so enraged Hitler that he ordered the surface navy broken up for scrap. That event lead Admiral Raeder to resign his position.  Raeder therefore missed the last two years of the war, but was convicted of war crimes in any event, serving prison time until 1955.

His successor, Karl Doenitz, convinced Hitler not to scrap the navy, and the Lutzow went on to serve for the remainder of the war, subsequently being damaged by the RAF in an air raid, and then her fate remained undetermined for years.  It turned out that the ship had been sunk as a target by the Soviets in 1947.

The name of the ship itself is interesting in that the ship had originally been named the Deutschland, after the nation whose service she was in, but Hitler had required the name to be changed.  The German navy had a cruiser by the name of Lutzow which was slightly newer than the Deutschland.  Indeed, the ship was incomplete when the Soviets asked to buy her in 1940 and she was, bizarrely, sold to the USSR.

Sunday, June 8, 1941. The British Commonwealth invades the French Empire

On this day in 1941, Commonwealth forces and Free French forces invaded French Syria.

Today in World War II History—June 8, 1941

Britain invades French occupied Syria

The campaign is remarkable for a variety of reasons, including the use of cavalry by both sides.  The action was made necessary by legitimate British fears that Vichy would allow the Germans to occupy Syria, a threat made credible, if only from the Allied prospective, by the airborne invasion of Crete which had just occurred and by Vichy allowing the Luftwaffe airport rights in Syria.  Indeed, the action had been proceeded by Royal Air Force strikes on French airfields and retaliatory French raids on British ones in Transjordan.

The campaign was short, but it was marked by notable French resistance to the Commonwealth invasion and a decline of an offer of German Luftwaffe assistance.  The action overall is one of several that cast some legitimate doubt on the common concept of all Frenchmen being pro Ally at the time.

Surprisingly, the action did not result in a Vichy declaration of war against the United Kingdom and in fact Vichy's forces in Syria fairly rapidly fell in spite of their stout resistance.  The British had battlefield superiority, but this required diversion of Commonwealth forces from Libya, where their loss was keenly felt.  The action also, however, saw the deployment of Free French forces in what might be regarded as a near civil war being fought, and really for the first time, in a French colony.

The Free French were given military administration of Syria and Lebanon following the Allied victory, something that more or less made it clear that the British at least were recognizing a rival claim to the governance of France.  That administration, in keeping with the spirt of the age, recognized the independence of Lebanon and Syria, with Lebanon achieving a real measure of independence that Syria did not.  Lebanon declared war on the Axis powers in 1943.

DeGaulle, who was effectively the head of the Free French state by the war's end, was not sympathetic to Syrian independence and as with Algeria, the end of the war brought on demands for immediate statehood. Demonstrations in Damascus turned violent in May, 1945 which resulted in French troops being deployed inside of Syria to quite the demonstrations.  This didn't work and the British intervened with their troops having authorization to fire on the French if necessary, which it did not turn out to be, one of two instances of the British intervening in favor of a post war independence movement against a European colonial power (the other being in the Dutch East Indies).  This ended with the French leaving and the British briefly staying, until they were able to withdraw.

May 28, 1941. The ebb and flow of war.

The 9th Cavalry at Camp Funston, Kansas.  May 28, 1941.  Camp Funston is adjacent to Ft. Riley, and had been a major training base during World War One.  It had been reopened, as a tent city at this time, for training in the run up to World War Two.  The 9th Cavalry was one of two cavalry regiments in the U.S. Army whose enlisted men were all African Americans, the service still being segregated at this time.

The day after the successful Royal Navy sinking of the Bismarck, the news was less encouraging.

On this day in 1941, the British commenced evacuating Crete.  The British also lost the HMS Mashona off the coast of Galway in a Luftwaffe bomber attack.  The destroyer was a very new British vessel, having only entered service in 1939.

HMS Mashona.

French representatives signed the Paris Protocols allowing the Germans certain rights, including the right to cross Syria, in exchange for French prisoners of war being repatriated.  The agreement was never ratified by the French government.

 

May 14, 1941. Descent

On this day in 1941, 3,700 foreign Jews were rounded up by the Germans in France to be sent to internment camps in France.

By this point in the war Germany was acting in a full scale genocidal way against the Poles.  It was, moreover, openly oppressing the Jews everywhere it occupied territory.  It had already engaged in, and failed in, a terror campaign against British cities.  It's descent into evil was very far gone already, and getting worse.

This should have been, and frankly likely was, obvious to the Germans themselves.

It was definitely obvious to others.

One of those people was Maurice Bavaud, a Swiss Catholic theology student, who was executed in Germany on this day in 1941 for attempting to assassinate Adolph Hitler in November, 1938.

Bavaud had been studying theology in France when he fell under the influence of an anti communist figure who claimed to be a Romanov who asserted that family would be restored to the Russian thrown following a communist downfall. While it's exceedingly complicated, the belief was that assassinating Hitler would somehow bring this about and, further, Bavaud rightly judged Hitler an enemy of faith in Germany.  He planned to shoot Hitler as the annual gathering of those who had participated in the Beer Hall Putsch but a combination of bad planning and events frustrated his plan and he was ultimately arrested.  He confessed to his intent as a captive.

Bavaud's unilateral attempt on Hitler's life was far fetched and lacked funding, a fact which in part ended up in his having to abandon the effort after a selection of failed planned rendezvous with Hitler failed.  Indeed, Bavaud's actions were so flighty that it isn't too much to ponder the degree to which he was an unstable thinker, and certainly believing that assassinating Hitler would do anything for the Romanovs as nonsense.  But that somewhat clouds the often forgotten fact that the July 20, 1944 plot was far from the only serious attempt on Hitler's life.  Indeed, the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand in 1914 was equally whacky and it succeeded.

Hitler was in fact the target of forty-three attempts on his life, the first coming in 1932 and the last one in July, 1944.  Some were one off attempts, like that of Bavaud's, but others were well thought out plots by organized men, including more than one by members of the German military.  Two known plots were carried out by unidentified individuals, one by poisoning in 1932 and a second by a man dressed in a SS uniform in 1937.  The simplest plot was by a German general who simply individually planned on shooting him when he came to inspect his troops, although he ended up retiring prior to the opportunity presenting itself.  And these are all plots that are known about.  It's almost certainly the case that there were individual plotters whose intents were never revealed.

The fact that so many plots were attempted and failed actually ended up contributing to Hitler's aura with the convinced.  He seemed protected in their minds.

On this day the British evacuated Greek gold reserves from Crete, well aware that the Germans would be hitting the island soon.

After spotting German aircraft at a Syrian airfield during an overflight, the British government issued authority to the RAF to strike airfields in Syria, a French League of Nations mandate, which was done all on this day.  This was a strike against the territory of a neutral nation, France, but it wasn't the first time the British had hit the French following their 1940 surrender to the Germans.  The fact that France as allowing German use of Syrian airfields was itself a violation of French neutrality in any event.

May 11, 1941. Things airborne

On this day in 1941 France brokered a deal with Germany for the release of POWs who were World War One veterans, save for professional soldiers, in exchange for German use of Syrian airfields in the German effort to aid Iraq.

Martin 167F bomber at Aleppo after being captured by the British.

Many of those French soldiers would only have been in their late 30s and 40s, well within military age, but not young men either.

German aircraft flew in Iraq for the first time on this day as well, although the Iraqis were already losing ground.

Hitler received the news that his second in the Nazi Party, Rudolph Hess had flown to the United Kingdom.  It came in the form of a letter from Hess.  Hitler was shocked.

The Blitz, as we noted yesterday, was over.

May 6, 1941. Firsts

Joseph Stalin became the premier of the Soviet Union, replacing Molotov.  Molotov went into second position.

1937 portrait of Stalin.

Not that it would matter, as Stalin was the head of the party, which made him the defacto head of state.

Stalin would form his first government, which would last until 1946, the following day.

Liberty Aircraft plant, Long Island, New York.  May 6, 1941.  I'm unfamiliar with this company, but it apparently lasted until 1987.

Serbs staged a rebellion in Sanski Most against the fascist government of Serbia installed by the Nazis.

The Luftwaffe commenced two nights of bombing on Greenrock, Scotland.

Today was the first flight of the XP47, which would become the legendary P47 fighter.  The plane had been developed in a mere eight months.

The P47 provides a good example of the extraordinary rapid development of aircraft in this period. At the time, the P40 was the USAAC's most significant fighter.  The P47 was different from it in every fashion, including its massive size which accommodated a massive engine.

On the same day, Igor Sikorsky set a new record for helicopter flight endurance, which still wasn't long.

Bob Hope performed his first stand up performance for troops.  He would, of course, famously do this at least throughout the Vietnam War.

Hope is either an acquired taste or one of those acts that's best set in the context of their original times.  I can recall seeing televised performances from the Vietnam War, and they're just not funny.

Vichy France reached an agreement with Germany to provide material support to the Iraqi rebels, although the government never ratified it.  It did allow the Germans to use airbases in Syria to support the Iraqi insurgency, which they would make use of.

April 1, 1941 The Golden Circle Iraqi Coup

A pro Nazi coup by Iraqi officers who were seeking full, rather than the then partial, independence from the UK took place.  The plotters were in contact with the Germans and had calculated that World War Two could bring this about.  Instead, it brought about a direct British intervention that made short work of the coup.

German HE 111 with Iraq and German markings. Axis powers supplying aircraft to the Iraqi insurrectionist were reflagged in Iraqi colors.

The Germans and Italians did attempt to aid the insurrectionist by supplying aircraft. Vichy France allowed the use of its airfields in Syria, which would bring about the British intervention in Syria terminating their rule.

The plotters, termed the "Golden Circle" had formed in the 1930s and had been working towards this goal since that time.  Supported by the German ambassador in Iraq, their goal was to overthrow the British supported monarchy, end British influence in the country, and form a fascist state.

While the coup was a catastrophic failure for those participating in it, it's worth noting that in some ways it echoes to this day.  Fascism was proving to be popular in Middle Eastern quarters and it would reemerge as the Baath Party, a pan Arab fascist movement which still rules Syria and which did rule Iraq under Saddam Hussein.

More on that, and the ongoing British advance in the desert, can be read about here:

Today in World War II History—April 1, 1941

The Germans, it should be noted, would find their air intervention in Iraq ineffective and Vichy's decision to allow the Germans and Italians to use their airfields would end, forever, French rule in Syria.  Syrian airfields were already under attack by the UK at the time, so France's decision was not as bold as it might seem, given the circumstances.  Nonetheless France was entering the quasi belligerent stage.

British Commonwealth forces took the capitol of Eritrea on this day.

The Germans did seem to be reversing Axis fortunes in North Africa, however.

Workers at Ford Motors went on strike.

New York hit 60F for the first time that year, the fifth latest such date since records started to be kept, at that time, and now the seventh.

September 1, 1920. Lebanon, Submarines, and Chicago.

The flag of Greater Lebanon featuring the Lebanese cedar and the French tricolor.

 

On this day in 1920, Greater Lebanon came into existence as a French administrative unit.

Syria had attempted to define Lebanon as an administrative Syrian unit in its short lived state that was brought to an end by France in 1920.  It's origins went back to the 1860s when European powers entered into a series of treaties with the Ottoman Empire in an effort to protect the Christian population of the region which has been subject to religious violence.  The boundaries of the state were larger than those originally regarded as Lebanese and were based upon the map featured here yesterday. The expanded boundaries were created in order to attempt to give the region, which was anticipated as having statehood in the future, a large enough territory to have some sort of economic base.

The League of Nations would approve the creation of the entity in 1923 and it was declared to be the Republic of Lebanon in 1926 while still under French administration.  It's status became a matter of contest during World War Two when the French Vichy administration allowed the Germans to transport arms through Syria to be used against British forces in the Middle East.  Free French General Charles de Gaulle declared it to be independent in 1941, under pressure from the Allies to do so, in a move that would have been legally questionable.  

On November 8, 1943 Lebanon held elections for an independent government and declared the League of Nations mandate over it to be terminated, which brought immediate Free French reaction in the form of arresting the government.  However, on November 22, 1943 they were released under Allied pressure. The French left in December 1946, at which point both Syria and Lebanon had been admitted as founding members of the United Nations.  No formal end of the mandate was ever declared.

Flag of Lebanon.

Lebanon has always had a troubled existence and its independence has not changed that.  Regarded as a bright spot in the Middle East in the immediate post war world, regional violence has made the tiny state highly unstable and its religiously and ethnically diverse population have not always gotten along well since that time, with civil war dominating the 1970s and 1980s.  Created as a state that was specifically to be a home for Maronite Arab Christians, members of the Catholic church whose branch dates back to Christianity's early days, demographic changes in the country, including a high immigration rate to the West (although Lebanese also have the highest return from immigration rate in the world) and an influx of Shia's have made the original political informal balance unstable.  

This is a story that has a tangential impact on me, as one of my late uncle's was half Lebanese and half Irish by descent.  His mother was Lebanese although I've lost track of whether she was born in Lebanon (I think she was) or the United States.  Her parents had brought the entire family over when she was young.  She had met and married her husband in Nebraska, but in latter years the extended family had a significant presence in Casper Wyoming where there was a small Lebanese immigrant community.  

This reminds me that many of the divides that are commonly assumed to exist in the U.S. really don't in the way they're sometimes understood to.  In Catholic communities the mixing of people of highly diverse ethnicity is frankly common.

France, for its part, which has taken an interest in the region dating back to the Middle Ages continues to do so today.

On the same day the USS S-5, an American submarine, sank accidentally when a crewman failed to close a value, and in attempting to rectify the mistake, jammed it open.  No lives were lost.  It was refloated, but sank again on September 3 while under tow.

Sonar image of the S-5 today.

The S-5 was just going into service when the accident occured.  She was an S Class submarine, which was a new type adopted during World War One but which came too late for any of the class to see service during the war.  A fair number of them remained in service when World War Two broke out and saw service, in spite of being dated, in both the U.S. Navy and the Royal Navy.  Thirteen of the boats served all the way through the war for the U.S. Navy, with all but one decommissioned in October, 1945. The last remaining one in service was decommissioned a year later.

A killing in Chicago was attributed, by the killer, to widespread firearms carrying in Wyoming.

The details, at least as known at the time, were that wealthy real estate broker Gerald Stack was visiting Chicago when he pulled a pistol to use it to pistol whip a man, a discharged marine, who had insulted a woman in the bar.  A tussle resulted and Stack claimed that the gun discharged several times, killing the other party.

Questions were raised about why Stack was packing heat, and he attributed that to the custom in Wyoming.

A question can actually be raised to the extent to which Stack's statement was accurate, and it would take somebody with more time to really find out. Certainly, firearms weren't uncommon in Wyoming and in 1920 it would still have been probable that many people in rural areas went about armed, and indeed, that's still the case.  Indeed Wyoming train robber Bill Carlisle attributed part of his reason for moving to Wyoming to the fact that firearms were common and therefore you could always hunt for food if you were out of work, a statement that was apparently untrue as he took up train robbery.

Carrying firearms in town, however, wasn't universal anywhere in the West as so often believed and had actually been illegal in some Wyoming towns in the late 19th Century, although I don't know the status of that in 1920. Certainly one other murder earlier in 1920 which we've also featured here also featured a girl and a bar, showed the parties to have ready access to firearms.  

An interesting aspect of both of these stories is the alcohol aspect of them.  By this time, alcohol had been illegal for awhile, and yet it was clearly showing up.  That fact is often oddly overlooked in the story of American violence, which has dramatically declined in recent years.  When it occurs, it tends to occur between people who know each other and when they don't know each other, it's like automobile accidents. . . booze or drugs show up.  Nobody seems to ever really ponder the latter.

Carrying a handgun in Chicago in 1920 doesn't strike me as a bad idea, given that the town has been notoriously violent since its earliest days and still is. Some would argue that carrying in Chicago today would be a good idea, and should be more widely allowed than it is.

It's also interesting how often the age old mix of men and women and a contest between men over women show up at any time as the roots source of such events.

Dreams of Past Glory

Last week I published an item here that showed a new map for Greece, published in 1920, which depicted the portions of Anatolia it believed it had separated from Turkey.  Cultural Greeks did live in those places, but they went far beyond those areas where Greeks were the majority.

And Greek troops went far beyond those places.

Italians took a set of islands off Anatolia as well.

Italy had already taken territory from the Ottomans by that time. More specifically, they'd taken Libya in 1912 as a result of the Italo-Turkish War.  Italians, in the form of Romans, had governed Libya at one time, but hadn't since the collapse of the Roman Empire.*  If a person wished to be more generous, Greco Roman culture hadn't governed there since the Byzantine Empire had been pushed out in 647, although at least one Christian city remained as late as the 1400s at the absolute latest.

Basically, both powers were asserting claims to territory they hadn't actually governed since 1453.

Yesterday we looked at the French conquest of Syria.  The French had been very influential in Syria. . . up until the 1190s.  At least that claim was there, however, which it really wasn't for Algeria which the French started colonizing in 1830.

What the heck, however.


*Italian immigrants would ultimately make up 20% of the Libyan population.

July 25, 1920. Saladin, nous voici

Syrian volunteers uniformed and equipped in the fashion of the former Ottoman Army, 1920

On this day in 1920 the French, largely using native troops drawn from North Africa, officially entered Damascus and put an end to the Emir Feisal's independent Syrian government.  The French commander, Mariano Goybet, made the unfortunate reference to the Crusades on the occasion at the Umayyad Mosque when he declared, "Saladin, nous voici", which translates (at bit roughly), to "Saladin, we're back", or "Saladin, we're here."

Probably more fortunately most of the people in Damascus didn't speak French, but nonetheless the sentiment expressed the really aggressive and arrogant position taken by France in regard to Syria, which had only lately been freed from Ottoman rule by the Arab Army and the British Commonwealth during World War One.  The Arab Army's late war goal had been the occupation of Damascus.

Syria was then, as it is now, a multicultural nation which featured a variety of ethnicities and which retained a significant Christian population.  The reference to Saladin recalled the defeat of Christian forces at the hands of Saladin at the end of the Crusader era in the 1170s through 1190s.  France had at that time been heavily invested in the region and, in spite of the passage of centuries, that had not been forgotten by the French who regarded Syria as a special charge even if the Syrians did not want them back.

Feisal would flea to British protection and was given Iraq as a consolation prize, a kingdom that ultimately cost him his life.

Syria would remain a French mandate until 1946, with French rule being unpopular.  A long running revolt broke out in 1926 which ultimately lead to an effort to create an independent state by the French in 1936, but the French government did not ratify it.  The British supported Syrian independence following World War Two and a Syrian government formed during the mandate period took it into independence.   

Following Syrian governments have proven themselves to be unstable since that time, with coups taking place within a few years of independence.  The Ba'ath Party, an Arab nationalist fascist party, has been in power since 1961, but obviously its rule is far from unchallenged.

Syrian soldier in 2012.

What would have occurred had the French simply acquiesced to a Hashamite kingdom in 1920 remains a great historical, "what if".

April 25, 1920. Settlements that didn't settle.

Attendees at the San Remo Conference on this date in 1920.  Matsui, Lloyd George, Curzon, Berthelot, Millerand, Scialoja and Nitti.

This was the last day of the San Remo Conference in which the victors of the Great War, absent the United States, met to determine the fate of various territories left in their hands or at least believed to be left in their hands.  On this day, the issued the San Remo Resoution, which stated,

It was agreed –

(a) To accept the terms of the Mandates Article as given below with reference to Palestine, on the understanding that there was inserted in the proces-verbal an undertaking by the Mandatory Power that this would not involve the surrender of the rights hitherto enjoyed by the non-Jewish communities in Palestine; this undertaking not to refer to the question of the religious protectorate of France, which had been settled earlier in the previous afternoon by the undertaking given by the French Government that they recognized this protectorate as being at an end.

(b) that the terms of the Mandates Article should be as follows:

The High Contracting Parties agree that Syria and Mesopotamia shall, in accordance with the fourth paragraph of Article 22, Part I (Covenant of the League of Nations), be provisionally recognized as independent States, subject to the rendering of administrative advice and assistance by a mandatory until such time as they are able to stand alone. The boundaries of the said States will be determined, and the selection of the Mandatories made, by the Principal Allied Powers.

The High Contracting Parties agree to entrust, by application of the provisions of Article 22, the administration of Palestine, within such boundaries as may be determined by the Principal Allied Powers, to a Mandatory, to be selected by the said Powers. The Mandatory will be responsible for putting into effect the declaration originally made on November 8, 1917, by the British Government, and adopted by the other Allied Powers, in favour of the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people, it being clearly understood that nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine, or the rights and political status enjoyed by Jews in any other country.

La Puissance mandataire s’engage a nommer dans le plus bref delai une Commission speciale pour etudier toute question et toute reclamation concernant les differentes communautes religieuses et en etablir le reglement. Il sera tenu compte dans la composition de cette Commission des interets religieux en jeu. Le President de la Commission sera nomme par le Conseil de la Societe des Nations.

The terms of the mandates in respect of the above territories will be formulated by the Principal Allied Powers and submitted to the Council of the League of Nations for approval.

Turkey hereby undertakes, in accordance with the provisions of Article [132 of the Treaty of Sevres] to accept any decisions which may be taken in this connection.

(c) Les mandataires choisis par les principales Puissances allies sont: la France pour la Syrie, et la Grand Bretagne pour la Mesopotamie, et la Palestine.

In reference to the above decision the Supreme Council took note of the following reservation of the Italian Delegation:

La Delegation Italienne en consideration des grands interets economiques que l’Italie en tant que puissance exclusivement mediterraneenne possede en Asie Mineure, reserve son approbation a la presente resolution, jusqu’au reglement des interets italiens en Turquie d’Asia.

As noted, above, the Italian delegation reserved its assent given that the conference hadn't reached a resolution on its interests in Asia Minor.

The results of the conference were momentous and continue to play out today  The British took Palestine as a mandate and the French Syria.  The borders of these mandates were not determined.  The Turkish delegation purported to accept the decisions made at the conference.  The conference also, although not reflected in this resolution, accepted the independence of Armenia and set the monetary amount of annual German reparation payments.

While the US was not there, it continued to exhibit an influence, as the conference also accepted Wilson's proposal on Fiume, even if the Italians really didn't.

As the Cheyenne paper made plain, scandals that are more commonly associated with later eras in fact occurred in earlier ones. And Texas said no to Carranza.

In just a few short months the French would sustain a military defeat against insurgent Syrians and the British would accordingly rush to draw the borders of Transjordan, which is Jordan today, out of concern that the rebellion would spill into territory it was administering. That would set the borders for Palestine.  An insurgency already underway in Turkey would cause the decisions of any Turkish delegation to be questionable, but it did not act in any fashion to attempt to assert any claim to Mesopotamia (Iraq), or its former colonies to the south.  It would not accept, however, the independence of Armenia, which the conference had separately recognized, or the Greek role in Anatolia, which had been assured by the conference.  And Carranza's bid to control who became his successor was turning disastrous for him.

World War One's results were playing out in a different fashion at the Battle of Koziatyn, Ukraine in which a Polish cavalry division penetrated deep behind the Soviet lines.  Over two days it would envelop Soviet forces and destroy two Red Army divisions.

Elsewhere movies with rural settings were being released, both dramatic and comedic.

March 8, 1920. Villa back in the headlines, Syria declares a putative state, Allies and Turks clash, Motoring hazards.

Pancho Villa was back in the headlines on this day in 1920, seemingly back to his old habits.

And the unfinished results of World War One were in the headlines in regard to Turkey, whose new government was fighting the Allied powers that were in the country and seeking to redraw its map.

Part of that map had already been redrawn as imperial possessions of the Ottoman Empire were severed from it. What would become of them wasn't quite known at the time, but the Syrian National Congress thought it knew what should happen to that part which was Syrian.  On this day in 1920 it declared Syria to be an independent Arab kingdom with Hashemite Emir Faisal, famous for his role in the Arab Revolt during the Great War as its king.

King Faisal I of Syria.

Syria had been regarded as the prize by Arab revolutionaries during World War One and Faisal's ascendency of its thrown was therefore a personal ascendency as well.  It would be instantly challenged by France, which felt itself to have a special role in Syria dating back to the Middle Ages.   This was known to the  Syrians at the time, and indeed Faisal had already entered into an agreement with France which more or less made Syria a French protectorate. That agreement was massively disliked in Syria and was renounced by Faisal prior to his being declared the king.  The declaration of independence would shortly lead to the San Remo Conference which would decide Syria's statuts, at least for the short term, as well as the status of Faisal's claim to a Syrian throne.

Also in the Middle East on this day, there were protests in Jerusalem.  

Protests at the Damascus Gate in Jerusalem.

The protests would keep on and would soon turn violent.  Their focus was opposition to Jewish immigration into Palestine but the motivation for protests on this day and the day prior were sparked by the Syrian National Congress declaring the existence of the Syrian state, which claimed British controlled lands within its boundaries.

On a lighter note, Gasoline Alley pondered one of the hazards of the motor age.

I was actually in a motor vehicle accident in the late 1980s when a kid doing something just such as this rear ended my 1954 Chevrolet sedan.