Friday, January 7, 1944. Lou Henry Hoover passes away.

Lou Henry Hoover, wife of Herbert Hoover, died at age 69 of a heart attack while here and her husband were visiting New York.  Herbert returned to their hotel room to find her dead.

Like her husband, she was a geologist, being the first woman to receive a geology degree from Stanford.  Indeed, they had met while university students.

Herbert Hoover would live another 20 years as a widower.

The Red Army took Klesov in Poland. The area is now in Ukraine. The region had been predominately Jewish before the war.  Survivors of the Holocaust from nearby Rovno were deported to Poland after the Soviet Union redrew the borders after World War Two.

The 5th Army took San Vittore del Lazio, Monte Chiaia and Monte Porchia on the Bernhardt Line.

From Sarah Sundin's blog:

Today in World War II History—January 7, 1944: 80 Years Ago—Jan. 7, 1944: In Second Arakan Campaign in Burma, RAF & US Tenth Air Force begin air supply to isolated West African troops.

The French Resistance sabotaged the electrical supply to the Arsenal National at Tulle in the first instance of such an attack. Many more were to follow.

"Interested natives look on as armorers place 50 cal. machine guns in the nose of a North American B-25G, Mullinnix Airfield, Tarawa, Gilbert Islands. 7 January 1944. (NARA)"

A British Mosquito is shot down with its Oboe navigational aid intact, allowing the Germans to develop countermeasures.

The United States Army Air Force announced the production of the Bell P-59 Airacomet.  The first US jet fighter aircraft, it would prove to be a disappointment and provided no real advantage over existing piston engined aircraft.

January 7, 1944.

Wednesday, November 24, 1943. The sinking of the Liscome Bay.

USS Liscome Bay.

The USS Liscome Bay was torpedoed at 05:10 by the Japanese submarine I-175.  644 men were killed in the initial explosion or the rapid 23 minute sinking.  The aircraft carrier had been supporting the landings on Makin Island in the Gilberts.  The losses due to the attack far outstripped the US losses in the ground operation.

Burial at sea for two of the Liscome Bay's crew, as surviving crewmates look on.

Most of the naval task force supporting the landing had withdrawn, as the operation had successfully completed, but the Liscome Bay had remained in support of ongoing operations. Japanese submarines had been rushed to the area, withdrawn from other areas of the Pacific, in a near panic by the Japanese Navy, which had been caught off guard by the landings.  Included amongst those losses were the commander of the ship and Navy Cross winner Doris Miller.  It was the deadliest attack on an aircraft carrier in the history of the U.S. Navy.

The Liscome Bay's use at Makin demonstrates something that was to become common in the Pacific, it was being used as an operational carrier.  Indeed, it was the flagship of the operation, with the other two carriers also being escort carriers.

The shock of Tarawa and Makin was in part because the US had simply chosen to leap up into the Central Pacific without completing operations in the Southern Pacific.  Indeed, operations on Bougainville, where the Japanese mounted a small counter-attack on this day, never concluded.

In San Francisco, Leopold Stokowski conducted an all-Russian concert with the San Francisco Symphony.

Tuesday, November 23, 1943. Victory at Tarawa and Makin.

Unit patch of the 2nd Marine Division.  Only during World War Two did the Marine Corps ultimately adopt divisional patches.

The Battle of Tarawa concluded at 1:00 p.m., local time, after 77 hours of combat.  The Battle of Makin also concluded.

U.S. Army 27th Infantry Division unit patch.

FWIW, there are 138 miles between the two islands.

Tarawa would add to the status of the Marines that Guadalcanal had already conveyed. The fighting was horrific.  The public, however, was stunned by the level of US losses.

The Deutsche Opernhause in Berlin was destroyed in a British air raid, as was the Berlin Zoo, which resulted in the loss of most of its 4,000 animals. Over the week Berlin would further lose the German National Theatre, the National Gallery, the Invalidenstrasse Museum, the Hotel Bristol, the Charite Hospital, the City Hospital, the Schulstrasse Maternity Hospital, the Lichterfelde-East Rail Station, and the embassies of France, Sweden, Turkey, Iran and Slovakia.

Hitler witnessed a demonstration of the ME262.  Perhaps because of events like that described above, he ordered that the jet fighter be redesigned to carry bombs, thereby delaying production of the aircraft.

The extent to which people like to satirical claim that "Hitler was the best general the Allies had" has been overdone. Frankly, quite a few of his strategic and even tactical decisions during the war were correct over the opposition of his general.  By this point, however, he was starting to make really significant blunders, of which this was one.  Germany's task at this point, from the position of its airspace, was to defend it, which the ME262 would prove quite able at. The resulting delay was accordingly significant.

German forces landed on Samos in the Aegean.

Roosevelt, at the Cairo Conference, sent a message to Congress regarding the post-war return of servicemen.

Message to Congress on the Return of Service Personnel

to Civilian Life

November 23 , 1943

To the Congress:

All of us are concentrating now on the one primary objective of winning this war. But even as we devote our energy and resources to that purpose, we cannot neglect to plan for things to come after victory is won.

The problem of reconverting wartime America to a peacetime basis is one for which we are now laying plans to be submitted to the Congress for action. As I said last July:

"The returning soldier and sailor and marine are a part of the problem of demobilizing the rest of the millions of Americans who have been working and living in a war economy since 1941. . . . But the members of the armed forces have been compelled to make greater economic sacrifice and every other kind of sacrifice than the rest of us, and they are entitled to definite action to help take care of their special problems."

At that time I outlined what seemed to me to be a minimum of action to which the members of our armed forces are entitled over and above that taken for other citizens.

What our service men and women want, more than anything else, is the assurance of satisfactory employment upon their return to civil life. The first task after the war is to provide employment for them and for our demobilized war workers.

There were skeptics who said that our wartime production goals would never be attained. There will also be skeptics who will question our ability to make the necessary plans to meet the problems of unemployment and want after the war. But, I am confident that if industry and labor and Government tackle the problems of economic readjustment after the war with the same unity of purpose and with the same ingenuity, resourcefulness, and boldness that they have employed to such advantage in wartime production, they can solve them.

We must not lower our sights to prewar levels. The goal after the war should be the maximum utilization of our human and material resources. This is the way to rout the forces of insecurity and unemployment at home, as completely as we shall have defeated the forces of tyranny and oppression on the fields of battle.

There are, however, certain measures which merit the immediate attention of the Congress to round out the program already commenced for the special protection of the members of the armed forces.

The Congress has already enacted a generous program of benefits for service men and for the widows and dependents of those killed in action.

For example:

(1) Under the National Service Life Insurance Act, life insurance at low premium rates is now available to members of the armed forces in amounts not less than $1,000 and not more than $10,000 per person. A total of nearly $90,000,000,000 of insurance has already been applied for.

(2) In addition, provision has been made, under the Soldiers' and Sailors' Relief Act, for the guarantee by the Government of the payment of premiums on commercial policies held by members of the armed forces while in service. Premiums on insurance totaling $135,582,000 have been guaranteed, as a result of 56,276 applications by service men for such relief.

(3) The Congress has also enacted legislation making provision for the hospitalization and medical care of all veterans of the present war, and for the vocational rehabilitation and training of those suffering from disability incurred in, or aggravated by, military service, when such disability results in a vocational handicap preventing reemployment. Similar provision has been made for the rehabilitation of disabled persons in civil life, who, with proper training, can be equipped to play a useful part in the war effort at home. Men who are rejected for military service because of physical or mental defects, or who are discharged from the armed forces because of a disability existing at the time of induction, are thus eligible for such rehabilitation services and training as may be necessary and feasible in order to fit them for useful and gainful employment.

(4) By recent legislation, our present service men and women have been assured the same pension benefits for death or disability incurred in the line of duty while in active military service as are provided for the veterans of prior wars. The pension rates for the family of those killed in this war were recently increased by the Congress.

The Veterans Administration will, from time to time, request the consideration by the Congress of various amendments of existing laws which will facilitate administration, and which will correct any defects in our present statutory scheme which experience may disclose. I am confident that the Congress, in line with the historic policy of this Government toward its ill, injured, and disabled service men and women, will provide generous appropriations to the Veterans Administration with which to carry out these laws.

(5) Numerous other measures have been adopted for the protection of our service men such as the Soldiers' and Sailors' Civil Relief Act suspending the enforcement of certain obligations against members of the armed forces, the creation of reemployment rights under the Selective Service Act, and the provision for emergency maternity care to the wives and infants of enlisted men.

However, I believe that we must go much further.

We must make provision now to help our returning service men and women bridge the gap from war to peace activity. When the war is over, our men and women in the armed forces will be eager to rejoin their families, get a job, or continue their education, and to pick up the threads of their former lives. They will return at a time when industry will be in the throes of reconversion. Our plans for demobilization of soldiers and sailors must be consistent with our plans for the reconversion of industry and for the creation of employment opportunities for both service men and war workers. Already the armed forces have returned many thousands of service men and women to civil life. The following further steps seem desirable now:

(1) To help service men and women tide over the difficult period of readjustment from military to civilian life, mustering out pay will be needed. It will relieve them of anxiety while they seek private employment or make their personal plans for the future. I therefore recommend to the Congress that it enact legislation and provide funds for the payment of a uniform, reasonable mustering-out pay to all members of the armed forces upon their honorable discharge or transfer to inactive duty. This pay should not be in a lump sum but on a monthly installment basis.

(2) We must anticipate, however, that some members of the armed forces may not be able to obtain employment within a reasonable time after their return to civil life. For them, unemployment allowances should be provided until they can reasonably be absorbed by private industry.

Members of the armed services are not now adequately covered by existing unemployment insurance laws of the States. It is estimated that approximately one-half of them will have no unemployment insurance protection at all when they leave military service. Benefits payable to those who are covered by State law 'are unequal, and will vary greatly among the States because of the wide differences in the provisions of the State laws. The protection in many cases will be inadequate. It is plainly a Federal responsibility to provide for the payment of adequate and equitable allowances to those service men and women who are unable to find employment after their demobilization.

For these reasons, I recommend to the Congress that a uniform system of allowances for unemployed service men and women be established.

I believe that there should be a fixed and uniform rate of benefit for a fixed period of time for all members of the armed forces who, after leaving the service, are unable to find suitable work. In order to qualify for an unemployment allowance each person should 'be obliged to register with the United States Employment Service, and, following the usual practice in unemployment insurance, must be willing to accept available and suitable employment, or to engage in a training course to prepare him for such employment. The protection under this system should be continued for an adequate length of time following the period for which mustering-out payment is made.

At present, persons serving in the merchant marine are not insured under State unemployment insurance laws, primarily because the very nature of their employment carries them beyond the confines of any particular State. I believe that the most effective way of protecting maritime workers against postwar unemployment is to enact without delay a Federal maritime unemployment insurance act. There has been in effect since 1938 a railroad unemployment insurance act, and a similar act for maritime workers is long overdue. Marine workers are, however, insured under the existing Federal old-age and survivors' insurance law.

(3) Members of the armed forces are not receiving credit under the Federal old-age and survivors' insurance law for their period of military service. Credit under the law can be obtained only while a person is engaged in certain specific types of employment. Service in the armed forces is not included in these types. Since the size of the insurance benefits depends upon the total number of years in which credits are obtained, the exclusion of military service will operate to decrease the old-age retirement benefits which will eventually be payable to service men and women. Furthermore, a large number of persons whose dependents were protected by the survivors' insurance benefits at the time they entered the armed forces are losing entirely those insurance rights while they are in service.

I therefore recommend that the Congress enact legislation to make it possible for members of the armed forces to obtain credit under the Federal old-age and survivors' insurance law during their period of military service. The burden of this extension of old-age and survivors' insurance to members of the armed forces should be carried by the Federal Government, and the Federal contributions should be uniform for all members of the armed forces irrespective of their rank.

I have already communicated with the Congress requesting the enactment of legislation to provide educational and training opportunities for the members of the armed forces who desire to pursue their studies after their discharge.

The Congress will agree, I am sure, that, this time, we must have plans and legislation ready for our returning veterans instead of waiting until the last moment. It will give notice to our armed forces that the people back home do not propose to let them down.

It's worth noting the extent to which the Allied leaders in the west were taking the view that victory was simply inevitable. 

Monday, November 22, 1943. The Cairo Conference, Lebanese Independence, Tarawa.

The Cairo Conference on the war against Japan commenced with Franklin D. Roosevelt, Winston Churchill and Chiang Kai-shek in attendance.

Lebanon was granted independence.

Lebanon was not a French colony, but a League of Nation's mandate.  The event was nonetheless a clear signal that France's grip on its overseas colonies was rapidly slipping.

It was day three of operations on Tarawa.  On that day, Japanese Rear Admiral Keiji Shibazaki, who was directing the island's defense, was killed with his staff when a Marine spotted his staff walking to a secondary command post and called in Naval gunfire on the location.  He had boasted that the US couldn't take Tarawa in 100 years.

It in fact took four bloody days.

The RAF struck Berlin in a massive nighttime raid.

Sunday, November 21, 1943. Tarawa D+1.

D+1 of the Invasion of Tarawa.  Additional Marines were landed, as is typical for such operations.  Troops were also landed on Bairki.

Reporter Robert Sherrod, embedded with the Marines, reported in his notes:

0530: The coral flats in front of us present a sad sight at low tide. A half dozen Marines lie exposed, now that the water has receded. They are hunched over, rifles in hand, just as they fell. They are already one-quarter covered by sand that the high tide left. Further out on the flats and to the left I can see at least fifty other bodies. I had thought yesterday, however, that low tide would reveal many more than that. The smell of death, that sweetly sick odor of decaying human flesh, is already oppressive.

Now that it is light, the wounded go walking by, on the beach. Some are supported by corpsmen; others, like this one coming now, walk alone, limping badly, their faces contorted with pain. Some have bloodless faces, some bloody faces, others only pieces of faces. Two corpsmen pass, carrying a Marine on a stretcher who is lying face down. He has a great hole in his side, another smaller hole in his shoulder. This scene, set against the background of the dead on the coral flats, is horrible. It is war. I wish it could be seen by the silken-voiced, radio-announcing pollyannas back home who, by their very inflections, nightly lull the people into a false sense of all-is-well.

0600: One of the fresh battalions is coming in. Its Higgins boats are being hit before they pass the old hulk of a freighter seven hundred yards from shore. One boat blows up, then another. The survivors start swimming for shore, but machine-gun bullets dot the water all around them. Back of us the Marines have started an offensive to clean out the jap machine guns which are now firing at our men in the water.They evidently do not have much success, because there is no diminution of the fire that rips into the two dozen or more Higgins boats.

The ratatatatatat of the machine guns increases, and the high pi-i-ing of the jap sniper bullet sings overhead incessantly. The Japs still have some mortars, too, and at least one 40 or 77-mm. gun. Our destroyers begin booming their five-inch shells on the Jap positions near the end of the airfield back of us.

Some of the fresh troops get within two hundred yards of shore, while others from later waves are unloading further out. One man falls, writhing in the water. He is the first man I have seen actually hit, though many thousands of bullets cut into the water. Now some reach the shore, maybe only a dozen at first. They are calm, even disdainful of death. Having come this far, slowly, through the water, they show no disposition to hurry. They collect in pairs and walk up the beach, with snipers still shooting at them.

Now one of our mortars discovers one of the machine guns that has been shooting at the Marines. It is not back of us, but is a couple of hundred yards west, out in one of the wooden privies the dysentery-fearing japs built out over the water. The mortar gets the range, smashes the privy, and there is no more firing from there.

But the machine guns continue to tear into the oncoming Marines. Within five minutes I see six men killed. But the others keep coming. One rifleman walks slowly ashore, his left arm a bloody mess from the shoulder down. The casualties become heavier. Within a few minutes more I can count at last a hundred Marines lying on the flats.

0730: The Marines continue unloading from the Higgins boats, but fewer of them are making the shore now. Many lie down-behind the pyramidal concrete barriers the Japs had erected to stop tanks. Others make it as far as the disabled tanks and amphtracks, then lie behind them to size up the chances of making the last hundred yards to shore. There are at least two hundred bodies which do not move at all on the dry flats, or in the shallow water partially covering them. This is worse, far worse than it was yesterday...

From Liveblogging World War Two. 

Among the casualties that day which Sherrod wrote about was 1st. Lt William D. Hawkins:

Hawkins had told me aboard the ship that he would put his platoon of men up against any company of soldiers on earth and guarantee to win. He was slightly wounded by shrapnel as he came ashore in the first wave, but the furthest thing from his mind was to be evacuated. He led his platoon into the forest of coconut palms. During a day and a half he personally cleaned out six Jap machine gun nests, sometimes standing on top of a track and firing point blank at four or five men who fired back at him from behind blockhouses. Lieutenant Hawkins was wounded a second time, but he still refused to retire. To say that his conduct was worthy of the highest traditions of the Marine Corps is like saying the Empire State Building is moderately high.

Hawkins would die that day.

FIRST LIEUTENANT WILLIAM D. HAWKINS

UNITED STATES MARINE CORPS RESERVE

for service as set forth in the following

CITATION:

For valorous and gallant conduct above and beyond the call of duty as Commanding Officer of a Scout Sniper Platoon attached to the Second Marines, Second Marine Division, in action against Japanese-held Tarawa in the Gilbert Islands, November 20 and 21, 1943. The first to disembark from the jeep lighter, First lieutenant Hawkins unhesitatingly moved forward under heavy enemy fire at the end of the Betio pier, neutralizing emplacements in coverage of troops assaulting the main breach positions. Fearlessly leading his men on to join the forces fighting desperately to gain a beachhead, he repeatedly risked his life throughout the day and night to direct and lead attacks on pill boxes and installations with grenades and demolition. At dawn on the following day, First Lieutenant Hawkins returned to the dangerous mission of clearing the limited beachhead of Japanese resistance, personally initiating an assault on a hostile fortified by five enemy machine guns and, crawling forward in the face of withering fire, boldly fired point-blank into the loopholes and completed the destruction with grenades. Refusing to withdraw after being seriously wounded in the chest during this skirmish, First Lieutenant Hawkins steadfastly carried the fight to the enemy, destroying three more pill boxes before he was caught in a burst of Japanese shell fire and mortally wounded. His relentless fighting spirit in the face of formidable opposition and his exceptionally daring tactics were an inspiration to his comrades during the most crucial phase of the battle and reflect the highest credit upon the United States Naval Service. He gallantly gave his life for his country.

/S/ FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT

Hawkins was an engineer who had a very rough start in his short life, being severely injured as a baby and his father having died when he was eight.  He nonetheless graduated from high school at age 16, and as noted had gone on to university.

Commentator Drew Pearson broke the story on his radio show of Gen. Dwight Eisenhower reprimanding George S. Patton for a slapping incident, which within Army circles was now old news.

 Wharf on Butaritari Island, Makin, November 21, 1943.

U.S. infantry advanced on Butaritari on Makin.

The following is undoubtedly copyrighted, but I'm posting it here in the fair comment category to show how "rah rah" and frankly stupid American superhero cartoons of this era could be and often were. This was a Superman strip from this date:

In the context of what was going on that day, that was unbelievably dumb.

U.S. Navy air installation on Funafuti (Tuvalu) commenced operations.

Prime Minister Churchill to President Roosevelt 1

secret

[ Cairo ] 21 November 1943.2

Former Naval Person to President Roosevelt personal and most secret. No. 506.

1. My arrival in Egypt is bound to be known as I shall pass through to see Catroux and others: moreover British Parliament meets on 23rd and my absence must be explained. Unless I hear from you to the contrary I shall allow it to be stated on 22nd that I am in Cairo.

2. This publicity will be unsupported cover for your movement which I think should not be announced for a few days.

3. You will be receiving a telegram about military precautions, which are excellent.

From Sarah Sundin's blog:

Today in World War II History—November 21, 1943: German Field Marshal Erwin Rommel is placed in command of Atlantic Wall defenses in France to defend against an Allied invasion.

Saturday November 20, 1943. Marines at Tarawa, Army at Mankin Island.

The U.S. Navy landed the 2nd Marine Division on Betio Island in the Tarawa Atoll.

In was the first U.S. operation in the Central Pacific and the first US landing that faced serious opposition from the point of landing.   Fighting would last for three days and result in 1,009 US KIA and 2,101 wounded.  The Japanese, who defended basically to the last man, lost 4,690 killed, including both construction laborers, many of whom were Korean, and Japanese soldiers.  Only 17 Japanese soldiers and 129 Korean construction workers were taken prisoner.  40% of the Japanese casualties were sustained in pre landing bombardments.

Among those who fought there was my wife's grandfather.

The hard landing would result in the creation of what essentially became the Navy SEALs, given the difficult invasion obstacles that had been encountered.

Fighting on the three-day campaign was horrific, and in some ways this battle began to mark the image that the Marines emerged from the war with.

Often missed, on the same day, the Navy landed the Army's 27th Infantry Division on Mankin Island, also in the Gilberts.

27th Infantry Division landing at Mankin.

Much less defended, the two-day battle resulted in 763 killed, only 66 of which were soldiers.  The sinking of the USS Liscome Bay by the Japanese submarine I-175 resulted in most of the casualties.  The Japanese on Mankin lost 395 killed out of its much smaller garrison.

The British evacuated Samos Island.

British fascist Sir Oswald Mosely was released from prison due to his being ill.

Saturday, September 18, 1943. German evacuations and atrocities.

The Germans executed Plan Asche, evacuating 25,800 German troops from Sardinia to Corsica.

This yielded the island's important airfields to the Allies.

The Germans began mass deportation of Jews from Paris and the liquidation of Jews in Minsk commenced.

The British occupied the Aegean islands of Simi, Stampalia and Icaria.

The Red Army took Soviet forces capture Priluki, Lubny and Romodan  Pavlograd, Krasnograd, Pologi and Nogaysk.

Sarah Sundin, on her blog, notes:

Today in World War II History—September 18, 1943: US opens Central Pacific offensive as Seventh Air Force Navy Task Force 15 aircraft begin bombing Tarawa, Makin, and Apemama in the Gilbert Islands.