Today in World War II History—June 24, 1940 & 1945: In a bombing raid, the RAF destroys the infamous bridge over the River Kwai in Thailand, built at great cost by slaves and prisoners of the Japanese.
The U.S. Army took IIigan in the Philippines.
343 Japanese troops surrendered on Okinawa.
Troops of the British Commonwealth brought the war back to Thailand, invading it from Burma.
King Leopold III of Belgium refused to abdicate.
The United Nations, meeting in San Francisco, denied Francoist Spain admission to the body.
Gen. Eisenhower received a ticker tape parade in New York City which 4,000,000 people turned out to view.
French politician Marcel Déat, in hiding in Italy, was sentenced to death in absentia for collaborating with the enemy. He would not be captured and died in Italy in 1955.
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550 occupants of the French Embassy in Phnom Penh crossed into Thailand. They included 300 Khmer Muslims.
The People's Republic of China and the European Community agreed to establish trade and diplomatic relations.
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The Social Security Administration announced for the very first time that it's retirement and disability program was in debt; and that its $46 billion reserve would be drained by 1983. Notably, President Nixon had extended Medicare, which originally did not apply to everyone, to everyone 62 years of age or older during his Administration.
Television broadcasting began in South Africa.
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Royal Lao General Vang Pao, a Hmong highlander, was ordered by the Prime Minister of Laos to cease resistance to the Pathet Lao.
He resigned instead.
It's almost like the Domino Theory was correct.
Before serving in in the Royal Lao Army, he has served with the French starting during World War Two. He immigrated to the United States where he died in 2011.
101 former RVNAF aircraft at U-Tapao Royal Thai Navy Airfield were loaded aboard the USS Midway which evacuated 27 A-37s, 3 CH-47s, 25 F-5Es and 45 UH-1Hs.
A further 41 aircraft were flown to the U.S. 54 aircraft were transferred to the Thai Government, these comprised: 1 A-37, 17 C-47s, 1 F-5B, 12 O-1s, 14 U-17s and 9 UH-1Hs.
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Operation Eagle Pull took place with the US closure of its Cambodian embassy and the insertion of 180 Marines into Phnom Penh to start the evacuation of US civilians. Approximately 300 people were evacuated, of which 82 were Americans.
Deputy Prime Minister Sisowath Sirik Matak refused to leave, stating in a letter to the American Ambassador, "I cannot, alas, leave in such a cowardly fashion....I have only committed this mistake of believing in you, the Americans."
The ARVN deployed aircraft against NVA units at Xuan Loc, with the South Vietnamese air force flying up to 120 sorties per day.
Six Catholic civilians are killed in a Ulster Volunteer Force gun and grenade attack on Strand Bar in Belfast, North Ireland
Josephine Baker died at age 68.
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Cambodian Prime Minister Long Boret met with representatives of the Khmer Rouge in Thailand.
Wives of Air Force men stationed in Japan volunteered to assist in Operation Babylift.
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Germany transported Roman Jews to Auschwitz. Rome had one of the oldest Jewish populations in Europe.
Japan transferred four provinces of British Malaya to its ally Thailand.
Perry Mason was broadcast on the CBS Radio Network for the first time. It would run until December 20, 1955.
The Popular Uprising (เหตุการณ์ 14 ตุลา), which had been going on against the Thai military government since October 9, reached a watershed moment with Thai soldiers killed 77 protestors and wounded 857.
Protests would briefly carry on, but this resulted in the resignation of the military government and the establishment of a civilian one, but military influence remained and the new government was not democratic.
The Kingdom of Thailand and the Empire of Japan entered into a peace treaty providing that four Malayan provinces would become part of Thailand.
Thailand is one of the unique Axis powers of the war in that the Allies simply chose to ignore its declaration of war upon them. It had actually been invaded by Japan in December 1941, before becoming a Japanese ally, so at least there was some reason to disregard its status, but only some.
The Red Army captured Libedin, west of Kharkiv. However, as Sarah Sundin notes:
Today in World War II History—August 20, 1943: 80 Years Ago—August 20, 1943: In a battle near Kharkiv, Ukraine, Germans defeat Soviets and destroy 184 tanks.
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Life magazine's final cover issue date (it came out the week before.) ran. The cover was "The Year in Pictures, 1972".
My father subscribed to Life, and also at one time to Look. Look really declined in its final years, Life not so much. I can recall discussion on the last issue.
Edward Lorenz proposed The Butterfly Effect in his paper "Predictability: Does the Flap of a Butterfly's Wings in Brazil Set Off a Tornado in Texas?"
A takeover of Israel's embassy in Thailand, by Palestinian terrorists, ended after intervention by Egypt's ambassador and Thai officials. Before everyone left, they all had dinner together, including the terrorists.
Most of the last cycle of conscripts to the U.S. Army reported for induction.
The tragic crash of Eastern Air Lines Flight 401 killed 101 of 176 on board as it went down in the Everglades.
January 25, 1942: Japanese set up puppet government in Thailand, which declares war on US and UK. Japanese land at Lae, New Guinea. Australia orders full mobilization; all white male British subjects 18-45 years are eligible for conscription.
It's worth noting that conscription was not popular in Australia. The Australians were justifiably freighted that the Japanese would land on Australia and outright conquer it, a thought that seems fantastical today, but which is less extreme than one might imagine. Japan's population grossly outnumbered Australia's and Australia, for the most part, is only populated on its coasts. Japan was, at the time, expanding its conquests massively, and on this day were making landings in New Guinea and Borneo. As noted, their puppet government in Thailand declared war on the US and UK.
Nonetheless, Australians, who have always had a strong contrarian streak, didn't like the idea of conscription and at first Australian conscripts only served in Australia itself, matching a pattern that was true for Canada, at first. Late war Canadians conscripts could be sent overseas, and Australian ones ended up fighting in the Pacific. The quality of Australian conscript combat troops was notably poorer than their volunteer troops, with morale really being the reason why.
The United Kingdom, New Zealand and South Africa reciprocated Thailand's declaration of war. Thailand's ambassador to the US refuses to deliver the declaration and defects, going on to form a Free Thai government in exile.
Japanese submarines shelled Marine Corps positions at Midway unsuccessfully, and submerged due to counterfire.
Uruguay severed diplomatic relations with Germany, Italy and Japan.
The Red Army surrounded the Germans at Kholm. The Germans overran British lines, including armor, at Msus.
I send you sincere good wishes for your birthday and hope that future anniversaries will enable you to bring to Russia victory, peace and safety after so much storm.
My fellow Americans:
The sudden criminal attacks perpetrated by the Japanese in the Pacific provide the climax of a decade of international immorality.
Powerful and resourceful gangsters have banded together to make war upon the whole human race. Their challenge has now been flung at the United States of America. The Japanese have treacherously violated the long-standing peace between us. Many American soldiers and sailors have been killed by enemy action. American ships have been sunk; American airplanes have been destroyed.
The Congress and the people of the United States have accepted that challenge.
Together with other free peoples, we are now fighting to maintain our right to live among our world neighbors in freedom and in common decency, without fear of assault.
I have prepared the full record of our past relations with Japan, and it will be submitted to the Congress. It begins with the visit of Commodore Perry to Japan 88 years ago. It ends with the visit of two Japanese emissaries to the Secretary of State last Sunday, an hour after Japanese forces had loosed their bombs and machine guns against our flag, our forces, and our citizens.
I can say with utmost confidence that no Americans, today or a thousand years hence, need feel anything but pride in our patience and in our efforts through all the years toward achieving a peace in the Pacific which would be fair and honorable to every Nation, large or small. And no honest person, today or a thousand years hence, will be able to suppress a sense of indignation and horror at the treachery committed by the military dictators of Japan, under the very shadow of the flag of peace borne by their special envoys in our midst.
The course that Japan has followed for the past ten years in Asia has paralleled the course of Hitler and Mussolini in Europe and in Africa. Today, it has become far more than a parallel. It is actual collaboration so well calculated that all the continents of the world, and all the oceans, are now considered by the Axis strategists as one gigantic battlefield.
In 1931, ten years ago, Japan invaded Manchukuo—without warning.
In 1935, Italy invaded Ethiopia—without warning.
In 1938, Hitler occupied Austria —without warning.
In 1939, Hitler invaded Czechoslovakia- without warning.
Later in 1939, Hitler invaded Poland- without warning.
In 1940, Hitler invaded Norway, Denmark, the Netherlands, Belgium, and Luxembourg- without warning.
In 1940, Italy attacked France and later Greece—without warning.
And this year, in 1941, the Axis powers attacked Yugoslavia and Greece and they dominated the Balkans—without warning. In 1941, also, Hitler invaded Russia—without warning.
And now Japan has attacked Malaya and Thailand—and the United States—without warning.
It is all of one pattern.
We are now in this war. We are all in it- all the way. Every single man, woman, and child is a partner in the most tremendous undertaking of our American history. We must share together the bad news and the good news, the defeats and the victories—the changing fortunes of war.
So far, the news has been all bad. We have suffered a serious set-back in Hawaii. Our forces in the Philippines, which include the brave people of that Commonwealth, are taking punishment, but are defending themselves vigorously. The reports from Guam and Wake and Midway islands are still confused, but we must be prepared for the announcement that all these three outposts have been seized.
The casualty lists of these first few days will undoubtedly be large. I deeply feel the anxiety of all of the families of the men in our armed forces and the relatives of people in cities which have been bombed. I can only give them my solemn promise that they will get news just as quickly as possible.
This Government will put its trust in the stamina of the American people, and will give the facts to the public just as soon as two conditions have been fulfilled: first, that the information has been definitely and officially confirmed; and, second, that the release of the information at the time it is received will not prove valuable to the enemy directly or indirectly.
Most earnestly I urge my countrymen to reject all rumors. These ugly little hints of complete disaster fly thick and fast in wartime. They have to be examined and appraised.
As an example, I can tell you frankly that until further surveys are made, I have not sufficient information to state the exact damage which has been done to our naval vessels at Pearl Harbor. Admittedly the damage is serious. But no one can say how serious, until we know how much of this damage can be repaired and how quickly the necessary repairs can be made.
I cite as another example a statement made on Sunday night that a Japanese carrier had been located and sunk off the Canal Zone. And when you hear statements that are attributed to what they call "an authoritative source," you can be reasonably sure from now on that under these war circumstances the "authoritative source" is not any person in authority.
Many rumors and reports which we now hear originate with enemy sources. For instance, today the Japanese are claiming that as a result of their one action against Hawaii they have gained naval supremacy in the Pacific. This is an old trick of propaganda which has been used innumerable times by the Nazis. The purposes of such fantastic claims are, of course, to spread fear and confusion among us, and to goad us into revealing military information which our enemies are desperately anxious to obtain.
Our Government will not be caught in this obvious trap—and neither will the people of the United States.
It must be remembered by each and every one of us that our free and rapid communication these days must be greatly restricted in wartime. It is not possible to receive full, speedy, accurate reports from distant areas of combat. This is particularly true where naval operations are concerned. For in these days of the marvels of radio it is often impossible for the commanders of various units to report their activities by radio at all, for the very simple reason that this information would become available to the enemy, and would disclose their position and their plan of defense or attack.
Of necessity there will be delays in officially confirming or denying reports of operations but we will not hide facts from the country if we know the facts and if the enemy will not be aided by their disclosure.
To all newspapers and radio stations—all those who reach the eyes and ears of the American people—I say this: You have a most grave responsibility to the Nation now and for the duration of this war.
If you feel that your Government is not disclosing enough of the truth, you have every right to say so. But—in the absence of all the facts, as revealed by official sources—you have no right in the ethics of patriotism to deal out unconfirmed reports in such a way as to make people believe that they are gospel truth.
Every citizen, in every walk of life,. shares this same responsibility. The lives of our soldiers and sailors- the whole future of this Nation—depend upon the manner in which each and every one of us fulfills his obligation to our country.
Now a word about the recent past—and the future. A year and a half has elapsed since the fall of France, when the whole world first realized the mechanized might which the Axis Nations had been building for so many years. America has used that year and a half to great advantage. Knowing that the attack might reach us in all too short a time, we immediately began greatly to increase our industrial strength and our capacity to meet the demands of modern warfare.
Precious months were gained by sending vast quantities of our war material to the Nations of the world still able to resist Axis aggression. Our policy rested on the fundamental truth that the defense of any country resisting Hitler or Japan was in the long run the defense of our own country. That policy has been justified. It has given us time, invaluable time, to build our American assembly lines of production.
Assembly lines are now in operation. Others are being rushed to completion. A steady stream of tanks and planes, of guns and ships, and shells and equipment—that is what these eighteen months have given us.
But it is all only a beginning of what still has to be done. We must be set to face a long war against crafty and powerful bandits. The attack at Pearl Harbor can be repeated at any one of many points, points in both oceans and along both our coast lines and against all the rest of the hemisphere.
It will not only be a long war, it will be a hard war. That is the basis on which we now lay all our plans. That is the yardstick by which we measure what we shall need and demand; money, materials, doubled and quadrupled production—ever-increasing. The production must be not only for our own Army and Navy and Air Forces. It must reinforce the other armies and navies and air forces fighting the Nazis and the war lords of Japan throughout the Americas and throughout the world.
I have been working today on the subject of production. Your Government has decided on two broad policies.
The first is to speed up all existing production by working on a seven-day-week basis in every war industry, including the production of essential raw materials.
The second policy, now being put into form, is to rush additions to the capacity of production by building more new plants, by adding to old plants, and by using the many smaller plants for war needs.
Over the hard road of the past months, we have at times met obstacles and difficulties, divisions and disputes, indifference and callousness. That is now all past—and, I am sure, forgotten.
The fact is that the country now has an organization in Washington built around men and women who are recognized experts in their own fields. I think the country knows that the people who are actually responsible in each and every one of these many fields are pulling together with a teamwork that has never before been excelled.
On the road ahead there lies hard work—grueling workday and night, every hour and every minute.
I was about to add that ahead there lies sacrifice for all of us.
But it is not correct to use that word. The United States does not consider it a sacrifice to do all one can, to give one's best to our Nation, when the Nation is fighting for its existence and its future life.
It is not a sacrifice for any man, old or young, to be in the Army or the Navy of the United States. Rather is it a privilege.
It is not a sacrifice for the industrialist or the wage earner, the farmer or the shopkeeper, the trainman or the doctor, to pay more taxes, to buy more bonds, to forego extra profits, to work longer or harder at the task for which he is best fitted. Rather is it a privilege.
It is not a sacrifice to do without many things to which we are accustomed if the national defense calls for doing without.
A review this morning leads me to the conclusion that at present we shall not have to curtail the normal use of articles of food. There is enough food today for all of us and enough left over to send to those who are fighting on the same side with us.
But there will be a clear and definite shortage of metals of many kinds for civilian use, for the very good reason that in our increased program we shall need for war purposes more than half of that portion of the principal metals which during the past year have gone into articles for civilian use. Yes, we shall have to give up many things entirely.
And I am sure that the people in every part of the Nation are prepared in their individual living to win this war. I am sure that they will cheerfully help to pay a large part of its financial cost while it goes on. I am sure they will cheerfully give up those material things that they are asked to give up.
And I am sure that they will retain all those great spiritual things without which we cannot win through.
I repeat that the United States can accept no result save victory, final and complete. Not only must the shame of Japanese treachery be wiped out, but the sources of international brutality, wherever they exist, must be absolutely and finally broken.
In my message to the Congress yesterday I said that we "will make it very certain that this form of treachery shall never again endanger us." In order to achieve that certainty, we must begin the great task that is before us by abandoning once and for all the illusion that we can ever again isolate ourselves from the rest of humanity.
In these past few years- and, most violently, in the past three days- we have learned a terrible lesson.
It is our obligation to our dead—it is our sacred obligation' to their children and to our children-that we must never forget what we have learned.
And what we all have learned is this:
There is no such thing as security for any Nation—or any individual- in a world ruled by the principles of gangsterism.
There is no such thing as impregnable defense against powerful aggressors who sneak up in the dark and strike without warning.
We have learned that our ocean-girt hemisphere is not immune from severe attack—that we cannot measure our safety in terms of miles on any map any more.
We may acknowledge that our enemies have performed a brilliant feat of deception, perfectly timed and executed with great skill. It was a thoroughly dishonorable deed, but we must face the fact that modern warfare as conducted in the Nazi manner is a dirty business. We don't like it- we didn't want to get in it -but we are in it and we're going to fight it with everything we've got.
I do not think any American has any doubt of our ability to administer proper punishment to the perpetrators of these crimes.
Your Government knows that for weeks Germany has been telling Japan that if Japan did not attack the United States, Japan would not share in dividing the spoils with Germany when peace came. She was promised by Germany that if she came in she would receive the complete and perpetual control of the whole of the Pacific area—and that means not only the Far East, but also all of the islands in the Pacific, and also a stranglehold on the west coast of North, Central, and South America.
We know also that Germany and Japan are conducting their military and naval operations in accordance with a joint plan. That plan considers all peoples and Nations which are not helping the Axis powers as common enemies of each and every one of the Axis powers.
That is their simple and obvious grand strategy. And that is why the American people must realize that it can be matched only with similar grand strategy. We must realize for example that Japanese successes against the United States in the Pacific are helpful to German operations in Libya; that any German success against the Caucasus is inevitably an assistance to Japan in her operations against the Dutch East Indies; that a German attack against Algiers or Morocco opens the way to a German attack against South America, and the Canal.
On the other side of the picture, we must learn also to know that guerrilla warfare against the Germans in, let us say, Serbia or Norway helps us; that a successful Russian offensive against the Germans helps us; and that British successes on land or sea in any part of the world strengthen our hands.
Remember always that Germany and Italy, regardless of any formal declaration of war, consider themselves at war with the United States at this moment just as much as they consider themselves at war with Britain or Russia. And Germany puts all the other Republics of the Americas into the same category of enemies. The people of our sister Republics of this hemisphere can 'be honored by that fact.
The true goal we seek is far above and beyond the ugly field of battle. When we resort to force, as now we must, we are determined that this force shall be directed toward ultimate good as well as against immediate evil. We Americans are not destroyers —we are builders.
We are now in the midst of a war, not for conquest, not for vengeance, but for a world in which this Nation, and all that this Nation represents, will be safe for our children. We expect to eliminate the danger from Japan, but it would serve us ill if we accomplished that and found that the rest of the world was dominated by Hitler and Mussolini.
We are going to win the war and we are going to win the peace that follows.
And in the difficult hours of this day—through dark days that may be yet to come- we will know that the vast majority of the members of the human race are on our side. Many of them are fighting with us. All of them are praying for us. For in representing our cause, we represent theirs as well- our hope and their hope for liberty under God.
The U.S. military plans for war with Germany, Rainbow 5, were leaked and appeared in two major newspapers. The spectacular leak, the source of which has never been determined, showed an intent to build a 10,000,000 man Army and deploy 5,000,000 men to Europe to defeat the Germans by 1943. The resulting furor was enormous.
The Germans ridiculed the plans as impossible, but the German General Staff took it seriously and argued for a hiatus of offensive operations in the East in order to attempt to take the United Kingdom out of the war before Britain could be used as a staging area for American troops. Hitler rejected the idea. Rainbow 5 did in fact become the basic plan adopted by the United States during the war.
The Soviet Navy bombed Berlin.
Yes, the Navy.
The reason was that the Ilyushin DB-3 used by both the Soviet Air Forces and the Soviet Navy was capable of being both a torpedo bomber and a tactical bomber, although its small 1000 lbs bomb load made it a poor strategic bomber. The Soviet Air Forces also the aircraft, but the aircraft used in this raid were launched from a Soviet Navy base off of Estonia.
The Germans at first thought that the RAF had conducted the raid, given as the RAF, which was the only combatant then in the war with heavy strategic bombers, had been raiding Berlin for a year. The small payload of the DB-3 meant that the raid was unlikely to be anything other than a propaganda victory, which was all that it was.
In other news of the air, Bruno Mussolini, the son of Italian dictator Benito Mussolini, was killed test flying an Italian attempt at a heavy bomber, that being the Piaggio P.108.
Australia declared that it would not allow Japanese expansion in the Pacific to go unchecked, should it occur.
On the same day, Imperial Japan, which had recently mediated a dispute between Thailand and the French in Indochina, declared that it had no aggressive intentions in regard to Thailand.
In the US, people went about their regular chores, including outdoor ones.
Japan, fearing the result of ongoing fighting between a client state, Thailand, and a near captive colonial entity, French Indochina, arranges for a negotiated truce between the two powers.
The Abbott and Costello movie Buck Privates was released. I'm not really keen on Abbott and Costello, but if you like their vaudeville style of comedy, this film is one that remains fairly well regarded. It received universal circulation at Army post theaters at the time, and oddly the Japanese picked it up for propaganda purposes to show the incompetence of the U.S. military.
The movie was a musical and also featured the Andrews Sisters.
The commencement of allied offensive action against Kufra in Italian Libya commenced.
Joe Louis KO'ed Red Burman to retain his heavyweight boxing title.
More on the days' events in the Second World War:
Italian prisoners bombed by Germans
