Saturday, November 13, 1943. Coconut Grove.

The Germans commenced a counterattack at Kyiv that would run for forty days.  The Red Army reached Zhytomyr which threatened the norther flank of German Army Group South.

The first XP-80 was completed.

Lulu Belle, the first XP-80.

The Kelly Johnson design would go into service in 1945, too late for the Second World War, but would see service in Korea, by which time it was already eclipsed by later designs.

The Battle of Coconut Grove commenced on Bougainville between Marine Corps elements and the Imperial Japanese Army.

On the same day, the third wave of the US invasion forced landed, which included the balance of the 37th Infantry Division and the 21st Marine Regiment.  The USS Denver was hit during the operation by a torpedo launched by a Japanese aircraft, rendering her incapable of operating under her own engines.

Gen. Mark Clark informed his superior Gen. Alexander that operations in Italy should be halted temporarily.

The Japanese I-34 was sunk by the British submarine Taurus off of the Strait of Malacca.

HMSM Taurus.

The HMS Dulverton was scuttled after being hit by a HS 293 glide bombs off of Leros.

Tuesday, November 9, 1943. Humanitarian Efforts.

The United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration was created 

Senate Resolution 203 was introduced, calling for the Federal Government to come up with a plant to save "the surviving Jewish people of Europe from extinction."  House Resolutions 350 and 352 were passed calling for the creation of an agency to resettle those survivors to neutral nations.

Marines on Bougainville, November 1943.

The U.S. Marines prevailed in the Battle for Piva Trail.  The 3d Marine Division advanced off the beachhead at Cape Tarokina.  The U.S. Army's 37th Division began landing on the island.

Gen. Giraud and Gen. Georges resigned from the Free French Committee of National Liberation.  Giraud remained its militar commander in chief.

The U-707 was sunk near the Azores by an RAF B-17.

Monday, November 8, 1943. Lebanese declaration of independence, Battle for Piva Trail, Albanian landing.

The Lebanese legislature voted to end the French League of Nations mandate.  The French would accordingly arrest the government.

Radio Moscow reported only one Jew remained alive in Kyiv out of a prewar population of 140,000.

The two-day Battle for Piva Trail commenced on Bougainville.

From Sarah Sundin's blog:

Today in World War II History—November 8, 1943: US C-53 cargo plane carrying 13 flight nurses & 13 medics of the 807th Medical Air Evacuation Transport Squadroncrash-lands in Nazi-occupied Albania.

She reports they walked out over a period of two months.

Sunday, November 7, 1943 Sgt. Herbert J. Thomas.

 

SERGEANT HERBERT J. THOMAS

UNITED STATES MARINE CORPS RESERVE

for service as set forth in the following CITATION:

For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty while serving with the Third Marines, Third Marine Division, in action against enemy Japanese forces during the battle at the Koromokina River, Bougainville Island, Solomon Islands, on November 7, 1943. Although several of his men were struck by enemy bullets as he led his squad through dense jungle undergrowth in the face of severe hostile machine gun fire, Sergeant Thomas and his group fearlessly pressed forward into the center of the Japanese position and destroyed the crews of two machine guns by accurate rifle fire and grenades. Discovering a third gun more difficult to approach, he carefully placed his men closely around him in strategic positions from which they were to charge after he had thrown a grenade into the emplacement. When the grenade struck vines and fell back into the midst of the group, Sergeant Thomas deliberately flung himself upon it to smother the explosion, valiantly sacrificing his life for his comrades. Inspired by his selfless action, his men unhesitatingly charged the enemy machine gun and, with fierce determination, killed the crew and several other nearby defenders. The splendid initiative and extremely heroic conduct of Sergeant Thomas in carrying out his prompt decision with full knowledge of his fate reflect great credit upon himself and the United States Naval Service. He gallantly gave his life for his country.

Thomas had originally enlisted in the Army Air Corps, but transferred to the Marine Corps as his friends were in the Marines.

Task Force 38 is attacked by Japanese aircraft, but they fail to achieve any signficant result.

The Japanese land a battalion to the north of the Marine beachhead.

The last scoreless NFL game was played between the Detroit Lions and the New York Giants.

Friday, November 2, 1923. A person of interest.

Actress Margaret Gibson was arrested on charges of running a blackmail and extortion ring.  The charges would later be dropped,   She would keep working in the film industry until 1929.

During her career she performed under the names Patricia Palmer, Patsy Palmer, Margie Gibson, Marguerite Gibson, Ella Margaret Lewis, Ella Margaret Arce, Pat Lewis and perhaps others.  She started running into legal trouble in 1917, when she was arrested for vagrancy with allegations of opium dealing.  She was acquitted, but her career did thereafter decline.

On this day in 1923 she was arrested on federal felony charges. As things developed, George W. Lasher told authorities he had paid Gibson $1155 to avoid prosecution for a reputed violation of the Mann Act. Charges were, however, later dropped.

She married in 1935 to oil executive Elbert Lewis. They lived overseas, and the marriage was successful.  In 1940, at age 45, she returned to the United States without her husband for surgery.  World War Two intervened, and they would not be reunited as her husband was killed when the Japanese bombed Socony-Vacuum's oil facility at Penang, Malaysia on March 15, 1942.

She returned to Hollywood in 1964, and at that time, converted to Catholicism.  Only shortly thereafter, she became gravely ill, called for a priest, and confessed to neighbors the February 1, 1922, murder of Hollywood film director William Desmond Taylor.  The murder of Taylor remains officially unsolved, and while there were a handful of suspects, Gibson was never one of them.  In spite of her deathbed confession and her being distraught at the time, there are still those who doubt she committed the crime.  

Gibson with Taylor in a still from the 1914 film "The Riders of Petersham".

Given her conversion to Catholicism, and the sudden deathbed conversion, my guess is that she was the killer.  Suspicion on this is tied to her earlier efforts at extortion, and a flurry of that which occured following the Fatty Arbuckle episode.

U.S. Navy Lieutenant Harlold J. Brow set a new flight airspeed record of 250 mph, making him the first person to fly faster than 400 kph.  His plane was a Curtis racer.

The three Socialist members of Gustav Stresemann's cabinet resigned in protest over the governments refusal to curtail the dictatorial government in Bavaria.

Oklahoma's Governor Walton wasn't prepared to give up.

Ceremonies were held at Arlington National Cemetery for twenty-three U.S. Navy sailors and Marines from the USS Pittsburgh who died of influenza in 1918 and were returned to the United States from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

And it was a busy day on the Panama Canal, like most days.

Panama Canal - West Lirio slide 11/2/23.

Are there lessons from today's entry?  Almost surely.  Redemption after a long journey to one who ultimately pursued, but also life cut short.

Monday, November 1, 1943. Landings on Bougainville.

14,000 U.S. Marines of the 3d Marine Division landed on Bougainville in the Solomons in the oddly named Operation Goodtime as well as the smaller Operation Cherryblossom.

The major operation would ultimately involve 144,000 US troops of the Marine Corps and the Army and 30,000 Australian troops.  Japanese defenses were initially overrun, the defending force consisting of only 200 men, but the island had 40,000 Japanese troops on it.  Operations would not cease until the end of the war, as the Japanese forces remained fighting up until that time.

Bougainville is a very large island that the Germans colonized starting in 1899.  It passed to Australian by way of a League of Nations mandate following World War One.

Internees at the Tule Lake Segregation Center surrounded the administration building during a visit by War Location Director Dillon S. Myer. 

Between 5,000 to 10,000 internees surrounded the building upon learning of Myer's unannounced visit until he consented to see a negotiating committee regarding grievances they held.

The USS Borie and the German submarine U-405 fought in the North Atlantic, with the result that both ships had to be scuttled.

President Roosevelt orders the Solid Fuels Administration to take over the operation of the nation's coal mines.

He also addressed Congress on the nation's food program.

The Moscow Conference issued its declaration on atrocities.

Moscow Declaration on Atrocities

by President Roosevelt, Mr. Winston Churchill and Marshal Stalin, issued on

November 1, 1943

The United Kingdom, the United States and the Soviet Union have received from many quarters evidence of atrocities, massacres and cold-blooded mass executions which are being perpetrated by the Hitlerite forces in many of the countries they have overrun and from which they are now being steadily expelled. The brutalities of Hitlerite domination are no new thing and all people or territories in their grip have suffered from the worst form of Government by terror. What is new is that many of these territories are now being redeemed by the advancing armies of the liberating Powers and that, in their desperation, the recoiling Hitlerite Huns are redoubling their ruthless cruelties. This is now evidenced with particular clearness by the monstrous crimes of the Hitlerites on the territory of the Soviet Union which is being liberated from the Hitlerites and on French and Italian territory.

Accordingly the aforesaid three Allied Powers, speaking in the interests of the 32 United Nations, hereby solemnly declare and give full warning of their declaration as follows: At the time of the granting of any armistice to any Government which may be set up in Germany, those German officers and men and members of the Nazi party who have been responsible for or have taken a consenting part in the above atrocities, massacres and executions will be sent back to the countries in which their abominable deeds were done in order that they may be judged and punished according to the laws of these liberated countries and of the Free Governments which will be erected therein. Lists will be compiled in all possible detail from all these countries having regard especially to the invaded parts of the Soviet Union, to Poland and Czechoslovakia, to Yugoslavia and Greece including Crete and other islands, to Norway, Denmark, the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, France and Italy.

Thus, Germans who take part in wholesale shootings of Italian officers or in the execution of French, Dutch, Belgian or Norwegian hostages or of Cretan peasants, or who have shared in the slaughters inflicted on the people of Poland or in the territories of the Soviet Union which are now being swept clear of the enemy, will know that they will be brought back to the scene of their crimes and judged on the spot by the peoples whom they have outraged. Let those who have hitherto not imbued their hands with innocent blood beware lest they join the ranks of the guilty, for most assuredly the three Allied Powers will pursue them to the uttermost ends of the earth and will deliver them to the accusers in order that justice may be done.

The above declaration is without prejudice to the case of the major criminals whose offences have no particular geographical location and who will be punished by a joint decision of the Governments of the

Allies.

Thursday, October 28, 1943. Operation Blissful.

Operation Blissful, the Raid on Choiseul in the Solomon's, commenced.

The raid was conducted by Marine Corps paratroopers, although they landed by landing craft, and was designed to divert and confuse Japanese troops as to Bougainville.  It is not known to what extent the raid achieved that goal.

Coal miner strikes in the US increase momentum.

Churchill addressed the Commons about rebuilding its damaged structure.

The Soviets established the military award The Order of Bohdan Khmelnitsky (Орден Богдана Хмельницького), the only Soviet Award written in Ukrainian.  It was named after a Ukrainian Cossack Hetman.

Friday, August 24, 1923. "Cross Country Flight Record Is Shattered"

A photographer caught some Maine Corps scenes.

 

The United States Coal Commission met.

Tuesday, July 20, 1943. On to the Gilberts and Marshalls

The Joint Chiefs of Staff determined to invade the Gilbert Islands and Nauru, to be followed by the Marshalls.

The Battle of Bairoko was fought on New Georgia, in which the U.S. Army and Marine Raiders attacked Japanese defensive positions unsuccessfully.

B-17 crew photographed on this day.

A stateside soldier's letter this day:

JULY 20, 1943, SANTA ANA, CALIFORNIA

Thursday, July 5, 1923. President Harding departs for Alaska.

 President Harding boarded the USS Henderson for Alaska, departing from Tacoma.

Marine Corps guard for President Harding.

The Henderson was a troop ship.

Wednesday, June 30, 1943. Forgotten battles in the Pacific.

A U.S. Army Air Corps P40 provides air cover at Rendova.

The commencement of Operation Cartwheel, which would see a series of amphibious landings, began in the South Pacific with landings on New George and Rendova by the U.S. Army and U.S Marine, Woodlark Island by the U.S. Army, and Kiriwina by the U.S. Army.  It wouldn't stop there.

An  Alligator (LVT) on Rendova Island.  New US technology was coming to bear on the war in the Pacific.

Rendova was occupied by about 120 Japanese troops. 6,000 Americans would land, of which four wuld lose their lives.

U.S. troops landing on Rendova.

Woodlark and Kiriwina Islands were significant enough to bear their own operational name, Operation Chronicle, although it was part of Operation Cartwheel.

Troops disembarking in Operation Chronicle.

It was an unopposed landing.

The Battle of Wickham Anchorage commenced between the US and the Japanese on Vangunu.

As was so often the case during World War Two, the attention of the news and public eye had been on the ETO, when all of a sudden, something significant happened in the Pacific.  Most of these battles, of this campaign, are now forgotten.

Florence Ballard of The Supremes was born in Detroit.  She'd die due to blood clots at age 32 in 1976.

Monday, June 28, 1943. The bombing of Cologne.

Today in World War II History—June 28, 1943: Royal Air Force bombs Cologne, Germany, heavily damaging the cathedral and ending the Battle of the Ruhr—total of 872 British bombers have been lost.

From Sarah Sundin's blog.  Other sources would regard the battle as going on through July 31, which is how I would place it.

On this raid, 608 aircraft, including participated of various types, of which 50 were lost. 4,377 Germans, which of course would have been mostly civilians, were killed, about 10,000 injured.  230,000 people were made homeless. Forty-three industrial, six German Army and about 15,000 other buildings were destroyed.

The Germans, on the same day, began construction of rocket launching complexes along the English Channel.  At the Peenemünde Army Research Center, it successfully launched a V2 rocket as Adolf Hitler watched and unsuccessfully launched one which crashed nearby.

The United States Army Air Force changed its aircraft insignia.  It had been:

This insignia had been adopted on May 15, 1942, in order to omit the red ball in the center of the star, which was a feature of the insignia thath predated it. There were fears the red ball could have been mistaken for the Japanese insignia.  A special variant of this insignia had been modified for Operation Torch, which was:

By NiD.29 - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=19785085

Research had since shown that shapes, rather than colors, were more important for aircraft identification, so on this date, the following insignia was adopted:

In the Pacific, the red border was omitted by some units.

Sunday, June 20, 1943. Race riots in Detroit, Action in the Pacific.

A three-day race riot that would result in the deaths of 34 people broke out in Detroit, starting at the Belle Island park as a fistfight.

Race riots were a feature of Detroit life for many years. The city had been a major destination during the Great Migration, given its industrial employment opportunities.

The Allies commenced the New Georgia Campaign against the Japanese.  The first action was a Marine Corps landing on the Kula Gulf on New Georgia.

The Battle of Lababia Ridge began on New Guinea, with Australians advancing on Japanese positions.  The battle would last for three days and result in an Australian victory.

Sarah Sundin noted that Oscar Holmes became the first black pilot in the U.S. Navy on this day, but only because the Navy was not aware that the light skinned Holmes was in fact black.

The Navy did discover his ethnicity later on, but by that point judged that it would have been too embarrassing to note it in any fashion.

A U.S. meteorological flight over northern Quebec discovered the The Pingualuit Crater (Cratère des Pingualuit:), formerly called the "Chubb Crater" and later the "New Quebec Crater" (Cratère du Nouveau-Québec).

Friday, June 18, 1943. Marine Corps Life Lessons, Allied Action in the Med, Churchill shuffles the deck, Australia safe from invasion.

"How to disable an armed opponent is demonstrated by two girl Marines in training at Camp Lejeune, New River, North Carolina. The Marines with their backs to the camera are watching another display of feminine skill in the art of self-defense, June 18, 1943." 

Sarah Sundon notes, in her blog:

Today in World War II History—June 18, 1943: Allies intensify bombing of Sicily, Sardinia, and Naples . Australian Prime Minister John Curtin declares that the risk of Japanese invasion is over.

The all black 99th Pursuit Squadron, part of the those groups nicknamed the Tuskegee Airmen, flew in action against the Luftwaffe for the first time when six of their P-40s encountered 12 FW 190s over Pantelleria.  The 99th was outmatched in terms of what they were flying but suffered no losses.

Churchill removed Field Marshall Sir Archibald Wavell and Gen. Claude Auchinleck from command by promoting them uphill to Viceroy of India and Commander-in-Chief, India.

One of Wavell's first tasks in India was attempting to relieve the Bengal Famine of 1943. Auchinleck would go on to reorganize the Indian Army.

Monday, June 7, 1943. Australia rations butter.

 

Today in World War II History—June 7, 1943: Off Guadalcanal, US Thirteenth Air Force, US Navy, US Marine Corps, and Royal New Zealand Air Force fighter aircraft shoot down 24 Japanese A6M Zeros.

So notes Sarah Sundin, who also notes that Australia began butter rationing.   You can learn more about that here:

1943 Butter rationing introduced

Saturday, May 12, 1923. Operations Plan 712.

The Country Gentleman went to press with an illustration of a cow, a fitting illustration for today, which is the day we normally run far related posts.

Sigh. . . 

Lieutenant Colonel Earl Hancock "Pete" Ellis died in Palau.  He was the author of Operations Plan 712: Advanced Base Operations in Micronesia, which became the basis of the American amphibious campaign during World War Two.

A brilliant career Marine, who had entered the Corp in 1900 as a private, he had been on an intelligence gathering mission in the Far East at the time of his death in Palau, a fact which gave rise to rumors that the Japanese had poisoned whiskey he was drinking.  In reality, the whiskey itself was likely the poison, as Ellis was a severe alcoholic who likely finally succumbed to the natural implications of that condition.

Judge went to press with an illustration that featured a play on words.

The Chinese bandit kidnapping drama continued.

Sunday, February 21, 1943. Marines land on the Russells.

Marines land on Mbanka and Pavuuvu in the Solomons, near Guadalcanal.  Contrary to expectation, the Japanese had withdrawn.

Together, the islands are known as the Russell Islands.

The day prior, which I failed to mention, Rockwell's Freedom of Speech was a feature of The Saturday Evening Post, along with an article on the magazine upon that freedom.

Saturday, February 13, 1943. Corsairs deploy, Women Marines.

F4U Corsairs arrived at Henderson Field, Guadalcanal, their first combat deployment.  The first actual combat would take place two days later.

While a carrier plane, the Corsair was at first deployed from land airstrips out of concerns that the high angle at which it sat when on its tail would make carrier operations difficult.  This was rapidly proven a false fear, as the Royal Navy put their Corsairs to carrier operations immediately.

The Marine Corps announced the formation of the Marine Corps Women's Voluntary Reserve.

There was a fair amount of resistance to the women's branch of the Marines within the Marine Corps itself, at first, even though this had also been done in World War One.

Sarah Sundin noted the anniversary of World War Two female marines on her blog:

Today in World War II History—February 13, 1943: US Marine Corps Women’s Reserve is officially established. Boston Navy Yard is awarded the Army-Navy “E” Award for excellence in production.

She also noted that the Germans required Tunisian Jews to pay a fine for being, basically, Jewish, showing how the German war effort was more and more focused on the Jews, rather than winning the war, which of course they were losing. 

The Germans won the Battle of Krasny Bor outside of Leningrad.

Tuesday, January 30, 1973. The return of PFC Ronald L. Ridgeway.

The Defense Department discovered that a North Vietnamese provided list of 555 POWs included Marine PFC Ronald L. Ridgeway of Houston, who had been listed as Killed In Action.  He would be promoted to Sergeant and medically discharged in November 1973.

His girlfriend, Lawanda Taylor, had not married since his disappearance in 1968, and they would subsequently marry.  He would go to work in the Veterans Administration.

Chae Myung-shin (채명신,; 蔡命新), commander of South Korean forces in South Vietnam.  He had served in the Imperial Japanese Army as a conscript late in World War Two, and then escaped to South Korean to avoid the Communists.   A Korean Protestant Christian from a Christian family, he died in 2013 at age 88.

On the same day, the first 125 of 37,000 South Korean troops in Vietnam left the country. The South Korean Army retained a large presence in South Vietnam right up into 1973 and had to be pressured by the US to leave, although the US also considered leaving South Korean troops in the country into 1974 given the slow progress of the ARVN in the regions the Korean troops were located.  By 1973, South Korean troops constituted the vast majority of foreign combat troops in South Vietnam

Senator John C. Stennis was shot and wounded in front of his Washington, D. C. home in a robbery attempt.

The rock band Wicked Lester rebranded itself and performed for the first time as KISS.

Sunday, December 27, 1942. Wars within wars.

Today in World War II History—December 27, 1942: Smolensk Committee

Sarah Sundin reports on the organization of this committee on this day, in 1942.  The Committee of Anti Stalin Soviet citizens would lead to the formation of the Russian Liberation Army, recruited from Soviet POWs. 

The RLA was only a portion of the body of Soviet citizenry that took up arms against the USSR, or which otherwise cooperated in the German war effort.  Motives for joining the German effort were mixed and varied, with some individuals being genuine anti-communists or non-Russian nationalist, and others just trying to avoid death and starvation at German hands.  While many of the other armed groups saw active service, the RLA wasn't deployed until the very end of the war, and at that time would not fully obey German orders.

RLA Flag.

Organization of formal units from Russian volunteers was slow in part due to the fact that liberating any Slavic lands was not part of the German war aim, and the Nazis generally despised the Slavic people.  For this reason, it tended to occur informally at the front first, where Cossacks in particular threw in with the Germans.

A Marine Corps attempt to take Mount Asten on Guadalcanal failed.