The RAF commenced the airborne Battle of Berlin on this day in 1943, hitting Berlin with 440 Lancaster bombers in a nighttime raid. The raid killed 131 Berliners, caused light damage and resulted in the loss of nine aircraft with 53 airmen. Raids would continue through March, 1944.
Cordell Hull addressed a joint session of Congress on the Moscow Conference.
The Germans opened the Ebensee concentration camp, with the first prisoners being non-Jewish.
The 1st Panzer Division pushed the Red Army out of Zhytomyr.
The U.S. Army issued a report on a newly encountered rifle, the FG42
German paratrooper in raid to free Mussolini carrying a FG42. By Bundesarchiv, Bild 101I-567-1503A-01 / Toni Schneiders / CC-BY-SA 3.0, CC BY-SA 3.0 de, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=5412659
Never completely finished in terms of design, the FG42 was arguably the world's first battle rifle, although it is often called an assault rifle. The selective fire rifle, firing the standard full sized German 8x57 round and was designed to fill the role of rifle, light machinegun and submachinegun. It was made in fairly limited numbers.
Following World War Two, the concept would be adopted by NATO countries, in part because of the U.S. rejection of intermediate sized rounds. The FAL, G3, Stg 57, BM59 and M14 are all examples of post war battle rifles.
British soldiers exam a disabled SdKfz 222, the most common German four-wheel armored car.
The Germans, like the British, liked armored cars and used four wheel, six wheel and eight wheel varieties, the latter of which proved influential after World War Two and which inspired armored cars currently in use by the U.S., Canada and Germany. Their four wheeled variants were in the Leichter Panzerspähwagen class and used for reconnaissance.
The U-718 accidentally rammed and sank the U-476 in the Baltic.
The Greek sailing vessels Agios Demetrios and Kanelos were shelled and sunk south-east of the Kassandra peninsula and Strati, Greece by the Royal Navy, although I don't know why.
The HMS Chanticleer was torpedoed off Portugal and damaged beyond repair.
The Empire Dunstan was torpedeoed and sunk in the Ionian Sea.
German patrol boats sank the Soviet No. 35 motor boat in the Black Sea.
The Columbian Ruby was sunk by the U-516.
The Liberty Ship Sambridge was sunk by the I27 in the Gulf of Aden, where you don't really think of Japanese submarines operating.
The Sanae, a Japanese destroyers, was sunk by U.S. submarines.
French aircraft carrier off of Roosevelt Roads, Puerto Rico, November 18, 1943.
Major Axel von dem Bussche, a confederate of Claus von Stauffenberg, planned to assassinate Adolf Hitler with a concealed landmine which he planned to detonate while embracing Hitler during a viewing of a new winter uniform the striking looking Major would be modeling. The viewing was canceled when an Allied air raid in Berlin destroyed the rail car in which the new uniforms were contained.
Von dem Bussche was of German noble lineage, as the name indicated, and had turned against the Nazis after accidentally witnessing a 1942 massacre of Jews in Ukraine. He volunteered to attempt the assassination again in 1944 and was set to do so when he was badly wounded on the Russian Front and had to have a leg amputated. His being in the hospital at the time of the July 20 plot saved him from being a suspect in it.
An East Westphalian by birth, much of his ancestral holdings were in East Germany after the war, which required him to pursue a civilian career, which he in turn did. After 1990, however, he was a plaintiff in a lawsuit seeking their return, which failed. His eldest daughter, however, has since bought the larger portions back from the Federal Republic of Germany. He died in 1993 at the age of 73.
The Battle of Leros ended with an Allied surrender. The Germans, however, had taken tremendous casualties in the effort, and were on the verge of calling the offensive off when the surrender came.
The British village of Tyneham in Dorset was ordered evacuated by the British War Department, which needed the grounds for a training area. It remains a British military facility today.
The U.S. Army Air Force struck heavy water facilities at Rjukan and a molybdenum refinery at Knaben, damagign the German nuclear weapons effort.
USS Corvina.
The submarine USS Corvina was sunk by the Japanese submarine I-176, becoming the only U.S. submarine to be sunk by another submarine.
Why does the press keep asking this really stupid question? Hamas didn't attack the U.S. Why would U.S. intelligence be obligated to pick up an intended attack against another country? If there was an intelligence failure, it was an Israeli one, not an American one.
2. Second Amendment.
FWIW, Israel, contrary to what some imagine, has relatively strict gun control laws, but a sort of semi moderate license provision. The U.S. Department of Justice notes:
In Israel guns are strictly regulated yet widely available to law-abiding citizens who hold gun permits; gun control and tough punishment have made it difficult for criminals to acquire guns.
Abstract
There is no clear right to carry a gun in Israel. Nothing similar to the Second Amendment of the U.S. Constitution exists. In theory, the policy is very strict. No one may own or carry a gun without showing a reason to do so. A special permit by the Interior Ministry is then required. The permit must have the approval of the police and includes information about the owner and the gun type. It is easy for a law-abiding citizen (with no criminal record) to get a permit for a handgun. There is no distinction between carrying a gun and possessing it. People who have a permit to own a handgun or other weapon are allowed to carry it with them. The police and the court take seriously the felony of possessing a firearm without a permit, which almost always means that the gun is stolen. People with previous criminal records caught with firearms are generally sentenced to a year or two in prison. The "gun density" in Israel is very high, despite the laws. The strict limitation of gun ownership to law-abiding citizens combined with strict enforcement against those who have guns without a permit apparently works well in Israel to keep the homicide rate low; there are 40-60 murders a year in a population of four and one-half million.
Whatever the U.S. Department of Justice thinks about things, Israel feels compelled to loosen the system up and Israeli Minister of National Security Itamar Ben-Gvir declared last Sunday; “Today I directed the Firearms Licensing Division to go on an emergency operation in order to allow as many citizens as possible to arm themselves. The plan will take effect within 24 hours.”
It's easy to go all molṑn labé on this, but here's a true instance where something like the 2nd Amendment as originally conceived, or perhaps as conceived of in the pages of the American Rifleman, may have made an actual difference.
If I lived in Israel, I wouldn't go anywhere without a handgun.
3. What's up, NPR?
Meet the Press, This Week, and Face the Nation all featured this event on their weekend show but as of this morning, NPR's Politics hasn't touched it.
Eh?
That's just weird. What's up NPR?
4. And the difference would be what?
Matt Gaetz is supporting funding for Israel in the wake of this crisis, as he should.
There's an imperfect democracy that's fighting for its life against a foreign invasion by forces that claim its land, led by a Jewish Prime Minister.
Israel?
No, Ukraine.
Funding Israel but not Ukraine makes no sense whatsoever, unless of course you have a lot of Jewish constituents in your district and your decision is purely political.
Hmmm. . .
By the way, even Marjorie Taylor Greene is criticizing Gaetz for leaving the government weakened due to his leading the charge to take out Kevin McCarthy as Speaker.
5. Wouldn't you like to visit?
I've been asked that question by a certain friend of mine for years. I have never had a desire to visit Israel. My mother, however, went on a Church sponsored trip there. A lot of Americans and Canadians who go there do so as they are religious tourists, pilgrims really.
Well, I'm Catholic, obviously, and I have no desire at all to go there.
I'd like to see Rome, but not to the degree that I'm sufficiently motivated to actually go there.
I guess its the lack of an ancestral connection. Christ brought salvation to everyone and while, as we know "salvation is from the Jews", my ancestors weren't from the region and, while perhaps it speaks ill of me, I don't feel any reason to visit there.
The HMS Panther was sunk by a German Ju 87. The sinking would be the last Stuka victory over a significant British target.
Heavy air action occured between the USAAF aircraft and the Luftwaffe off of the Rhodes. Over twenty Ju87s were shot down, but they did sink the HMS Panther. One US P-38 was lost. The German dive bombers were attempting to attack ships of the Royal Navy that were detailed to support the Dodecanese campaign.
The very large land based dive bomber had been a huge success from its entry into service prior to World War Two. It was first deployed in action in Spain, during the Spanish Civil War, but by this point its slow speed and the lack of a German ability to escort it meant that it was rapidly becoming undeployable in the West. This wold not be true in the East, where it would continue on, particularly in an anti tank role, until the end of the war.
The USS Buck was sunk off of Salerno by the U-616.
SS operative Herbert Kappler was informed that the removal of Rome's Jews was directly ordered by Adolf Hitler. Kappler asked for them to remain and be employed on construction projects in the city.
While the Ju87 was reaching its eclipse in the west, the USAAF bomber fleet was increasing its influence.
Egypt and Syria launched a surprise attack on Israel timed for the Yom Kippur holy day. The attack oddly commenced at 2:05 p.m.
It would be the largest of the Arab Israeli Wars, and one in which the Israeli Defense Force fared much more poorly than it had previously. Egypt's goals were limited, involving crossing the Suez Canal, which they succeeded in doing. Israeli forces would ultimately repulse the invading forces and come very near the Syrian capital of Damascus, but the results allowed the Egyptians to bargain for peace terms with Israel in later years.
Arab forces fared very well at first, catching the IDF off guard. Syrian advances caused the Israeli government to distribute Israel's small stock of nuclear weapons to is air force in case Arab forces advanced inside Israel itself, making this a non superpower war that came relatively close to becoming a nuclear one.
"The Bazooka" featured on the cover of Science News.
The Red Army took Smolensk.
The Wehrmacht issues a decree requiring the removal from its ranks of anyone who had two Jewish, or otherwise "non-Aryan" grandparents, as a defeated Germany dove deeper into an anti-Semitic barbarity.
The Yankees took the American League pennant, beating the Detroit Tigers in 14 innings.
The United States Army revealed the AT M-1 rocket launcher, the bazooka, to the press.
M1 bazooka.
Like the PIAT, the new anti-tank weapon was first used in North Africa, but would come into its own in Europe.
The Red Army captured Nizhyn.
Mussolini announced he was returning to power, which in the context of his situation, meant returning to figurehead power of an Italian puppet rump state. On the same day, the Germans announced the death penalty for Italians caught with firearms.
German paratroopers advanced on the Vatican at St. Peter's Square.
British paratroopers occupied Cos in the Aegean.
Former internee James Tanaka working in the New York City studio of a movie cartoon producer.
The HMHS Newfoundland, a hospital ship, was hit by a German glide bomb in the Mediterranean, while the HMS Uganda was hit by a guided German bomb.
The new German areal munition technology was taking quite a toll.
The HMS Uganda.
The Newfoundland had to be scuttled. The Uganda was heavily damaged, but returned to service in 1944 as a Canadian ship. She'd see service again during the Korean War as the HMCS Quebec.
The US began to distribute residents of the Tule Lake Relocation Center, which was being converted to a maximum security detention center for Nisei regarded as a significant threat.
Hitler told his aid Karl Wolff that he wanted Pope Pius XII deported to Germany. On the same day, German emissary to the Vatican Ernst von Weiszacker delivered Hitler's assurances to the Vatican that its sovereignty would be respected.
German counterattacks at Salerno came within one mile of the beaches before being stopped by naval gunfire. Units from the 82nd Airborne were parachuted in as reinforcements.
In Greece, the Italian Acqui Division resisted German efforts to disarm it.
American actor David Bacon was murdered in Santa Monica. Surviving a knifing long enough to attempt to drive off, he was found barely alive in his car, wearing only a swimsuit. He left a pregnant wife. Twenty-nine years old at the time, the mystery has never been solved.
President Zelenskyy has been in Turkey where he met with and received oral support from the Turkish government, and where he appeared with Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I, the head of the Eastern Orthodox Churches.
July 10, 2023
US v. ISIL
US Reaper drones killed had been flying ISIL leader Usamah al-Muhajir, while he was riding a motorcycle in the Aleppo region. The same drones had earlier been harassed by Russian fighter aircraft.
July 11, 2023
Russo Ukrainian War
Turkey has quit blocking Sweden's admittance into NATO.
Russian submarine commander Stanislav Rzhitskiy, whose vessel fired on a Ukrainian city early in the war, was shot dead on a morning run near the Olimp sport complex in Krasnodar, southern Russia, according to reports.
July 12, 2023
Russo Ukrainian War
Turkey dropped objections to Sweden joining NATO, which shall now occur.
A missile strike reportedly killed Deputy Commander of the Russian Southern Military District, Lieutenant General Oleg Tsokov.
July 13, 2023
Russo Ukrainian War
Maj. Gen. Ivan Popov, the commander of the 58th Army, has been relieved of his command. He announced his removal to his troops.
The Group of Seven and NATO signed agreements to offer Ukraine long-term security commitments, signalling a more formal arrangement to come, likely after the conclusion of the war.
This more or less means that unless Russia completely defeats Ukraine in the current war, one of Russia's war aims has been lost.
July 14, 2023
Russo Ukrainian War
The US will be deploying 3,000 Reservists to Europe in support of the US's efforts to aid Ukraine.
July 14, cont:
By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, including sections 121 and 12304 of title 10, United States Code, I hereby determine that it is necessary to augment the active Armed Forces of the United States for the effective conduct of Operation Atlantic Resolve in and around the United States European Command’s area of responsibility. In furtherance of this operation, under the stated authority, I hereby authorize the Secretary of Defense, and the Secretary of Homeland Security with respect to the Coast Guard when it is not operating as a service in the Navy, under their respective jurisdictions, to order to active duty any units, and any individual members not assigned to a unit organized to serve as a unit of the Selected Reserve, or any member in the Individual Ready Reserve mobilization category and designated as essential under regulations prescribed by the Secretary concerned, not to exceed 3,000 total members at any one time, of whom not more than 450 may be members of the Individual Ready Reserve, as they deem necessary, and to terminate the service of those units and members ordered to active duty.
This order is not intended to, and does not, create any right or benefit, substantive or procedural, enforceable at law or in equity by any party against the United States, its departments, agencies, or entities, its officers, employees, or agents, or any other person.
JOSEPH R. BIDEN JR.
This is the first time I've actually seen an order which refers to the Individual Ready Reserve. It makes sense, actually, as IRR troops may have individual skills that would be useful in a t raining role.
My guess is that the IRR troops will be all volunteers for activation.
July 15, 2023
Russo Ukrainian War
Putin has indicated that he intends to keep the Wagner Group as a fighting force, but separated from its leader.
The SA, we would not, never amounted to what it had been before Ernst Röhm was offed.
July 16, 2023
Russo Ukrainian War
Wagner has been seen in Belarus and there are plans for it to conduct joint drills with the Belorussian army.
Something about this is really odd, and has to relate to whatever deal was struck. The Belorussian Army is generally regarded as pretty bad, FWIW.
Russian 106th Guards Airborne (VDV) Division Commander Major General Vladimir Seliverstov has been relieved of his command. It is not known why, but he was noted for speaking up for his troops.
July 17, 2023
Russo Ukrainian War
Russia has pulled out of the Black Sea grain shipment deal.
On This Week, Chris Christie maintained that Russia's war in Ukraine is being backed by the Chinese for Chinese objectives. This is becoming a persistent Republican theme. That the Chinese may be backing Russia doesn't surprise me, but the suggestion that the war is a Chinese proxy war, which is being made, doesn't ring true.
July 18, 2023
Russo Ukrainian War
Attempting to take advantage of commitment of Ukrainian forces elsewhere, the Russians are mounting an offensive in northeast Ukraine.
Ukraine hit the bridge from Crimea to the mainland again, heavily damaging it.
July 19, 2023
Russo Ukrainian War
As Russian minefields take their toll on western-supplied tanks and Ukrainian sappers, their forces have so-far retaken approximately five miles of the sixty miles they need to split the land-bridge connecting Russia to Crimea. The land between Mariupol in the east and Melitopol to the west is seen as the vital ground to achieving this.
It is incredibly tough going for the Ukrainians. They lack the air cover and advanced jets to protect their ground forces from Russian attack helicopters and fighters. Their soldiers, meanwhile must negotiate miles of minefields, tank-traps and then ultimately the heavily dug Russian trench networks.
This gruelling endeavour was always going to take longer than the occasionally impatient international audience was prepared to wait for. It is a military effort of immense proportions, where mass, manpower, morale, equipment, stocks, logistics, grit and luck all play vital roles. So far, the Ukrainians are displaying all of these military qualities.
* * *
While much fighting remains to be done across Ukraine’s southern farmlands over the coming months, governments across the west must be prepared for the grim prospect of territorial concessions as one potential political outcome of a failed counter-offensive. Whether a Putinist Kremlin would respect such a deal if Kyiv were to receive security pledges short of full Nato membership is extremely doubtful.
Regardless, this would surely be a favoured outcome for China’s ruling “wolf warrior” foreign policy elite. Beijing would be utterly delighted if the war were to end with Ukraine divided, Russian troops permanently in the Donbas harassing Kyiv and Europe, and Nato fractured on political lines. Such an outcome would be a gift to China as Xi Jinping begins to ramp up his own imperialistic and extra-territorial ambitions across the Indo-Pacific – and a devastating defeat for the West.
The Telegraph.
Russia is amassing vast numbers of troops and equipment along the northern frontline in Ukraine, Kyiv has warned.
Serhii Cherevatyi, spokesperson for the Eastern Group of Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, told local television that Moscow had gathered more than 100,000 troops on the Lyman-Kupiansk axis, as well as 900 tanks, 555 artillery systems and 370 multiple rocket launchers.
Newsweek.
The Ukrainians are obviously not beaten, and ISW feels the troops in the north that Russia intends to commit to a counteroffensive are of poor quality and will not be successful, but it's obviously the case that the Ukrainian offensive is not achieving its goals in the face of Russian defense in depth and massive use of mines.
July 20, 2023
Russo Ukrainian War
Russia conducted a missile offensive on Ukrainian ports yesterday, no doubt designed to disrupt Ukrainian grain shipments.
July 21, 2023
Russo Ukrainian War
July 21, cont.
Igor Girkin, who is associated with the shooting down of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17, killing 298 people, was arrested in Russia today by Russian authorities.
Heads continue to keep rolling.
July 24, 2023
Russo Ukrainian War
Now Ukraine is in a battle to get back more of the land that Russia seized from it. It's already taken back about 50 percent of what was initially seized. Now they're in a very hard fight to take back more. These are still relatively early days of the counteroffensive. It is tough.
Secretary of State Anthony Blinken.
Drones hit two buildings in Moscow.
A Russian missile strike on Odessa badly damaged the Cathedral of the Transfiguration.
July 26, 2023
Russo Ukrainian War
Ukraine has launched a massive offensive action against Russians in the Zaporizhzhia region. They appear to have cleared defensive obstacles and are pushing through.
There are now multiple reports that a "second phase" or "main phase" of the Ukrainian summer offensive have been launched
Niger
Members of the armed forces are attempting a coup.
Syria
Russian Air Force fighters continue to interfere with American drones.
July 31, 2023
Russo Ukrainian War
Ukrainian drones struck targets in Moscow again within the last 24 hours.
Former President Donald Trump, and current candidate, urged aid to Ukraine to be suspended until evidence regarding Hunter Biden is submitted fully to Congress.
These topics are not rationally related to each other, but Trump is demonstrating increasing irrationality in the face of multiple criminal investigations concerning his post election activities.
China v. US
It is being asserted that China has inserted malware into computer networks servicing U.S bases.
August 4, 2023
An attack on the Russian port of Novorossiysk by Ukrainian drones resulted in a Russian warship capsizing.
August 6, 2023
Niger
The military asked for help from the Wagner Group to defend itself against anticipated military action by African states to restore the democracy in that country.
Russo Ukrainian War
From the Trib:
DRONES STRIKE
RUSSIAN TANKER, PORT
Russia raised the upper limit for conscription to 30 years of age.
August 7, 2023
Niger
Niger has closed its airspace.
August 13, 2023
Russo Ukrainian War
Poland is deploying up to 10,000 troops on its border with Belarus due to the presence of Wagner mercenaries being deployed on the Belorussian side of the border.
August 17, 2023
Russo Ukrainian War
Ukraine has taken Urozhaine.
August 18, 2023
Russo Ukrainian War
A Defense Department briefing of Congressmen has stated that Ukraine will not reach the southeastern city of Melitopol, presuming that to be a key objective, and therefore will not sever Russia’s land bridge to Crimea this year.
The report attributes it to minefields and Ukraine determining to ignore Western advice to use a schwerpunkt, particularly after having encountered initial heavy Russian resistance and large-scale losses, something amplified by a lack of air cover.
The report finds that Ukrainian forces will remain several miles outside of Melitopol at the conclusion of the offensive.
There's no way to put a happy face on this conclusion, if it comes true. Opting for attriting Russian forces was reverting to World War One tactics.
At the same time, however, there are now reports of Ukraine committing troops in large numbers which it had held back earlier.
August 18, cont:
A less gloomy view:
August 20, 2023
Russo Ukrainian War
Ukrainian troops have broken through to the north of Tokmak.
Ukrainian forces conducted a drone strike on Soltsy airbase in Novgorod Oblast.
Wagner boss Yevgeny Prigozhin was on the passenger list of a jet which crashed killing all on board, Russia's civil aviation authority has said.
The BBC.
It can't help but be noted that opponents of Putin have a bizarrely high attrition rate and an unusual number of accidents. It could just be coincidence, but it's weird.
cont:
The early reports had this plane as shot down.
Video shows a plane that looks like it was shot down.
cont:
President Biden on the death of Wagner Group leader Yevgeny Prigozhin: "I said I would be careful of what I drink and what I rode in. I don't know for a fact what happened, but I'm not surprised."
CSPAN.
As an aside, somehow those who hate everything Biden and love everything Trump will find a way to criticize that pretty honest comment, whereas if Trump said the same thing (which he couldn't due to his weird diction), they'd think it the soul of wit.
She was the flight attendant of Embraer Legacy 600 Business Jet blown out of the sky in order to kill Yevgeny Prigozhin and other Wagnerites. The young woman had taken the flight in order to be able to return home and to her next station early.
It's not possible to weep for Yevgeny Prigozhin. He lived by the sword and died by it, and the actions of his men have been brutal. It is possible to hope that he realized the gravity of his sins and reconciled before his death.
But killing innocent stewardesses is just flat out murder.
August 25, 2023
Russo Ukrainian War
Ukraine conducted an amphibious commando raid on the facilities of the Crimean municipalities of Olenivka and Mayak.
August 27, 2023
Russo Ukrainian War
Ukrainian forces continue to grain in the western Zaporizhia Oblast and may be close to breaking out.
August 30, 2023
Gabon
The Gabonese Army has taken over that country in a coup following an election which returned to office a member of the family that has ruled the country for 50 years.
Russo Ukrainian War.
Ukrainian paratroopers, in a ground assault role, are flanking Russian positions at Novoprokopivka, a town that sits on the T0408/0401 road threading south through Tokmak to Melitopol.
Ukraine is receiving an additional $250,000,000 in U.S. aid.
A Ukrainian drone attack occured on the airfield at Pskov.
August 31, 2023
China v. Taiwan
The US has approved $80,000,000 in aid to Taiwan under the Foreign Military Financing, something normally only done for soveign states.
Taiwan, which is the Republic of China, has never declared independence from China. Rather, it's claim to be China's legitimate government has been quietly abandoned over the years. The People's Republic of China, of course, claims the island as it's own and continually threatens to invade it. In reality, Taiwan is de facto independent if not de jure, a status which really ought to change, and which this is a step towards.
It'll probably enrage the Red menance.
Russo Ukrainian War
Ukrainian light infantry has infiltrated east of Russian field fortifications near Verbove.
Chechen Republic Head Ramzan Kadyrov has reiterated his loyalty to Russian President Vladimir Putin in a continued attempt to distance himself from the late Yevgeny Prigozhin. I ownder if he's avoiding going up stairs recently?
A German Henschel Hs 293 struck and sank the HMS Egret in the first successful anti shipping guided missile strike in history.
German Wunderwaffe were beginning to come online.
Former French President Albert Lebrun was arrested by the Gestapo, as was André François-Poncet, the former French ambassador to Germany. Lebrun would survive the war, albeit in ill health, and breifly maintain to DeGaulle that he remained head of state, which DeGaulle ignored and which was legally incorrect in any event. François-Poncet would as well, and would repreise his pre-war role as ambassador to West Germany.
Insignia of the island hopping 43d Infantry Division. The 43d was a unit made up of mobilized National Guardsmen from New England. It was inactivated as a unit in 1963.
Elements of the US 43d Infantry Division landed on the Nauro Peninsula on Arundel in the Solomon's without opposition.
Unless you are exceptionally well versed on the war in the Pacific, you probably are unaware of this action, but it fit into many such forgotten landings by the Army and the Marine Corps during the war.
The Red Army retook Kotleva and Sevsk.
Following up on the US and British example, the Soviet Union and China gave limited recognition to the French Committee of National Liberation.
The USS Eldridge was commissioned. The Eldridge is famous for being part of a 1950s vintage hoax, in which merchant seaman Carl Meredith Allen fairly successfully convinced people that the ship had been made to disappear as part of a dangerous naval experiment during World War Two. There are people who still believe the hoax.
The Red Army prevailed in the Migorod Direction Offensive. On the same day, the Red Army took Zenkov and Akhtyrka, near Kharkiv.
Contrary to what I posted yesterday, some sources have today as the day Lord Mountbatten took command of the Southeast Asia theater, and the sources for today would be correct.
German "Fritz X" glide bomb, of the type most widely used and first used on this day in 1943.
Germany used glide bombs for the first time, with that deployment being made in the Bay of Biscay against Royal Navy and Royal Canadian Navy escort destroyers. Some crewmen were killed on the HMS Bideford.
In the same bay, the Royal Navy sank the U-523.
The last Japanese resistance on New Georgia was eliminated.
The Quebec Conference having ended, President Roosevelt made an address in Ottoawa to the Canaidan parliament.
August 25, 1943
Your Excellency Mr. Prime Minister, Members of the Parliament, and all my good friends and neighbors of the Dominion of Canada:
It was exactly five years ago last Wednesday that I came to Canada to receive the high honor of a degree at Queen's University. On that occasion- one year before the invasion of Poland, three years before Pearl Harbor— I said:
"We in the Americas are no longer a far away continent, to which the eddies of controversies beyond the seas could bring no interest or no harm. Instead, we in the Americas have become a consideration to every propaganda office and to every general staff beyond the seas. The vast amount of our resources, the vigor of our commerce and the strength of our men have made us vital factors in world peace whether we choose it or not."
We did not choose this war—and that "we" includes each and every one of the United Nations.
War was violently forced upon us by criminal aggressors who measure their standards of morality by the extent of the death and the destruction that they can inflict upon their neighbors.
In this war, Canadians and Americans have fought shoulder to shoulder—as our men and our women and our children have worked together and played together in happier times of peace.
Today, in devout gratitude, we are celebrating a brilliant victory won by British and Canadian and American fighting men in Sicily.
Today, we rejoice also in another event for which we need not apologize. A year ago Japan occupied several of the Aleutian Islands on our side of the ocean, and made a great "to-do" about the invasion of the continent of North America. I regret to say that some Americans and some Canadians wished our Governments to withdraw from the Atlantic and the Mediterranean campaigns and divert all our vast supplies and strength to the removal of the Japs from a few rocky specks in the North Pacific.
Today, our wiser councils have maintained our efforts in the Atlantic area, and the Mediterranean, and the China Seas, and the Southwest Pacific with ever-growing contributions; and in the Northwest Pacific a relatively small campaign has been assisted by the Japs themselves in the elimination of that last Jap from Attu and Kiska. We have been told that the Japs never surrender; their headlong retreat satisfies us just as well.
Great councils are being held here on the free and honored soil of Canada- councils which look to the future conduct of this war and to the years of building a new progress for mankind.
To these councils Canadians and Americans alike again welcome that wise and good and gallant gentleman, the Prime Minister of Great Britain.
Mr. King, my old friend, may I through you thank the people of Canada for their hospitality to all of us. Your course and mine have run so closely and affectionately during these many long years that this meeting adds another link to that chain. I have always felt at home in Canada and you, I think, have always felt at home in the United States.
During the past few days in Quebec, the Combined Staffs have been sitting around a table—which is a good custom—talking things over, discussing ways and means, in the manner of friends, in the manner of partners, and may I even say in the manner of members of the same family.
We have talked constructively of our common purposes in this war-of our determination to achieve victory in the shortest possible time—of our essential cooperation with our great and brave fighting allies.
And we have arrived, harmoniously, at certain definite conclusions. Of course, I am not at liberty to disclose just what these conclusions are. But, in due time, we shall communicate the secret information of the Quebec Conference to Germany, Italy, and Japan. We shall communicate this information to our enemies in the only language their twisted minds seem capable of understanding.
Sometimes I wish that that great master of intuition, the Nazi leader, could have been present in spirit at the Quebec Conference- I am thoroughly glad that he wasn't there in person. If he and his generals had known our plans they would have realized that discretion is still the better part of valor and that surrender would pay them better now than later.
The evil characteristic that makes a Nazi a Nazi is his utter inability to understand and therefore to respect the qualities or the rights of his fellow men. His only method of dealing with his neighbor is first to delude him with lies, then to attack him treacherously, then beat him down and step on him, and then either kill him or enslave him. And the same thing is true of the fanatical militarists of Japan.
Because their own instincts and impulses are essentially inhuman, our enemies simply cannot comprehend how it is that decent, sensible individual human beings manage to get along together and live together as good neighbors.
That is why our enemies are doing their desperate best to misrepresent the purposes and the results of this Quebec Conference. They still seek to divide and conquer allies who refuse to be divided just as cheerfully as they refuse to be conquered.
We spend our energies and our resources and the very lives of our sons and daughters because a band of gangsters in the community of Nations declines to recognize the fundamentals of decent, human conduct.
We have been forced to call out what we in the United States would call the sheriff's posse to break up the gang in order that gangsterism may be eliminated in the community of Nations.
We are making sure- absolutely, irrevocably sure—that this 'time the lesson is driven home to them once and for all. Yes, we are going to be rid of outlaws this time.
Every one of the United Nations believes that only a real and lasting peace can justify the sacrifices we are making, and our unanimity gives us confidence in seeking that goal.
It is no secret that at Quebec there was much talk of the postwar world. That discussion was doubtless duplicated simultaneously in dozens of Nations and hundreds of cities and among millions of people.
There is a longing in the air. It is not a longing to go back to what they call "the good old days." I have distinct reservations as to how good "the good old days" were. I would rather believe that we can achieve new and better days.
Absolute victory in this war will give greater opportunities to the world, because the winning of the war in itself is certainly proving to all of us up here that concerted action can accomplish things. Surely we can make strides toward a greater freedom from want than the world has yet enjoyed. Surely by unanimous action in driving out the outlaws and keeping them under heel forever, we can attain a freedom from fear of violence.
I am everlastingly angry only at those who assert vociferously that the four freedoms and the Atlantic Charter are nonsense because they are unattainable. If those people had lived a century and a half ago they would have sneered and said that the Declaration of Independence was utter piffle. If they had lived nearly a thousand years ago they would have laughed uproariously at the ideals of Magna Charta. And if they had lived several thousand years ago they would have derided Moses when he came from the Mountain with the Ten Commandments.
We concede that these great teachings are not perfectly lived up to today, but I would rather be a builder than a wrecker, hoping always that the structure of life is growing— not dying.
May the destroyers who still persist in our midst decrease. They, like some of our enemies, have a long road to travel before they accept the ethics of humanity.
Some day, in the distant future perhaps—but some day, it is certain—all of them will remember with the Master, "Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself."
Monsieur le Premier: Ma visite a la ville historique de Quebec rappelle vivement a mon esprit que le Canada est une nation fondee sur l'union de deux grandes races. L'harmonie de leur association dans l'egalite peut servir d'exemple a l'humanite toute entiere—un exemple partout dans le monde.
As per usual, this is being misreported, save for here in Amy Howe's reporting. The Court hasn't decided the issue, it decided to put the law back in place until the issue is decided.
Still, while 5 to 4, it's another example of the Court not doing what people claim it will, although this is an example of Roberts being the tie vote. . . again. That's also something that supposedly doesn't happen anymore, but it obviously does.
The question from here is does anyone really want this to be decided at the next level? 5 to 4 may be how it comes in should the issue make it all the way up to a final Supreme Court decision, which would mean that the 2nd Amendment isn't unlimited in scope, which indeed, it really is not. On the other hand, that four justices saw it the other way on something that's really simply regulatory in nature is surprising.
I've written a little about the AC-556, but it's hard to find information on Ruger's early competitor to the M16.
The AC-556 is a selective fire variant of the Ruger Mini 14. Occasionally you'll see one in the US at a gunshow, one that was sold early on to a police force when police forces didn't want to look like the 82nd Airborne Division. The Mini 14 was regarded as looking less military, or perhaps less hostile, so some police forces favored it. As I've noted here once before, the Wind River Reservation game warden carried, at one time, a Mini 30, the 7.62x39 variant of the Mini 14.
The selective fire variant is, of course, different in that its an assault rifle and was originally conceived of as a competitor to the M16.
That it did receive military and paramilitary use if known, but murky. The Marine Corps, which didn't like the M16, considered adopting them early on but Ruger couldn't supply the anticipated needs for the Corps so they went on to partially redesign it, leading to the later variants of the M16. The Corps, of course, no longer uses the M16/M4 at all, although the rifle it does use is closely related to it, omitting its gas system.
Some AC-556s were used by Royal Ulster Constabulary in Northern Ireland, which of course is policing use. French police still use a selective fire variant of the Mini 14, produced in France, some paramilitary units in the Philippines used them. The British Bermuda Regiment seems to have used them, although some claim they actually used the Mini 14.
Now it turns out that the United Arab Emirates army used them.
This is typical for the AC-556. You don't tend to find any large military using them, but they were used. But details are nearly impossible to come by.
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.
Turkey's first general election was held, which chose secondary electors who then would choose the Grand National Assembly. Only the Republican People's Party was allowed to exist, but the number of candidates was unlimited.
John Browning, the legendary and massively influential firearms designer, many of whose designs are still in use, unabated in their utility and not regarded as old, filed for his patent application for the Hi Power. He would die before it was granted in 1927.
British in Oosterbeek Left to right Pvt Ronald Philip Walker Pvt John Dugdale 10pin C.co 156 Para L.Cpt Noel Rosenberg 10 pin C.co 156 Para Pvt Alfred J Ward HQ Para Brgd. Driver for Hackett. Dugdale carries a Hi Power. Rosenberg might be. The Canadian manufactured John Ingleiss Hi Powers were adopted for British and Canadian airborne, that introducing the design to British troops.
The design went on to widespread use, seeing military use with every country in the British Commonwealth or which was formerly part of the late British Empire, as well as World War Two use by China and, ironically, Nazi Germany. Germany produced the pistol in occupied Belgian plants. It saw very limited experimental use with the US in the 1960s. I knew a Navy pilot, for instance, who was issued one.
Canadian troops training with Hi Power.
Regarded as obsolete, in recent years it has been phased out of British service, which commenced during World War Two with airborne troops, and most recently out of Canadian service. Canada chose to take this step as its World War Two manufactured pistols no longer had a reliable parts source. Ironically, just as they made their decision, a boom in manufacture of Hi Power pistols resumed, starting off a story in civilian, and perhaps military, markets much like that experienced by the M1911, which went through a similar story. The M1911 is, of course, also a Browning design.
Uruguayan marine with Hi Power.
The Hi Power is the pistol the U.S. should have adopted when it went to 9mm (and it shouldn't have gone to 9mm). The pistol was so widely used that at one time US special forces of various types would carry it on certain missions because, if one was dropped, it was evidence of who had been there.
Osage oil millionaire George Bigheart summoned Pawhuska Oklahoma lawyer W. Watkins Vaughn to his hospital deathbed, where he was receiving treatment for poisoning. Bigheart died the following day, and Vaughn was murdered on his way home, his body being found in Pershing, Oklahoma.
The Osage Indian Murders are the subject of the recently released movie, Killers of the Flower Moon, which is based on the 2017 book investigating the same.
The Glenrock Gazette reported on the recent KKK demonstration n that town.
The Glenrock Gazette, in its reporting, basically endorsed the racist organization as being one for law and order.
Bert Cole, famous local pilot, but one already known for a tragic airborne death in Evansville, died in an airplane accident himself.
From Reddit's 100 Years Ago sub, the inquiring photographer was out again. I was surprised how uniform these answers were.
I would not have guessed that there would be uniform answers. The fact that there is, speaks volumes of how women perceived their status at the time.
Indeed, in much of the US women had only recently received the vote, but it is true that they were highly restricted in what was regarded as appropriate work. That wouldn't really start changing for another fifty years, although that's probably a topic for a separate entry. Also clear here, however, social rules bothered some women. The really fascinating thing here is that it seemed not to be something vaguely in the background, but something that caused a lot of women, all the women in this sample, to hold deep seated resentments.
President Harding left the White House, for the last time in his life, to begin his whistle-stop tour of the West. The trip was billed a "Voyage of Understanding" and was even intended to have a detour to Alaska.
The President also relinquished control of his newspaper, The Marion Star. The paper still exists.
Automatic weapons, one of the things that made the Roaring Twenties roar, were making their appearance.
Pierre Laval told Frenchmen in a radio address to German occupied Vichy that an additional 200,000 Frenchmen would be needed to be sent to occupied Germany for war production, as the moral authority of Vichy rapidly evaporated.
Note the stencilled rank insignia on his helmet, and on at least one other NCO's. I've read it claimed that never occurred. Clearly it did. Note also that these troops are embarking, to be shippied overseas, dressed as for combat. And also, soldier on the left in the background has a M1903 Springfield.
The Army put out its weekly summation of the war news, with helpful tips on taking on tanks.
The tank illustration really is interesting, as I've sometimes wondered about the topics noted, particularly causing the tank to button up. German armor, like American armor, did not normally fight buttoned up as the visibility is so poor.
Expecting an infantryman to have a Molotov Cocktail, however, seems like a bit much.
Sarah Sundin reports:
Today in World War II History—May 31, 1943: British ships begin naval bombardment of island of Pantelleria between Tunisia and Sicily, adding to the aerial bombardment started May 18.
Archie Andrews, of comic book fame, appeared on the radio for the first time.
Folks like Robert Reich and other pundits who are not in the far right "let's default on the debt and destroy the global economy" camp are quoting the 14th Amendment a lot right now.
Why?
Well, consider this, it states:
Amendment XIV
Section 1.
All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the state wherein they reside. No state shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any state deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.
Section 2.
Representatives shall be apportioned among the several states according to their respective numbers, counting the whole number of persons in each state, excluding Indians not taxed. But when the right to vote at any election for the choice of electors for President and Vice President of the United States, Representatives in Congress, the executive and judicial officers of a state, or the members of the legislature thereof, is denied to any of the male inhabitants of such state, being twenty-one years of age, and citizens of the United States, or in any way abridged, except for participation in rebellion, or other crime, the basis of representation therein shall be reduced in the proportion which the number of such male citizens shall bear to the whole number of male citizens twenty-one years of age in such state.
Section 3.
No person shall be a Senator or Representative in Congress, or elector of President and Vice President, or hold any office, civil or military, under the United States, or under any state, who, having previously taken an oath, as a member of Congress, or as an officer of the United States, or as a member of any state legislature, or as an executive or judicial officer of any state, to support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof. But Congress may by a vote of two-thirds of each House, remove such disability.
Section 4.
The validity of the public debt of the United States, authorized by law, including debts incurred for payment of pensions and bounties for services in suppressing insurrection or rebellion, shall not be questioned. But neither the United States nor any state shall assume or pay any debt or obligation incurred in aid of insurrection or rebellion against the United States, or any claim for the loss or emancipation of any slave; but all such debts, obligations and claims shall be held illegal and void.
Section 5.
The Congress shall have power to enforce, by appropriate legislation, the provisions of this article.
The argument is logical enough, and pertains to this:
The validity of the public debt of the United States, authorized by law, . . . shall not be questioned.
A cap on debt that operates to dishonor the debt, intentional or not, as long as it was authorized by law, cannot be questioned.
The stupid debt caps call it into question.
Clearly, they are unconstitutional, just as pundits, including those on the left, note. And firebrands on the right who hold otherwise are demonstrating contempt for the constitution.
So let's next consider this.
A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.
The same thing is at work here. Not infringing, means not infringing.
The point here isn't to argue the policy or wisdom of either provisions. Rather, you don't get to depart from the logic train once you board it. Or, in other words, if you are a guy like Robert Reich, you can't argue that you can go ahead and infringe the Second Amendment, as it doesn't mean what it says, while arguing that you must apply the 14th Amendment, as it means what it says. Nor can you be Kevin McCarthy, and argue that the Second Amendment is plain in its meaning, while turning a blind eye to the 14th Amendment.
They both mean what they say, but if you argue one, you must accept the other. If you can logically argue to depart from the text of one, you must do the same as they're both so plain.
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