Thursday, April 27, 1944. Exercise Tiger

Friendly fire due to lack of coordination killed US servicemen participating in Exercise Tiger, a landing practice operation.  The number of casualties inflicted remains unknown, but was large.

Later that night, into the next day, three American LST's were attacked and sunk in Lyme Bay by E-boats.

As a result of these incidents, over 700 troops were killed, with 400 of them being on a single LST.  The incident was kept secret.

The UK banned all travel outside Great Britain.

Quebec's legislative assembly voted 55 to 4 for a motion disapproving of sending conscripts overseas.

The Soviet Air Force raided Lvov at night.  

The city had been in pre-war Poland.  Now, as Lviv, it's in Ukraine, and is once again subject to Russian attack.

The U-803 was sunk by a mine in the Baltic.

Today In Wyoming's History: April 27: 1944  The Wyoming Stock Growers Association gave the University of Wyoming its archives, a major contribution given the enormous role the WSGA had in the early history of the state. Attribution:  Wyoming State Historical Society.

Sewell Avery, the principal of Montgomery Ward, and a highly successful and extremely conservative businessman, had to be forcibly removed from his office due to his refusal to settle a strike.  Ward's was delivering vital war goods.  Avery would accordingly not only be carted out of his office by two Military Policemen, but temporary lose his office with the company.

Upon being carried out and meeting the Attorney General who was delegated to the matter, he yelled.

 To hell with the government, you... New Dealer!

He subsequently complained that the government was leading the nation into a government of dictators.

While a savvy businessman, he misread the post-war economy and the changes that the war had brought to labor relations, and Montgomery Ward lost its position as a department store leader to Sears Roebuck.  In another misread, Avery had assigned the rights to Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer to the company employee who had written the story for a Ward's promotional.

For some reason, I feel that Avery would be a Trump supporter.

Wednesday, April 26, 1944. Pyrrihic Kidnapping.

Example of wartime propaganda aimed at the Japanese.

In a mission months in the making, members of the SOE and Cretan resistance kidnapped Heinrich Kreipe.

Originally directed at Gen. Friedrich-Wilhelm Müller as a reprisal for actions committed under his orders, Kreipe had succeeded him by the time the SOE team arrived.  Kreipe's kidnapping would cause Müller to return and order mass reprisals, something that had not occurred under Kreipe.

In short, it was a pointless action and poorly thought out, with ultimately tragic results.

Kreipe would be reunited with his kidnappers in a 1972 Greek television program.

In New Guinea, American beachheads at Tanahmerah Bay and Humboldt Bay were linked up.  Australian forces took Alexishafen.

The Yoshida Maru No. 1 was sunk by the USS Jack resulting in the loss of 2,669 men.

The U-488 was sunk off of Cape Verde by the U.S. Navy.

The I-180 was sunk off of Chirikof Island by the USS Gilmore.

The Royal Navy, in an effort to attack the Tirpitz which failed due to weather, found a coastal convoy instead and sunk three ships  in it.

The POW camp in Hoopeston, Illinois, received its first prisoners.

Last prior edition:

Tuesday, April 25, 1944. The Blood for Goods deal extended, Air disaster at Montreal, the death of George Herriman.

1940s, 1944, 1944 at the Movies, Brazil, Commandos, Munich Germany, New Guinea, Personalities, Prisoners of War, Royal Air Force, Special Boat Service, Switzerland, United States Air Force, World War Two

Tuesday, April 25, 1944. The Blood for Goods deal extended, Air disaster at Montreal, the death of George Herriman.

Joel Brand in 1961, age 55.

The Nazis offered Hungarian rescue worker Joel Brand an offer which has been termed the "Blood for Goods" deal.  It was an offer to free 1,000,000 Hungarian Jews, releasing them to an Allied country, save for Palestine (oddly) for goods.  The offer was extended through Adolf Eichmann to Brand, who was a pre-war Hungarian Zionist.

Brand carried the message to the Allies, making his way through Turkey to Egypt, where he was arrested by the British.  The British did not take the offer seriously and believed it was a trick. The US was cautious about the offer but less hostile to it.  British opposition to exploring it ended the matter, and the British press leaked it and termed it blackmail by the fall.

At this point in the war, members of the SS were not completely loyal to Hitler and there is some reason to believe that this was a camouflaged effort to open up communications with the Western Allies in order to advance a separate peace, a delusional prospect of that is what they were thinking.

Brand moved to Israel after the war and was haunted the rest of his life by the failure of the proposal.  He died visiting Germany in 1964, at age 58.

A Royal Air Force variant of the B-24, a Liberator B Mark VI crashed into the Griffintown neighborhood of Montreal after taking off from Dorval Airport. The crew and ten civilians were killed.

My mother lived in the St. Lambert district of Montreal at the time.  St. Lambert is directly across the river from Griffentown.  I'd never heard of this incident, but then, there are many such thing that my parents never mentioned to me on matters like this, and I suppose that's to be expected.  Casper suffered numerous air disasters during World War Two.

My mother, then 19 years of age, would have been working in the city at this time, so was likely on the Griffentown side of the river when the accident occured.

The first combat helicopter evacuation completed in the CBI:

21–25 April 1944

The Luftwaffe raided shipping at Portsmouth and Plymouth-Devonport in a nighttime raid.  The same night, the HMS Black Prince and three Canadian destroyers engaged German warships in the English Channel, sinking the T-29 and damaging the T-24 and T-27.

The T-39 series of German ships were torpedo "boats", but due to their size they were more in the nature of corvettes.

Allied forces landed at Humboldt Bay, New Guinea.

The British government announced that it had a £2.76 billion deficit, £89 million smaller than anticipated.

Service Club mural, Ft. Bliss, Texas.  April 25, 1944.

The United Negro College Fund was established.

George Herriman, the creator of Krazy Kat, died at age 63.

Herriman was creole and born in New Orleans, although he speant much of his adult life in Los Angeles.  The Creole are their own distinct ethnicity, with some noting that means by default that they are of "mixed race", something that a lot of non Louisianians don't realize as they confuse creole with Cajun, the two not being the same.  Under the bizarre rules of American culture, Herriman would have been regarded as "black" in some regions of the United States, although legally, and equally bizarrely, he could at the time choose to self identify as white or black, neither of which really describes his ethnic heritage.  He self identified as white, which makes sense, as to do otherwise would have hindered his career.

Herriman was a shy and gentlemanly man.  A Catholic, he married his childhood sweetheart and had two children, as well as a lot of pets, of which he wsa very fond.

Last prior edition:

Monday, April 24, 1944. Violating Swiss Airspace.

1940s, 1944, 1944 at the Movies, Brazil, Commandos, Munich Germany, New Guinea, Personalities, Prisoners of War, Royal Air Force, Special Boat Service, Switzerland, United States Air Force, World War Two

Monday, April 24, 1944. Violating Swiss Airspace.

L-R: Lt. Col. Earl Hormell, aide to Gen. Devers, and Lt. Gen. Jacob L. Devers, Deputy Supreme Commander, Me. Theater, pose with Ghurka troops as the general visits the front that the Ghurka was fighting on. Orsogna Sector, Italy, April 24, 1944.  Lt. Gen. Devers is wearing a non-regulation set of pull on "engineer's boots".  Devers was an artilleryman who was an early advocated of mechanization and who had participated in the development of the Army's armored forces, including the design of the M4 Sherman and the M26 Pershing.  Upon his retirement in 1949 at age 62, he became a cattle farmer.

The Finisterre Range Campaign in New Guinea concluded in an Allied victory.  US forces reached Lake Sentani near Hollandia. Australian forces took Madang.

The RAF violated Swiss airspace in order to evade Munich's air warning system.  Earlier in the day, the U.S. Army Air Force had raided the heavily defended city, losing 55 aircraft, 14 of which crashed into Switzerland.

Italy started fielding a "Co Belligerent Air Force" in support of the Allies over the Adriatic.

The Special Boat Service raided Santorini in the Aegean.

A British blockade of mutinous Greek troops in Egypt ceased.

Double Indemnity was released in Brazil, a few months ahead of the American release.

Why Brazil?  I have no idea.

Funeral for German POW Richard Jasker, Camp Robinson Nebraska. 24 April, 1944.

Last prior edition:

Sunday, April 23, 1944. Hollandia taken, MacArthur lands, John C. Squire's posthumous MoH, Greek troubles, Pyrgoi Massacre, Tragic accident, Missing mobster.

1940s, 1944, Battle of Hollandia, Crime, Douglas MacArthur, Greek Civil War, Heroes, Italian Social Republic, Italy, Mafia, Music, New Guinea, Operation Persecution, Operation Reckless, World War Two

Turning the Tide in Ukraine (maybe) or at least helping them a bunch. What else the US can do. Part Two.

 

Gen. Clair Chennault.

Clair Chennault entered the U.S. Army during World War One, and resigned in 1937, going from there to China as a mercenary pilot for the Nationalist in their war against Japan.  Following a mission on behalf of the Chinese to the US in 1939, the US funded and equipped the American Volunteer Group of pilots, the legendary P-40 flying "Flying Tigers". They weren't in the US military, at least not at that time. They were, quite frankly, mercenaries, but specialized ones.

A bit different, as they were officially in the Royal Air Force, the British fielded three fighter squadrons made up of US volunteers.  "Eagle Squadrons"

There was a well-worn precedent for that.  During World War One, while Woodrow Wilson was promising to keep us out of war, the French fielded Escadrille N. 124, the  Escadrille de La Fayette.  It's pilots were Americans.

They weren't the only unit in the Great War like that.  Perhaps the most famous one was the Czech Legion, made up of Czech and Slovak volunteers who fought at first on the Eastern Front, and then fought their way across Siberia to Vladivostok so they could be taken to France, after the Russian Revolution broke out, to rejoin the Allied effort.

During the Mexican War, the Republic of Mexico fielded a unit of volunteer, mostly Irish and Irish American, artillerymen, known as the San Patricio's.  While Mexico lost the war, their performance was excellent.

The point?

Ukraine is taking in foreign volunteers for the Ukrainian Legion.  However, much more here could be done along the same lines as the AVG.  The AVG, basically, took in American military pilots used to American military gear, with that gear purchased for Nationalist China through an arrangement with the US.

This could be done in the war in Ukraine on a ground combat basis.

The US military was traditionally quite small before World War Two.  From 1947 through 1990, however, it was very large due to the Cold War, and it's not been inconsequential in size since that time.  The youngest of the Cold War warriors are now 52 years old, not young.  But maybe not as old, in modern terms, as it might seem.  At any rate, there are thousands of Americans in their 30s, 40s, and 50s who have served in the U.S. military.

Those men trained to fight the Soviet Union.  And they used, in many cases, late Cold War and early post Cold War US equipment.

This isn't unique to the U.S.  Germany only ended universal conscription of men n 2011.  France in 1996.  Thousands of men have served in the various NATO armies, using NATO standard equipment.

Why not create an American Volunteer Group and a European Volunteer Group and allow Ukraine to equip them with NATO standard weapons?  There's more than enough old NATO equipment, surely, to equip two divisions in this fashion.

Would they be elite?  Well, probably not, but they wouldn't be bad.  Some have actually trained to fight the very war that's being fought right now.

And then there's pilots and aircraft.

Lots of men trained to fly high test American fighters are now flying commercial jet liners.  Ukraine has asked for F-16s.  Why not give them the F-16s with volunteer pilots?

And, we might at this point, why not include A-10s?

Sunday, April 23, 1944. Hollandia taken, MacArthur lands, John C. Squire's posthumous MoH, Greek troubles, Pyrgoi Massacre, Tragic accident, Missing mobster.

 Gen. MacArthur, Colonel Lloyd Lehbras, his aides, and other high officers, landing on the beach at Aitape, New Guinea, 23 April, 1944.

Hollandia fell to US forces and Tadji airfield is taken.  However, resistance was met inland at Sabron and the beachheads were experiencing congestion.

F4U crashing on the USS Guadalcanal, April 23, 1944.

The Amagiri was sunk in the Makassar Strait by a mine.

Mussolini agreed to continue permitting Italian troops to be trained in Germany. The best of them were to be used to form a new National Republican Army.

In Italy, U.S. Army PFC John C. Squires lost his life in an action which resulted in his receiving a posthumous Medal of Honor.

For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at risk of life above and beyond the call of duty. At the start of his company's attack on strongly held enemy positions in and around Spaccasassi Creek, near Padiglione, Italy, on the night of 23-April 24, 1944, Pfc. Squires, platoon messenger, participating in his first offensive action, braved intense artillery, mortar, and antitank gun fire in order to investigate the effects of an antitank mine explosion on the leading platoon. Despite shells which burst close to him, Pfc. Squires made his way 50 yards forward to the advance element, noted the situation, reconnoitered a new route of advance and informed his platoon leader of the casualties sustained and the alternate route. Acting without orders, he rounded up stragglers, organized a group of lost men into a squad and led them forward. When the platoon reached Spaccasassi Creek and established an outpost, Pfc. Squires, knowing that almost all of the noncommissioned officers were casualties, placed 8 men in position of his own volition, disregarding enemy machinegun, machine-pistol, and grenade fire which covered the creek draw. When his platoon had been reduced to 14 men, he brought up reinforcements twice. On each trip he went through barbed wire and across an enemy minefield, under intense artillery and mortar fire. Three times in the early morning the outpost was counterattacked. Each time Pfc. Squires ignored withering enemy automatic fire and grenades which struck all around him, and fired hundreds of rounds of rifle, Browning automatic rifle, and captured German Spandau machinegun ammunition at the enemy, inflicting numerous casualties and materially aiding in repulsing the attacks. Following these fights, he moved 50 yards to the south end of the outpost and engaged 21 German soldiers in individual machinegun duels at point-blank range, forcing all 21 enemy to surrender and capturing 13 more Spandau guns. Learning the function of this weapon by questioning a German officer prisoner, he placed the captured guns in position and instructed other members of his platoon in their operation. The next night when the Germans attacked the outpost again he killed 3 and wounded more Germans with captured potato-masher grenades and fire from his Spandau gun. Pfc. Squires was killed in a subsequent action.

Finnish modified Soviet Il-4 bomber, April 23, 1944.

A communist mutiny on five Greek warships (it's always the sailors) was put down by loyal Greek forces.

Also in Greece, the Pyrgoi Massacre took place in which the SS killed 563 men, women and children, with the aid of local Greek accomplices.

Marion Harris, the first white singer to widely sing and record blues, died in a hotel fire caused by her falling asleep with a lit cigarette. She was 48 years old.

Canadian bootlegger Rocco Perri went for a walk in Hamilton Ontario to clear his head and disappeared.  It's widely believed he was fitted with cement shoes and drowned, but there are those who assert he lived into the 1950s in the U.S.

Last prior edition:

Saturday, April 22, 1944. American landings at Hollandia and Aitape.

1940s, 1944, Afghan tribal revolts of 1944–1947, Afghanistan, Battle of Hollandia, China, Hollandia, New Guinea, Operation Ichi-Go, Operation Persecution, Operation Reckless, World War Two

Saturday, April 22, 1944. American landings at Hollandia and Aitape.

US troops on Aitape, April 22, 1944.  This is a curious photograph for a number of reasons, including that all of the men in the immediate foreground are carrying M1 Carbines rather than M1 Garands.  Further, the solider closes to the camera is wearing paratrooper boots.  This would somewhat make me suspect that they are Rangers, but I don't know of Rangers landing at Aitape.

U.S. forces began landed in Western New Guinea in Operations Reckless (Hollandia) and Operation Persecution (Aitape).

Surprisingly, the Japanese were ill prepared for the operation, and the landings rapidly gained a foothold.

The Marshalls campaign ended with the US taking Ungelap.

The Japanese took Chengchow in China.

Combined, the day's event in the Far East demonstrated the interesting nature of the war at the time, and the problems confronting the Japanese.  The Japanese were advancing in China and on the Burmese Indian frontier, but losing territory rapidly in the Pacific, where they effectively had no means of stopping the flow of events.  Gaining enough ground on the Asian mainland to force a conclusion to the overall war was rapidly becoming impossible, as was defending what it had taken in the Pacific in order to advance that original goal.

Mesovouno was subject to German mass killings for the second time, the first time being in October 1941.

Mussolini met with Hitler and his entourage to complain about German caused problems in the Italian Social Republic, which the Germans didn't really care about.

The Kingdom of Afghanistan drove rebel Mazrak Zadran and his followers into the hills.  He was in rebellion in support of a rival claimant to the Afghani throne.

Last prior edition:

Friday, April 21, 1944. Les Françaises obtiennent le droit de vote.

1940s, 1944, Battle of Gurba, Battle of Imphal, Bretton Woods, Charles de Gaulle, Economics, France, Free French, Italy, New Guinea, Royal Air Force, Ukraine, Ukrainian National Army, Women, World War Two

Friday, April 21, 1944. Les Françaises obtiennent le droit de vote.

Black artillerymen of Btry B., 140th FA Bn., 37th Div. Btry firing a 105 on Bougainville. 21 April, 1944.

Charles de Gaulle issued a decree giving French women the right to vote.

It's hard to imagine that the vote came to French women this late.

US troops inspecting German one many torpedo at Anzio.

Japanese troops captured Crete West Hill during the Battle of Imphal.

As Sarah Sundin notes on her blog:

Today in World War II History—April 21, 1944: German Gen. Hans-Valentin Hube is killed in a plane crash at Berchtesgaden; Gen. Erhard Raus replaces him over German First Panzer Army.

She also noted that a massive US task force with up to twenty aircraft carriers had attacked  Hollandia, Wakde, Sawar, and Sarmi, New Guinea from the air in preparation for landings.  D-Day was the following day.

The following statement, a product of Bretton Woods, was released:

Italy formed a coalition government.

The RAF hit Cologne, La Chappelle (Paris), Lens and Ottignies (Brussels).

The Battle of Gurba occured in Ukraine, but it's obscure.  It was an action between the Soviets and the Ukrainian National Army, and relatively large-scale for such an encounter.

Last prior edition:

Thursday, April 20, 1944. Bombs for Hitler's birthday.

1940s, 1944, Adolf Hitler, baseball, Battle of Anzio, Battle of Kohima, boats and ships, German Kriegsmarine, German Luftwaffe, Merrill's Maurauders, Operation U-Go, Personalities, Royal Air Force, U.S. Navy

Wednesday, April 19, 1944. Operation Ichi-Go.

 Operation Ichi-Go commenced in China.

Japanese plans for the offensive, which would be a largely successful Japanese effort.

Control of the ground at the end of the war.

The massive and highly successful offensive was designed, in no small measure, to help force a conclusion to the war in China, something perhaps best demonstrated by its alternative Japanese name, Tairiku Datsū Sakusen (大陸打通作戦), "Continent Cross-Through Operation"). It would gain a huge amount of ground, and demonstrate the importance of the war on the mainland to the Asian conflict.  It's specific goas were to link railways in Beijing and Hankou in northern China to the southern Chinese coast at Canton and spare shipping and avoid American submarines; to take the airfields in Sichuan and Guangxi to preclude U.S. bombing of Taiwan and the Japanese mainland; and to destroy elite Nationalist units to cause the Nationalist government to collapse.

It was ambitious and would be, late war though it was, the largest military campaign of the Japanese war against China.  Japan committed 80% of their forces in China, some 500,000 men, as well as 100,000 horses, 1,500 artillery pieces, and 800 tanks.

700,000 Nationalist Chinese troops were eliminated from combat in the operation, which would continue into October.

The Allies launched Operation Cockpit, an operation that featured all of the principal Allied forces in the East, the same being an air assault on Sabang Indonesia.

The RAF mined the Danube.

 

Sarah Sundin notes, on her blog:

Today in World War II History—April 19, 1944 In the US, shortening, salad & cooking oils are removed from rationing, but butter & margarine are still rationed. Read more: “Make It Do—Rationing of Butter, Fats & Oils in World War II.”

Congress extended the Lend Lease Act.  Apparently the 78th Congress was a little more active than the 119th.

The 1944 NFL Draft was held, and the first draft pick was Angelo Bertelli, who was drafted by the Boston Yanks.  It wouldn't matter, Bertelli was already slated to enter the Marine Corps.

Canadian Gérard Côté won the Boston Marathon.

Côté winning the 1940 Boston Marathon.

He was serving in the Canadian Army at the time, and took leave to run in the race, sponsored by a Montreal restaurateur.  While the Canadian Army, which initially used him as a physical education instructor, and then stationed him in a munitions plant, had been proud of his status as Canada's premier runner, it had taken heat for perceived preferential treatment that he received, and reacted negatively to his taking leave and running in the race. Côté was shipped to the UK and served the rest of the war in Europe, winning three English marathons during that time period.

Last prior edition:

Tuesday, April 18, 1944. 4,000 tons v. 53.

1940s, 1943, Battle of Kohima, boats and ships, Catholic, Crimea, Eastern Front, German Luftwaffe, London England, Operation U-Go, Royal Air Force, U.S. Air Force, U.S. Navy, World War Two

Tuesday, April 18, 1944. 4,000 tons v. 53.

The USS Wyoming in Chesapeake Bay, April 18, 1944. The Wyoming was a training ship during World War Two and was so frequently in Chesapeake Bay she was nicknamed "The Chesapeake Raider".

The combined Allied Air Forces achieved a new daily record, and dropped over 4,000 tons of bombs on Germany and occupied France.

On the same day, the Luftwaffe sent 125 aircraft on a raid over London, the last of the "Little Blitz" air raids.  Fourteen German aircraft were brought down. Fifty-three tons of bombs were dropped on the city, and a hospital was amongst the buildings hit.

The Red Army took Balaclava.

German and Hungarian forces counterattacked at Buchach.

The British government banned coded radio and telegraph transmissions from the UK.  Diplomats are forbidden to leave, and diplomatic bags are censored, with excepts for the US, USSR and the Polish government in exile. Incitement to strike is made a punishable offense.

The British 5th Brigade linked up with the Kohima garrison, braking the encirclement of the city.

The USS Gudgeon was sunk off of Iwo Jima by a Mitsubishi G3M.

The Vatican established the Pontificia Commissione di Assistenza to provide rapid, non-bureaucratic and direct aid to needy populations, refugees, and prisoners in Europe.

Last prior edition:

Monday, April 17, 1944. The Uman–Botoșani Offensive Concludes, First Shots of the Greek Civil War, The Martyrdom of Fr. Max Josef Metzger, A Mystery Flight, Up Front in U.S. newspapers.

1940s, 1944, Aircraft, Cartoons, Communists, Greece, Greek Civil War, Greek Partisans, Imperial Japanese Navy, Nazi Germany, Personalities, Royal Air Force, Uman–Botoșani Offensive, World War Two

Monday, April 17, 1944. The Uman–Botoșani Offensive Concludes, First Shots of the Greek Civil War, The Martyrdom of Fr. Max Josef Metzger, A Mystery Flight, Up Front in U.S. newspapers.

Soviet soldiers in Ukraine examining a destroyed Panther tank. By Mil.ru, CC BY 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=113828084

The Uman–Botoșani Offensive concluded in a wide-ranging Soviet victory.  The Soviets had advanced 190 miles in one month, cleared southwestern Ukraine and entered Romania and Moldova.   The offensive had been, moreover, carried out during spring mud season, the rasputitsa.  It was one of the most successful Soviet advances of the war.

The Take-Ichi sendan (竹一船団, "Bamboo No. One" convoy) left Shanghai with two infantry divisions to reinforce the Philippines and western New Guinea.  Its story was to be fateful and strategically important.

Following an attack on his unit by Greek Communists on Orthodox Easter Monday, Greek army officer and partisan, Col. Dimitrios Psarros (Δημήτριος Ψαρρός), founder of the partisan National and Social Liberation organization was executed in an early indication of how things were going to go as the Axis control of Greece loosened.  Greece would be in a civil war before the end of World War Two.

Fr. Max Josef Metzger, German Catholic Priest and founder of the German Catholic Peace Association, was executed by the Nazi German state.  He is regarded as a Catholic martyr.

The U-342 was sunk in the North Atlantic by a RCAF PBY.

Civilian airliner Deutsche Lufthansa D-AOCA, a Junkers Ju-52/3m was shot down on scheduled service E.17 from Vienna to Athens with stops in Belgrade, Sofia, and Thessaloniki. An Allied fighter sweep of Belgrade mistook it for a military aircraft.  Five of its seven occupants were killed.

A Royal Air Force Warwick passenger plane went down over the UK, creating a mystery.  As the recovery of its doomed passengers occured, large amounts of cash were found with them.

United Features Syndicate began to run Bill Mauldin's Up Front in U.S. newspapers.

Last prior edition:

Sunday, April 16, 1944. Black Sunday.

1940s, 1944, Aircraft, Artillery, Black Sunday, boats and ships, Chodaczków Massacre, Crimea, Romania, Royal Air Force, Soviet Air Forces, The Holocaust, U.S. Air Force, United Service Organization, Weather