Friday, June 28, 2024
Wednesday, June 28, 1944. Nazi Germany begins to swallow its generals.
The Bobruysk Offensive, Mogilev Offensive and Vitebsk–Orsha Offensive ended as Soviet victories. Hitler relieved Ernst Busch and replaced him with Walter Model as commander of Army Group Centre on the Eastern Front.
Model.
Model was rising as Germany's defensive commander.
Busch had ignored the Red Army build up opposite Army Group Centre and refused to allow some of his subordinates to shorten their lines before Bagration. He refused to allow for retreats in the face of the offensive, which followed Hitler's orders, resulting in the loss of over 250,000 men in two days, the biggest German defeat on the Eastern Front. That loss resulted in his being removed from command. The sacking resulted in Busch becoming depressed, perhaps because he was effectively sacked by Hitler for following Hitler's orders.
He was returned to service in March 1945 and ended up surrendering to the British on May 4, 1945. He died shortly thereafter, July 17, 1945, as a prisoner of war at age 60. He was buried in the United Kingdom.
German General, and former Austrian officer, Robert Martinek on the Eastern Front. Warned about touring the front, Martinek had enigmatically cited the proverb "God blinds those he would destroy".
Hard fighting was going on for Hill 112 near Caen, with temporary commander Gen. Friderich Dollmann throwing in his last reserves. Rommel and von Rundstedt were in Berlin, having been summoned by Hitler. Dollmann's effort turns into a route for the Germans.
Dollmann was unaware that he had been relieved by Hitler that day, with Hitler angered by earlier failures, as well as the fall of Cherbourg. Both Rommel and von Rundstedt had argued against it, but upon their departure from their meeting, Hitler replaced Dollman with Waffen-SS general Paul Hausser, a sign of what was increasingly to come in the Wehrmacht.
Dollmann never knew. He died that night, or early the following morning, under disputed circumstances, with some claiming he suffered a heart attack and some claiming he committed suicide. Hitler awarded him the Knights Cross of the Iron Cross posthumously.
Like many more obscure German military figures, and also because of the Clean Wehrmacht myth, the extent of Dollmann's support for the Third Reich is disputed. Be that as it may, he was noted to have insisted that the wives of his officer be involved in Nazi Party activities and he harangued Catholic Chaplains for not being ardent in their support of Nazism.
The Republican National Convention nominated Thomas E. Dewey.
French poet and Vichy official Philippe Henriot was assassinated by the French Resistance.
Extremely conservative and politically active, Henriot had been strongly anti-German at the start of the war but had turned in favor of them after Barbarossa, due to his view that Communism was the premier enemy of Christianity.
Harry S. Truman spoke to the Kiwanis Club in Denver.
Last prior edition:
Tuesday, June 27, 1944. Angelo Klonis or Thomas E. Underwood?
Labels: 1940s, 1944, blog, Blog Mirror, Cherbourg France, law, Myths, Operation Bagration, Operation Epsom, Operation Overlord, Saipan, World War Two
Saturday, June 28, 1924. Retrograde.
Proposals to participate in the League of Nations and denounce the Ku Klux Klan failed at the Democratic National Convention.
There was a destructive tornado outbreak in Ohio.
Last prior edition:
Friday, June 27, 1924. The Aventine Secession.
Thursday, June 27, 2024
Tuesday, June 27, 1944. Angelo Klonis or Thomas E. Underwood?
A famous photograph was taken of Saipan, which popularly is now claimed to be of Greek immigrant Angelo S. Klonis, was taken on this day, on Saipan.
Or, maybe not.
First the Klonis claim, which was not advanced by Konis during his lifetime.
Painted Bricks: Evangelo's, Santa Fe New Mexico
Over on one of our other blogs, we posted this item:
Painted Bricks: Evangelo's, Santa Fe New Mexico:
There's some interesting things going on in this scene, that are worth at least noting. For one thing, we have an iconic photograph of a U.S. soldier in World War Two, which is often mistaken for a photograph of a Marine given the helmet cover, appearing on the sign for a cocktail lounge in 2014. Sort of unusual, but the fact that it was owned by the soldier depicted explains that.
Note also, however, the dove with the olive branch, the symbol of peace. Interesting really. Perhaps a reflection of the views of the founder, who was a Greek immigrant who located himself in Santa Fe, went to war and then came back to his adopted home town.
All on a building that is in the local adobe style, which not all of the buildings in downtown Santa Fe actually were when built.
I don't know what all we can take away from this, but it sends some interesting messages, intentional or not, to the careful observer.
Painted Bricks: Evangelo's, Santa Fe New Mexico:
We also posted this on our blog Some Gave All.Tavern sign for Evangelo's in Santa Fe, New Mexico, featuring the famous Life Magazine cover photograph of Angelo Klonis, the founder of the tavern. The late Mr. Klonis was a soldier during World War Two when this photograph of him ws taking by Life photographer Eugene Smith. Konis, a Greek immigrant, opened this bar in his adopted home town in the late 1960s, at which time his identify as the soldier photographed by Smith was not widely known.
There's some interesting things going on in this scene, that are worth at least noting. For one thing, we have an iconic photograph of a U.S. soldier in World War Two, which is often mistaken for a photograph of a Marine given the helmet cover, appearing on the sign for a cocktail lounge in 2014. Sort of unusual, but the fact that it was owned by the soldier depicted explains that.
Note also, however, the dove with the olive branch, the symbol of peace. Interesting really. Perhaps a reflection of the views of the founder, who was a Greek immigrant who located himself in Santa Fe, went to war and then came back to his adopted home town.
All on a building that is in the local adobe style, which not all of the buildings in downtown Santa Fe actually were when built.
I don't know what all we can take away from this, but it sends some interesting messages, intentional or not, to the careful observer.
It's an interesting story, which I took at face value at the time. I no longer do.
The problem is, it is supposedly known that Klonis, who didn't talk about his military service during his lifetime hardly at all, and who returned to Greece for a long period of time after the war, and came back during the 1960s, was supposedly also on Omaha Beach on June 6, 1944. Advocates for this photograph being Klonis maintain that he must have been part of a secret Army unit, probably part of the OSS.
Hmmm . . . that doesn't pass the smell test, quite frankly. Getting a soldier from Normandy to Saipan in just a few days would have been a monumental effort in 1944. It wouldn't be easy now. And while Saipan was an important strategic objective, it was just that. There's nothing that was so wildly consequential in Saipan that the War Department would have needed to transfer enlisted men from one front to another. Moreover, the Army had specialized troops, Rangers, in the Pacific already.
I don't believe it.
Originally, the figure in the photo was identified as Marine Thomas Ellis Underwood. The Klonis claim didn't come until many years later.
And I'm not the only one who doesn't believe it.
First of all, the guy in that photograph is a Marine, not a soldier. The article explains this in detail, but the helmet cover alone makes that clear. And there's quite a bit more.
More than anything, however, transferring a soldier from France to Saipan in 44? No way.
The Klonis story, however, has really had legs, and It's expanded out to include all sorts of elements, including that Klonis had joined the Army then asked to switch to the Marines, but upon learning of the German murder of his family in Greece, he asked to fight in Europe. Frankly, while the service did allow some switching around inside the service, for example from infantryman to paratrooper, the giant endeavor of the Second World War meant that regular enlisted men were sent where the service put them, not where they wanted to go as a special request. Moreover, as noted, getting anyone from Europe to the Pacific in just a few days simply wasn't going to happen, and it simply wouldn't be needed.
As a final note, the photograph is probably not only Klonis, but Underwood, but it was likely actually taken in July, in spite of being attributed to this day.
The British took Cheux and Rauray and established a bridgehead across the Odon.
Fighting continued in Cherbourg even though the city had been surrendered.
U.S. Army captain observing the body of a German in Cherbourg who had killed three of the captain's troops. Fighting continued on in Cherbourg after it had been surrendered due to the unwillingness of German diehards to quit.
The Red Army took Vitebsk and Petrozavodsk. German 9th Army Commander Gen. Hans Jordan was relieved.
The Veterans' Preference Act was enacted, requiring the Federal Government to give preference to returning war veterans for employment.
Milan Hodža, 66, Prime Minister of Czechoslovakia from 1935 to 1938, died in exile in the United States.
Last prior edition:
June 26, 1944. Cherbourg surrenders.
Friday, June 27, 1924. The Aventine Secession.
123 opposition members of the Italian Chamber of Deputies walked out and demanded that the government take responsible for fascist crimes and that the Blackshirts be abolished. Ten minutes of silence were observed all over Italy for Giacomo Matteotti.
Last prior edition:
Thursday, June 26, 1924. Nominating Al Smith.
Saturday, June 27, 1874. The Second Battle of Adobe Walls
On this day, 28 buffalo hunters at the abandoned trading post of Adobe Walls, Texas, fought the Comanche, who numbered around 700. Fortified behind the post's walls, and armed with powerful large caliber buffalo hunting rifles, they successfully defended their party, with buffalo hunter Billy Dixon killing an Indian combatant at the amazing range of 1,538 yards. Four of the hunters were killed in the engagement, and approximately 30 Comanche.
Last prior edition:
Sunday, June 14, 1874. Calling for an Indian War.
The 2024 Election, Part XIX. The Clerks say "M'eh" edition.
June 6, 2024
Wyoming Secretary of State Chuck Gray informed County Clerks that they may not use drop boxes in the upcoming election:
The County Clerks in turn met yesterday and informed Gray, that yes they can:
The topic of drop boxes has figured prominently in far right wing conspiracy theories even though there's no evidence whatsoever that they were involved in corruption in the last U.S. election, and certainly did not in the Wyoming election. Sec. Gray used 2000 Mules prominently in his campaign, which apparently focuses on them, with that film having been completely discredited. The conservative company which distributed it recently pulled it and apologized for it.
Apparently, less than 10 Wyoming counties actually use drop boxes, but the clerks en masse rejected Gray's directive. If he wants to actually enforce his view, he'll have to attempt to get a court order, which risks the embarrassing possibility of losing as well as making people mad that a state official is suing local clerks. If he doesn't take legal action, however, he'll look politically emasculated.
June 12, 2024
A bunch of states held primaries yesterday.
Nancy Mace held off a Republican challenger in South Carolina.
Trump backed Kelly Armstrong won in North Dakota.
June 14, 2024
And if this election wasn't weird enough:
Cheyenne City Clerk Says Artificial Intelligence Candidate For Mayor Is OK For Election
June 15, 2024
The Presidential election continues to get increasingly surreal.
Business executives who met with Trump recently, in some instances, came away a bit shocked by what is obvious. CBS reports that some:
“said that [Trump] was remarkably meandering, could not keep a straight thought [and] was all over the map,”
D'uh.
That's been the case for quite a while, and it's really showing. Consider this from last week:
I say, ‘What would happen if the boat sank from its weight and you’re in the boat and you have this tremendously powerful battery and the battery’s underwater, and there’s a shark that’s approximately 10 yards over there?’ By the way, a lot of shark attacks lately. Do you notice that? A lot of shark … I watched some guys justifying it today: ‘Well, they weren’t really that angry. They bit off the young lady’s leg because of the fact that they were not hungry, but they misunderstood who she was.’ These people are crazy.
Eh?
There's plenty of reason to be concerned that Trump is in some state of mental decline. These statements are certainly alarming, to say the least. At this point, moreover, it's being willfully blind to suggest that Joe Biden is mentally impaired and not suggest the same thing about Trump.
Trump suggested last week that he'd look at replacing the income tax with tariffs. That would throw the country into a Depression.
Senator John Barrasso of Wyoming, himself no spring chicken, was photographed amongst Trump's Senatorial acolytes last week, and then giving him a birthday cake. Dr. Barrasso is just that, a physician, and there's no real reason to believe that he's a Trump fan, but that's the case for a lot of those photographed smiling at Trump, all of which is both sad and alarming.
June 17, 2024
A record-low number of Democrats will run for Wyoming’s Legislature this year
June 21, 2024
A Sixth Cent sales tax will be on the ballot in Natrona County.
June 25, 2024
An article on Hageman's primary challenger in the GOP:
Democrat-turned-Republican challenges Wyoming’s Harriet Hageman for U.S. House seat
Helling has a less than zero chance of unseating Hageman. What this item really reminded me of, however, is just how old these candidates are. Helling is an old lawyer. His bar admission date is 1981, which would make him about 70. Hageman's is 1989, which I knew which would make her about 61, old by historical standards although apparently arguably middle-aged now.
Barrasso is 71. Lummis is 69. John Hotz, who is running against Barrasso, has a bar admission date of 1978 which would make him about three years older than Helling. Seemingly the only younger candidate in the GOP race this primary is Rasner.
This isn't a comment on any of their politics, but rather their age. Helling is opposed to nuclear power, a very 1970ish view. With old people, come old views, quite often, even if they're repackaged as new ones.
June 26, 2024
Boebert won the GOP primary in her new district in Colorado.
Democratic member of "the Squad" Jamaal Bowman lost his primary race in New York to moderate Democrat George Latimer.
June 27, 2024
Trump-endorsed Riverton Utah Mayor Trent Staggs lost the Republican primary to Representative John Curtis for the Senate seat being vacated by Mitt Romney. Trump-backed state Colorado GOP Chairman Dave Williams lost the primary to Jeff Crank. Trump's endorsed South Carolina 3rd Congressional District, candidate pastor Mark Burns, lost to nurse practitioner Sheri Biggs.
Trump endorsed Gabe Evans, defeated Janak Joshi for the Colorado's 8th Congressional District nomination.
Related threads:
Is anyone else reminded of the Simpson's?
Last prior edition:
The 2024 Election, Part XVIII. The list.
Roads to the Great War: Remembering a Veteran: Isaakii Solzhenitsyn, Russi...
Roads to the Great War: Remembering a Veteran: Isaakii Solzhenitsyn, Russi...: Isaakii Solzhenitsyn Isaakii Semyonovich Solzhenitsyn (11 June 1891–15 June 1918) was an officer in the Imperial Russian Army and the father...
Wednesday, June 26, 2024
Bookends
I probably should have guessed, but I didn't.
I'd never met him before, and couldn't even place him in the set of people related to people I knew. He was, or is rather, the grandson of a rancher I've known for eons, but I'd never seen him at a rural gathering. He was dressed in a rural fashion, with the clothes natural to him, but wearing a ball cap rather than a cowboy hat. I probably was too. It was unseasonably cold, I remember that.
He was holding forth boldly on what was wrong on higher education. All the professors were radical leftist.
I figured he was probably right out of high school, in part no doubt as I'm a very poor judge of younger ages. It was silly, so I just ignored him, although I found his speech arrogant. The sort of speech you hear from somebody who presumes that nobody else has experienced what you have. 1 I.e., we were a bunch of rural rubes not familiar with the dangerous liberals in higher education.
I figured he'd probably get over it as he moved through education.
Yes, there are liberals in higher education. Frankly, the more educated a class is, the more likely that it is at least somewhat liberal. That reflects itself in our current political demographic. The more higher education a person has, the more likely they are to vote for the Democrats. It's not universally true, but it's fairly true. And the Republicans, having gone populist, which is by definition a political stream that simply flows the "wisdom of the people", is a pretty shallow stream. Conservatism isn't, but it's really hard to find right now.
I heard earlier this year that he'd obtained a summer position in D.C. with one of our current public servants there, and thought that figured, given the climate of the times. Recently, his grandfather told me he'd just taken the LSAT.
I didn't quite know what to say.
I didn't have any idea he was that old. And I didn't realize that was his aspiration. I asked his progenitor if being a lawyer was his goal, and was informed that it was. I did stumble around to asking what his undergraduate major was, thinking that some have multiple doors to the future, and some do not.
"Political science".
"Well, he doesn't have any place else to go then".2
Not the most encouraging response, I'm sure.
I've known a few lawyers that were of the populist political thought variety, but very, very few. Of the few, one is in office right now, but I didn't know that person had that view until that person ran. One is a nice plaintiff's lawyer who holds those views, but it's not his defining characteristic, like it tends to be with some people, and he's friends with those who don't. One briefly was in the public eye and has disappeared.
He's going to find that most law professors, if you know their views at all, and most you won't, aren't populists. Some are probably conservatives, and most are liberals. A defining characteristic of the Post GI Bill field of law is that it's institutionally left wing. As I've often noted before, there are in fact liberal jurists, but there really aren't "conservative" jurists in the true sense, in spite of what people like Robert Reich might think.
I suspect politics is the ultimate goal. By the time he's through with law school, and has some practice under his belt, the populist wave will have broken, a conservative politics will have reemerged and liberals will be back in power.3
So I hope that he likes the practice of law, as that's what law school trains you to do. Not to save the world. Not to "help people". Not to provide opportunities for people who "like to argue".4
I'm not holding out a lot of hope.
Recently, I ran this:
An article on Hageman's primary challenger in the GOP:
Democrat-turned-Republican challenges Wyoming’s Harriet Hageman for U.S. House seat
Right after I ran it, I went to a hearing where one of the opposing lawyers is approaching 70 and supposedly is getting ready to retire, but doesn't seem to be. Right after that, I was in a court hearing in which there were two younger lawyers, but a host of ones in their late 60s or well into their 70s. One of the late 60s ones appeared to be stunned and noted that there was at least 200 years of legal experience in the room.
I was noticing the same thing.
Lawyers have a problem and that's beginning to scare me, not quite yet being of retirement age. I'm not sure if they don't retire, can't retire, don't think they can retire, or something else.
It's not really good for the profession, I'm sure of that. While it's a really Un-American thing to say, a field being dominated in some ways by the elderly pushes out the young. And it's also sad.
It's sad as it's usually the case that younger people have wide, genuine, interests. Lawyers often, although not always, give a lot of those up early on to build their careers. Then they don't go back to them due to those careers. By the time they're in their late 50s, some are burnt out husks that have nothing but the law, and others are just, I think, afraid to leave it.
I think that's, in part, why you see lawyers run for office. Maybe some are like our young firebrand first mentioned in this tread. But others are finding a refuge from a cul-de-sac. A lawyer who is nearly 70 should not become a first time office holder, and shouldn't even delude themselves into thinking that's a good idea (or that it's feasible). They should remind themselves of what interested them when they were in their 20s. The same is true of office holders in general who are in their 70s, or older.
Footnotes:
1. I've often seen this with young veterans and old ones. Some young veteran will be holding forth, not realizing that the guy listening to him fought at Khe Sanh or the likes.
2. That wasn't the most politic thing to say, but I was sort of hoping that the answer was "agriculture" or something, that had some more doors out.
Political science really doesn't. Maybe teaching. But if our young protagonist graduates with a law degree and finds himself not in the world of political intrigue making sure that the American version of Viktor Orbán rises to the top, but rather whether his client, the mother of five children by seven men gets one of them to pay child support, which is highly likely, he's going to have no place to go.
3. Bold prediction, I know, but probably correct.
Right now, I suspect that Donald Trump will in fact win the Presidential election, and the country will be in for a massive period of turmoil. By midterm, people who supported Trump will be howling with rage about the impact of tariffs and the like and demanding that something be done. The correction will come in 2028, but by that time much of the damage, or resetting or whatever, will have been done. The incoming 2028 Democratic regime will set the needle more back to the center.
4. Being good at arguing, in a Socratic sense, makes you a good debator or speaker. Liking to argue, however, just makes you an asshole.
Going Feral: Report dead wild rabbits to Game and Fish
Going Feral: Report dead wild rabbits to Game and Fish:
Report dead wild rabbits to Game and Fish
Report dead wild rabbits to Game and Fish
Wyomingites are being asked to keep a lookout for dead rabbits in their yards, rural property and other outdoor areas. The Wyoming Game and Fish Department is collecting wild rabbit carcasses for Rabbit Hemorrhagic Disease Virus2 testing, known as RHDV2. While not found in Wyoming yet, the disease has been identified in neighboring states. Testing rabbits is key to monitoring the disease spread.
RHDV2 is a fatal disease of rabbits and hares. An estimated 35-50% of infected wild rabbits succumb to the disease.
Samantha Allen, Game and Fish state wildlife veterinarian, said all of Wyoming’s rabbits and hares are susceptible — that includes game and nongame species like cottontail rabbits, jack rabbits and potentially, pygmy rabbits. Domestic rabbits are also at risk; however, other domestic pets and livestock are not at risk from the disease.
The first indication of RHDV2 infection in rabbits is dead animals.
“Any rabbit could become infected with the disease - so it could be a cottontail living in your yard or the one you see while hiking,” said Allen. “Please report any dead rabbits you find. Testing these carcasses is the only way to know if the disease is in Wyoming.”
The disease has been confirmed in California, Nevada, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, Utah and Colorado.
RHDV2 does not pose a threat to humans, but rabbits carry other diseases which can — like tularemia and plague. The public is advised not to touch or pick up any dead wild rabbits. Rather, note the location and call the Game and Fish Wildlife Health Lab at (307) 745-5865 or the nearest regional office. Game and Fish personnel will evaluate the situation, and make plans to collect the rabbit.
June 26, 1944. Cherbourg surrenders.
The Germans surrendered at Cherbourg.
Karl-Wihelm Schlieben and Admiral Walter Hennecke at the surrender of Cherbourg. In captivity, Schlieben remarkably noted regarding Dachau; “Everybody knew, happen that terrible things there – not what, but that terrible things happen because, knew each of us, even then 1935”. Neither of these senior German officers reappeared in the German forces of the Budesrepublik in spite of their relative youth, which is interesting.
The British launched Operation Epsom to take Caen and seize Fontenay-le-Pesnel, Cheux and the airfield at Saint-Manvieux-Norrey. Rommel orders SS units at Saint-Lô to disengage and to the aid of the 12th SS Panzer at Caen, but Allied air cover makes that impossible.
The Germans prevailed at the Battle of Osuchy against the Polish Home Army.
The Red Army kills or captures most of the German 53d Corps and also captured Orsha and Mogilev.
Brigadier General Mike Calvert (left), Lieutenant-Colonel Shaw, with (right) Pakistani born Major James Lumley after the capture of Mogaung. The General is armed with a SMLE and the Lt. Col. with a bayonet fixed SMLE. The Major with a M1 Carbine. Gen. Calvert is a particularly tragic figure. This battle was his most significant, and it was significant. After the war, he began drinking heavily and was reassigned to a command in Germany. In 1951, he was accused of improper sexual contact with three young German men, at a time at which that was fully illegal, and was court-martialed and convicted. He never got back on his feet after that and maintained his innocence for the rest of his life. Work by his biographer after his death indeed demonstrated that he was most likely innocent of what he had been accused of.
After 20 days of hard fighting, the Chindits, in the latter stages assisted by the Nationalist Chinese, took Mogaung in Burma.
The U.S. Navy bombarded Japanese positions on Matsuwa in the Kuriles.
The Republican National Convention opened in Chicago.
All three New York baseball team played at the Polo Grounds in a round-robin experiment to raise money for war bonds.
General Hap Arnold called Governor Lester Hunt and requested that UW President James Morill be given a leave of absence to assist with the War Education Program. (UW History Calendar).
The trustees refused the request.
Last prior edition:
Sunday, June 25, 1944. The Battle of Tali–Ihantala commences.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)