The best posts of the week of Aprl 27, 2024
Saturday, May 4, 2024
Thursday, May 4, 1944. Smoke on the Water.
Sgt. Sam Marinkovich, Anaconda, Mont., Sgt. Raymond Pasvogel, Davenport, Iowa, write up daily paper "The Cyclops Sentinel". Hollandia, Dutch New Guinea. 4 May, 1944. Sgt Marinkovich is wearing heavily hobnailed boots, something the US generally did not issue in World War Two. The boots are almost certainly British pattern "clodhoppers" that were issued as replacements in Australia. Boots are one of the very few items of Commonwealth issuance that Americans sometimes issued in World War Two.
From "Uncle Mike":
May 4, 1944: The St. Louis Browns Desegregate Sportsman's Park
Gaslight premiered in New York City.
Sarah Sundin reports that another Overlord exercise occured:
Today in World War II History—May 4, 1944: In Exercise Fabius, a full-scale rehearsal for D-day, Allied troops who will land on Sword, Juno, Gold, and Omaha Beaches make landings on English beaches.
The RAF hit rail facilities at Budapest at night.
The U-371 was scuttled off of Algeria. The U-846 was attacked and sunk in the Bay of Biscay by the RCAF.
Smoke on the Water was recorded. . . the patriotic Red Foley one . . not the Deep Purple one.
Last prior edition:
Sunday, May 4, 1924. Summer Olympics. Not ousting councilman over booze.
The 1924 Summer Olympics opened in France with preliminary competitions and a really cool logo.
Men, opened.
It's lost.
The Society of American Wars, which was a thing, met with Coolidge.
Efforts to boot Councilman Royce failed, due to the state of the law.
And the transglobal flight was back at it.
Locally, plans were being advanced for the construction of the Presbyterian church, which were published in one of the papers.
The church ultimately constructed would look a big different.
City Park Church, formerly First Presbyterian Church, Casper Wyoming
This is City Park Church, and was formerly, as noted below in the original entry, the First Presbyterian Church.This Presbyterian Church is located one block away from St. Mark's Episcopal Church and St. Anthony of Padua Catholic Church, all of which are separated from each other by City Park.The corner stone of the church gives the dates 1913 1926. I'm not sure why there are two dates, but the church must have been completed in 1926.This century old church became the home of the former First Baptist Church congregation on February 28, 2020, and as noted in a thread we'll link in below, had been experiencing a lot of changes prior to that.The original entry here was one of the very first on this blog and dated at least back as far as January 25, 2011. While the architecture hasn't changed at all, with the recent change our original entry became misleading to an extent.
Related Threads:Grace Reformed at City Park, formerly First Presbyterian Church, Casper Wyoming
Changes in Downtown Casper. First Presbyterian becomes City Park Church, the former First Baptist Church.
And, as can be seen, events have resulted in some denominational shifting.
The morning edition was full of all sorts of dramatic news.
British sponsored Assyrian Levies killed 50 in Kirkuk.
German elections were held, resulting in the Social Democratic Party of Germany narrowly maintaining a small plurality of 100 seats. The German National People's Party finished with 95.
The Soviet Union demanded an apology for yesterday's police raid.
Last prior edition:
Saturday, May 3, 1924. Foundings.
Thursday, May 4, 1899. The Battle of Santo Tomas and the remarkable Elanor Pray.
The 1st Nebraska advancing during the Battle of Santo Tomas
The Battle of Santo Tomas was found in this day at Santo Tomas, Pampanga. The battle resulted in the complete route of the large Filipino force, its second defeat in recent days, and the wounding of General Antonio Luna, a primary Filipino commander.
Like many battles of the Philippine Insurrection, the battle was fought, on the American side, by state volunteers, who were, for all intents and purposes, National Guardsmen. In this case, the US forces consisted of the 20th Kansas, the 1st Montana, 1st Nebraska and 51st Iowa.
Elanor Pray, an American from Maine who was living in Vladavostock where her husband was posted to the "American store" sent a letter with photographs of some of the local scenes and her observations of them.
I think you will be interested in the photo of our premises here even if it does have to be curved to make the thing come together. Fred took it from the roof of the new P[ost] O[ffice] and the building half completed in front of us belongs also to the P.O."
Little known in the US, Pray's heavily photographed letters have made her well known in Russia, as her long residence there, 1894 to 1930, meant that she's chronicled, and preserved, an entire epic in Russia's history which would otherwise have seen much lost. She apparently liked the region, as she stayed on after the death of her husband in 1923 and only left in 1930 when her employer closed its facility in the area, which was also experiencing hardening Stalinist repression.
From Vladivostok she moved to China and was interned in World War Two by the Japanese, becoming part of a 1943 prisoner exchange which resulted in her return to the US. She smuggled her papers out in the process. She died in 1954 at age 85.
Manuel won the Kentucky Derby.
Last prior edition:
Monday, May 1, 1899. Prisoners of the Philippine Republic.
Friday, May 3, 2024
Dyslexia and surprising headlines.
I saw this. . .
Per VOA, the Scranton Army Ammunition Plant is now producing more than 36,000 155mm shells per month.
and read it as "Salvation Army Plant is now producing. . .
Which was surprising.
Wednesday, May 4, 1944. Japanese Command Changes.
Soemu Toyoda (豊田 副武) was made Commander in Chief of the Imperial Japanese Navy Combined Fleet.
Toyada became a full Admiral only shortly before the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor and was opposed to it from the onset, believing that a war with the United States was unwinnable. He figured in late war Imperial Conferences on finding an end to the war, which he was in favor of ending but he wished for better terms for Japan, even after the atomic strikes on the country. He was in favor of defending the home islands to the last man.
Arrested and charged with war crimes in 1948, he was acquitted in 1949, the only member of the Japanese armed forces to prevail in a war crimes trial. He died in 1957 at age 72.
The British 14th Army captured the heights above the Maungdaw-Buthindaung road in the Arakan.
The USS Donnell was heavily damaged by a strike by the U-473. Towed to Scotland, she became a total loss.
The U-852 was scuttled on the Somali coast.
Harvard scientists announce the ability to produce synthetic quinine.
The French Resistance burned 100,000 liters of acetone at the Lambiotte plant.
2nd Lt. John W. Garrett, age 19, was killed making an emergency landing of a B-24 at Rentschler Field, East Hartford, Connecticut.
Sarah Sundin has some interesting entries on her blog, Today in World War II History—May 3, 1944.
She reports, for instance, that Going My Way was released.
I've never seen the film, but according to some its the best in Bing Crosby's career. I probably should catch it.
The movie is really from the golden age of the portrayal of Catholic clerics in American films. It interestingly came before the point at which Catholics had crossed over into the American cultural mainstream, and remained their own ethnicity to a strong degree. The era, which started in the 1930s and continued into the 1950s, basically ended after the American Catholic integration occured following John F. Kennedy's election to the White House.
It's interesting, in that there are an entire series of really sympathetic portrayals of Catholic priests and Catholicism in general from this era, including Boys Town (1938), The Song of Bernadette (1943), The Bells of Saint Mary's (1945), The Keys of the Kingdom (1944), The Quiet Man (1952) On The Waterfront (1954), and The Left Hand of God (1955). These were all major motion pictures, not niche pictures such as For Greater Glory (2012). They came on pretty strongly in the late 1930s and continued on into the mid 50s, but really disappeared after that. By the 1970's M*A*S*H the portrayal of priests had declined to the point where the portrayal was entirely satyric.
Sundin reports that meat rationing was temporarily relaxed, which brings up this post that we pondered the topic in from a few years back:
Hunting (and fishing), Stateside, during World War Two.
Owning a packing house, as they did, I wonder what was table fare for my father and his family during the war?
Last prior edition:
Tuesday, May 2, 1944. Sensing a change.
Saturday, May 3, 1924. Foundings.
The Grand Order of the Aleph Zadik Aleph (AZA or אצא), an international fraternity for Jewish teenagers, was founded in Omaha, Nebraska.
It would go on to found the B'nai B'rith Youth Organization a year later.
The SS Catalina, which would be in service for 51 years ferrying passengers between Los Angeles and Santa Catalina Island, was launched.
German police raided the Soviet Trade Delegation
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Zinaida Kokorina, against the odds and through the intervention of the Soviet head of state, became the first female military pilot on this day in 1924.
She wanted to become a fighter pilot, but was persuaded to remain a flight instructor, which she did through World War Two. She later became headmistress of a village school at Cholpon-Ata in Kyrgyzstan before retiring to Moscow.
Last prior edition:
Thursday, May 2, 2024
Tuesday, May 2, 1944. Sensing a change.
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As true now, as then.
The Second Battle of Târgu Frumos began in Romania, which would provide another example of the Red Army not doing well in its Romanian campaigns at this point in the war.
A Swordfish sank a second German submarine, the U-674, in consecutive days, in the Arctic.
The USS Parrott collided with the John Morton at Norfolk, Virginia and was severely damaged. It was never repaired.
Span stopped exporting tungsten to Germany under Allied pressure, a move that was risky given the German proclivity for invading allies that attempted to pack out of association with them.
In perhaps an even riskier move, the management of the Aubert and Duval steel works at Ancizes, France shut the plant down in cooperation with the French Resistance.
Or was it that it was obvious in France, and Spain, that the Germans would soon be leaving?
Last prior edition:
Monday, May 1, 1944. Unmet expectations.
Friday, May 2, 1924. Craters of the Moon.
President Coolidge placed an arms embargo on Cuba at the request of its government.
Craters of the Moon National Monument was established.
WHEREAS, there is located in townships one south, one and two National Monument, north, ranges twenty-four and twenty-five east of the Boise Meridian, in Butte and Blaine Counties, Idaho, an area which contains a remarkable fissure eruption together with its associated volcanic cones, craters, rifts, lava flows, caves, natural bridges, and other phenomena characteristic of volcanic action which are of unusual scientific value and general interest; and
WHEREAS, this area contains many curious and unusual phenomena of great educational value and has a weird and scenic landscape peculiar to itself; and
WHEREAS, it appears that the public interest would be promoted by reserving these volcanic features as a National Monument, together with as much land as may be needed for the protection thereof.
NOW, THEREFORE, I, Calvin Coolidge, President of the United States of America, by authority of the power in me vested by section two of the act of Congress entitled, “An Act for the preservation of American antiquities,” approved June eighth, nineteen hundred and
six (34 Stat., 225) do proclaim that there is hereby reserved from all forms of appropriation under the public land laws, subject to all valid existing claims, and set apart as a National Monument all that piece or parcel of land in the Counties of Butte and Blaine, State of Idaho, shown as the Craters of the Moon National Monument upon the diagram hereto annexed and made a part hereof.
Warning is hereby expressly given to all unauthorized persons not to appropriate, injure, destroy or remove any feature of this Monument and not to locate or settle upon any of the lands thereof.
The Director of the National Park Service, under the direction of the Secretary of the Interior, shall have the supervision, management, and control of this Monument as provided in the act of Congress entitled, “An Act to establish a National Park Service and for other purposes,” approved August twenty-fifth, nineteen hundred and sixteen (39 Stat., 535) and Acts additional thereto or amendatory thereof.
IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of the United States to be affixed.
DONE in the City of Washington this 2d day of May in the year of our Lord one thousand nine hundred and twenty-four, and of the Independence of the United States of America the one hundred and forty – eighth.
Sen. Robert Howell (R-Neb.) proposed that the Senate broadcast its proceedings via radio.
Doing so would have cost $3,300,000 in 1924 dollars, which would be $100,000,000 now, thanks to inflation. The initiative died.
Last prior edition:
Thursday, May 1, 1924. Salt.
Wednesday, May 1, 2024
Monday, May 1, 1944. Unmet expectations.
The wounded German beast must be pursued and finished off in its lair.
Stalin, May 1, 1944.
Piper Cub over Italy, May 1, 1944.
Today had been the original D-Day in planning for Operation Overlord.
The Germans executed 200 Greek Communists in Kaisariani in reprisal for the killing of Gen. Franz Krech by the Greek People's Liberation Army. Interestingly, the OSS and the SOE spread a rumor following the ambush that he'd been assassinated by the Gestapo for being an anti Hitler dissident. The falsification was an attempt to avoid reprisals on Greek civilians.
The Germans didn't buy it, and according executed the 200 Communist prisoners. Greek collaborationist forces killed a further 100 suspected members of the Greek resistance, and the Germans a further 25.
Task Group 58.1 attacked Ponape from the air and from the sea. Seven battleships were included in ship to shore bombardment.
The Commonwealth Prime Ministers Conference was held in London.
The Soviets created the Medal for the Defense of Moscow and the Medal for the Defense of the Caucuses.
The U-277 was sunk in the Arctic by a Swordfish of the 842 Naval Air Squadron.
Patton had an uncomfortable meeting with Gen. Eisenhower and wrote about it in his dairy.
May 1, 1944
In spite of possible execution this morning I slept well and trust my destiny. God has never let me, or the country, down yet. Reported to Ike at 1100. He was most cordial and asked me to sit down, so I felt a little reassured. He said, “George, you have gotten yourself into a very serious fix.” I said, “Before you go any farther, I want to say that your job is more important than mine, so if in trying to save me you are hurting yourself, throw me out.” He said, “I have now got all that the army can give me—it is not a question of hurting me but of hurting yourself and depriving me of a fighting army commander.” He went on to say that General Marshall had wired him that my repeated mistakes have shaken the confidence of the country and the War Department. General Marshall even harked back to the Kent Lambert incident in November 1942—certainly a forgiving s.o.b.
Ike said he had recommended that, if I were to be relieved and sent home, I be not reduced to a Colonel, as the relief would be sufficient punishment, and that he felt that situations might well arise where it would be necessary to put me in command of an army.
I told Ike that I was perfectly willing to fall out on a permanent promotion so as not to hold others back. Ike said General Marshall had told him that my crime had destroyed all chance of my permanent promotion, as the opposition said even if I was the best tactician and strategist in the army, my demonstrated lack of judgment made me unfit to command. He said that he had wired General Marshall on Sunday washing his hands of me. (He did not use these words but that is what he meant). I told him that if I was reduced to a Colonel I demanded the right to command one of the assault regiments; that this was not a favor but a right. He said no, because he felt he would surely need me to command an army. I said, “I am not threatening, but I want to tell you that his attack is badly planned and on too narrow a front and may well result in an Anzio, especially if I am not there. He replied, "Don't I know it, but what can I do?” That is a hell of a remark for a supreme commander. The fact is that the plan which he has approved was drawn by a group of British in 1943. Monty changed it only by getting 5 instead of 3 divisions into the assault, but the front is too short. There should be three separate attacks on at least a 90 mile front. I have said this for nearly a year. Ike said he had written me a “savage” letter but wanted me to know that his hand is being forced from United States. He talked to the Prime Minister about me and Churchill told him that he could see nothing to it. That “Patton had simply told the truth.” Ike then went on to excuse General Marshall on the grounds that it was an election year etc. It is sad and shocking to think “fear of They”, and the writings of a group of unprincipled reporters, and weak kneed congressmen, but so it is. When I came out I don't think anyone could tell that I had just been killed. I have lost lots of competitions in the sporting way, but I never did better. I feel like death, but I am not out yet. If they will let me fight, I will; but if not, I will resign so as to be able to talk, and then I will tell the truth, and possibly do my country more good. All the way home, 5 hours, I recited poetry to myself.
“If you can make a heap of all your winnings
And risk them on one game of pitch and toss
And lose, and start at your beginning
And never breathe a word about your loss”
“I dared extreme occasion and never one betrayed.”
My final thought on the matter is that I am destined to achieve some great thing—what I don't know, but this last incident was so trivial in its nature, but so terrible in its effect, that it is not the result of an accident but the work of God. His Will be done.
General Leroy Lutes of the U.S. Service of Supply was here when I got back after supper and we gave him a briefing and entertained him. I hope to get some equipment as a result.
Last prior edition:
Sunday, April 30, 1944. Pre fab. Draft McArthur?
Thursday, May 1, 1924. Salt.
Having had half of my thyroid cut out this year, I appreciate that.
It was Canadian pediatrician David Murray Crowe who became aware that the addition of sodium iodide or potassium iodide to salt could safely remedy the problem of iodine deficiency that was a leading cause of thyroid problems.
Benz und Companie and Daimler Motoren Gesellschaft combined operations, but had not yet quite merged.
May Day demonstrations occured across the US.
Last prior edition:
Wednesday, April 30, 1924. More tornadoes.
Monday, May 1, 1899. Prisoners of the Philippine Republic.
USS Yorktown.
Admiral George Dewey reported that ten officers and crewmen of the USS Yorktown were taken prisoner by the Philippine Republic, exactly one year after the U.S. Navy's defeat of the Spanish fleet at Manila Bay.
Adm. Dewey.
Last prior edition:
Wednesday, April 28, 1899. Discussions in the Philippines.
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