Congress rejected a bill by Kansas Senator Bob Dole to allow states to raise the speed limit above 55.
American and Canadian Mohawk's began the occupation of the abandoned Moss Lake Girl Scouts camp near Old Forge, New York.
Last prior edition:
Monday, May 13, 2024
Saturday, May 13, 1944. Battle of the Tennis Court ends.
The long-running Battle of the Tennis Court ended in an allied victory.
The Axis completed its withdrawal from Crimea, having evacuated over 150,000 troops, a stunning effort given the context of the battle going on there.
78,000 were killed or captured by the Soviets in this time frame.
Cpt. Richard Wakeford.
On 13th May, 1944, Captain Wakeford commanded the leading Company on the right flank of an attack on two hills near Cassino, and accompanied by his orderly and armed only with a revolver, he killed a number of the enemy and handed over 2O prisoners when the Company came forward. On the final objective a German officer and 5 other ranks were holding a house. After being twice driven back by grenades. Captain Wakeford, with a final dash, reached the window and hurled in his grenades. Those of the enemy, who were not killed or wounded, surrendered. Attacking another feature on the following day, a tank became bogged on the start line, surprise was lost and the leading infantry were caught in the enemy's fire, so that the resulting casualties endangered the whole operation. Captain Wakeford, keeping his Company under perfect control, crossed the start line and although wounded in the face and in both arms, led his men up the hill. Half way up the hill his Company came under heavy Spandau fire; in spite of his wounds, he organized and led a force to deal with this opposition so that his company could get on. By now the Company was being heavily mortared and Captain Wakeford was again wounded, in both legs, but he still went on and reaching his objective, he organized and consolidated the remainder of his Company and reported to his Commanding Officer before submitting to any personal attention. During the seven hour interval before stretcher-bearers could reach him his unwavering high spirits encouraged the wounded men around him. His selfless devotion to duty, leadership, determination, courage and disregard for his own serious, injuries were beyond all praise.
Wakeford became a solicitor (lawyer) after the war and died in 1972 at age 51.
Also in Italy, the Polish 2nd Corps unsuccessfully attacked Monte Cassino, sustaining heavy casualties in the effort. The French Expeditionary Corps took Castelforte and Monte Mailo.
Sarah Sundin reports:
Today in World War II History—May 13, 1944: In drive for Rome, French troops break through Gustav Line. Premiere of Cowboy and the Senorita, starring Roy Rogers & Dale Evans in their first film together.
She also noted that Klaus Dönitz, son of the commander of the German Kriegsmarine, was killed when his torpedo boat went down off the English coast.
The U-1224, now in Japanese service as the RO-501, was sunk in the Atlantic, making it one of two Japanese flagged submarines to be sunk in the Atlantic.
The French Resistance halted self propelled artillery production at the Lorraine-Dietrich works, Bagneres de Bigorre.
Pensive won the Preakness.
Last prior edition:
Friday, May 12, 1944. Heroism in Italy. End of the war in the Caucasus.
Tuesday, May 13, 1924. Conventions wrap up.
The 1924 Wyoming Republican and Democratic conventions ended and chose their candidates.
The GOP chose Calvin Coolidge, and the Democrats Wyoming Senator John B. Kendrick.
The Kendrick decision proved to be a non-starter. He'd receive no support at all at that year's Democratic national convention.
Last prior edition:
Monday, May 12, 1924. Final filly wins the Preakness.
Sunday, May 12, 2024
The dog.
I've noted here before that I'm not really a "dog person", which is not to say that I don't like dogs. I do.
I didn't have a dog growing up, save for an extremely brief time in which my parents for some reason adopted one from the Humane Society. It was a Scotch Terrier mix and was fully grown, and ran away almost as soon as we got it. I don't know what motivated them to acquire the do, I probably wanted one, and I can barely remember it, we had it so briefly. I was very young at the time.
They probably chose the dog type as our yard was tiny. When I was growing up, my mother wanted a bigger house for many years until she became attached to the one they'd bought in 1958, when they were first married. The backyard really was tiny. It wouldn't have accommodated a large dog.
We always had cats, and I love cats. Having said that, we tended to attract dogs and cats, as some people do.
Anyhow, most people who are bird hunters have dogs, but we didn't. By the time I was in late grade school I was a horrible asthmatic, something I don't talk about much, and I turned out to be allergic to cats and dogs, so that foreclosed getting a dog. I was so allergic to dogs that I'd get to where I could hardly breathe if I was riding in a car with a dog, something that was still the case as late as the very early 90s. For some reason, however, the condition abated enormously after that. A neighbor's cat, for most of its very long cat life, basically lived at our house, which shouldn't have really been possible if I'd remained highly allergic.
About 7 or 8 years ago, my wife decided we should get a dog. I went back for tests and found I was still allergic, and retook the battery of shots that I had taken twice previously in my life. One day I came home to find she'd placed an order for a Double Doodle hunting dog.
I was worried, but largely kept it myself. When the little fluff ball arrived, I was really skeptical, but he started proving his worth as a hunting dog that very fall. More than that, however, he proved himself to be a highly affectionate dedicated outdoor dog.
He hunted all this past fall with me and then a few weeks ago fell ill. Aggressive cancer. Now he's gone.
The past year plus has really been horrific for me in all sorts of ways. Surgery twice, stress to the limit, being ill every day. Two family deaths back to back, and now this. I don't know why these things happen.
I've carried on throughout it, but I can hardly write this due to the tears in my eyes for the dog.
Sunday, May 12, 1974. Divorce Italian Style.
Italians voted to retain the newly granted right to obtain a divorce, dating from 1970, in Italy's first public referendum. The vote was 59% in favor of retention of the law.
Italian divorce or the lack of it, had actually been the theme of an Italian movie of several yeas prior, at the time that Italian movies and bombshell actresses were a big thing. In the film, which I've never seen, apparently Ferdinando Cefalù, placed by Marcello Mastroianni, is married a 37-year-old impoverished Sicilian nobleman when he falls in love with his cousin Angela, a 16-year-old girl he sees only during the summer.
Ick.
So he starts to plot to kill his wife, and it goes on from there.
I don't think I'll bother to catch it.
Mastroianni is an interesting character, as his own marriage failed due to his infidelities, but he and his wife remained married throughout his life. Asked once about it, he was horrified when it was suggested he should divorce, noting that he was Catholic and Catholics do not divorce.
Daniela Rocca, who played the devoted wife in the film, actually was rendered mentally unstable during it, and attempted to commit suicide. Stefania Sandrelli, who played the 16-year-old love interest, and ultimately unfaithful second wife, was actually only 14 years old when she played the part.
Leyla Qasim, became the first woman to be executed by Saddam Hussein's regime. She was one of five Kurds charged with attempting to hijack and airplane and plotting to kill the Iraqi leader.
Last prior edition:
Thursday, May 9, 1974. Probable cause.
Friday, May 12, 1944. Heroism in Italy. End of the war in the Caucasus.
The two-year-long Battle of the Caucasus ended in a Soviet victory.
What's partially amazing about this is that the Soviets and Axis forces were fighting a war that was effectively far behind the real front lines by this point. The Axis forces should have withdrawn from this region months prior to this.
The war in Italy at this point was remarkably multinational, with the US 5th Army including a wide variety of western units, including units of the Indian Army. Sepoy Kamal Ram won the Victoria Cross in Italy for single handely wiping out a German machinegun post, causing a second one to surrender a,d n assisting a feelow soldier in the destruction of a third.
His citation.
In Italy, on 12 May 1944, after crossing the River Gari overnight, the Company advance was held up by heavy machine-gun fire from four posts on the front and flanks. As the capture of the position was essential to secure the bridgehead, the Company Commander called for a volunteer to get round the rear of the right post and silence it. Volunteering at once and crawling forward through the wire to a flank, Sepoy Kamal Ram attacked the post single handed and shot the first machine-gunner; a second German tried to seize his weapon but Sepoy Kamal Ram killed him with the bayonet, and then shot a German officer who, appearing from the trench with his pistol, was about to fire. Sepoy Kamal Ram, still alone, at once went on to attack the second machine-gun post which was continuing to hold up the advance, and after shooting one machine-gunner, he threw a grenade and the remaining enemy surrendered. Seeing a Havildar making a reconnaissance for an attack on the third post, Sepoy Kamal Ram joined him, and, having first covered his companion, went in and completed the destruction of this post. By his courage, initiative and disregard for personal risk, Sepoy Kamal Ram enabled his Company to charge and secure the ground vital to the establishment of the bridgehead and the completion of work on two bridges. When a platoon, pushed further forward to widen the position, was fired on from a house, Sepoy Kamal Ram, dashing towards the house, shot one German in a slit trench and captured two more. His sustained and outstanding bravery unquestionably saved a difficult situation at a critical period of the battle and enabled his Battalion to attain the essential part of their objective.
He was 19 years old at the time, and would remain in the Indian Army after the war, retiring in 1972. He died in 1987 at the age of 57.
The 5th Army made progress against the Gustav Line. The French Expeditionary Corps captured Monte Faito. The British 13th Corps crossed the Rapido opposite of Cassino.
Frederick Schiller Faust, better known by his pen name Max Brand, was killed by artillery while working as a writer attached to U.S. infantry, a request he'd made some weeks earlier. He was 51 years old.
The United States Army Air Force hit synthetic oil plants at Leuna-Merseburg, Bohlen, Zeitz, Lutzkendorf and Brux.
ME 410 photographed from a B-17 over Brux.
A20 hit by flak over France. Pilot 1st Lt Robert E. Stockwell and gunner S/Sgt Hollis A. Foster were killed. Bombardier Lt. Albert Jedinak and gunner S/Sgt. Egon W. Rust bailed out and were captured.
The State Department was busy trying to find a way to save Rome from destruction.
German U-boat commander Oskar Kusch was executed for holding views critical of Adolf Hitler.
Last prior edition:
Thursday, May 11, 1944. Operation Diadem.
Monday, May 12, 1924. Final filly wins the Preakness.
Nellie Morse became the fourth, and last, filly to win the Preakness. She's the only horse to win the Preakness and the Black-Eyed Susan Stakes.
Maryland's Nellie Morse Stakes, restricted to fillies and mares, is named after her.
The USSR began a boycott of Germany over the Bozenhardt Incident.
Prohibition came to an end in Alberta, with two government owned liquor stores opening.
Raymond Poincaré announced he would resign as French Prime Minister as soon as a new government was formed, following recent French elections.
Last prior edition:
Friday, May 9, 1924. Scottish question results in chaos.
Saturday, May 11, 2024
Best Posts of the Week of May 4, 2024
The best posts of the week of May 4, 2024.
Wyoming's Bishop Steven Biegler on Fiducia Supplicans.
Last prior edition:
Best Posts of the Week of April 27, 2024
Thursday, May 11, 1944. Operation Diadem.
Japanese foxholes located under bank of draw in the 129th Infantry, 37th Division sector on Bougainville, Solomon Islands. The jungle growth has been cleared by the fierce artillery fire. May 11, 1944.
Allied forces broke through German defenses in the Liri Valley in Operation Diadem with the first attacks being by the British 4th Infantry Division and the 8th Indian Infantry Division, with fire support from the 1st Canadian Armoured Brigade. All the Allies fighting in Italy would participate in the offensive.
Allied air forces raided the French coast, with Calais particularly hard hit.
Oberst Walter Oesau (123 victories) was shot down and killed over the Eifel Mountains.
Oesau had been goaded into flying by Luftwaffe chief Hermann Göring on that day even though he'd been sick in bed with the flu, Göring calling his command to see if he was flying. Göring had been turning his ire on unit commanders who were not regularly flying, and upon learning that Oesau was in bed he basically accused him of cowardice. He did skillfully fight three P-38s but was killed by cannon fire from one of the aircraft attempting to make an emergency landing.\
Oesau had fought in the Spanish Civil War, but there's little known about him overall. He was not a flamboyant figure and included no special markings on his aircraft.
The RAF Lancaster "S for Sugar" completed its 100th mission.
Today in World War II History—May 11, 1944 In Italy, Germans release Jews of Turkish, Spanish, Portuguese, Swedish, Finnish, and Swiss citizenship under pressure from these neutral governments.Movie premiere of The White Cliffs of Dover, starring Irene Dunne.
Social Security Administration ruling reflecting a marriage on this date, and a complicated set of relationships.
SSR 60-9. STATUS OF CHILD IN THE WOMB
A child conceived during its mother's marriage to her first husband, but born after her re-marriage to her second husband is the stepchild of the second husband from the date of such marriage.
M was divorced from F on March 25, 1944. She married P on May 11, 1944. A child, C, was born to M on July 13, 1944. P died on May 20, 1945. An application for child's benefits on P's social security account was filed September 23, 1959, on behalf of C.
Section 216(e) of the Social Security Act defines the term "child" as including a stepchild of a deceased individual who has been a stepchild "for not less than one year immediately preceding the day on which such individual died."
In view of the general principle that when justice or convenience requires, the child in the womb is dealt with as a human being even though physiologically it is part of the mother, the marriage of P and M created a steprelationship between P and M's child, C, even though C was unborn at that time. Since the marriage of P and M occurred more than one year prior to P's death, and C had been conceived and was in existence at the time of the marriage, it is held that C was P's stepchild for one year prior to his death as required by section 216(e) for becoming entitled to benefits on his earnings record.
Last prior edition:
Wednesday, May 10, 1944. New Medals.
Friday, May 10, 2024
Wednesday, May 10, 1944. New Medals.
Chinese forces, while under assault elsewhere in China, crossed the Salween River near the Burmese border in an offensive.
The Japanese destroyer Karukaya was sunk in the South China Sea by the USS Silversides.
Soviet General Aleksandr Vasilevsky was wounded in the head at Sevastopol when his car drove over a mine. He recovered and later served again in high command, and went on to be Stalin's post-war Minister of War, a position he lost with Stalin's death. He died in 1977.
A series of Merchant Marine medals were established, recognizing their very dangerous service in various theaters.
Last prior edition:
Tuesday, May 9, 1944. Sevastopol liberated.
Saturday, May 10, 1924. J. Edgar Hoover becomes the head of the (Federal) Bureau of Investigation.
J. Edgar Hoover was named acting director of the Bureau of Investigation, which later became the Federal Bureau of Investigation. He'd occupy the position of the agency's head until May 2, 1972, the latter being the date of his death.
Hoover in 1932.
Hoover was a lawyer who had graduated from Georgetown with an LLB in 1916 and obtained a LLM from the same institution in 1917. That year, he went to work in the Justice Department War Emergency Division at age 22. He was 77 when he died, the mandatory Federal retirement age having been waived in his case. His extremely long retention is peculiar, and has given rise to speculation that various Presidents were afraid of what he might have on them in his files.
Hoover was foundational for the FBI, as might be suspected. As an individual personality he was peculiar and notably never married, and lived with his mother into his 40s and was extremely close to assistant director Clyde Tolson, who inherited his estate, all of which has given rise to speculation about his sexuality but nothing has been proven one way or another about it.
Personally, I suspect that Hoover was the source of information used by Joe McCarthy on Communists in the US government, something that the Truman Administration early on had attempted to keep the lid on, but I've never seen that speculated upon elsewhere.
It was a Saturday.
Last prior edition:
Wednesday, May 10, 1899. Song and Dance.
Fred Astaire was born in Omaha, Nebraska as Frederick Austerlitz
Texas State University was founded.
Last prior edition:
Sunday, May 7, 1899. Aguinaldo moves
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