The Crown and various First Nations of the Lesser Slave Lake area signed a treaty regarding 320,000 sq miles of territory in Western Canada.
Last prior edition
Friday, June 21, 2024
Thursday, June 20, 2024
"And I'm gonna tell you workers, 'fore you cash in your checks They say 'America First,' but they mean 'America Next!' "
I've been seeing some political signs around town that say "America First!"
Americans are, I'm afraid, notoriously dense about history, which doesn't keep Americans from citing it. Just recently, for example, as I already noted here, the state's populist's caucus cited Operation Overlord as a great example of American virtue and heroism, apparently dim to the fact that Operation Overlord was made necessary by the US sitting out the post 1917 to 1941 world stage's drama and that the heroism was made necessary by the Japanese bombing Pearl Harbor, not the US waking up one day to the dangers of fascism. Indeed, recently populist have been itching to repeat the betrayal of Czechoslovakia, in the form of Ukraine, so we can finally bring World War III about, although they are dim to the fact that's what they're doing.
Part of that late 1920s and 1930s drama that it seems people have forgotten (in addition to massive tariffs being a horrific idea, and that taxing upper income levels at the 50% rate actually doesn't hurt the economy at all) was the rise of the America First idea, which was that the US could just sit around and ignore the world, safely. It turned out, of course, that ships going down daily in the Atlantic, numerous people being murdered due to their religion, and the Japanese fleet proved that concept wrong in a bloody fashion, but populists are imagining it again. This time its pretty likely, I'd estimate in the 75% range, that the Chinese navy and ballistic missile force will prove that idea wrong again.
Anyhow, when I read "America First!" on political signs, having a sense of history, I can't help but recall this Woody Guthrie song:
While I suppose it's not directly applicable to the current times, I love the last line of the song:
And I'm gonna tell you workers, 'fore you cash in your checksThey say "America First, " but they mean "America Next!"In Washington, Washington
Tuesday, June 20, 1944. End of the Battle of the Philippine Sea.
The Imperial Japanese aircraft carrier Hiyō sunk after fuel vapors ignited from previous damage caused by USS Belleau Wood's aircraft.
Japanese losses stood at three aircraft carriers, two oilers and about 600 aircraft.
1st Lt. Donald E. Mittelstaedt of Missoula, Montana, is officer in charge of a combat assignment photo unit, of the 161st Signal Photo Co., on New Britain.
British Minister of Production Oliver Lyttelton created a controversy in his address to the American Chamber of Commerce in London when he went off script and stated:
Japan was provoked into attacking the Americans at Pearl Harbor. It is a travesty on history to ever say that America was forced into the war. Everyone knows where American sympathies were. It is incorrect to say that America was ever truly neutral even before America came into the war on an all-out fighting basis.
Secretary of State Cordell Hull immediately condemned the speech.
The weather remained bad in the English
Pvt. William L. Hatcher, of Scranton, SC, amuses a little French orphan by letting him wear his garrison cap. 20 June, 1944.
Channel, creating havoc for Allied shipping.
A V-2 rocket, in a test flight, entered outer space and then returned, being the first man made object to enter space.
The Pope addressed the British 8th Army.
ADDRESS OF HIS HOLINESS PIUS XII
TO MEMBERS OF THE EIGHTH BRITISH ARMY
Tuesday, 20 June 1944
It is a real joy for Us to welcome you all here within the very home of the common Father of Christendom. God has willed that We should be the Vicar of Christ on earth at a period of human history, when the world is filled as never before with weeping and suffering and distress unmeasured; and you know very well how Our paternal heart has at times been almost overwhelmed by the sorrows of Our children. You are of those children, and We have prayed for you. Your presence naturally recalls to Our mind the very pleasant days We once had the privilege of passing in the great capital of the British Empire; but it also summons up other memories, memories of those heroes of the Faith, St. Edward and St. Thomas a Becket, St. John Fisher and St. Thomas More, who shed a supreme and unfading glory on your country. To their protection We commend you all. You know only too well the dangers and uncertainties of life in war. One thing make certain: keep always and everywhere close to God. This grace We beg for you through the intercession of those loyal, saintly sons of Mother Church and of your loved England, while with Our heart's affection We bless you and all your dear ones at home.
The Red Army captured Vilpuri.
The Lithuanian Security Police murdered 37 mostly Polish residents of Glitiškės.
TWA Flight 277 en route from Newfoundland to Washington, D.C. crashed in Maine, killing all seven on board.
Last prior edition:
June 19, 1944. The Battle of the Philippine Sea, day one. The Marianas Turkey Shoot.
Saturday, June 20, 1874. Life Savers
Congress established the Gold Lifesaving Medal and Silver Lifesaving Medal. They were originally issued through the Treasury Department, which properly ran the Coast Guard before it was transferred to the Department of Homeland Security, but they may be issued to anyone.
Joshua James, U.S. Life–Saving Station keeper, credited with saving over 500 lives during his lifetime wearing the medal and other awards.
Last prior edition:
Sunday, June 14, 1874. Calling for an Indian War.
Wednesday, June 19, 2024
Hindsight is 20/20. . .
Packer from the U.S. Forest Service Northern Region
but at some point, that doesn't really do you much good.
And for that matter, it isn't really 20/20.
Human beings prognostic abilities are notorious poor, in spite of what we like to think. We're really good at recognizing patterns, but it's been established that we see patterns in things that aren't actually there.
Added to that, while hindsight may be 20/20, immediate hindsight and distant hindsight aren't the same thing. It's one thing to look at a recent mistake and conclude, well that was a mistake, or to look at something that was a success and realize that. But mistakes in particular often don't really set in as to their full magnitude, if at all, for a long time. By the time that hindsight snaps into focus, it may truly be difficult, or indeed too late, to do anything about them.
Which gives us that old adage about not looking back, which gives us such quotes as this from Churchill
What is done, is done. Learn from it and always look forward. Every day is a new opportunity to grow, to learn and be better than we were yesterday.
That's probably the best view, but it's not always the easiest one to take.
June 19, 1944. The Battle of the Philippine Sea, day one. The Marianas Turkey Shoot.
Japan, suffering piecemeal losses due to island hopping, used the American invasion of Saipan as an opportunity to attempt to strike a knock-out blow against the U.S. Navy.
It achieved the opposite result.
Lt. Alexander Vraciu on the number of Japanese aircraft he had just shot down.
It was the largest aircraft carrier engagement in human history and would be the end of offensive carrier operations for Japan.
Signs that this were coming had been coming for a few days, and the Navy had reacted, drawing off of support for Saipan to go out and meet the Japanese, who were approaching from the Philippines. On this day, the Japanese launched carrier born attacks against the Navy at long range. The U.S., picking the oncoming aircraft on radar, more than met their opponents, devastating the oncoming Japanese at an enormous rate. Japanese planes that flew on to Guam were attack en route. The use of VT fuses by ships caused huge Japanese losses on the plans that managed to evade US fighters.
Japanese aircraft losses are extreme. The event became known as The Marianas Turkey Shoot.
While the Navy's surface fleet was not able to spot the Japanese on the first day, U.S. submarines did and made two successful strikes on aircraft carriers, damaging them both. One, the Japanese Navy's newest carrier, exploded into flames later that day due to errors in damage control efforts, killing over 1,000 sailors and sinking the ship. Both carriers, the Shokaku and Taiho, ultimately sank, with the USS Cavalla and USS Albacore taking the kills.
Japan had better luck on the Chinese mainland, where Changsha fell to them. Not that it would matter.
Historians frequently like to use the word "turning point" or try to examine when something became inevitable. The Battle of the Philippine Sea really was such an event. The Japanese effort made sense and was strategically sound. The Imperial Japanese Navy had correctly assessed that the US island hopping effort was going to bring the U.S. within striking distance of the Philippines and Japan itself in short order, and that if allowed to continue, the Japanese were going to lose the war. Knocking out the US fleet was necessary if Japan had any hope of a positive resolution to the conflict. The invasion of Saipan gave rise to an opportunity to achieve that goal.
There were, of course, real risks, one being that the Japanese effort was obvious. Having said that, however, the US failed to detect the Japanese fleet on the surface and did not do so even during the first day of the battle. But the thing the Japanese could not have appreciated is how advanced US technology had become. VT fuses, using radar in an artillery fuse, meant that ships could defend themselves against aircraft by simply getting a shot near them. Radar allowed the incoming Japanese aircraft to be intercepted before the flak barrages began. U.S. aircraft had dramatically advanced in a short time.
Of course, the interception by US submarines was a lucky development for the US. Had the submarines not taken out two carriers on the first day, the Japanese losses would have been severe, but perhaps not as devastating as they were.
The Japanese defeat on June 19, 1944, meant the Japanese Navy was done as a conventional fighting force. The Japanese would develop, in short order, a new way to retain an offensive capability, but it would prove to be a self-defeating one. From June 19 forward, Japan retained no real way to prevent, or even slow, the US advance.
A massive partisan operation on the Eastern Front, in preparation for Operation Bagration, saw 100,000 Soviet partisans disrupt rear area supplies and detonate 10,000 explosions.
A storm in the English Channel destroyed parts of the Mulberry harbors, disrupting shipping to the Normandy operations and causing Gen. Montgomery to call off an operation designed to penetrate German lines north east of Caen.
The U.S. 4th Infantry Division took Montebourg, but the Germans generally resisted heavily everywhere.
Last prior edition:
Sunday, June 18, 1944. Naval positioning.
The less they could do.
She had observed that the more education they got, the less they could do. Their father had gone to a one-room schoolhouse through the eighth grade and he could do anything.
Flannery O'Connor
Tuesday, June 18, 2024
Sunday, June 18, 1944. Naval positioning.
Lt. Gen. H. M. Smith, Maj. Gen. Watson, Br. Gen., Erskins, Col. Riseley, Capt. D. V. Nahrgang (R-2) conference at 6th Marine Regiment CP. D plus 3, Saipan.
On Saipan, the 4th Marine Division reached the west side of the island and the 27th Infantry Division captured Aslito airfield. Japanese air strikes sank one American destroyer, but most of the Navy has withdrawn to meet the approaching combined Japanese fleet.
Impressed transportation, Saipan.
US carriers rendezvoused west of the Mariana's and the Japanese spot them from the air late in the day. A Japanese airstrike, using Guam as the ending base, was planned.
The British captured Assisi.
This is a good time to recall that the British had more troops committed in the West, at this point, than any other Western combatant. That would change in the second half of 1944, but its notable. It's particularly notable as they were drawing from a smaller pool of manpower than the second-largest committed power, the United States.
A V-1 hit the Guards Chapel of Wellington Barracks during Sunday service and killed 121 people.
The improbably named Ivanoe Bonomi replaced Pietro Badoglio as Prime Minister of Italy.
The U.S. 7th Corps cut the Contentin Peninsula in two, trapping the German forces defending Cherbourg.
Fighting was heavy near Caen, resulting in German forces being drawn off from that area opening up opportunities for U.S. forces, but also straining the Allied air forces which were depending upon more ground having been taken by this time in order to establish air bases on the continent.
The Red Army broke through Finnish defensive lines and advanced towards Viipuri.
Last prior edition:
Wednesday, June 18, 1924. The Cummins Incident.
The United Kingdom broke off diplomatic relations, the last thing that occurs before a declaration of war, or not, over the Mexican government's treatment of diplomat H. C. Cummins.
An exchange in the UK a few days prior:
MEXICO (BRITISH AGENT).
HC Deb 16 June 1924 vol 174 cc1737-91737
Mr. A. M. SAMUEL (by Private Notice) asked the Prime Minister whether the Mexican Government have attempted to expel Mr. Cummins, British Diplomatic Agent in Mexico City; whether Mr. Cummins has refused to leave and has shut himself up in the British Legation; whether His Majesty's Government regard the action of the Mexican Government as a breach of international courtesy, and, if so, what steps His Majesty's Government are going to take?
Viscount CURZON (by Private Notice)asked the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs whether he is able to make any statement as to the state of affairs existing at the British Legation in Mexico City, and as to the causes which have led up to it, and what action His Majesty's Government proposes to take?
The PRIME MINISTER The statements made in the question put by the hon. Member for Farnham (Mr. A. M. Samuel) may be taken as substantially correct. For some time there has been friction between the Mexican Government and Mr. Cummins, His Majesty's Government being unable to agree that the complaints made against Mr. Cummins were justified. On the 13th May I was informed that if Mr. Cummins were not withdrawn he would be expelled on the 10th instant. I had been desirous of regularising our relations with Mexico for some time, and decided that. Sir Thomas Hohler, who had previously done good work in that country, should go out at once on a special mission and report to me. On his arrival, Mr. Cummins was to leave. On the 15th April that information was sent officially to the Mexican Government, and I trusted that matters would be allowed to rest there. The Mexican Government have, however, 1738not only declined to withdraw their notice of expulsion, but are, apparently, in ways reported in the Press, proceeding to carry it out. His Majesty's Government regard the action of the Mexican Government as a grave breach of international courtesy, but I am still waiting for further information, as the result of communications I have made to the Mexican Government. I can only add, at the present moment, that I informed the Mexican Government that, in the event of their taking steps against Mr. Cummins, with which His Majesty's Government did not concur, the Hohler Mission could not be proceeded with. Though Sir Thomas Hohler is due to start at once, he has not yet left.
Colonel ASHLEY Is there at present free communication between His Majesty's Government and Mr. Cummins?
The PRIME MINISTER I believe that it is interrupted at present, though we are getting communications through.Mr. W. THORNE Is the right hon. Gentleman aware of the nature of the charges made by the Mexican Government against Mr. Cummins on account of which they desire his expulsion? There must be some reason surely.
The PRIME MINISTER The allegations made by the. Mexican Government against Mr. Cummins amount briefly to this, that Mr. Cummins made rude communications to the Mexican Government.
Mr. RONALD McNEILL Has not the friction arisen owing to Mr. Cummins' representations as to the rights of British subjects, made on the instructions of the Government?
The PRIME MINISTER ; The trouble which has arisen during my term of office can be accurately described by what my right hon. Friend has just said. The latest communication which caused offence was with reference to the case of Mrs. Evans, whose property was seized by the Mexican Government.
Mr. McNEILL Will the right hon. Gentleman give an assurance that the rights of British subjects will not be sacrificed in any circumstances owing to a new representative being sent there?
The PRIME MINISTER The whole idea which I had in mind was that, by regularising our relations with the Mexican Government, we should be in a very much better position than we are at present to negotiate about those rights.
Mr. SAMUEL Is it not impossible to carry out negotiations with any country which does not conform to the usages of civilisation?
It's not immediately clear to me what became of this spat.
Denmark recognized the Soviet Union.
Last prior edition:
June 16, 1924. The end of the Lone Scouts.
Linguistic White Supremacy?
Linguistic White Supremacy
Oh brother.
This is just the kind of "woke" nonsense that not only is harmful to the people that its afflicted upon, but which is giving us populist outrage.
Roads to the Great War: A Primer on War Communications During World War I
Roads to the Great War: A Primer on War Communications During World War I: Marine Signallers in World War One From the National Museum of the Marine Corps From the very beginnings of military warfare communication o...
Monday, June 17, 2024
Giving up on the weekend news shows.
I've always really liked them. Meet The Press and This Week respectively.
But recently, it's become almost pointless to listen to them.
The political guests tend to be complete hacks. Any GOP guest is going to support anything Trump says, or refuse to answer while stating something else. The Democrats aren't much better. And now the panels are the same way. The Republican panelist won't say anything critical of the GOP, nor will the Democratic panelist say anything critical of the Democrats.
Sic transit Gloria Mundi.
Well, maybe I'll try Face The Nation. It seemed to be holding up better.
Elephant Bells.
I was somewhere the other day (I can't recall where) when a young woman walked by wearing "elephant bells", i.e., bell bottom jeans with very wide flairs.
They were popular when I was quite young. By the time I was in high school, elephant bells had largely passed, but a few girls, usually ones who were a little edgy, still wore them.
I was surprised, as I didn't know that you could still get them, but then a few days later I was driving home and saw another young woman wearing a pair of white elephant bells and a multicolored, very 60ish, sweater. She had long blond curly hair and it really suited her. She was also walking into a tattoo parlor, so I hope she was careful.
Are they coming back?
Exceptionally American?
Um. . .
America is exceptional. Few other days in our history exemplify the American spirit like D-Day.
How ironic for a group which generally isn't very keen on the sort of thing that Operation Overlord represents, U.S. involvement in an overseas war.
To add to that, there were more British troops, if the Canadians under British command are included, in Operation Overlord than there were Americans. Americans consistently imagine somehow that Operation Overlord was an American thing, but it was not. On June 6, 1944, American, Canadian, British and French troops hit the ground. Air cover was provided by Americans, Canadians, British, Polish, French, Australian, New Zealanders, Rhodesian, and South African pilots.
And out in the Channel were French ships, American ones, British ones, and Canadian ones, as well as most likely others I don't know of.
Does D-Day exemplify something American? No doubt. But exceptionally American. Absolutely not, unless it's that we sat by for a couple of years while things grew worse around the world and came in when we were attacked.
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