Private Clarence V. Bertucci murdered nine German POWs at the POW camp at Salina, Utah. He fired a Browning M1917 into their lodgings, only stopping when he ran out of ammunition.
Nineteen were wounded.
Bertucci, who had a previous court martial from his time in the UK, did not deny the killing and was court martialed and found insane. The New Orleans native died in New Orleans in 1969 at age 48.
Australian troops landed at Penajam, Borneo.
From Sarah Sundin's blog:
Today in World War II History—July 8, 1940 & 1945: 80 Years Ago—July 8, 1945: Only international sub-to-sub rescue in history: USS Cod rescues crew of stranded Dutch submarine O-19 in the South China Sea.
Ralph Samuelson became the first person to perform a ski jump on water.
Antonio Genna of the Genna crime family became the third member of the Genna brothers to be shot to death in less than two months in the ongoing war with Capone's North Side Gang.
Pioneering photographer Clarence Hudson White of the Photo-Secession movement died. He photographed dreamy female portraits, including nudes which debatably crossed into pornography, emphasizing, perhaps, an ongoing and developing problem in the age of film.
William Roper: “So, now you give the Devil the benefit of law!"
Sir Thomas More: “Yes! What would you do? Cut a great road through the law to get after the Devil?”
William Roper: “Yes, I'd cut down every law in England to do that!”
Sir Thomas More: “Oh? And when the last law was down, and the Devil turned 'round on you, where would you hide, Roper, the laws all being flat? This country is planted thick with laws, from coast to coast, Man's laws, not God's! And if you cut them down, and you're just the man to do it, do you really think you could stand upright in the winds that would blow then? Yes, I'd give the Devil benefit of law, for my own safety's sake!”
Robert Bolt, A Man for All Seasons: A Play in Two Acts.
The men were illegal immigrants from Cuba,
Laos, Mexico, Myanmar, Vietnam and South Sudan. They have criminal records. South Sudan makes sense for somebody whose from South Sudan, but Vietnam?
This is barbaric, and once barbarism comes to a country, it doesn't just leave until everyone has been brutalized.
The Japanese carried out the Kalagong massacre, killing villagers in the area after they failed to provide any information about guerrillas in the area.
Peter to Rot.
The Japanese also murdered Peter To Rot, a Catholic from New Guinea, in a bizarre incidence demonstrating the severe Japanese anti Western view and, frankly, the Japanese debasement of the period, which not only reflected itself in murder, but in a chattel slavery view of women and sex. He was executed for defending a woman whom another planned to kidnap and force into a plural marriage, with the Japanese supporting plural marriages in New Guinea (they were not legal in Japan). He was arrested and then later murdered on this day. He will be canonized this October.
Japanese rocket propelled fighter the Mitsubishi J8M made its first flight under it's own power. The test flight was not really a success as the engine stalled. The pilot, Lieutenant Commander Toyohiko Inuzuka, was able to glide the power into a landing, but the plane hit a building. He died the following day.
The plane was intended as a licensed copy of the ME 163. Only seven were built.
"First American Red Cross workers to leave Europe for duty in the Pacific are these girls shown waiting to board their transport: L-R: Brownie Thain, Waukomis, Okla.; Jean Fiegel, 7021 Hollywood Bvd., Hollywood, Cal., and Mildred Blandford, 1735 Chichester St., Louisville, Kentucky. Marseille, France. 7 July, 1945. Photographer: Cpl. Becker."
Heloísa Pinheiro (Helô Pinheiro), who inspired The Girl from Ipanema, was born.
Taxes and life in small-town Wyoming: Legislative plans to do away with property taxes would mean greater inequality in the Equality State, writes columnist David Romtvedt.
Wyoming politicians have failed to protect veterans: Sen. Lummis would rather serve Trump than her state, endangering those who have risked their lives for this country, writes her former intern Aidan Jacketta.
Halley's comet depicted on the Bayeux Tapestry, showing how big of event it was and how it was viewed, particularly after the events of 1066.
In ancient times, some things were seen as portents A warning of things to come. Sometimes, of course, that was appreciated retrospectively.
A terrible flood has resulted in loss of life in Texas, most tragically at Camp Mystic, a Christian girls’ summer camp near the Guadalupe River in the Texas Hill Country.
It'll seem odd noting it, but this is right after the codification of Trump's agenda in the Big Ugly Bill, which took an axe to solar and wind electricity support.
In Wyoming it's been popular to criticize those project. It likely has been in Texas too, and everywhere in the US in which petroleum has been a major economic factor. In those areas, the climate change is a fib line of reasoning has been popular, mostly based on the thesis that what's good for my wallet can't be bad for anything.
The weather recently has been weird.
Some will likely point out that flooding in Texas isn't a new thing. Indeed, the great Stevie Ray Vaughan put out an lp called Texas Flood which featured the great blues number It's Flooding Down In Texas.
All of which is quite true.
And none of which demonstrates that the weather has been normal. It hasn't been.
I read once, years ago, a comment by a Catholic monk pertaining to the problem of evil, "why does God allow bad things to happen?" I've seen various explanations over the years, but he related he had actually asked that question, directed as a petition (prayer) to God. He received an answer, that being "Why do you?"
Indeed, why do we?
Here's one we can avoid, and even reverse. It's our duty to do so.
One thing I'd also note. The Big Ugly takes money from things like NOAA and from weather prediction. One of the thing that's being complained of in Texas is the lack of weather warnings before the terrible storm.
Norway declared war on Japan, backdating the act to December 7, 1941.
Occupying Allied forces held a parade in Berlin.
King Michael I of Romania was awarded the Soviet Order of Victory.
The king had been instrumental in deposing the right wing military dictatorship late in the war, and causing Romania to be one of the many European powers to switch sides during the war. a list that included Italy and Finland as well.
President Truman established the Medal of Freedom by executive order, which stated:
Executive Order 9586
by President of the United States
The Medal of Freedom
Executive Order 9587
Signed by President Harry S. Truman Friday, July 6, 1945
By virtue of the authority vested in me as President of the United States and as Commander in Chief of the Army and Navy of the United States, it is hereby ordered as follows:
There is hereby established a medal to be known as the Medal of Freedom with accompanying ribbons and appurtenances for award to any person, not hereinafter specifically excluded, who, on or after December 7, 1941, has performed a meritorious act or service which has aided the United States in the prosecution of a war against an enemy or enemies and for which an award of another United States medal or decoration is considered inappropriate.
The Medal of Freedom may also be awarded to any person, not hereinafter specifically excluded, who, on or after December 7, 1941, has similarly aided any nation engaged with the United States in the prosecution of a war against a common enemy or enemies.
The Medal of Freedom shall not be awarded to a citizen of the United States for any act or service performed within the continental limits of the United States or to a member of the armed forces of the United States.
The Medal of Freedom and appurtenances thereto shall be of appropriate design, approved by the Secretary of State, the Secretary of War, and the Secretary of the Navy, and may be awarded by the Secretary of State, the Secretary of War, or the Secretary of the Navy, or by such officers as the said Secretaries may respectively designate. Awards shall be made under such regulations as the said Secretaries shall severally prescribe and such regulations shall, insofar as practicable, be of uniform application.
No more than one Medal of Freedom shall be awarded to any one person, but for a subsequent act or service justifying such an award a suitable device may be awarded to be worn with the medal.
The Medal of Freedom may be awarded posthumously.
Harry S. Truman
The award existed until 1963, by which time over 20,000 had been awarded, and was superseded by the Presidential Medal of Freedom which exists at the current time which has a broader application.
Operation Overcast was authorized providing that the US could import captured German scientists.
Nicaragua ratified the United Nations Charter, the first nation to do so.
General Claire Chennault resigned his command of the US 14th Army Air Force in protest to plans to disband it.
Japanese forces attacked the British positions in the Sittang river bend unsuccessfully.
B-29 raids continued over Japan.
The multiple editions of Yank came out.
The centerfold was quite subdued.
I have no idea who Madelen Mason was and a google search failed to give any clues.
The best posts of the week of June 29, a week marked by the passage of the disastrous Big Ugly, and which we predict will lead to the fairly rapid downfall of the Second Trump Administration.
The Polish Provisional Government of National Unity was recognized by Britain and the United States..
Australian Prime Minister John Curtin died and Frank Forde took his place.
Gen. Spaatz was announced as the air commander for Operation Downfall.
"Patrols of 29 Bn., 18th Brigade move cautiously into the village area of Penadjam, Balikpapen, Borneo, under sniper fire. 5 July, 1945. Photographer: Lt. Novak. Photo Source: U.S. National Archives. Digitized by Signal Corps Archive.
I wasn't going to post a July 4th item this year, as I frankly feel pretty pessimistic about the state of the country. But after reading some, I thought I ought to.
Independence Day marks, of course, the day 249 years ago when the Continental Congress declared the United States to be independent of the United Kingdom, which had founded the colonies. It took over a year of pitched combat for Congress to reach that point. What's really important about it, however, is not so much that the United Colonies declared independence from the mother country, but that it did it democratically and formed a democratic republic immediately. Indeed, the country was acting as a democratic republic before it actually formed one officially.
From the very onset, the United States was a democracy. I'll occasionally hear somebody who doesn't grasp that or understand it say "we're not a democracy, we're a republic". That statements, which indeed was made by our serving Congress woman, shows a lack of understanding on what a democracy and a republic are. We most definitely are a democracy, and always have been.
The initial structure of the country that was arrived upon by the founders of the country featured a very strong congress and a phenomenally weak president. The US Constitution, it should be noted, is the country's second, not first, constitution. The first one that featured that structure was the Articles of Confederation It was John Hanson, not George Washington, who fulfilled the role of President at first.
The Articles didn't work well, but notable in them is that right from the onset the country was that, a country. Some people will also occasionally claim that at first we were thirteen countries. That's nonsense. We were, in fact, a putative country even before the Declaration of Independence, with the initial hope being that the country would be a union of fourteen, not thirteen, colonies. The reluctance of the Quebecois to throw in with the virulently protestant colonies to their sound quashed that dream, with it setting the continuing tone that Canada wants nothing to do with being in the United States of America. Nothing.
The Constitution of the US set us on an ongoing path which gives real concern to conservatives such as myself. Right from the debate on the document there was a struggle between those who wanted to retain a weak national government and strong state governments. States were, in fact, amazingly unrestrained in their powers early on. In contrast, there were those who wanted a strong federal government and weak state governments. The Federalist position, which was the more practical and realistic, ultimately won out, and it would have no matter what. Even those who opposed Federalism found that they used its powers by necessity when they were in power.
That created, however, a structure in which the country converted the President of the Congress into the President of the United States. Lacking a king, but remembering the model, the President occupied a position that vaguely recalled the monarch, in contrast to the British example in which the chief executive of the nation was and is a member of Parliament. This worked well for a very long time, but it did put the US in a situation in which there existed a real possibility of a slow transfer of power to an executive divorced of the legislature.
Indeed, expansion of executive power occurred nearly immediately. It took a big jump during the Civil War, again by necessity, and it jumped again in the 20th Century. Theodore Roosevelt expanded it as it suited his vigorous mindset. Woodrow Wilson expanded it due to the Great War. Franklin Roosevelt expanded it due to the emergency of the Great Depression and then World War Two. Following World War Two the powers already expanded were thought normal, and again the Cold War seemed to make their retention necessary. A President commited the country to a largescale war for the first time in the nation's history without a declaration of war when Truman sent forces into Korea. This repeated itself when Johnson did the same with Vietnam.
Indeed, the disaster of the Vietnam War and the legacy of the Korean War caused Congress to attempt to claw back power with the War Powers Act. The corruption of Richard Nixon resulted in Congress asserting its power as well. But by the late 1960s the Democratic Party has also accommodated itself to revision of the national organic document, the Constitution, by a Supreme Court that simply made stuff up. That accomodation started the development of the Democratic Party simply sitting on its hands and letting the courts rule to a large degree. The Court became sort of an odd co chief executive, with the most egregious example being the absurd decision of Roe v. Wade, at least up until its progeny, Obergefell v. Hodges.
Abuses in the law, with Obergefell being the final example, and a Congress that simply accommodated itself to not really doing anything gave rise to the angered muddled populist far right, and the angry intellectual National Conservatives, the latter of which realised that the former was a plow mule that it could do its work with. National Conservatives basically abandoned the concept of an expansive democracy in favor of a much more limited culturally correct one and took advantage of, and are taking advantage of, a chief executive whose mind is mush but whose ego is titanic. They see him, effectively, as a "Red Caesar".
In the meantime, Mitch McConnell's Supreme Court began to hurl back to Congress the powers that it had dumped on the courts like city people dumping kittens on farms. A Congress used to yapping but not doing anything was not prepared to exercise power once again, and very obviously still is not. Much of what the Roberts Supreme Court has done in recent years really isn't radical at all, but its suddenly getting there, making decisions which are difficult not to view as seeking to empower the chief executive.
We can't tell where this will end up, and hence the pessimism. We may very well be in an era in which, when we look back a decade more hence, we will see a revived Congress that resumed its proper role, and a diminished Presidency, that's returned to its, even if that looks like something from, perhaps, the 1960s or 1970s. Or we may seen an ineffective Congress and a nation ruled by a successor Red Ceasar who has more in common with Victor Orban than George Washington.
Perhaps we should be encouraged by the fact that the country has weathered previous existential threads to its democratic nature. The War of 1812 presented one when a large portion of the country wanted nothing to do with the declared war and thought about leaving the infant nation. The Mexican War saw something similar, and the Civil War, in which half the territory of the country attempted to leave in order to keep a large percentage of its population in chains. World War One sparked further crises when it became unclear what the President's powers were in regard to a foreign war, and following the war the country acted wholly illegally towards those on the radical left. During the Depression a right wing threat to the nation caused a putative coup to develop, the news of which was then suppressed. Deep Communist penetration of the government in the 1930s and 1940s, was covered up in the 1950s and the reputation of the Congressman exposing it forever trashed, something his lack of restraint aided in. The disaster of the Vietnam War and the following horror of Watergate caused many to feel that democracy in the US was dying.
Of course, we've never had a figure like Trump before make it into the Oval Office. The closest we've ever had to that was Jefferson Davis, in the Confederate White House, who at least was more genteel. Huey Long was much like Trump, but of course he did not replace Franklin Roosevelt.
Still, there is reason for optimism. Trump is not a popular figure. He's wrecking conservatism which conservatives will have a hard time overcoming in the remainder of my lifetime, but there are signs that his bolt is now shot, in spite of his budget bill. So much political capital was spent on that that it will bring the Democrats into power in Congress in 2026. They'll have to act like a Congress at that time. Repairing the damage will take time, but perhaps not as much time as might be feared. The populists may have done the country a favor by peeling back the lazy ineffectiveness of the pre 2016 Congress, and the National Conservatives may be doing the country a favor by restoring some of the basic elements of conservatism. They're both damaging the country enormously by being inhumane.
When the reign of the Red Ceasar ends, and I think that will be by this time next year, maybe Congress will go back to its proper role and the gutless cowards of the GOP who have allowed this to occur will be retired in disgrace. The country got over the Civil War. There's hope it can get over this.
"With the 6th Inf. Div. in the Cagayan Valley, Luzon, P.I., about 9 miles north of Bagabag along Highway 4. Scene showing a reinforcing patrol of A Co., 1st Bn. of the 63rd Regt. on road at the frontlines just prior to moving ahead. 4 July, 1945. Company A, 1st Battalion, 63rd Infantry Regiment, 6th Infantry Division. Photographer: Pfc. Murray Schneiweiss."
General Douglas MacArthur announced that the Philippines had been completely liberated while the 24th Infantry Division organized an amphibious expeditionary force to liberate Sarangani Bay, south of Davao.
Hmmm. . . .
President Truman released a short statement for the Fourth of July.
Statement by the President: The Fourth of July.
July 04, 1945
AGAIN THIS YEAR we celebrate July 4 as the anniversary of the day one hundred and sixty-nine years ago on which we declared our independence as a sovereign people.
In this year of 1945, we have pride in the combined might of this nation which has contributed signally to the defeat of the enemy in Europe. We have confidence that, under Providence, we soon may crush the enemy in the Pacific. We have humility for the guidance that has been given us of God in serving His will as a leader of freedom for the world.
This year, the men and women of our armed forces, and many civilians as well, are celebrating the anniversary of American Independence in other countries throughout the world. Citizens of these other lands will understand what we celebrate and why, for freedom is dear to the hearts of all men everywhere. In other lands, others will join us in honoring our declaration that all men are created equal and are endowed with certain inalienable rights--life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
Here at home, on this July 4, 1945, let us honor our Nation's creed of liberty, and the men and women of our armed forces who are carrying this creed with them throughout the world.
Canadian troops in Aldershot rioted about the delay in returning them home to Canada.
Rumors started circulating in Berlin that Hitler was alive and well.
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