On this day during W.W. 2

[suprise attack]

Feb 19 1940 Hull extends the U.S. moral embargo to the Soviet Union.

1941 The 8th Australian Division landed in Singapore.    Ambassador Nomura said there would be a war between Japan and the United States only if the United States wanted it.

1942 About 150 carrier-based Japanese naval aircraft attacked the Australian city of Darwin, killing 240 people and injuring 150. Without adequate defenses, the Australians absorbed decisive material losses, including the sinking of 11 transports, an American destroyer, several supply ships and vast quantities of stores. The result was the certain loss of Java which would no longer be supplied.    Japanese troops landed on the portuguese island of Timor in the East Indies. Tokyo said the action was taken in self defense and that the force would withdraw when the area was secure. The neutral Portuguese accepted the occupation.    Bali was invaded by the Japanese.    Mandalaycame under aerial attack for the first time. Defending forces were ordered to fall back from the Bilin River.    The British war cabinet was reformed.    Canada’s Parliament voted to begin military conscription.    The Supreme Court of Vichy France began trials in Riom to establish responsibility for the military defeat and National disaster of 1940.

1943 Allied defenses in Tunisia were restructured in the face of a deteriorating situation. The Germans and Italians began frontal assaults on American positions in the Kasserine pass.    German Army Group South opened a counteroffensive toward Kharkov and Belgorod.

1944 The Anzio battle turned in favor of the Allies. German reserve strenth was sapped by costly actions to clear the beachhead. U.S. troops and tanks of the 6th Armored Infantry, backed by air and Artillery, advanced more than a mile.    U.S. Army and Marine units landed on Engebi Island, Eniwetok Atoll, in the Marshall Islands. Enemy resistance slowed the advance inland.

1945 U.S. Marines invaded Iwo Jima . The Island was known as the unsinkable airfield, 755 miles from the main Japanese home Island of Honshu. It was used by Japanese fighters to intercept U.S. bombers attacking the home Islands. The 30,000 man invasion force was not sure of what to expect because Iwo had been pounded by ships and planes for 72 days before the amphibious assault. Despite the merciless preinvasion raids, the Japanese were stubborn defenders, and the next month of fighting was to exact one of the highest casualty tolls of the Pacific war.    U.S. Army troops were put ashore on Samar and Capul islands, which, with the occupation of Biri Island the next day, gave the U.S. controll of the San Bernadino Strait in the Philippines.    Units of the 80th Division began encircling German troops trapped within the Siegfried Line.    Himmler made his first peace overtures to the Swedish Count Folke Bernadotte of the Red Cross.    The U.S. government requested all public amusements to observe midnight curfew.

1937 An attempt was made in Addis Ababa to assassinate the Italian viceroy of Ethiopia, General Rodolfo Graziani, who was wounded. Large scale reprisals, including executions, followed as the Italians vowed to keep the Ethiopians in line.

1938 The British cabinet, still clining to the belief that Iyaly would check Germany in Austria, rejected Eden’s proposal for a withdrawl of Italian troops from Spain.    Nazis were permitted to join the ruling party of Austria, the Fatherland Front.

[suprise attack]

Feb 20 1940 Moscow offered new peace terms to Finland.

1942 The U.S. provided the Soviet Union with a 1 Billion dallar loan.    Hitler received a report on the staggering number of German casualties suffered thus far in the Russian campaign. 199,448 dead 708351 wounded, 112,627 cases of servere frostbite, and 44,342 missing. He was nonetheless optimistic, saying, " Now that January and Febuary are past, our enemies can give up the hope of our suffering the fate of Napoleon. Now we’re about to switch over to squaring the account. What a relief.    All civilians were ordered evacuated from Rangoon.    Japanese planes intercepted a U.S. Navy Task force en route to Rabaul. The American ships were forced to rurn back, but the Japanese losses were now extremely heavy and  plans for operations against New Guinea had to be delayed.    Bali and Timor were occupied by the Japanese.    U.S. Navy Lieutenant Edward “Butch” O’Hare shot down 5 Japanese bombers in 5 minutes. The first Navy ace of the war, O’Hare was later honored by having Chicago’s airport named for him.

1943 Axis forces cleared the Kasserine Pass. The U.S. II Corps fell back to avoid being totally routed. The Germans and Italians swung out and started driving northward toward Thala and westward to Tebessa.

1944 Allied forces drove a wedge into the middle of the German line at Anzio and inflicted heavy losses, but the Germans were already preparing another offense.    More than 1,000 U.S. bombers stuck German aircraft factories centered in the Brunswick and Leipzig areas.    British patrol aircraft caught a nest of German U-Boats in the Strait of Gibraltar, sinking 3 and damaging several others.    The southern part of Eniwetok was secured.    Norwegian Lieutenant Knut Haukelid, working with the British, sank the ferry Hydro in lake Tinnsjo which was carrying rail tank cars loaded with heavy water from the Norsk Hydro facility at Vemork. The material was being shipped to Germany for atomic research purposes. Haukelid planted explosives with a time charge set to go off when the ferry reached the deepest part of the lake. The vessal went down in1,300 feet of water, making it impossible to recover most of the heavy-water containers. Of the passengers,gaurds and crew 26 were drowned and 27 rescued.

1945 Allied units broke through the Siegfried Line along a broad front.    Japanese units on Mount Suribachi on Iwo Jima pounded Marines, whose units suffered 20 to 30 percent casualties in the first two days of combat.    The White House in announcing Roosevelts meetings in Africa with Haile Selassie and Kings Farouk and Ibn Saud, said pointedly that de Gaulle had refused to meet with the President.

1932 Japanese troops occipied Tunhua in China’s Kirin Province

1938 Hitler recognized Manchukuo and indicated that Japanese expansionism was not abhorrent.  Even the greatest victory gained by Japan would be infinietly less dangerous for civilization and world peace than any success achieved by Bolshevism.

[suprise attack]

Feb 21 1942
  British forces began pulling back behind the Sittang River in Burma. A brigade from the Middle East arrived in Rangoon.    In a farewell message to the people of India Chiang Kai-shek called for the wholehearted support in the war and indicated Britian “without waiting for any demands on the part of the people of India, will as speedily as possible give them real power”.

1943 British Commandos raided Akyab in Burma and withdrew after attacking Japanese positions.    Churchill tanks were put into action in Tunisia as the Allies groped to stop the Axis offensive. Fighting was intense in several sectors as the three pronged German drive reached a point 21 miles beyond the Kasserine Pass and threatened the entire Allied force in central Tunisia.    The U.S. 43rd Division and Marine force occupied the Russell Islands in the Solomans. Occupation of the islands provided the Allies with a fighter airstip 60 miles northwest of Guadalcanal.

1944 Eniwetok was totally cleared except for scattered mopping-up operations. It was to be used by U.S. forces as a major advance base for forthcoming advances in the pacific.    Russian forces pressed forward in the Lake Ilmen area.    Tojo took direct command of the Japanese Army by becoming chief of the generalstaff.    Washington called on the republic of Ireland to expel all Axis diplomats, who were chargrd with engaging in espionage activities.

1945  Troops of the U.S. Third Army pushed forward toward the Saar-Moselle triangle.    Bataan, except for small Japanese pocket around Mount Natib, was retaken by U.S. forces, who suffered a total of only 50 casualities in regaining an area which was contested four years before at a cost of a thousandsof lives.    U.S. Marines on Iwo Jima had now lost half of their tanks while making progress measured in yards.

1938 Austria banned all gatherings and demostrations of all parties except the government approved Fatherland Front. The action was designed to suppress Nazi agitation.

[suprise attack]

Feb 22 1940 Russian forces gained control of the islands in the Gulf of Finland.

1941 Rommel began moving moving his German units into position for an offensive in Libya.    Foreign Secretary Eden and Sir John Dill met with Greek officials in Athens to discuss specifics of British military assistance to Greece.

1942 President Roosevelt ordered MacArthur to leave the Philippines. The General was named commander of Allied forces in Australia.    B-24s of the U.S. Tenth Air Force dropped 40 British magnetic mines in the mouth of the Rangoon River in Burma, the begining of a campaign to interfere with the Japanese shipping in occupied areas.

1943 Rommel ordered a halt in the Axis drive befor hi forces reached El Kef. They pulled back to the Kasserine Pass.    Regiment Normandie, an anti-Vichy French flight group, went into action for the first time on the Russian front. Formed in Syria in 1942, the 72-man French contingent flew fighters with remarkable success, downing 117 German planes to 25 losses by the end of the year.

1944 Kirvoy Rog fell to the Red Army, returning control of the whole Ukrainian industrial area to the Russians.    U.S. Fifteenth Air Force bombers from Italy joined in the attacks on German aircraft factories.    Japanese aircraft attacked U.S. Naval Task Force 58 approaching the Marianas but suffered heavy casualties. Allied ships operating around Rabaul and Kaviieng encountering no Japanese aircraft, a further measure of Tokto’s thinly stretched resources.

1945 The Allies launched Operation CLARION, a massive bombing attack by 10,000 aircraft from Britian, France, Italy, Hollamd, and Belgium to cut transportation lines in central Germany and isolate the western front. Two hundred individual targets were bombed, with the heavy bombers coming in as low as 5,00 feet instead of the normal bombing altitude of 25,000. The raids are credited with marking the end of large scale mobility of the German armed forces.    German resistance began to disintegrate along the Siegfried Line. U.S. Third Army forces crossed the Saar River.    General Eisenhower announced that 900,000 German prisoners were now being held by the Allies.

1933 Goring, newly named minister without portfolio in the Hitler cabinet,established an auxilary police force of 50,000 men to be drawn primarily from the Nazi SS and SA

[suprise attack]

Feb 23 1940 Helsinki requested Sweden and Norway to grant transit rights for foreign troops to enter Finland.

1941 German Foreign Minister Ribbentrop advised the Japanese ambassador in Berlin that Japan should enter the war against Britian as soon as possible, in its own interest.    British statistics showed the fighting in north Africa to date had resulted in British Commonwealth losses of 604 killed and 2,362 wounded or missing, while the Italians had suffered 20,000 dead or wounded and 180,000 captured.    Free French forces landed in Eritrea.    Mussolini assured the Italian people of victory despite the setbacks in Africa and Albania. He also denied Italy and Germany had any designs on the U.S.  "The lie is that the Axis powers, after they finish Great Britian, want to attack America… In all cases it is more likely that the United States, before it is attacked by Axis soldiers, will be attacked by the not well known but very warlike inhabitants of planet Mars, who will descend from the stratosphere in unimaginable flying fortresses  ( A measure of the studied concern about the content of this particular speech is that Mussolini read it from a prepared text. It was only the second speech of his career which was not extemporaneous. His only previous speech delivered from text was after the German occupation of Austria.)

1942 In the first direct attack on the U.S. mainland, a Japanese sub shelled  an oil refinery near Santa Barbara, California.    Russian forces recaptured Dorogobuzh on the Dnieper River.    In the battle of the Sittang River, the 17th Indian Division was virtually destroted. The bridge across the river was blown up with some of the Allied troops trapped on the other side. They made their way across by swimming or by small boats.    U.S. B-17 attacked Rabaul, the first Allied raid on the newly established Japanese base.    Stalin said the war against Germany had turned in favor of the Soviet Union. Now the Germans no longer posses the military advantage which they had in the first months of the war by virtue of their trecherous and suden attack. The momentum of unexpectedness and suddeness which constituted the resevere strenth of the German fascist troops has been fully spent.

1943 Rommel was appointed to command the newly formed Army Group Africa. The Italian General Giovanni Messe replaced him as the commander of the first Italian Army

1944 U.S. VI Corps Major General John P. Lucas was replaced by Major General Lucian K. Truscott. Lucas was seen as too conservative at Anzio, having failed to expand the beachhead and break out before the German Fourteenth Army could be organized to negate the great initial advantages    Japanese forces at Sinzweya, Burma began withdrawing after failing to oust the 7th Indian Division. It was the first the British had defeated the Japanese in battle.    Heavy carrier-based stikes were conducted against Japanese positions in the Marianas, Saipan,Tinian,Rota, and Guam were bombed

1945 Mount Suribachi on Iwo Jima was taken by the Marines.    Pozan was taken by the Russians after a month long siege. A German force of 23,000 men surrendered. Red Army units fought their way into Breslau from the south.    The U.S. Ninth and First armies smashed across the Roer River, the flood waters having subsided.    U.S. forces liberated prisoners at the Los Banos internment camp in the Philippines. Heavy fighting took place in the center of Manila…    Turkey and Uruguay declared war on Germany and Japan.

1932 Toyko rejected all appeals to end the fighting in China

1933 Japan issued an ultimatum to China demanding Manchukuan sovereignty over Jehol.

1937 Hitler declared the existence  of Switzerland answers a European need and pronounced Germany’s intention to respect its neutrality

1939 Britain and France began Naval maneuvers in the Mediterranean in a clear warning to Italy to curb its belligerent posturing.

[suprise attack]

Feb 24 1940  Germany and Italy signed a trade agreement, eith the Italians to receive substantial quantities of coal.    German military planners completed details for the offensive into France and the Low Countries .

1941 Admiral Darlan was named head of the Vichy government in France.  The British War Cabinet  agreed to send troops to aid thr Greeks, though it could not possibly provide the many divisions and support forces which Athens thought necessary.    Hitler claimed the German military had sunk 215,000 tons of British shipping in two days.    The Italian Cruiser Armondo Diaz was sunk by a British sub in the Mediterranean.

1942 The German II Corps was encircled southeast of Staraya Russia on the Northern front.    Orders were issued  to prepare for the withdrawl of Allied forces from Java.    An Americn Naval Task force attacked Wake Island.    Vichy France responded to Roosevelt’s note of the 9th, stating its desire to remain neutral and not assist belligerents in any theater of operations.

1943 Ribbentrop conferred with Musolini in Rome.  General Josef “Sepp” Dietrich’s Sixth SS Army counterattacked south of Rzhev, the badly mauled Russians withdrew along a broad front during the next two weeks.

1944 German fighters staged fierce attacks on Allied aircraft from Britian  and Italy attempting to bomb Schweinfurt and other strategic target areas in Germany and Austria.    Indian forces in Burma cleared the Ngakedauk Pass, while U.S. and Chinese units began their drive to capture Myitkyina.

1945 Except for a few small pockets of resistance, U.S. forces established control over Manila. Most of Corregidor was cleared, with the Japanese clinging to a two mile pocket at the eastern end of the Island.    U.S. and Brazilian forces made limited advances in Italy, Breaking what had been a virtual stalemate.    Egyptian Prime Minister Ahmed Maher Pasha was assassinated. He had just read a Royal decree declairing waron Germany and Japan.

1933 Nanking rejected the ultimatum and Japan moved to occupy Jehol.    German police raided the headquarters of the communist party in Berlin and claimed to have seized documents on a planned violent overthrow of thr government.

1939 Hungary cracked down on the Nazi party, then curiously joined Germany, Italy and Japan as allies in the Anti-Comintern Pact

[suprise attack]

Feb 25 1941 Foreign Minister Matsuoka of Japan said the white race must cede Oceania to Asians: “This region has sufficient natural resources to support from 600,000,000 to 800,000,000 people. I believe we have the natural right to migrate there”.    Foregin Minister Ribbentrop met Japanese Ambassador Hiroshi Oshima near Salzburg. Ribbentrop said Germany would “crush” Britian, which was hard pressed for supplies. According to Ribbentrop, Britian was recieving 1/3 of its needs from the U.S. He said the only Americans wishing to enter the war were "Roosevelt, and the Jews who surround him, and a group of financeiers.    Nigerian troops of the British army occupied Mogadishu, the capital of Italian Somaliland. They had advanced 275 miles in just 3 daysafter the Italians had abandoned any pretense of defending the East African colony.

1942 The rail line between Rangoon and Mandalay was threatened as the Japanese broke through a wide gap in the British defense line at Pegu.

1943 U.S. troops of II Corps reoccupied the Kasserine Pass, encountering only mines and booby traps.

1944 About 20% of the bombers of the U.S. 15th Air Force attacking Regensburg aircraft factories were shot down.    The West African 81st Division occupied Kyauktaw in the Kaladan valley of Burma.

1945 Tree U.S. Marine divisions abreast attempted to advance northward the width of Iwo Jima, but Japanese resistance remained fierce.    U.S. B-29s were directed to begin night fire raids on large Japanese cities instead of daylight precision raids against industreal centers. In the first of the fire raids on Tokyo, 334 B-29s dropped 1,667 tons of incendiaries. The attack destroyed 15 square miles of the Japanese capital. Naval aircraft continued attacking aircraft production plants and airfields around Tokyo.    Sharp street fighting developed in Breslau.

1932 Adolf Hitler became a German citizen. He overcame this obsticle to German leadership by getting himself appointed a representative of the Brunswick state government to Berlin

1936 The British cabinet approved a major rearmament program. In order to increase the output of aircraft and other essential equipment, the government developed a “shadow factory” plan with manufacturers expanding production facilities. It was, as RoyalAir Force historians would write, an effort “to catch the electric hare of German rearmament”.

[suprise attack]

Feb 26 1941 Blaming Jews for attacks on Germans in Northern Holland, occupation officials proclaimed martial law in that part of the country.    Franco formally reneged on his promise to join Germany in the fighting, telling Berlin previous agreements were outmoded…

1942 Soviet leaders forcibly pressed thr British and the Americans to launch a " second front" against Germany.    The American carrier Langley, with 32 fighters bound for Java, was sunk by Japanese planes.

1943 The German Fifth Panzer Army launched a strong offensive in Tunisia making rapid progress around El Aroussa. Beja and Medjez el Bab were threatened.

1944 The rail line between Dno and Novosokolniki was cleared by thr Russians.

1945 The 19th Indian Division began a major southward advance toward Mandalay as part of Slim’s plan to distract the Japanese from his main thrust from Pagan, on the opposite side of the Irrawaddy front.    Red Army troops in Pomerania reached the Baltic

1936 Japanese Army extremists attempted to force radical government reforms by assassinating the minister of finance, the director-general of military education, and former prime minister, Makoto Okada. they sought a military-socialistic dictatorship under the Emperor and an end to measures pressed by moderates to curb the military’s involvment in politics. Prime Minister Keisuke Okada escapted death when his residence was attacked, the would be assassins mistook his brother in law for Okada.

[suprise attack]

Feb 27 1940 Churchill claimed ( erroneously ) that the Allies had sunk half of Germany’s U-boat fleet.    Sweden and Norway refused Finlands request for transit rights.

1941 British and German forces engaged each other for the first time in North Africa.

1942 Indian territory was attacked for the first time as the Japanese raided the Andaman Islands in the bay if Bengal, south of Burma.
      27-Mar.1  Allied ships suffered their worst naval defeat of the war in the battle of the Java Sea. The Japanese navy dominated the illcoordinated defense of the area by U.S.,British and Dutch men-of-war. Japanese ships were able to take control of the southwest Pacific in the first major surface-to-surface naval combat of the Pacific war. Using their superior oxygen torpedo (the type 91, with a range of 25 miles or five tomes that of American or British models), the Japanese on the night of the 27th quickly sank the Dutch cruisers De Ruyter and Java, the Dutch destroyer Kortenauer, and the British destroyer Electra. On the 28th, Japanese cruisers and destroyers outgunned another Allied force, sinking 2 cruisers and the American Houston and Australian Perth, and the Dutch destroyer Evertson. On the 1st, three British ships, the cruiser Exeter and destroyers Pope and Encounter, were sunk by Japanese gunfire. Only a handful of Allied vessals slipped through the Bali Strait, all that remained of what only three months before had been a formidable force. Now, the Japanese could move with virtual impunity throughout the southwest Pacific area.

1943 Stiff resistance by the British First Army halted the German advance near Beja   
    27th-28th Norwegian Commando’s destroyed the Norsk Hydro heavy-water facilities at Vermork. Nine men parachuted into Norway from Britian, demolishing the heavy-water tanks, and let 2,000 pounds of the material spill uselessly in the area. Piping and tubes used in its production were also destroyed. (Germanys heavy-water program was delayed for only four months, however, as German and Norwegian engineers returned the facility to full production in June)

1945 U.S. VII Corps forces advanced rapidly towards Cologne but ran into determined resistance outside the city.    Canadian divisions broke through to the Hochwald Forest and reached Grieth on the Rhine.    Stricter rationing was ordered for German civilians.    Russia established a pro Soviet government in Romania.    Lebanon declared war on Germany and Japan.

1933 The Reichstag building in Berlin was set afire, and the Nazis quickly blamed the communists.

1936 Italian troops opened the second battle of Tembien, leading to further devastation of the Ethiopian forces. Bombs and Mustard gas left only scattered survivors and the Emperor’s personal gaurd to resist the onrushing Italians

1937 A ministry of defense was created in France. Paris announced plans to extend the Maginot line.

[suprise attack]

Feb 28 1940  Finnish troopsbegan pulling back from their positions around Viipuri.    Germany warned Sweden not to aid Finland directly or indirectly.

1941 Bridges near Giurgiu were destroyed by the bulgarians to forestall any German any attack through Rumania.    The British civilian air raid casualties for the past 2 months were 2,289 killed and 3,080 injured.

1942 The Japanese Sixteenth Army was landed on the north coast of Java, with the main force striking for Batavia,(Djakarta) capital of the Dutch east Indies. the landings was met with Allied aerial attacks.      The U.S. military announced the army and navy commanders in Hawaii at the time of Pearl Harbor attack would be court-marshaled “when such time as the public intrerest and safty would permit.” In the meantime Lieutanant General Walter C Short and rear Admiral Husband E Kimmel were permitted to retire.      British civilian air raid casualties for the month were 22 killed and 21 injured.      Feb 28- Mar 1  A mixed Allied Naval force sank four invasion transports in the Sunda Strait

1943 German forces were contained in Tunisia. Their counteroffensive was costly to the inexperienced American troops of II Corps who suffered heavy casualties, 6,500. Total Allied casualties in the Kasserine fighting were 10,000 to 2,000 for the Axis troops.    Counterattacks by the Germans in the Donets area were accelerated as the tempurature began to climb above freezing. German planners feared an early thaw would bog down their offensive.

1945 Remnants of the Japanese force in Manilia were contained in two government buildings. U.S. army units went ashore at Puerto Princesa on the east coast of Palawan Island in the Philippines, with the Eight Army under Lieutenant General Robert L Eichelberger directed to take the area and cut off the Japanese in the East Indies.    Russian troops captured the transport centers of Neustettin(Szczecinek)  and Prechlau in Pomerania.    Elelments of the U.S. Ninth Army advanced to within 16 miles of Cologne.    British civilian air raid casualties for the  month were 483 killed and 1,152 wounded.

1939 Germany informed Britian and France it could not guarentee the frontiers of Czechoslovakia because of conditions within the country and unsatisfactory state of relations between Berlin and Prague.

[suprise attack]

Mar 1 1940 Hitler issued a formal directive to the German military for the invasion of Norway and Denmark.

1941 Chaing Kai-shek told the opening meeting of the peoples Political Council that China would never reach a compromise with Japan. He also also said any Japanese advance into the south Seas would further menace China.    Bulgaria joined the Axis, “upon the invitation of the German government”. King Borris III (who married the daughterof the king of Italy) could not withstand the internal and external pressures. Moscow had told Sofia not to expect Soviet aid if attacked by Germany.    The first U.S. force for the protection of convoys in the North Atlantic was established. It consisted of destroyers and patrol aircraft.

1942 Russian forces initiated another offensive in the Crimea. The Germans were still unable to extricate the trapped II Corps near Staraya Russa.    During two months of fighting on Luzon , the Japanese had lost 2,700 men killed in action and nearly 7,000 wounded.

more latter I have to step out for a bit

[suprise attack]

Mar 1 1943 Moscow told the Polish government-in exile it would claim eastern Poland, the lands seized in 1939 as Russian territory.

1944 Anzio defenders continued to beat back German attacks.    U.S, forces on Los Negros stopped Japanese assaults on the defensive perimeter.    Red Army forces drove across the Narva River.    German slave labor chief Fritz Sauckel said there were five million foreign workers in Germany, 200,000 of them voluntary.

1945 U.S. Ninth Army and First Canadian Army troops continued their swift pusuit through Germany and Holland, capturing 20 towns and villages. The Panzer Lehr Division was forced out of Monchengladbach. Thus far in three weeks of the offensove toward the Rhine, 66,000 Germans had been taken prisoner.    Orders were issued that no German staff officer could cross to the East bank of the Rhine.    A limited Allied offensive in Italy was postponed because of extremely bad weather.    The Ryukyu Islands were attacked by U.S. ships and planes.    Saudi Arabia declared war on Germany and Japan. Iran declared war on Japan.

[suprise attack]

Mar 2 1940 France and Britian formally requested Swedish and Norwegian approval to send Allied troops to Finland through the Scandinavian countries (units were to begin arriving by the 20th. Daladier was planning on a force of 50,000 French “volunteers” and 150 aircraft . Britian planned a force which would reach an eventual level of 100,000 men.)  The request was rejected. Pari and London were primarily interested in occupying the Swedish iron ore fields and denying their strategic output to Germany

1941 The German Twelfth Army crossed the Danube and marched into Bulgaria, effectively controlling the country through occupation. Remaining resistance to German domination henceforth was ruthlessly squelched. The move was explaned to the Russians, with whom the Bulgarians had a close affinity, as a "precautionary measure to prevent the British from gaining a foothold in Greece. The Russians protested anyway.    Eden confered with Greek officials in Athens to complete plans for the introduction of British troops in Greece. Thr Greek government had hesitated to permit the landing of Commonwealth forces until the Germans crossed the Danube. With German forces in Bulgaria, the British quickly issued orders for the rapid deployment of their forces.    Hitler met with Prince Paul, told the Yugoslav leader that Germany planned to attack Russia and called ffor Yugoslav friendship when war started. Hitler also hoped the Yugoslavs would cooperate in Greece and promised Paul Salonika in return. The British, meanwhile, were urging Yugoslavia  to attack the Italians in Albania.    Turkey imposed tighter controlls on trafic through the Dardanelles, allowing ship transits by permit only.

1942  Japanese forces landed on Mindanao in the Philippines.    Batavia was ordered to be evacuated. The Dutch government moved to Bandung.    The U.S. recognized Free French authority over all French possessions and said it would cooperate in their defense. " In its relations with the local French authorities in French territories the United States has and will continue to be governed  by the manifest effectiveness with wich those authorities endeavor to protect their territories from domination and control by the common enemy."    All persons of Japanese ancestry (including U.S. citizens) were barred from Pacific coastal areas by the U.S. government.    Australia declared war on Thailand.

1943 Rzhev, the strongly fortified German base, was evacuated by German Army Group Center.    R.A.F bombers delivered their most devastating raid of the war to date on Berlin.    German tank units forced Allied groups to fall back to Sedjenane in Tunisia.

1944  With transportation in turmiol in Italy, Hundreds of Italians jumped aboard a freight train in the mountains near Salerno. When it stalled, most of the crowded flatcars were in a tunnel. Toxic fumes from the engine’s low grade fuel blew into the tunnel and at least 426 people died of carbon monoxide poisoning.    More than 350 sorties were flown by U.S.bombers in support of the Anzio forces. The pounding of the German positions disrupted a planned counteroffensive.    U.S. Army troops seized the Momote airstrip on Los Negros.

1945 U.S. 10th Armored Division forces occupied Trier. Allied units had now reached the Rhine north and south of Dusseldorf.    Soviet forces cut the road between Stettin andDanzig, isolating East Pomerania and West Prussia.    MacAuthur returned to Corregidor shortly after all Japanese resistance ended. The Japanese lost about 5,200 men defending the island. Total U.S.casualties were more than 1,000.    Two thirds of Iwo Jima was now in Marine hands. The first of the islands airfields was opened to U.S. transports

[suprise attack]

Sorry for the absence ,but my Mom passed away today I’ll post on Sunday

[techroll42]

I’m sorry to hear about your mom. I offer my condolences.

[ABWorsham4]

A good many things come before this website, family is one. Sorry to hear of your loss. I hope you find peace and comfort friend in your time of loss and recovery.

[suprise attack]

Mar 4 1941  British Commandos raided the Lofton Islands off the extreme northern coast of Norway. The first raid of its kind during the war, it yealded considerable successes. Many German prisoners were captured, hundreds of Norwegian were evacuated for future military operations, all targets ashore were destroyed and a 10,000 ton German fish factory was sunk.    The first of the British Commonwealth forces for Greece, including the 6th Australian Division, the 2nd New Zealand Division, and aPolish brigade, set sail from Egypt. (a total of 56,657 men would be sent to Greece as a counter to German moves and take up position west of the Vardar River)

1942 Marcus Island in the central Pacific was attacked by American carrier based aircraft in a pre dawn raid causing extensive damage.    Japanes Zeros destroyed 23 Allied planes in an attack on Broome, Austalia, the refueling station on flights from Perth to Java.

1943 R.A.F. bombers used the OBOE navigational aid for the first time, in a raid on Essen. The attack marked the begging of the air battle of the Ruhr to destroy German industry in the area.

1944 U.S. Eighth Air Force planes attacked Berlin for the first time.    A lull developed at Anzio. German troops were told to hold their positions and prepare for defensive action    Under the command of General Stilwel, the first Chinese Army and Merrill’s Marauders (special U.S. infiltration units names after Major General Frank Merrill) began the battle of Walawbum in northern Burma. It was the first phase of a combined offensive with the British Chindits aimed at cutting the communications of the Japanese 18th “Chrysanthemum” Division taking the rail center of Myitkyina, and reopening the Burma road to China.    U.S. ships began bombarding the Admiralty Islands.

1945 The Ninth U.S. and Canadian First Armies hooked up in the area of Geldern in Germany.    U.S. First Army troops advanced toward Cologne after crossing the Erft River.    The 2nd and 3rd Canadian divisions cleared the Hochwald and Balberger forests.    The U.S. 10th Mountain Division made broad advances in Italy.    The 17th Indian Division captured Meiktila in Burma, cutting the communications of the Japanese in central Burma and opening a large scale battle.    German bombers, for the first time in seven months attacked Britian.    Synthetic oil facilities in Hamburg and Gelsenkirchen were pounded by 2,000 Allied bombers.

[KaLeu]

My condolences to you, surprise attack. All the best to you and your family.

As a belated entry for March 3: on that day in 1945, the RAF mistakenly bombed a residential area in the Hague, the Netherlands, killing over 500 people. The intended target were the V2 launch pads in a nearby park, but a sequence of errors resulted in a tragedy.
The V2’s were entirely unaffected, and the Germans resumed launching them the same night, while also exploiting the event for propaganda purposes.

[suprise attack]

If I miss a day here or there, it doesnt mean I gave up on this post, I may have some real busy days as the Executor of the will

[suprise attack]

Mar 6 1940 France and Italy concluded a trade agreement providing for an increase in the volume of trade between the two countries.

1941 Churchill issued his " Battle of the Atlantic Directive," giving highest priority to measures for knocking out German U-Boats and bombers blocking shipments to Britian.    German aircraft began dropping acoustic magnetic mines in the Suez canal, furtger impeading the flow of British supplies to Greece and North Africa. The initial mine-laying operation had the immidiate effect of blocking the vital waterway for three weeks while the waters were cleared.

1942 All installations in Rangoon which might be useful to the Japanese were ordered destroyed.      Batavia fell to the Japanese

1943 Rommel fought his last battle in Africa, directing an offensive against British positions at Medenine. The Germans were routed, losing 50 tanks before retiring.  Coincidenttally, General George S Patton at the very same time took command of the U.S.II Army Corps.    Allied convoy SC 121 in the north Atlantic came under U-Boat attack. ( 13 of the 56 ships were eventually lost)        Japan again told Berlin it could not enter the war against the Russians

1944 Round the clock bombing operations against Germany began with a U.S. 800-plane daylight raid against Berlin in which 2,000 tons of bombs were dropped.    About 400 Japanese were killed in an unsuccessful bid to cross the Tanai River in Burma.    Red Army troops advanced along a 100 mile front in Ukraine.    U.S. Marines landed near Talasea on new Britian and established a 2,000 yard deep bridgehead

1945 U.S. Ninth Army forces completed clearing the area from the Rhor to the Rhine Rivers.    Colonge was largly cleared of German troops.    German forces counterattacked around Lake Balaton in Hungary.    U.S.Air Force fighters began operating out if Iwo Jima.    Allied units crossed the Irrawaddy 30 miles from Mandalay.

1938 Japanese forces reached the Yellow river in China.

March of 42 Allied Merchant shipping losses were the heaviest of the war. In all 273 ships were lost, a total of 834,164 tons. Ninety five were sunk in the North Aylantic, 98 in the Far East. The safestof the convoy routes  was Murmansk where only one of 110 ships hauling material to Russia had been lost in 1942 and through March 1942. It was at this juncture, however, that the Germans began shifting their Naval and Air strenth to Norway and began scoring dramatic successes on the Nothern convoys.