Rommel plays with Minatures for D Day
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rRuzjs9T_dw&t=29s
On this day during W.W. 2
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Today, October 31st, in 1941 the US Destroyer Reuben James was sunk off Iceland while escorting a British convoy. The U-Boat that sank her was U552, commanded by Erich Topp. Reuben James was a post WW1 ship of the Clemson Class. Over 100 sailors died when she sank. The US was still neutral, so the incident caused controversy at the time.
Erich Topp survived the war and lived to the age of 91. He was the third most successful U-Boat commander, sinking nearly 200000 tons of shipping. The U552 survived to be scuttled by her crew. -
Today on the 8th of November 1942, three Task Forces landed in North Africa. The Western TF came directly from the US. It composed 2Armoured and 3 and 9 Inf Divisions under the command of General George Patton. The Central TF had come from the UK and composed the 1US Armour and part of the 82 Airborne under Lloyd Fredendall . The Eastern TF also came from the UK and composed the 78UK Inf and US 34Inf Divisions under Kenneth Anderson.
Patton’s TF landed at Casablanca on the Atlantic coast and the other two entered the Med at Gobraltar and landed at Oran and Algiers. All three TF were protected by a strong Air contingent and did not meet any German Subs.
No one knew how the Vichy French would react, but fortunately seeing the number of Allied troops was enough to persuade Admiral Darlan, Petain’s Commander in Chief, that surrender was the best alternative.
The Americans had joined the war against the European Axis and were soon to discover what the German War Machine was capable of. even in defeat. -
On the 10th November 1942 the Germans implemented Fall Anton: the invasion of Vichy France. It was a reaction to the Allied landings in North Africa(Torch) on the 8th.
The 1st(Blaskowitz) advanced into the South of France and the 7th(Dollmann), later of Normandy fame, moved into the North of France and on to Vichy and Toulon.
The Italian 4th Army advanced along the French Riviera and took Corsica.
The French forces could do nothing to prevent the Germans doing this, as they were not strong enough.
France was now fully truly occupied and would remain so until the Allies landed on 6th June 1944 and its liberation could begin. -
November 13th 1941, the British Aircraft Carrier was hit by a torpedo fired from the U81, commanded by Friedrich Guggenberger. She was a big ship and, thoughcapable of carrying more, usually housed 54 aircraft. The Ark Royal had been instrumental in the search and sinking of the Bismarck in May, as well as involved in the hunt for the Scharnhorst and Gneisenau in 1940.
When she was hit by the torpedo, she was in the process of ferrying planes from Gibraltar to Malta. It was thought at first by her Captain, Maund, that she could reach Gibraltar. She was to sink on the 14th, with the loss of only one sailor, killed when the torpedo hit.
She was thought a lucky ship, many times surviving attacks.
Her wreck was discovered in 2002, some 30 nautical miles from Gibraltar. -
November 19th 1942: the Russians launched Operation Uranus. It was the major offensive designed to encircle Stalingrad and its 200000 men. While Chuikov held Paulus’ 21 Division 6th Army in Stalingrad, two massive Army Fronts were to rip holes North and East of the city, targeting the two weaker Armies from Romania. The attacks had to be far enough away from 6th Army(still a potent force with 3 Panzer Divisions)that it could not help contain the breakthroughs.
To the North, Vatutin’s SW Front easily broke through the weak and low in Anti Tank gun 8 Romanian Divisions that made up Dumitrescu’s 3rd Romanian Army holding a 100 mile front line. Romanenko’s 5 Guards Tank Army was no match for these formations and the only reserve was the 1st Tank, with old Czech tanks and the weak 22nd Pz.
To the East of Stalingrad the 4th Romanian Army(Constantinescu), 7 Inf Divisions, was attacked by Yeremenko’s renamed Stalingrad Front. It, at least had Hoth’s 4PZ to its rear, though it no longer contained any Pz Divisions.
In 7 days the damage would be done, as units from both Fronts met at Kalach to seal the encirclement of nearly 250000 men, mostly German. -
Sweet thread thanks guys!
Why have I not been reading this?
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On the 20th November 1940, Hungary joined the Tripartite Pact with Germany, Italy and Japan.
They had been wooed by Hitler with two Awards of land and saw their interests best represented by sticking with their former WW1 ally. The land granted them by Hitler was, in 1938,former Czechoslovakia: southern Slovakia and part of Southern Carpathian Rus. Three months before signing the pact in 1940, they were awarded the Northern half of Translyvania from Romania. This Award was to cause problems for the German High Command in Russia from 1941 on, as Hungarian and Romanian units could not be in close proximity for they would fight each other, their hatred was so much.
Naturally, after the war, Hungary lost these territorial gains, or Awards.
Furthermore, signing the Tripartite Pact would cost them 237000 military casualties and many more civilian ones and as we know, their own freedom to Russian occupation. -
Three days after Hungary signed the Tripartite Pact, Romania signed too. It was the 23rd November 1940. In WW1 Romania sided with the Allies and were rewarded with Translyvania, formerly a possession of the now extinct Austro-Hungarian Empire. As aforementioned, half was given back to Hungary by Germany and Italy. They also lost some land to Bulgaria and Bessarabia to the Soviet Union. The main reason they joined the Axis was fear of the Soviet Union.
Like Hungary, its war with The Soviet Union would cost Romania dear, although at first it seemed Germany had been the better side to choose, as former Bessarabia was conquered and returned. Its unpreparedness for war was proven at Stalingrad when its two field armies, the 3rd and 4th, were ripped to shreds in November of 1942. Until then they had been the ally who most supported the Barbarossa attack.
By war’s end(including a switch of sides), it was to suffer 300000 military and 500000 civilian deaths. Communism was to be its politics for 45 years, the first of which saw its resources drained by the Soviet Union, then later by a despot. -
Now they had totally sucky dice :-D
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Moilami,
Now they had totally sucky dice :-D
LOL, A very interesting observation on your part.
“Tall Paul”
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Today, the 28th November, in 1943 the Big Three: Roosevelt, Churchill and Stalin met in Tehran to discuss war policy. It was a four day conference and was to be the first of three meetings amongst the three major Allied powers.
The main point agreed upon was that a second front would be opened against Germany before 1st May 1944. Other issues involved Iran’s independence and how to best deal with Yugoslavia and Japan.
Unfortunately for much of Eastern Europe, Roosevelt and Churchill agreed to Stalin’s retaining part of Eastern Poland once the war ended and allowed him free rein in countries such as Romania, the Baltic States and even Czechoslovakia.
Fantastically, it was decided that Democratic Finland could agree a separate peace solely with Russia. They never joined the Tripartite Pact and had never declared war on either Western Ally, so were not required to accept an unconditional surrender like Germany and Japan.
They were to be the lucky ones. -
Well, Finnish politicians did quite good if we don’t mention those who before 1939 did their best to not buy anything to Finnish Defence Forces. I wish dearly those politicians would had been sent to the front line. To the front line in…to face the execution squad :D
However, Finland would of course wanted to stay neutral in WW2, like Sweden did. There was absolutely no point in declaring war to Allied nations. Even an idiot would had understood that.
Anyway, Germany gave Finland arms and troops in critical moments 1944 to stop Russians. I bet Germans did not have too much themselves. And what the Finns did? Threw Germans out of Finland and made peace with Russia. I am not too proud of that, though.
I am curious to know why they chose that Eastern Europe was to belong to Russia. How did Russia manage to negotiate that?
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Hi Moilami. Thanks for replying: I wondered if you had an opinion on this.
I was so surprised to read that the US and UK gave up Esstern Europe to Stalin so early on. It was not even 44. I am disgusted and have no idea why they lay down so easily.
Shameful. -
Lol, well said!
I can’t understand it either. It was Russia who had problems with Germany, and it was Russia who needed help. So how could they make such claims?
By the way, about that unconditional surrender - Finland had of course big problems with Russia, but Russia would had had to do a lot more to make Finland surrender unconditionally. Their major attack in Finland failed, partially thanks to Germany. Russia was not ready to push more troops and equipment on rather insignificant front and they were in a hurry to rush to Berlin, so Finland avoided occupation by Russians.
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According to historians Jowett & Snodgrass, Mcateer, Lunde, and Alanen & Moisala, the Battle of Tali-Ihantala, along with other Finnish victories (Battle of Viborg Bay, Battle of Vuosalmi, Battle of Nietjärvi, and Battle of Ilomantsi) achieved during the period, finally convinced the Soviet leadership that conquering Finland was proving difficult, and not worth the cost;[16][30][1][2] the battle was possibly the single most important battle fought in the Continuation War, as it largely determined the final outcome of the war, allowing Finland to conclude the war with relatively favorable terms[16][31] and continue its existence as an autonomous, democratic and independent nation.[16][32] Finnish researchers state that Soviet sources – like POW interviews – prove that the Soviets intended on advancing all the way to Helsinki.[33] There also existed an order from Stavka to advance far beyond the borders of 1940.[17]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Tali-Ihantala
Not even close to unconditional surrender. Finns has fought against Russians many times and know well that it would be better to die than to be conquered by Russians :-D
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I am glad you looked into it. I always wondered how Finland got such a good deal compared to the other Axis allies. I can see how conquering your country would have been an unnecessary and costly diversion when the race was on to get to Berlin.
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Exactly!
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Wittman & Moilami,
@wittmann:
Hi Moilami. Thanks for replying: I wondered if you had an opinion on this.
I was so surprised to read that the US and UK gave up Esstern Europe to Stalin so early on. It was not even 44. I am disgusted and have no idea why they lay down so easily.
Shameful.––That’s why I think that the word “POLITICS” with all of it’s possible deviations is such a vulgar word with a potentially awful meaning.
“Tall Paul”
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Today, the 9th December, in 1940 a small but mobile British army broke through the Italian lines and converted what was to be a 5 day raid into a full scale operation that pushed the numerically superior Italian forces occupying Western Egypt back hundreds of miles and taking thousands of prisoners.
It was a fantastic feat as the British commanded by Archibald Wavell only numbered 30000 in Egypt and the Italians under Graziani 150000. It succeedly because the Italians were not at all mobile and the British were. The few Italian tanks were slow, under armed and mechanically unreliable. the British ones were fast Cruiser type ones and they also had some slow Mathildas, but so heavily armoured as to be indestructable to Italian anti-tank guns. The planes both sides had were biplanes, the Italians Fiat C32s and the British Gloster Gladiators.
It is largely because of this Italian defeat in December of 1940 that Hitler decided to send aid in to his allies in the form of a small Africa Korps under a certain Erwin Rommel in February of 1941. -
Today, the 12th December, in 1942 Manstein launched Operation Winter Storm. It was the attempted relief of the besieged and still potent 6th Army (trapped with elements of 4thPZ and some Romanian units). Unfortunately for the Germans, Manstein did not get the necessary Panzer Divisions, otherwise I believe few doubt he would have accomplished a corridor to Von Paulus and his men.
Hoth was the 4thPZ Army commander and the right choice to lead the advance. With two PZ Divisions, the 6th and 23rd in the 47PZ Corps(later a third Division, the 17th, was added) he managed to get half way to Stalingrad, about 40 miles, before he was stopped on the river Myshkova by the 2nd Guards Army. All the while his left flank was covered by an Infantry formation, ABT Hollidt. At this point, Von Paulus could have ordered a breakout, but Hitler never gave permission, so his army sat within relief distance without moving.
For three more weeks Hoth pushed nearer to Stalingrad, but still no move was sanctioned and Von Paulus refused to disobey Hitler (and breakout), so Manstein’s and Hoth’s efforts were for nought.
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