May 14 1940 The government of the Netherlands fled to Britian, saying it wanted to prevent ever being placed in such a position that it would have to capitulate. All Dutch resistance in the Netherlands ceased. The commander of the Dutch forces, General Henri Winkelman, surrendered, saying it was necessary “to prevent annihilation.” German Stuka bombers attacked Rotterdam in a brutal raid, the most devastating until then, killing 980 people and destroying 20,000 buildings. The greatest losses ever suffered by the R.A.F. until then occured when 45 battles and Blenheims out of a force of 109 planes were shot down while attacking German troops concentrations in the Sedan bridgehead. Roosevelt again wrote to Mussolini , saying “Reports reaching me from many sorces, to the effect that you may br contemplating early entry into the war, have given me great concern.” Roosevelt said a further outbreak of war could lead to the “destuction of millions of lives and the best of what we call liberty and culture of civilization.” French attempts to counterattack near Sedan broke down in confusion. Guderian"s tanks smashed through the French defenses and wheeled to the west in anm effort to isolate the Allied forces in Belgium.
1941 Germany declared the Northern part of the Red Sea a combat zone. A German deligation arrived in Baghdad to arrange for a formal request from the Rashid Ali government for German troop intervention in Iraq… The situation in Baghdad was raf from stable, however, and the forthcoming invasion of Crete with its large manpower commitment precluded any Immediate direct involvment in Iraq. R.A.F. aircraft attacked Palmyra and other airfields in Syria which were being used by the Germans to attack British troops in Jordan and Iraq. This was the British action against Vichy controlled Syria. More troop reinforcements landed at Singapore. The Gestapo arrested 3,600 Jews in Paris.
1942 An area off St Johns, Newfoundland, was mined by a German submarine, The mines were not discovered untill late the following year. The U.S. Womans Army Auxilliary Corps (WAAC) was established by the legislation. “Auxilliary” was dropped in 1943 and it became WAC, as an integral part of the Army. The French high commissioner for Martinique and Guadeloupe agreed to immobilize three French war ships, accommodating the U.S. which did not want them to end up in German hands and conforming to Vichy’s obligations under the armistice not to turn them over to the U.S.
1943 Pantelleria was blockaded. A Japanese submarinew torpedoed the Australian hospital ship the Centuar
1944 german opposition was stiff in Italy, but the Allies continued their northward advance. The Rapido bridgehead was strenthened and expanded.
1945 An Austrian republic was reestablishedin Vienna.
May 15th 1940 In a disastrous climax to a futile three days of combat, the R.A.F. lost more of its French dased bombers, bringing the total to 100. Half of the force was lost in 72 hours. German U-Boats resumed patrolling the western approaches to the North Atlantic after a three month diversion caused by thr Norwegian campaign. Churchill wrote his first message to Roosevelt as Prime Minister in continuation of their “intimate private correspondence” which had started when Churchill became first sea lord eight months earlier. Churchill outlined his "immediate needs from the U.S., a loan of up to 50 older destroyers, several hundred late model aircraft, antiaircraft guns and ammunition, steel, a prolonged visit to Irish ports by U.S.Navy ships, and Americans use of Singapore, in any way convenient to keep the Japanese quite in the Pacific…
1941 In a broadcast to the people of France, Roosevelt criticized the Vichy government for its collaborationist policies toward Germany: “The people of the United States can hardly believe that the presnt government of France could be brought to lend itself to a plan of voluntary alliance, implied or otherwise, which would apparently deliver up France and it’s colonial empire, including French African colonies and their Atlantic coasts, with the menance which that involves to the peace and safety of the Western Hemisphere.” Petain, at almost the same time, was announcing a policy of closer collaboration with Germany in Europe and Africa. Roosevelt ordered American guards aboard eleven French ships, including the luxury passenger liner Normandie, which were in U.S. ports, placing them under U.S. jurisdiction. British Commonwealth armor and infantry counterattacked from Egypt, retaking the Halfaya Pass. (The British force was now reduced to about 25,000 men, Britons, Australian, Indians and South Africans. A major offensive could not be sustained, and the Allies soon withdrew. Crete came under heavy German aerial attack.
1942 Japan completed the conquest of Burma as remaining British forces crossed into India and the Chinese were pushed back into their own territory along the Burma road. German forces under Manstein retook Kerch, eliminating the Russians from the Crimea, except for Sevastopol in the southwest corner of the peninsula. The Russian Crimean front suffered 176,000 casualties and most of its armor in the disasterous action. Stalin’s reaction was “You see, that’s where going on the defensive gets you”
1943 the bey of Tunis was ousted.
1944the Ausonia defile was cleared in Italy, and other key points on the Gustav Line to the Allies, led by French Moroccan troops. British and Indian units finally broke the japanese defenses at Kohima. Other Allied forces reached a point 15 miles from Myitkyina in Burma. The first groups of 380,000 Hungarian Jews were deported to concentration camps, mostly Auschwitz. (A totalof 250,000 of them to be gassed)
1945 U.S. Eighth Army forces launched new attacks on Mindanao and Negros in the Philippines. British ships and planes attacked Japanese positions on the Andaman Islands. Naha, on Okinawa, was captured. recalcitrant German units in eastern Germany and northern Czechoslovakia ended all resistance.
1939 Finland< Norway, and Sweden spurned nonaggression treaties with Germany, stating none felt threatened by Germany nor did any intend to join alliances directed against the Germans. Denmark, Estonia, and Latvia accepted Berlin’s offer of nonaggression treaties.
1940 The U.S. navy was ordered to recommission 35 destroyers.
1942 The Russian drive toward Kharkov was halted and the Germans began a slow and costly effort which eventually pushed the front eastward 25 miles
1943 16th-17th R.A.F. Lancaster bombers breached the Eder and Mohne dams in the Ruhr. They were two of Germany’s largest dams and strategically important as suppliers of power for munitions plants.
The Attu campaign which had progressed to slowly for the Americans despite a powerful numerical superiority in troops sudenly turned when the Japanese unexpectedly withdrew to Chichagof Harbor for a final stand.
17th For the first time since Italy entered the war , an Allied convoy passed through the Stait of Gibraltar and steamed across the lenth of the Mediterranean without meeting any Axis opposition. Possession of the North African littoral pemitted safe and free passage for the movement of troops and supplies.
1944 Kesselring ordered German troops out of the Casssino area. Allied troops were already attacking the next German defense positions, the Hitler line. The British Eighth Army began a grneral offensive on the flank. Myitkyina’s airport was taken in a surprise attack by U.S. Marauders. Street fighting broke out in Loyang, China, between Chinese and Japanese forces. U.S. and British planes attacked Surabaja, Java, and sank 10 Japanese ships.
1945 Five British destroyers sank the Japanese heavy crusier Haguro in the Malacca Strait. it was the last surface Naval battle of the war. Dutch troops landed on Tarakan Island, reinforcing the Australians who had encountered stiff opposition from the Japanese defenders.
sorry, the nice weather and gardening, estate paperwork, and an online game of triple A.
May 18th 1940 German forces in Belguim broke through to the coast, capturing Antwerp. In France they reached Amiens. a fifty mile wide gap in the French line was quickly flooded with the advancing Germans who moved 45,000 vehicles in columns at the rate of 30 miles a day. Cambrai and St. Quentin were captured. Mussolini abadoned all public pretense of staying out of the war: “Italy is and intends to remain allied with Germany and Italy cannot remain absent at a molment in which the fate of Europe is at stake”. Hitler decreed the reincorporation of Eupen, Malmedy, and Moresnet into the German state. Marshal Henri Philippe Petain was named vice-premier of France.
19th The French Fourth Armored Division under General Charles de Gaulle launched a counteroffensive against the Germans at Laon but was repulsed.
20th General Paul von Kleist’s panzers reached the English Channel west of Abbeville in France, cutting off the Allied forces to the north
21st Rommel’s 7th Division halted a counterthrust by the British Expeditionary Force south of Arras designed to isolate Gunderlian’s Panzer Corps to the west. The Allies were now forced to retreat westward to the Lys River. No further major offensive action was initiated by Allied forces.
1941 18th Italy took the dalmatian coast and the former Yugoslav Adriatic Islands. Rome also effectively annexed Croatia and placed the territory under the “protection” of the Italian throne. The Duke of Spoleto, a nephew to the king of Italy, was proclaimed Monarch as king Tomislav I… The German warships Bizmarl and Prinz Eugen left the Baltic port of Gdynia. Vichy France declared it would resist any British moves in Syria
19th One Hundered Thousand French P.O.W.'s were released by the Germans. French costs for maintaining the German army of occupation were reduced to 240 million francs per day. The gestures were Germany’s response to increased collaboration by Vichy France. Because of heavy losses of their aircraft on Crete by Luftwaffe raids, the British decided to withdraw their few outnumbered planes from the island. The airfields themselves, however, were not rendered inoperable.
20th Germany invaded Crete. Thje most spectacular air assult of the war was launched at dawn as 22,750 German Paratroopers and Glider borne units landed along the northwestern coast of the island. It was the first time in history an entire invasion force was moved by air. To defend the Island, which was stategicly important to the Allies and the Axis. The British had committed 28,000 troops augmented by two weak Greek divisions of 14,500 men.Crete is 335 miles from Alexandria, 450 miles from the Seuz Canal. The Germans suffered heavy casualties during the first days of fighting. Part of the presure was relieved after the second wave landed much later in the day to the east around Heraklion and Remito. Within ten days the Germans had the island, but they suffered 6,000 dead . German aircraft losses totaled 250. Allied casualties were great to . Only 15,000 Allied solders were evacuated. Three times the number were left behind, dead or to be captured. Crete, in terms of impact led the German command to conclude that the airborne operations were not worth the cost, and no further such assults were attempted. Hitler two months after the invasion, said,“The day of the Parachutist is over”. Britian’s problems after Crete were immediate. In addition to the losses in manpower, yhe R.A.F. had lost 46 aircraft, and the Royal Navyhad one aircraft carrier, three crusiers and six destroyers sunk, making Britian’s position in the Eastern Mediterrianean precarious. Soviet spy Richard Sorge in Tokyo advised Moscow that Germany was preparing to invade Russia with a force of between 170 and 190 divisions,which was being massed in Poland. Sorge anticipated the invasion would take place on June 20th, missing the actual date by 2 days. Germany completed its positioning of forces for the invasion of Russia, massing 120 divisions along the Soviet border.
20th-21st Twenty five small vessals transporting German troops to Greece were attacked by an overwhelming force of three crusiers and four destroyers off the Coast od Crete. Most of the transports were sunk, and 2,300German troops killed. A German submarine torpedoed and sank the American frieghter S.S, Robin Moore in the South Atlantic. The ship was en route to South Africa. Declaring Paris “anextended zone of operations,” The Germans requested all foreign diplomats leave the city by June 10th. German forces captured the Maleme airfield on crete. A British counterattack failed.
1942 19th German troops completed the capture of the Kerch Peninsula in the Crimea, taking 100,000 Russian prisoners
20th Having intercepted Japanese coded messages and knowing Tokyo’s plan to attack midway and the Aleutians, U.S. forces were ordered deployed to meet the threats, concentrating on Midway and not the diversion to the north. 21st Hitler called off planes to invade Malta. He decided to wait untill Egypt fell to the Axis.
1943 18th Japanese forces opened a new offensive across the Yangzee River in China. Its ultimate objective was the Chinese capital of Chungking. The air bombardment od Pantelleria was intensified as the Allies concentrated on two airfields on the Island. Heavy raids continued through June 5th.
19th Churchill addressed a joint meeting of the U.S. House and Senate. Pantelleria was again subject to heavy bombing.
12st The neutralized French fleet in Alexandria elected to join the Allied war effort.
1944 18th Monte Cassino fell to the Allies. At 9:30 am Poles of the 3rd Carpathian Division raised their regimental flag over Monte Cassino, ending the bitter four month strugglr for the Benedictine monastary. The improvised Polish flag was hastily sewn, with pieces of it coming from a Red Cross flag and soldiers handkerchiefs. Menfrom 15 nations participated in the battle. About 20,000 were killed. Another 100,000 were wounded. The campaign in the Admiralty Islands ended. U.S. losses were 326, while, 3,280 Japanese were killed. An attempt to seize Myitkyina was turned back by the Japanese, but the rail station fell to Chinese forces.
19th It was publicly revealed that 47 R.A.F. officers had been executed by the Germans when they were recaptured after escaping from a P.O.W. camp. British Eighth Army troops failed to breach the Hitler line at Pontecorvo and Aquino. Gaeta was abandoned by the Germans who retreated north of the Liri River. The Japanese at Myitkyina were partially surrounded. U.S. forces landed on Wakde Island off the coast of New Giunea.
20th Allied troops occupied the Gaeta peninsula in Italy. Japanese held Marcus Island was attacked by U.S. Naval aircraft. Insoemoar Island off New Guinea was secured by U.S. forces, who suffered 43 losses to 759 Japanese killed.
21st Allied fighters launched operational stikes against Axis rail transport in France and Germany. Wakde Island was secured by U.S. forces, giving the Allied air force a base to cover landing units in the projected invasion of Mindanao in the Philippines.
1945 18th Sugarloaf was taken by U.S. marines. In 10 days of intense fighting for the hill, the 6th Division suffered 2,662 casulalties. A further indication of the leval of combat was that 1,289 Marines were victems of combat fatigue. Chinese troops reoccupied the port of foochow in Fukien Province.
19th The U.S. 77th Division suffered heavy casualties for the Ishimmi ridge on Okinawa and had to be withdrawn. The arrival of French troops touched off demonstrations in Syria and Lebanon. Stalin denied the Polish leaders in Moscow were arrested for political reasons. Ipo on Mindanao was cleared by the U.S. 45th Division.
20th Japanese troops began pulling outr of Kwangsi Province in China to return to Japan for defense of the home Islands
21st Himmler was arrested in Bremervorde by a British patrol. Japanese units at Shuri on Okinawa began withdrawing. The Japanese supply base at Malaybalay in Mindanao was capture by U.S. 31st Division units.
Surprisingly, some German forces in Europe were still fighting until May 20th, 1945. They were involved in the so-called “Georgian uprising” which (equally surprising) happened on the isle of Texel in the Netherlands. The Georgians in question were captured Red Army soldiers who had accepted a German offer to form a battallion that was to serve on the Atlantic Wall, and had been stationed on Texel. They had risen against the Germans in early April, and the fighting continued even after Germany’s general surrender. It was only on May 20th that Canadian troops finally intervened.
Thanks again Herr Kaleun,
1941 May 22 Britian warned the Petain government of the consequences of collaborationism: "If the Vichy government , in pursuance of their declared policy of collaboration with the enemy, take action or permit action detrimental to our conduct of the war . . . we shall no longer feel bound to draw any distinction between occupied land and unoccupied territory in the execution of our military plans. Soviet Deputy Military Attache Khlopov in Berlin, advised Moscow that "The attack of the German Army is reportedly scheduled for june 15, but it is possible that it may begin in the first days of June. Roosevelt ordered the U.S. Military to make plans for the immidiate occupation of the Azores to forstall german seizure of the Portuguese islands. The British Navy suffered heavy losses in action around Crete. Two crusiers, Gloucester and Fiji were sunk, and the battleships Warspite and Valiant were damaged.
1945 Heavy rains began pounding Okinawa, hampering operations for almost two weeks. U.S. 24th Division forces reached Tambongan on Mindanao.
May 26, 1940 The evacuation of the British Expeditionary Force from Dunkirk was ordered. Expectations wer that no more than 30,000 men could be rescued.
May 24, 1941 In a famous battle in the North Atlantic, HMS Hood was sunk by shells from the German battleship Bismarck. The loss of this famous and beloved ship deeply shocked the British, and Churchill famously ordered to sink the Bismarck. Which brings us to another historical fact soon to follow, because on:
May 26-27, 1941, Bismarck was indeed sunk after a relentless pursuit by the Royal Navy.
May 26, 1942 was the beginning of the battle of Gazala, which would last for weeks. German and Italian forces under Erwin Rommel (the famous Afrika Korps) defeated the British Eight Army under Neil Ritchie. The victory was not decisive though, as the British managed a somewhat orderly retreat.
May 23, 1943 RAF bombers drop more than 2000 tons of bombs on the city of Dortmund
May 24, 1943 After heavy losses, German admiral Karl Dönitz called of the U-boat war in the North Atlantic. The U-boats would return later, but never again repeat their earlier successes.
May 25, 1943 At the end of the Trident conference in Washington, the USA and the UK have reached agreement on all major points regarding the further conduct of the war
May 25, 1944 The Portuguese ship Serpa Pinto, carrying nearly 8,000 Jewish refugees to Canada, was stopped by a German U-boat in the mid Atlantic. The U-boat captain ordered everyone into life boats and thretened to sink the ship, but after long negotiations he relented and allowed them to continue their voyage.
May 23, 1945 Heinrich Himmler, former chief of the SS and the Gestapo, took his own life using a cyanide capsule that he had managed to conceal. He had been arrested by the British the day before, and was to stand trial at Nuremberg.
Thanks again Herr Kaleun, the pool is set-up the garden is done, a trip to Niagara Falls (sorry Most Holy next time I’ll cross and we’ll game), and two games of Global this weekend has kept me away but I’ll be back tomorrow with a fresh post.
TANKS again H K
You’re welcome! I really like it that you’re doing this.
May 29 1940 Germany occupied Ypres, Ostend, and Lille. Rumania concluded a treaty with Germany, exchanging its oil for German arms.
1941 The Bismark was sunk on the 27th, sorry for not giving ya the story.
29th The U.S. agreed to train British pilots who would fly American planes exported under lend lease. british troops on Crete fell back to positions east of Suda Bay.
1942 SS comander for Czechoslovakia Reinhard Heydrich was severly wounded by partisans in an assasination attempt near Prauge. His car was hit by a gernade as Heydrich was being driven to his country residence at Penenske Brezany. The blast severed his spine. A Japanese midget submarine entered Diego-Suarez harbor in Madagascar and heavily damaged the British battleship Ramilles and sank a tanker with its torpedos. Rommel withdrew his forces into a bridgehead on the eastern side of the Gazala line, covering supply corridors through the mine fields back to their bases. The Royal Australian Air Force opened bombing operations against Tulagi in the Solomans. Molotov arrived in Washington to discuss U.S. arms aid to Russia and to review U.S.-British planning for a second European front in 1942.
1943 Chinese nationalists troops in the Ichang area halted the Japanese advance on Chungking. They promptly went on the offensive. The remaining Japanese on Attu staged a final counteroffensive, but it was quickly repelled.
1944 The U.S. First Armored and 34th divisions suffered heavy losses on the approaches to Rome. Goring admitted to Hitler that the Allies had achieved total air superiority on the Italian front: . . . “at the moment the situation in Italy is such that not a single Luftwaffe aircraft dares show itself.” Tanks fought each other for the first time in the southwest Pacific area on Biak. the Japanese used armor in an effort to dislodge the Americans east of Parai. More than 500 Japanese were killed before the attack was halted. The U.S. Navy escort carrier Block Island was torpedoed and sunk by a German U-boat off the Azores. It was the only American carrier sunk in the Atlantic during the war.
1945 French forces shelled Damascus and Hama in Syria, and the Syrians asked the British for help. Belgian Socialists called on King Leopold III to abdicate. The Monarch had always been held in low regard by the government in exile and by many Belgiuns for his independent policies Immediatly preceeding the war and his capitulation to the Germans in 1940 without referance to the French and the British who were aiding in Belgiuns defense.
May 30 1940 Mussolini informed Hitler that Italy would enter the war against France within 10 days.
1941 Iraq’s pro-Axis government collapsed. British troops reached Baghdad and Rashid Ali and dozens of his followers (dubbed Ali and the 40 thieves) fled to Iran.
1942 30-31 R.A.F. bombers launched a devastating nite raid on the German cathederal city of Cologne in the first thousand bomber raid of the war. A total of 1,046 aircraft (Wellingtons, Stirlings, Whitleys, Manchesters, Halifaxes, and Hamptons) plus 50 aircraft attacking German fighter bases took off from 52 fields in Britian. Of that number, 898 actually attacked Cologne, dropping 1,455 tons of bombs ( Two-thirds of them incendiaries). More than 12,000 fires were started, 1,700 of them major conflagrations. The crews returning home could see Cologne burning when they were 150 miles away. German records showed the following results: 486 people killed, 5,027 injured, 59,100 made homeless, 18,432 buildings of all kinds destroyed, 9,516 heavily damaged, 31,070 slightly damaged, 328 industrial plants destroyed or damaged (larger factories halted their production from 3-9 months), and half of the cities power supply eliminated. Fourty-two British planes were downed, 12 were damaged so badly they could not fly again, and 104 were damaged and returned to duty.
1943 U.S. forces secured Attu Island. Only a handful of the original 2,350 Japanese forces survived. The U.S. losses were 512. Vichy announced that the previously immobilized French naval squadron in Alexandria harbor had gone over to the Allies. According to the Laval government, the French ships had been subjected to incessant presure from the British, including the withholding of pay. Churchill and de Gaulle arrived in Algiers.
1945 Two battalions of U.S. Marines reached the southeast edge of Naha on Okinawa. Damascus was again bombed by the French. Tehran asked Britian, the U.S., and Russia to remove their troops from Iran.
MAY 31 1940 Roosevelt called on congress to expand military preparedness “as measured in both machines and men.” In addition to the 3 billion already requested until then, Roosevelt called for further authorizations of 1.3 billion.
1941 An armistice was signed in Baghdad with the British reestablishing controll over the Iraqi government. The cease-fire would take effect when assurances were received “that complete independence of the country and the honor of the Army will be gareanteed.” The last of the British forces on Crete were evacuated from Sfakion. British air raid casualties for April and May totaled 11,459 killed and 12,107 injured.
1942 Chiang Kai-shek pleaded with the U.S. to speed up military aid to China. Japanese midget submarines entered Sydney harbor in Australia, sinking a small boat. Mosquito aircraft flew their first operational missions-bombing runs and photo reconnaissance over Cologne. British civilian air raid casualties for the month were 399 killed and 425 injuried.
1943 Admiral Rene Godfroy, commander of the French naval units in Alexandria, formally announced that his ships would join the Allied military effort. General Guderian tried to talk Hitler out of a summer offensive on the Russian front. Hitler replied, "Your quite right. Everytime I think of this attack my stomach turns.’ (In the end, however, he approved Operation CITADEL, which turned into the disastrous Battle of Kursk.)
1944 Allied troops began boarding ships for the Normandy invasion. Powerful counteroffensive were launched by the Germans north of Iasi, in Russia. Intensive Allied bombing prior to the Normandy invasion resulted in a months toll of 900 locomotives and 16,000 freight cars destroyed in Nazi occupied western Europe. For the first time in nearly four years there were no British civilianair raid victims during a monthly reporting period.
1945 Organized resistance ended on Negros Island in the Philippines. Japanese forces pulled out of Shuri on Okinawa. A regiment of the 37th Division began moving northward from Sante Fe through the Cagayan valley on Luzon. More fighting broke out in Syria. London informed de Gaulle that orders had been issued for British troops to intervene. Chiang Kai-shek gave up his title as premier but remained president of China.
June 4 1940 The Dunkirk evacuation was completed. British aircraft losses during the operation totaled 180. Nine British and six French ships were sunk or severly damaged. When the last boat had left, the British had left behind 11,000 machine guns, 1,200 artillary peices, 1,50 antiaircraft and antitank rifles, and 75,000 vehicles. Churchill, in Britians bleakest hour told the house of commons; “We shal not flag or fail. We shalfight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing ground, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills. We shall never surrender.”
1941 A pro-Allied government was restored in Iraq. The former kaiser, Wilhelm II, died at Doorn in Nazi-occupied Holland, where he had lived in exile since Germany’s loss in World War I. (The kaiser always despised Hitler as an uncouth politician, but he finally congratulated Hitler in a telegram after the fall of France. One of the kaiser’s sons, known as “Auwi”, was an Ss general during world war II, as a dedicated Nazi.
1942 Hitler visited Field Marshal Mannerheim in Finland. Heydrich died of wounds inflicted by the Czech partisan assassination team near Prague. A counterattack was launched by the British in Libya.
4-6 the battle of midway……you’ll read about it tomorrow or the next day.
1943 3rd Japan seized all shipping on the upper Yangtze in Hupei Province. Waters off Halifax, Nova Scotia, were minned by a German submarine. The field was discovered immediately, but only after the 2,000 ton Panamanian cargo dhip Halma was sunk.
1944 The U.S. Fifth Army entered Rome.While the Germans fought some rear-guard actions, the city was spared the devastation of combat. By nightfall, Allied units were converginging on Rome from all sectyors. Germans withdrawing northward from Rome were hit steadily by Allied aircraft. Rome’s population greeted the Allies enthusiastically after a lengthy period in which the Germans defended southern Italy with incredible determination to delay the inevitable capture of the first Axis capital to fall. Hitler ordered the Italian capital evacuated, according to Radio Berlin, to avoid putting the city " under the peril of destruction." With eth exception of the rail yards bombed by the Allies, Rome escapted the war reletively unscathed. Because of bad weather, Eisenhower ordered a 24 hour postponement of D-Day until June 6th An American antisubmarine force captured a German submarine (U-505) 150 miles off the coast of Rio de Oro (Spanish Sahara), Africa. It was the first enemy ship captured by a U.S. naval boarding party since 1814. The submarine surfaced when attacked, but the crew abadoned it when it started to sink. American seamenboarded and salvaged it, and the submarine was towed to the U.S.
1945 U.S. Marines landed on the Oroku Peninsula on Okinawa. About half the Naha airfield was cleared.
June 6 1940 French Premier Reynaud assumed control of foregin affairs, dropping Daladier as foreign minister. General Charles de Gaulle was appointed under secretary of war.
1941 Washington authorized the acquision of all idle foreign merchant ships in U.S. waters "for urgent needs of commerce and national defense. Luftwaffe units in Syria were withdrawn. Hitler advised the Japanese ambassador, in Berchtesgaden, that Germany might go to war with Russia. He did not refer to an invasion, but said troop reinforcements were being sent east. “Under such circumstances”, he confided war might be unavoidable between us.
1942 The decisive battle of Midway was fought, marking a turning point in the war in the Pacific. Admiral Chester Nimitz knew a month before that the Japanese were planning to invade Midway and to launch a diversionary assult on the Aleutians. Intercepts of secret Japanese radio messages gave the commander of the U.S. Pacific Fleet as much knowlage of Japanese intentions as was known by the Japanese planners themselves. Nimitz was ready, and the Japanese were administered a resounding defeat which altered the coarse of the Pacific war. Four Japanese carriers, -Kaga, Soryu, Akagi, and Hiryu were lost, in addition to a heavy crusier the Mikuma. The U.S. carrier Yorktown and a destroyer, the Hammann, were sunk. American air losses were 147 planes, compared to to the Japanese total of 332. Henceforth, Japan was no longer affected by the victory disase, which had marked the first six months of the war, and the Allies shortly went over to the offensive. German troops opened a massive assult and bombardmet ofSevestopol.
1943 The attacks on Pantelleria were concentrated on shore defensives and gun emplacements.
1944 The greatest amphibious operation in military history was launched as Allied forces under the command of Eisenhower began landing on the Northern coast of France between Cherbourg and Le Harve. H hour for the Americans was 6:30 a.m. , later for the British units because of the tide. Within 24 hours, 176,000 troops were put ashore from 4,000 ships. They were protected by 9,500 aircraft and 600 warships. U.S. First Army forces quickly secured Utah Beach. The British Second Army overcame most resistance rapidly and drove toward Caen, Only at Omaha Beach were the forces almost totally stymied, but the U.S. V Corps established a firm beachhead by evening. U.S. 1st Armored Division units advanced 25 miles north of Rome. U.S. planners set Oct 1 1945 as the date for invading Japan.
1945 The Naha airfield on the Oroku Peninsula was cleared by the U.S. Marines 6th Division
Invasion of Saipan started today…if you’ve ever been, it’s an interesting place…Golfing around WWII relics (beautiful views too) and have to love the fact that “massagie” girls will risk their lives crossing a busy roadway just to ask you if you would love a massage…A lot of nice out of the way beach cabans, but the PIC hotel is awesome (what can be better than lounging in the lazy river and getting drink after drink (you don’t even have to leave the river!)
Am annoyed I missed Wittmann’s greatest day:June 13th 1944.
The day he almost singlehandedly stopped Britain’s 7th Armour division’s thrust. A move by the Division which was on Panzer Lehr’s flank and could have encircled it. An exploit for which he received the Swords to his Knight’s Cross.
Tomorrow is the 22nd June everyone!
Are we all waiting in our tanks behind the front line?
I will take a MkIIIH. Commander of course.
June 28th, 1942; start of Fall Blau, case blue.
Due to Romania falling short on what it could supply as petrol to the Wehrmacht and the richness of the Caucasus in general, not only in oil, lead to a 2 proned plan to secure the banks of the Volga and occupy the entire Caucasus, possibly leading to linking up with Rommel’s units in the middle east. This would alleviate the german need for oil and create a good base for a continuation of the war and maybe arrive to an agreement with Stalin. (doubtful).
The plan was solid but relied heavily on weaker Axis forces. The initial drive to the Volga went very succesfull and the army command decided to assist the crossing of the Don into the Caucasus by sending 4th Panzer away from its march to Stalingrad and thus slowing it down, which was not expected. Later, 4th panzer was send northwards again to assist the assualt on Stalingrad. Had this change not been initiated, Stalingrad could have been taken off the march and the whole front settled on the west bank of the Volga with Stalingrad as a key point. Winter 1942/43 would have probably stopped all possibilities of crossing the mountains into Baku, but the Soviets would have had a hard time reinforcing this region and the Axis could have established a solid front, extending to Astrachan and the mountains of the Caucasus in the south. More mountain troops could have been brought up and assist in forcing a break through in the many passes, although difficult.
I am sure this strategy would have worked for 1943 and would have kept the initiative with the Axis. No battle of Stalingrad, no loss of the 6th army and no retreat from the Volga.
How the other fronts would have managed remains unclear, but it is obvious no great attack would have been initaited without first reinforcing the weak point of the Soviet front. German bombers could have started bombing Soviet industry in the east using airbases from Stalingrad.
Anyone want to commend on this?
Stalin expected the German push to be in the centre, on Moscow. The south was weaker,so it is possible the fantastic blitzkrieg gains looked better than they should have. I know what you are saying about Hoth’s 4th Panzer Army and it’s seasaw movements. Ultimately, i believe though, once Kleist and his strong 1st Panzer were deep in the Caucasus they were doomed to a Russian counter from the unused reserves from the static centre. Germany’s reliance on its weaker allies,especially in anti-tank guns, was to prove their downfall. The Russian’s best policy was to attack them wherever they were.
If Hoth had not been diverted south he may have found Stalingrad empty, but it might have still been a German tomb, just for a different army. I also wonder if Kleist had got out of the very deep Caucasus.
I agree that 1943 and a delayed/non existent Zitadelle could only have helped Germany’s chances in the long run. (Doubtful with an inflexible Hitler at the helm though.)
Tanks a bunch for filling, now that the days are somewhat shorter and soon I’ll drain the pool I’ll start back up again.
Aug 13 &14 1937 Heavy fighting broke out in Shanghai.
14th Chinese airforce planes, futilely attempting to bomb the Japanese battleship Isuma which was tied up in the business of Shangai, mistakenly hit a department store and other crowded buildings killing nearly 1,200 people and wounding 1,400
