On this day during W.W. 2

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

Moilami,

@moilami:

Now they had totally sucky dice  :-D

LOL, A very interesting observation on your part.

“Tall Paul”

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?

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.

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

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.

Exactly!

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”

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.

Two weeks after invading Finland, December the 14th 1939, Russia was expelled from The League of Nations. Russia invaded Finland because they said they needed security for Leningrad, which was only 40 kms from the Finnish border.
The Russians were mightly  humiliated by the tiny Finnish army, suffering far more casualties than they inflicted, despite having three times the number of men, thirty times the number of aircraft and one hundred times more tanks.
The conflict ended in March of 1940, with Finland having ceded 11% of its territory, but 30% of its resources. Russia had hoped to conquer all of Finland.

good post Witmann, I really apreciate that “on this day…” is kept alive.

Thank you. I try to post here or in General when a significant event/battle occurs as you know.
Does not take long.
Something happened on our birthday that I could write about, but how much do I write!

December 15th 1944:All Quiet on the Western Front.
At least it was on the Western(American) side, where in the Ardennes the snow lay thick.

December 16th 1944: Hitler unleashed his remaining armoured reserves in the West, rather than safe them to use against his mortal enemy in the East.
Two Panzer Armies, the 5th under the respected and highly able  Hasso Von Manteuffel and the 6th under Hitler’s favourite and highly decorated Sepp Dietrich, shattered the calm of a quiet Winter in the lightly defended Ardennes to start what has become to be known as the Battle of the Bulge.
The plan was simple: take advantage of bad weather and reduced Allied Air Superiority to smash the best Germany could offer against a weak and surprised American Army(Hodges 1st)and reach Antwerp. I am sure no realistic German commander believed this even a possibility, but total surprise was realised and shock waves caused throughout the depleted Allied chain of command.(Many were on Christmas leave.)
The 5th Panzer contained the 47th and 58th Pz Corps: 2nd, 116 and Pz Lehr Divisions, about 250 tanks. The 6th contained the vaunted 1SS Pz Corps(formerly Dietrich’s command) under Hermann Priess and had the best tanks at the time. 1SS Pz had 80 and 45 King Tigers. The 12SS Pz 80 MK IVs and Panthers. Both Divisions counted 22000 men apiece.
Many Infantry Divisions were scheduled to fight alongside the Panzer Divisions and keep pace as best they could; none were mechanised and would find the tiny roads hard going.
The Southern shoulder of the planned attack, close to the Luxembourg border,  was covered by Brandenberger’s 7th Infantry Army(for the most part, reconstituted Normandy Divisions).
The US Divisions standing in the way of this German juggernaut were from Middleton’s 8th and Gerow’s 5th Corps: 2nd, 28th, 99th and 106th Infantry Divisions, with a reserve of the
7th and 9th Armour. Most of the units were green or had been bloodied in the Hurtgen Forest.
To aid in confusing the enemy, Hitler added Operation Grief to the offensive. This entailed Germans dressing as Americans so as to capture important bridges and send units the wrong way. Otto Skorzeny, of Mussolini’s rescue fame, was given a mechanised Brigade of captured US equipment to spearhead this plan of Hitler’s. Some Paras were also dropped.
For the most part the Americans holding the front lines did a good job of slowing the German advance units. In places a platoon held up the whole advance, but by day’s end the Germans had broken through and were advancing, but behind schedule. Their greatest success had come on 5th Panzer’s front and not in the North on the 6th’s front, where the man expected to advance the furthest, SS Lt Col Jochen Peiper was duly frustrated by the traffic jams developing. His Division commander, aware of how hard manoeuvring would be in this terrain and weather, had allocated Peiper, his Pz Regiment Commander, the lead with his 100 tanks and intrinsic Engineer Company, with the addition of the Division’s  motorised Infantry Battalion. Much was expected of Himmler’s former Adjutant.

December 17th 1939 the Graf Spee was scuttled at Montevideo after spending four days in its neutral port. Her Captain, Langsdorf,  commited suicide.
The Graf Spee was a Deutschland class Heavy Cruiser, weighing 16000 tons, armed with 6* 11 inch guns and capable of 29 knots.
She had been at sea since September and had sunk nine vessels totalling 50000 tons.
On the 13th December she engaged three Cruisers, only one of them a Heavy one and although inflicting considerable damage to them, especially the Exeter, she too had taken almost 100 casualties and needed repairs.'Her Captain decided to go to the nearest port to start repairs, as he deemed Germany impossible to reach in the state she was in.
He ordered her scuttled as he believed reports of a build  up of Royal Navy ships awaiting his sailing and thought to safe his crew from certain death. No such ships existed.
The Royal Navy breathed better knowing she was no more.