On this day during W.W. 2

@CWO:

@suprise:

April 14 1939
Roosevelt wrote to Hitler and Mussolini seeking assurances Germany and Italy would not "attack or invade"�  any nation with whom it had issues in dispute. Hitler later termed the appeal a meaningless gesture. Mussolini called it absurd.

This was the famous (or infamous) letter containing the list of countries which Hitler read out (in German, of course) to the Reichstag, provoking giggles at first then roars of laughter as the list got longer and longer: "Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, The Netherlands, Belgium, Great Britain and Ireland, France, Portugal, Spain, Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Poland, Hungary, Rumania, Yugoslavia, Russia, Bulgaria, Greece, Turkey, Iraq, the Arabias, Syria, Palestine, Egypt and Iran."  I have the footage of that incident somewhere on a DVD, and as I recall the members of the Reichstag get particularly rowdy when Hitler mentions Lichstenstein (which, it should be noted, is one of the few non-Axis countries in Europe which Hitler never did actually invade).  In fairness, the Reichstag by that date was basically – as one of Frank Capra’s narrators once expressed it – “a collection of stooges, rubber-stamping laws and applauding on cue the words of the leaders.”

It would be fun to see an edited copy of that video clip in which, as Hitler rattles off the list, a subtitle states the name of each country in English and indicates its A&A IPC value.  Unfortunately, nobody outside the A&A community would get the joke.

I’ve seen that video - it is hilarious!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oliOWcS8254

19th April 1943 - Warsaw Ghetto Uprising

Such courage and desperation.

From Wikipedia:

On 19 April 1943, on the eve of Passover, the police and SS auxiliary forces entered the Ghetto. They were planning to complete the deportation action within three days, but were ambushed by Jewish insurgents firing and tossing Molotov cocktails and hand grenades from alleyways, sewers, and windows. The Germans suffered casualties and their advance bogged down. Two of their combat vehicles (an armed conversion of a French-made Lorraine 37L light armored vehicle and an armored car) were set on fire by insurgent petrol bombs.[36] Following von Sammern-Frankenegg’s failure to contain the revolt, he lost his post as the SS and police commander of Warsaw. He was replaced by SS-Brigadeführer Jürgen Stroop, who rejected von Sammern-Frankenegg’s proposal to call in bomber aircraft from Kraków and proceeded to lead a better-organized and reinforced ground attack.

The longest-lasting defense of a position took place around the ŻZW stronghold at Muranowski Square, where the ŻZW chief leader, Dawid Moryc Apfelbaum, was killed in combat. On the afternoon of 19 April, a symbolic event took place when two boys climbed up on the roof of a building on the square and raised two flags, the red-and-white Polish flag and the blue-and-white banner of the ŻZW. These flags remained there, highly visible from the Warsaw streets, for four days. After the war, Stroop recalled:

“The matter of the flags was of great political and moral importance. It reminded hundreds of thousands of the Polish cause, it excited them and unified the population of the General Government, but especially Jews and Poles. Flags and national colours are a means of combat exactly like a rapid-fire weapon, like thousands of such weapons. We all knew that – Heinrich Himmler, Krüger, and Hahn. The Reichsfuehrer [Himmler] bellowed into the phone: ‘Stroop, you must at all costs bring down those two flags!’” —Jürgen Stroop, 1949[8]

The Bismarck sank today, the 27th May, in 1941. She put to sea nine days ago and was on her way to Brest for repairs, when cornered by her enemy. The Royal Navy pulled out all the stops in its hunt for what was one of Germany’s two Battleships. Despite an auspicious start: she sank the old Battlecruiser Hood, and chased off and damaged a newer Battleship, the Prince of Wales,  her luck ran out. In the glorious tradition of the Navy, she went down fighting. Of her crew of 2200, only 114 survived.
She was capable of 30 knots and was armed with 8 15 inch guns. Her Belt was 13 inches thick, the turrets 14.
I always loved the story of her short life.

@wittmann:

The Bismarck sank today, the 27th May, in 1941. […] I always loved the story of her short life.

Thanks Wittmann – I agree that the Bismarck’s fateful sortie is one of the greatest sea stories of WWII.  These two sites may be of interest:

http://www.kbismarck.com/
http://www.hmshood.com/

I looked at those links, thank you Marc.

Today, the 4th June, in 1944 Rome was liberated. It was the first of the three Axis capitals to be captured and was a great propaganda victory. However, Mark Clark, commanding the 5th US Army would have done better to have chased down the retreating German units (as ordered by his superior). Rome fell once the line at Monte Cassino had been breached. The Allies would have to face them at the next defensive line, the Gothic line, in September. Italy would prove a long campaign.

The D-Day landings in Normandy, a.k.a. Operation Overlord, occurred on June 6, 1944, 71 years ago today.

On Twitter, Osprey Books, who I follow, have been doing a diary of  the day’s  events. I have enjoyed it.

Having watched the excellent video shared by variance on another thread - there were more US casualties on Omaha beach than the whole of the war in Afghanistan. One of those things you know, but still need to be reminded of from time to time.

D Day as a whole incurred just over 4,400 allied dead. It could have been so much worse. I was going to draw a comparison with other battles and wars but that seems disrespectful so I will refrain.

June 10th, 1940: Italy (Mussolini actually) declared war on Britain and France.
No military action took place, however, until the 22nd. And that went badly.

The Germans marched into Paris today, the 14th June, in 1940.

Just to keep witt company:

The Battle of Saipan was a battle of the Pacific campaign of World War II, fought on the island of Saipan in the Mariana Islands from 15 June–9 July 1944. The Allied invasion fleet embarking the expeditionary forces left Pearl Harbor on 5 June 1944, the day before Operation Overlord in Europe was launched. The U.S. 2nd Marine Division, 4th Marine Division, and the Army’s 27th Infantry Division, commanded by Lieutenant General Holland Smith, defeated the 43rd Division of the Imperial Japanese Army, commanded by Lieutenant General Yoshitsugu Saito….

… The victory would prove to be one of the most important strategic moments during the war in the Pacific Theater, as the Japanese mainland was now within striking distance of United States’ B-29 bombers.

Quote from wikipedia

Happy to have you in my (Tiger) Company, Private.

Battle of Britain 75th anniversary flypast takes place
10 July 2015
Aircraft, including Hurricanes and Spitfires, have flown over Buckingham Palace to mark the 75th anniversary of the Battle of Britain.
http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-33476099

Thanks Marc. I missed that, as I was out in the car.

Is also the day, in the 1943, that seven Divisions of Patton’s 7th Army and Monty’s 8th Army landed on Sicily. There were over a quarter of a million Axis forces on the island, but only two were German Divisions.

Here’s another BBC article from today, this one on the Blitz:

http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-33314462
When the UK was bombed nightly for eight months in a row

A&A sculpt enthusiasts will recognize the weapon shown in the “Bofors gun in action” picture as the same one used by ANZAC as an AAA unit in 2nd edition of Pacific 1940.

I don’t know this room is still at the Imperial War Museum, but when I visited the IWM several years ago I had the opportunity to go into a simulated bomb shelter that allowed you to share a “Blitz experience” with other museum visitors.  It featured the (recorded) sound of AAA guns being fired “outside” the shelter and the booms of bombs exploding nearby (complete with a violent shaking of the whole room when one detonated overhead), along with recorded crowd noises from the imaginary hundreds of other people in the shelter.  The only specific line of recorded dialogue that I recall was a comment made by an unseen woman who reacts to the sound of the AAA guns by exclaiming defiantly, “At least we’re hitting back at 'em!”  It was quite well done.

Aircraft including 18 Spitfires and six Hurricanes have flown over south-east England to mark 75 years since the Battle of Britain’s “Hardest Day”. The event recalled 18 August 1940, when Bromley’s Biggin Hill and other South East military bases came under attack from the German Luftwaffe. It became known as the “hardest day” as both sides recorded their greatest loss of aircraft during the battle.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-33966632

Battle of Britain: Historic flypast for 75th anniversary

15 September 2015

A flypast involving about 40 Spitfires and Hurricanes is taking place to commemorate the 75th anniversary of World War Two’s Battle of Britain.

The grouping - the biggest in one place since the war - took off in waves from Goodwood airfield in West Sussex before dispersing around the region.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-34250794

Had not heard that Marc. Would have been great to see and hear, but I am 180m miles from Sussex, so could not have gone anyway.