@Midnight_Reaper said in On this day during W.W. 2:
HMS Prince of Wales holds the distinction of being the only British capital ship to face both the Kriegsmarine and the Imperial Japanese Navy in the first half of WW2. Unfortunately, she did not give a good account of herself, with her main guns jamming in her engagement against Bismarck and a lack of air cover and effective anti-aircraft gunnery leading to the IJN’s bombers sinking her.
HMS Prince of Wales was in commission for less than one full year, from 19 January to 10 December 1941. A tragic fate for what might have otherwise been a fine vessel.
-Midnight_Reaper
On a brighter note, HMS Prince of Wales was one of the two ships – the other being the heavy cruiser USS Augusta – on which Churchill and Roosevelt held their first summit meeting in August 1941 at Placentia Bay, Newfoundland. The eight-point statement issued from the conference, which came to be known as the Atlantic Charter, presented the joint vision of the two leaders for the post-war world; it later inspired the United Nations Declaration which was signed by the Allied powers, which in turn later inspired the United Nations Charter. The Atlantic Conference, to which Churchill travelled aboard POW, has an partial connection to POW’s engagements with both the Germans and the Japanese. On the German side: POW’s journey to Newfoundland was her first mission after the refit which had repaired her battle damage she had suffered in her battle with Bismarck. On the Japanese side: if I’m not mistaken, one of the topics discussed by Roosevelt and Churchill was the strategic question (which the US and the UK had already been discussing for about a year) of how to reinforce British naval strength in Southeast Asia (and specifically at Singapore) against possible Japanese aggression. The general idea was that the Americans would take some of the load off the Royal Navy in the Atlantic, which would free Britain to redeploy some of its naval assets to Singapore; this ultimately evolved into the concept of Force Z, of which POW was part.
Front page of the Syracuse Herald-Journal, 27 May 1941.
Kittyhawk fighters of the American Volunteer Group flying near the Salween River Gorge on the Chinese-Burmese border, 28 May 1942
@captainwalker said in On this day during W.W. 2:
Kittyhawk fighters of the American Volunteer Group flying near the Salween River Gorge on the Chinese-Burmese border, 28 May 1942
SWEET !
@SS-GEN very nice pic.
31 May 1942 - Japanese midget submarines from submarines I-22, I-24, and I-27 penetrate the defenses of Sydney, Australia. At 2235 hours, one mini-sub was caught in torpedo nets and was scuttled by her own crew of two (both were killed in the process). The torpedoes of the other two mini-subs near-miss U.S. heavy cruiser Chicago (CA-29), but sink RAN accommodation ship Kuttabul and damage Dutch submarine K-IX beyond economical repair. All three Japanese midget submarines were lost in the attack.
Pictured below - Cruiser USS Chicago underway in Sydney Harbor, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, before the Japanese midget submarine attack that took place later that night, May 31, 1942
British troops crowd the deck of a Royal Navy destroyer (possibly HMS Gallant H59), arrive at Dover after sailing from Dunkirk, 31 May 1940.
Source: DB Colour
Sweetest !
US Marine Private Bruce Rutherford cleaning his Thompson submachine gun while playing with puppies Nanci, Shoto, Sake, Zero, Banzai, and Okinawa on Okinawa, Japan. June 1, 1945
On this day in 1944. Countdown to D-Day. Pathfinders, the first men to drop and mark drop zones. Men from 22 Independent Parachute Company, British 6 Airborne Division.
Source: RG Poulussen
Remembering all that died and served on this day in history.
@SS-GEN said in On this day during W.W. 2:
Remembering all that died and served on this day in history.
Yes indeed. Towards the end of Cornelius Ryan’s classic D-day book The Longest Day, as Rommel walks into his office and closes the door just as the clock strikes midnight and June 6th becomes June 7th, there’s a sentence which quietly makes the point that the Third Reich had less than a year left to its existence.
@CWO-Marc
A little off topic but am watching “Battle of Britain” right now. Haven’t seen it in ages. Forgot what Awesome flying was in it.
@barnee I don’t think I own it. Been a while since I saw it . Don’t get time to watch my kind of films any more.
@Wittmann
Well, hopefully time shows up for you with what you want to watch :) On a side note, I watched “Battle of Britain” “The Longest Day” and started on “A Bridge Too Far”. Being Anglo Saxon (which I guess Germans are too :)), I didn’t want to watch us lose :) so , Bridge Too Far was too far for me. :)
Was also the most German I’ve heard in a while :)
Paratroopers of Easy Company, 506th PIR, “Band of Brothers”, in the square of Sainte-Marie-du-Mont, D+1.
On this day in 1944. More of 7th Armoured Division arrive on Gold. Cromwell ‘T121766W’ from ‘A’ Squadron, 4th County of London Yeomanry leads the way. The ‘W’ indicates a welded tank with armour up to 100mm thick!
Imperial War Museum
No particular date on this one but here’s a cool pic of a camouflaged German Bf 109 on flight above the Libyan desert, Summer 1941.
June 8, 1940. Norway
Evacuation of Narvik. French and Polish troops, pursuing General Dietl’s forces towards Sweden, pull out overnight and return to Narvik leaving dummies to fool the Germans. Group II troopships embark the final 4600 Allied troops (British, French and Polish) and depart Narvik, escorted by aircraft carrier HMS Ark Royal, cruisers HMS Southampton and HMS Coventry and 11 destroyers. The convoy is spotted by German reconnaissance planes and bombed continuously until out of range but without damage. Germans quickly assess the withdrawal and retake Narvik.
Operation Juno. German cruiser Admiral Hipper sinks British tanker Oil Pioneer and escorting armed trawler HMS Juniper (20 lives lost, Hipper picks up 29 survivors). Later, Hipper sinks empty British troopship Orama (19 lives lost, 280 rescued by German destroyers) but spares hospital ship Atlantis. Atlantis obeys the rules of war and does not attempt to radio any signals; Hipper does not sink her.
Operation Juno meets Evacuation of Narvik. At 0300 hours, aircraft carrier HMS Glorious sails for Scapa Flow with destroyers HMS Ardent & HMS Acasta (these vessels are not needed to escort troop transports). Captain Guy D’Oyly Hughes does not post top look-outs or fly patrol aircraft and runs into German battleships Scharnhorst and Gneisenau, 170 miles off the Norwegian coast. At 1630 hours, Scharnhorst and Gneisenau open fire from 24km, one of the longest hits ever recorded. Glorious is hit with several 11 inch shells, preventing aircraft taking off. Ardent & Acasta lay smoke and close on the German battleships firing 120 mm guns and torpedoes but both are hit. Acasta hits Scharnhorst with 1 torpedo (50 dead). Ardent sinks at 1720 hours (151 lives lost, 2 survivors). Glorious sinks at 1910 hours (1162 sailors and 59 RAF personnel killed, 42 survivors). Acasta sinks at 1920 hours (161 dead, 2 survivors). Admiral Wilhelm Marschall, aboard his flagship Gneisenau orders his flag lowered to half mast to honour the crews of the British destroyers. Photo is Scharnhorst firing on HMS Glorious.
Source: worldwar2daybyday
