80 Years Ago US Marines with the 1st Marine Division under the command of USMC Major General Alexander Vandegrift landed on Guadalcanal during Operation Watchtower.
The goal was to capture the Japanese Airfield on Guadalcanal which was under construction. The Marines came ashore between Koli Point and Lunga Point, advancing they encountered little resistance and secured the airfield by 4PM / 1600hrs on August 8th, 1942.
Japanese troops and construction workers at the airfield had been panicked by the warship bombardment & aerial bombing and had abandoned the airfield fleeing about 3 miles west to the Matanikau River & Point Cruz area. They left behind food, supplies, intact construction equipment, vehicles, and 13 dead.
Picture: US Marines on Guadalcanal - August 8, 1942
Source: US Navy Photo# 80-G-20683
2 September 1945, Tokyo Bay, the Japanese formally surrender, ending WW2. Nearly 300 US and Allied ships fill Tokyo Bay — a powerful demonstration of Allied might. The surrender ceremony takes place onboard the US Battleship USS Missouri. President Truman addressed the American people listening to the surrender ceremony on the radio:
“My fellow Americans, and the Supreme Allied Commander, General MacArthur, in Tokyo Bay:
The thoughts and hopes of all America–indeed of all the civilized world–are centered tonight on the battleship Missouri. There on that small piece of American soil anchored in Tokyo Harbor the Japanese have just officially laid down their arms. They have signed terms of unconditional surrender.
Four years ago, the thoughts and fears of the whole civilized world were centered on another piece of American soil–Pearl Harbor. The mighty threat to civilization which began there is now laid at rest. It was a long road to Tokyo–and a bloody one.
We shall not forget Pearl Harbor.
The Japanese militarists will not forget the U.S.S. Missouri.”
December 17, 1939: Germany’s Admiral Graf Spee is scuttled by her crew outside Montevideo harbor. This famous German commerce raider had been so succesful in the preceding months that the British and the French sent more than 20 ships to track her down. That culminated in the Battle of the River Plate, in which Admiral Graf Spee sustained critical damage. They found refuge in neutral but Allied-friendly Uruguay, but with no hope of getting the ship repaired and the prospect of the crew being interned, Captain Hans Langsdorff made the decision to scuttle her.
@kaleu thanks . Is One of those stories many of us learned as a child.
@kaleu The Admiral Graf Spee was such a great looking ship.
In theory fast enough to dodge battleships and powerful enough to out range cruisers.
January 2, 1942: 33 members of the Duquesne spy ring are convicted to prison terms in New York.
The Wikipedia lemma on Duquesne is worth having a look at. That man truly led a life of high adventure.
January 12, 1945, saw the beginning of the Soviet Vistula-Oder offensive, led by the celebrated marshals Zhukov and Konev. The operation had been prepared for many months during which the Soviet amassed a force of such magnitude that Hitler refused to believe the incoming reports.
World War 2 was pretty much hopeless for the Germans at this time, but decisions made on either side would have a lasting impact on post-war Europe. Hitler had mostly lost his sense of reality and failed to order the trapped German forces in the Courland pocket home, where they could have helped defending; he even sent troops out to Hungary. Zhukov on the other hand, stopped the offensive at the Oder, just a bit over 40 miles from Berlin – but the Soviet front line had become dangerously extended, and he considered pushing on too dangerous.
They each had their detractors: Guderian fell out with Hitler about the failing defense and Chuikov with Zhukov about the stalled offensive. Plenty of room for alternative history writing: would the Soviets have been stopped before they reached the Oder if Guderian’s advice had been followed? Would they have taken Berlin if Chuikov had had his way?
The offensive was halted on February 2. Two days later, the Yalta conference started and all the decisions that would draw the map for decades to come were made.
Not precisely a day “during W.W. 2”, but nevertheless very relevant to it, was February 15, 1933. On that day, Giuseppe Zangara tried to assassinate president-elect Franklin D. Roosevelt, a mere two weeks before his inauguration. Zangara was a desperate man of doubtful psychological stability and blamed his difficulties on the rich and the powerful. He was also quite short and not in the front row, so he had difficult taking his aim with taller people standing in front of him, climbed an unstable chair, and missed Roosevelt. Mrs. Lillian Cross, standing in front of him, turned around to bravely grab the arm holding the gun, but while others rushed to overpower Zangara, he did fire four more bullets. Several people were wounded, among them Mayor Anton Cermak of Chicago, who would die of his injuries a few weeks later. Zangara was initially convicted to 80 years in prison, but faced execution for murder a month later after Cermak had died.
Needless to say that history would have been dramatically different if Zangara had succeeded. That scenario has been the topic of speculation and fiction, most notably as the point of divergence in the well-known novel The Man in the High Castle by Philip K. Dick.
@KaLeu
Thanks! I did not know this. Just researched it more. Very much appreciated!
@KaLeu yea i had never heard that either. My favorite part is the swift justice.
Rich and powerful is who he blames. A communist maybe ? Roosevelt was a socialist, so whatever.
No shortage of fruitcakes out there.
Thanks . Never heard of this.
@barnee said in On this day during W.W. 2:
Rich and powerful is who he blames. A communist maybe ? Roosevelt was a socialist, so whatever.
I take it that you’re not a big fan of either communism or socialism. But they’re not the same, and Roosevelt was neither. As for Zangara? Just another guy who blamed his own misfortunes on others. Ironically, as a bricklayer he would probably have had excellent opportunities in the late 1930s had he chosen a better path in life.
Since no one did it:
3 days ago was the 80th anniversary of the beginning of Operation Ichi-Go, one of Japan’s final major victories in World War 2 and their biggest operation in China since attacking Pearl Harbor.
80 years ago today, Operation Overlord took place, as the Allies landed in Normandy.
Also 5 days ago (where I live), the Allies captured Rome.
Even on its 80th anniversary, that success (even if militarily rather dumb) is still overshadowed. Just shouting it out.
Where I live, it’s the 85th anniversary of the Invasion of Poland in 1939, the campaign that started all of this.
USS Robinson DD-562 sails along the beach at Peleliu, her 5” mounts trained landward, wiping out enemy gun emplacements and tumbling snipers out of trees as she blasted enemy positions - September 15, 1944
Naval History & Heritage Command - USN 46648
Wait, Pelieu? That means Leyte Gulf is coming up soon!
#OTD in 1942, the Japanese sub I-19 fired one of the most damaging torpedo salvos in the history of submarine warfare. The 6 torpedo spread hit and sank the carrier USS Wasp and the destroyer USS O’Brien while severely damaging the battleship USS North Carolina.
Dang, that was today too? Still legendary after all this time.
Thanks for keeping this thread active.
Also, yesterday (where I live) was the 80th anniversary of the beginning of the Baltic Offensive, where the Soviet Union expelled German forces from most of the Baltic States, cutting off Army Group North in the Courland Pocket where it would stay trapped until the end of thwar.
