On this day during W.W. 2

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.

December 17th 1944. The Malmedy Massacre.
Peiper’s Spitze is spearheading the 1SS PZ Corps advance on 6th Army’s front. He is leading from the front, capturing village after village. Part of his KFG take the wrong road and capture 100 men of B Battery 285 Field Artillery Observation Battalion, after shooting up and destroying 6 of their trucks. The survivors were taken and shot at a field near Baugnez.
113 bodies  were found.
Peiper was on his way to Ligneuville, where he understood an HQ was .
No one knows who gave the order.
The 1st SS PZ continued to advance. They had captured fuel at Bullingen.

Hi SA!
On 19th December 1941 Italian frogmen planted mines on two Royal Navy Battleships: Queen Elizabeth and her sister ship, the Valiant, while sitting in Alexandria harbour. The frogmen were captured, but both ships were still damaged.
Both were pre-WW1 Dreadnoughts, commisioned during the war and the first to be fuelsd by oil, not coal. Like most older ships, they  had had modernisation work done to them prior to WW2.  They were proud ships that had seen action in both wars and were to see more. Neither was sunk, although both were put out of action for some time, the Elizabeth for 18 months.

@wittmann:

Hi SA!
On 19th December 1941 Italian frogmen planted mines on two Royal Navy Battleships: Queen Elizabeth and her sister ship, the Valiant, while sitting in Alexandria harbour. The frogmen were captured, but both ships were still damaged.
Both were pre-WW1 Dreadnoughts, commisioned during the war and the first to be fuelsd by oil, not coal. Like most older ships, they  had had modernisation work done to them prior to WW2.  They were proud ships that had seen action in both wars and were to see more. Neither was sunk, although both were put out of action for some time, the Elizabeth for 18 months.

Love the story, one of the best of WWII. I believe a tanker was also blown up spreading burning fuel in Alexandria. You do a great job on this!

@wittmann:

Hi SA!
On 19th December 1941 Italian frogmen planted mines on two Royal Navy Battleships: Queen Elizabeth and her sister ship, the Valiant, while sitting in Alexandria harbour. The frogmen were captured, but both ships were still damaged.
Both were pre-WW1 Dreadnoughts, commisioned during the war and the first to be fuelsd by oil, not coal. Like most older ships, they  had had modernisation work done to them prior to WW2.  They were proud ships that had seen action in both wars and were to see more. Neither was sunk, although both were put out of action for some time, the Elizabeth for 18 months.

Very interesting. I would be glad to hear more of succesful or brave actions by Italians in the war. What you wrote was the first I have heard.

@wittmann:

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.

Evil soviets! Can’t appreciate more the people who fought for independence and freedom of Finland and stopped the red menace. Impressively well done! Have to hail the Wermach too for assaulting soviets, letting the soviets to bite the same bread they offered to Finland :D Haha! Yeah, no sympathy for they did not give any to us.

There is a movie about Winter War I highly recommend to watch. It is not a typical hollywood war hero movie but rather a “reality” oriented view of winter war.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0098437/

A short clip of the movie introducing our main anti tank weapon: the molotov coctail.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_M8_hS0gqU8

A picture of authentic molotov coctail.

Dec 24th 1943: Dwight Eisenhower becomes Supreme Allied Commander in Europe.
Ike, as he became to be known, was a Texan born Kansan who graduated from West Point in 1915 and who had held many administrative posts, but never got to fight in WW1.  While in Washington in 41-42 Marshall, The Chief of Staff, saw his talent and in June sent him to London as Commanding General of European Theatre of Operations. In November he commanded the Torch landings in North Africa. After this came the invasion of Sicily, which he oversaw, followed by Operation Avalanche, the invasion of Italy.
It was while his command was in Italy that Roosevelt returned him to London to take over command of the planning of the Normandy invasion.
He remained Supreme commander Europe  throughout the war up to Germany’s surrender in May of 45, then Military Governor of Occupied Germany until November, when he replaced Marshall as chief of staff. In 53 he was elected Republican President in a landslide victory.
His rise, despite never seeing combat, had been meteoric.

27th December 1939: 3rd and final day of the battle of Kelja, Karelia.
The Russians had succeeded in crossing and attacking the Finnish troops on the other side of Lake Suvanto. The Finns had counterattacked for 2 days and on the 3rd day eventually eliminated the last Russian units of 4th Inf Division who still remained. The whole time the Finns were low on artillery ammo and restricted its use, but their accuracy had been  excellent, helped by the Russian’s insistence of always attacking in the same manner and same area.
The Finns captured 12 AT guns, hundreds of MGs and 1500 rifles.
Two thousand  Russians died, the number of wounded is not known. The Finns suffered 500 casualties, but the sector was now devoid of reserves, so the Cavalry Brigade, and strategic reserve, was moved to cover this.

1st January 1945 the Germans belatedly launched Operation Bodenplatte.
It was a Luftwaffe operation designed to take away the Allies Air Superiority, so as to aid the continuation of the Army’s Western (The Bulge) offensive. The plan was to destroy as many aircraft as possible, many while still on the ground.
It was a disaster for the Luftwaffe’s dwindling resources and despite the destruction of probably  close to 200 aircraft and the damaging of 300 more on the one day, only made the German situation worse.Many German planes were shot down by friendly fire, so secret was the operation.
  The Germans could ill afford the pilot losses, especially the experienced ones, 25 of whom were Squadron, Gruppe and Geschwader commanders.
The Allies made up the losses, of mostly aircraft and not pilots, in a week.
The Luftwaffe would never recover and as we know, the German salient was closed off within the month and the front lines just about what they were when they attacked on December 16th.