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Archive for November, 2008

World War II History for November 30

30 Nov

World War II History for November 30

1939 - The Soviet Union attacked Finland.

the Red Army crosses the Soviet-Finnish border with 465,000 men and 1,000 aircraft. Helsinki was bombed, and 61 Finns were killed in an air raid that steeled the Finns for resistance, not capitulation.

The overwhelming forces arrayed against Finland convinced most Western nations, as well as the Soviets themselves, that the invasion of Finland would be a cakewalk. The Soviet soldiers even wore summer uniforms, despite the onset of the Scandinavian winter; it was simply assumed that no outdoor activity, such as fighting, would be taking place. But the Helsinki raid had produced many casualties-and many photographs, including those of mothers holding dead babies, and preteen girls crippled by the bombing. Those photos were hung up everywhere to spur on Finn resistance. Although that resistance consisted of only small numbers of trained soldiers-on skis and bicycles!–fighting it out in the forests, and partisans throwing Molotov cocktails into the turrets of Soviet tanks, the refusal to submit made headlines around the world.

President Roosevelt quickly extended $10 million in credit to Finland, while also noting that the Finns were the only people to pay back their World War I war debt to the United States in full. But by the time the Soviets had a chance to regroup, and send in massive reinforcements, the Finnish resistance was spent. By March 1940, negotiations with the Soviets began, and Finland soon lost the Karelian Isthmus, the land bridge that gave access to Leningrad, which the Soviets wanted to control.

USSR attacks Finland. (2008). The History Channel website. Retrieved 05:10, Nov 30, 2008, from http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history.do?action=Article&id=6396.

1943 - At the Teheran Conference, an agreement was reached on Operation Overlord by U.S. President Roosevelt, British Prime Minister Churchill and Soviet leader Josef Stalin. The operation was the Anglo-American invasion across the English Channel.


From left to right: Joseph Stalin, Franklin D. Roosevelt, and Winston Churchill on the portico of the Russian Embassy during the Tehran Conference.

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Posted in Europe Theater, Media, Today

 

Hitlers Gold Bookmark Recovered

26 Nov

Bellevue arrest recovers Hitler’s stolen gold bookmark
12:00 PM PST on Wednesday, November 26, 2008 KIRO News


Immigration officials say this 18-carat gold bookmark was given by Eva Braun to Adolf Hitler. It was stolen in 2002 from a Spanish auction house.

SEATTLE – Immigration officials say a Romanian national who was arrested outside a Bellevue, Wash., Starbucks Tuesday was trying to sell a stolen 18-carat bookmark that reportedly belonged to Adolf Hitler.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) says 37-year-old Christian Popescu of Kenmore, Wash., will make his first court appearance Wednesday afternoon. He is facing a charge of Sale or Receipt of Stolen Goods.

ICE says agents arrested Popescu after he set up a clandestine meeting to sell the bookmark. The bookmark was allegedly given to Hitler in 1943 by Eva Braun, his longtime mistress.

The bookmark was set to be auctioned in October 2002 by a Spanish auction house when it was stolen along with several pieces of jewelry.

The bookmark, considered a historical artifact, is believed to have previously belonged to the family of Wilhelm Keitel. He was an armed forces chief under Hitler who was executed following the Nuremberg trials.

While most of the other items stolen in the robbery have been recovered, this is the first time in six years that the bookmark has been spotted. ICE officials say that during his attempt to sell the bookmark, Popescu admitted it was stolen and agreed to sell it for $100,000.

It is believed Braun gave Hitler the bookmark as consolation for his army’s defeat in the battle of Stalingrad, as it is inscribed in part with the following words from Braun: “My Adolf, don’t worry…(the defeat)… was only an inconvenience that will not break your certainty of victory.”

 
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Posted in Country - USA, Facts, Media, News, North America

 

World War II History for November 23

23 Nov

Today in WW II History

World War II History for November 23

1940 - Romania becomes an Axis “power”

On this day in 1940, Romania signs the Tripartite Pact, officially allying itself with Germany, Italy, and Japan.

As early as 1937, Romania had come under control of a fascist government that bore great resemblance to that of Germany’s, including similar anti-Jewish laws. Romania’s king, Carol II, dissolved the government a year later because of a failing economy and installed Romania’s Orthodox Patriarch as prime minister. But the Patriarch’s death and peasant uprising provoked renewed agitation by the fascist Iron Guard paramilitary organization, which sought to impose order. In June 1940, the Soviet Union co-opted two Romanian provinces, and the king searched for an ally to help protect it and appease the far right within its own borders. So on July 5, 1940, Romania allied itself with Nazi Germany-only to be invaded by its “ally” as part of Hitler’s strategy to create one huge eastern front against the Soviet Union.

King Carol abdicated on September 6, 1940, leaving the country in the control of fascist Prime Minister Ion Antonescu and the Iron Guard. Signing the Tripartite Pact was now inevitable. Originally formulated in Berlin on September 27, the pact formally recognized an alliance between Germany, Italy, and Japan, termed the “Axis.” As more European nations became subject to fascist domination and invasion, they too were drawn into the pact, albeit as unequal partners (Hungary was made an Axis “power” on November 20). Now it was Romania’s turn.

While Romania would recapture the territory lost to the Soviet Union when the Germans invaded Russia, it would also have to endure the Germans’ raping its resources as part of the Nazi war effort. Besides taking control of Romania’s oil wells and installations, Hitler would help himself to Romania’s food crops, causing a food shortage for native Romanians.

1943 - During World War II, U.S. forces seized control of Tarawa and Makin from the Japanese during the Central Pacific offensive in the Gilbert Islands.

1945 - The U.S. wartime rationing of most foods ended.

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Posted in Country - USA, Europe Theater, North America, Pacific Theater, Today

 

World War II History for November 20

20 Nov

Today in WW II History

World War II History for November 20

1943 - During World War II, U.S. Marines began their landing on Tarawa and Makin atolls in the Gilbert Islands.

1945 - 24 Nazi leaders went before a international war crimes tribunal in Nuremberg, Germany.

The Nuremberg Trials, which took place in Nuremberg, Germany, between 1945 and 1949, were a series of trials prosecuting Nazi officials for their participation in WWII and the Holocaust. The first and most famous of these trials, the Trial of the Major War Criminals before the International Military Tribunal, involved 24 of the most important leaders of Nazi Germany, 12 of whom were sentenced to death for crimes against humanity and other offenses.

Twenty-four high-ranking Nazis go on trial in Nuremberg, Germany, for atrocities committed during World War II.

The Nuremberg Trials were conducted by an international tribunal made up of representatives from the United States, the Soviet Union, France, and Great Britain. It was the first trial of its kind in history, and the defendants faced charges ranging from crimes against peace, to crimes of war, to crimes against humanity. Lord Justice Geoffrey Lawrence, the British member, presided over the proceedings, which lasted 10 months and consisted of 216 court sessions.

On October 1, 1946, 12 architects of Nazi policy were sentenced to death. Seven others were sentenced to prison terms ranging from 10 years to life, and three were acquitted. Of the original 24 defendants, one, Robert Ley, committed suicide while in prison, and another, Gustav Krupp von Bohlen und Halbach, was deemed mentally and physically incompetent to stand trial. Among those condemned to death by hanging were Joachim von Ribbentrop, Nazi minister of foreign affairs; Hermann Goering, leader of the Gestapo and the Luftwaffe; Alfred Jodl, head of the German armed forces staff; and Wilhelm Frick, minister of the interior.

On October 16, 10 of the architects of Nazi policy were hanged. Goering, who at sentencing was called the “leading war aggressor and creator of the oppressive program against the Jews,” committed suicide by poison on the eve of his scheduled execution. Nazi Party leader Martin Bormann was condemned to death in absentia (but is now believed to have died in May 1945). Trials of lesser German and Axis war criminals continued in Germany into the 1950s and resulted in the conviction of 5,025 other defendants and the execution of 806.

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Posted in Country - Germany, Europe Theater, Today

 

World War II History for November 19

19 Nov

Today in WW II History

World War II History for November 19

1940 - Hitler urges Spain to grab Gibraltar

Adolf Hitler tells Spanish Foreign Minister Serano Suner to make good on an agreement for Spain to attack Gibraltar, a British-controlled region. This would seal off the Mediterranean and trap British troops in North Africa.

Read more on the WWII History Wiki: Spain

1942 - During World War II, Russian forces launched their winter offensive against the Germans along the Don front.

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Posted in African Theater, Europe Theater, Today

 

World War II History for November 17

17 Nov

Today in WW II History

World War II History for November 17

1887 - Bernard Law Montgomery was born in London, England.


Bernard L. Montgomery


Montgomery at El Alamein

1941 - Joseph C. Grew, U.S. ambassador to Japan, cabled the U.S. State Department that he had heard that Japan had prepared a plan to attempt a surprise attack at Pearl Harbor. The attack was “planned, in the event of trouble with the United States.”

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Posted in Country - Japan, Europe Theater, Today

 

World War II History for November 14

14 Nov

Today in WW II History

World War II History for November 14

1940 - During World War II, German war planes destroyed most of the English town of Coventry when about 500 Luftwaffe bombers attacked.

German bombers devastate the English city of Coventry, demolishing tens of thousands of buildings and killing hundreds of men, women, and children. The verb “Koventrieren” (to Coventrate) passed into the German language, meaning “to annihilate or reduce to rubble.”

On November 8, Adolf Hitler had to move up his scheduled speech in Munich on the anniversary of his 1923 attempted coup in Bavaria because British bombers were on their way to take out a railway yard. Hitler was determined to avenge this audacious offensive. The Fuhrer let his bomber pilots know that he was not “willing to let an attack on the capital of the Nazi movement go unpunished.”

And so, on this day, almost 500 German bombers unleashed some 150,000 incendiary bombs and more than 500 tons of high explosives on the British industrial city, taking out 27 war factories. Of the 568 people killed, more than 400 were burned so badly they could not be identified. Among the more than 60,000 buildings destroyed or severely damaged was St. Michael’s Cathedral.

There have been claims that the Prime Minister, Winston Churchill, knew several days in advance that the Germans would attack Coventry but deliberately held back the information.

His intelligence supposedly came from the scientists at Bletchley Park in Buckinghamshire, who, in utmost secrecy, had cracked the Enigma code the Germans used for their military communications.

From an intercepted message, they had discovered that the city was a target.

But warning the city of Coventry and its residents of the imminent threat would have alerted the Germans to the fact that their codes had been cracked and their security breached.

Churchill considered it worth the sacrifice of a whole city and its people to protect his back-door route into Berlin’s secrets.

But is it true? Did it really happen this way? The end of 1940 was a terrible and frightening time in Britain.

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Posted in Europe Theater, Media, Today

 

World War II History for November 12

12 Nov

Today in WW II History

World War II History for November 12

1942 - During World War II, naval battle of Guadalcanal began between Japanese and American forces. The Americans won a major victory.

1944 - During World War II, the German battleship “Tirpitz” was sunk off the coast of Norway.

32 British Lancaster bombers attack and sink the mighty German battleship Tirpitz.

In January 1942, Hitler ordered the Germany navy to base the Tirpitz in Norway, in order to attack Soviet convoys transporting supplies from Iceland to the USSR. The Tirpitz also prevented British naval forces from making their way to the Pacific. Winston Churchill summed up the situation this way: “The destruction or even crippling of this ship is the greatest event at the present time…. The whole strategy of the war turns at this period on this ship….”

Attacks had already been made against the Tirpitz. RAF raids were made against it in January 1942, but they failed to damage it. Another raid was made in March; dozens of RAF bombers sought out the Tirpitz, which was now reinforced with cruisers, pocket battleships, and destroyers. All of the British bombers, once again, missed their target.

Sporadic attacks continued to be made against the German battleship, including an attempt in October 1942 to literally drive a two-man craft up to the ship and plant explosives on the Tirpitz’s hull. This too failed because of brutal water conditions and an alert German defense. But in September 1943, six midget British subs set out to take the Tirpitz down for good. The midgets had to be towed to Norway by conventional subs. Only three of the six midgets made it to their target. This time, they were successful in attaching explosives to the Tirpitz’s keel and doing enough damage to put it out of action for six months. Two British commanders and four crewmen were taken captive by the Germans and spent the rest of the war as POWs.

But it wasn’t until November 1944 that the Tirpitz was undone permanently. As the battleship lay at anchor in Norway’s Tromso Fjord, 32 British Lancaster bombers, taking off from Scotland, attacked. Each bomber dropped a 12,000-pound Tallboy bomb and two hit their target, causing the Tirpitz to capsize, and killing almost 1,000 crewmen.

Ironically, the mighty Tirpitz fired its guns only once in aggression during the entire extent of the war-against a British coaling station on the island of Spitsbergen.

1948 - The war crimes tribunal sentenced Japanese Premier Hideki Tojo and six other World War II Japanese leaders to death.

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Posted in Atlantic Theater, Country - Japan, Europe Theater, Media, Pacific Theater, Today

 

VALKYRIE Featurette

12 Nov

 The Making of VALKYRIE Featurette [3:12m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (8559)

Starring Tom Cruise, VALKYRIE, is the true story of the assassination plot against Adolf Hitler that took place on July 20, 1944 and which was led by, among others, German staff officer Klaus Von Stauffenberg (whom Cruise portrays).

This video of the making of VALKYRIE featurette contains behind the scenes shots, interviews from the directors and producers, and multiple clips of the film not seen in the trailer.

The July 20th Plot on Hitler’s life is one of the most heroic, but least known episodes of World War II history. Severely wounded in combat, Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg returns from Africa to join the German Resistance, and help create Operation Valkyrie, the complex plan that will allow a shadow government to replace Hitler’s once he is dead. But fate and circumstance conspire to thrust Stauffenberg from one of many in the plot to a double-edged central role. Not only must he lead the coup and seize control of his nation’s government–he must kill Hitler himself.

 
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Posted in Country - Germany, Europe Theater, Media, News, Podcast

 

A Wartime Log

11 Nov

WW II vet held in Nazi slave camp breaks silence: ‘Let it be known’

By Wayne Drash, Thelma Gutierrez and Sara Weisfeldt
CNN 11/11/08

LOMA LINDA, California (CNN) — Anthony Acevedo thumbs through the worn, yellowed pages of his diary emblazoned with the words “A Wartime Log” on its cover. It’s a catalog of deaths and atrocities he says were carried out on U.S. soldiers held by Nazis at a slave labor camp during World War II — a largely forgotten legacy of the war. Anthony Acevedo served as a medic during World War II. He was captured and sent into a Nazi forced labor camp.

[Read the rest of the article]

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Posted in Country - USA, Europe Theater, News, Today

 
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