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Posts Tagged ‘1939’

World War II History for August 31

31 Aug

Audio Clip: 08.31.39 – BBC Alvar Liddell Reports On German 16 Point Plan

World War II History for August 31

08.31.39 The British fleet was mobilized.

08.31.39 In London, civilian evacuations began.

London Evacuations
London Evacuations

08.31.43 The USS Harmon, first U.S. Navy ship to be named for an African American, commissioned. [1]

Poster-USS Harmon
Poster – USS Harmon DE-678

USS Harmon
USS Harmon DE-678

08.31.44 The British 8th Army broke through the German’s “Gothic Line.” The defensive line was drawn across northern Italy.

Gothic Line, Sept 1944
Gothic Line – Sept 1943

[1] http://hollywoodatwar.blogspot.com, http://twitter.com/WWIIToday

 

World War II History for April 13

13 Apr

Today in WWII History

World War II History for April 13

13 Apr 1939 USS Astoria attempts pre-war reconnaissance

The USS Astoria arrives in Japan under the command of Richard Kelly Turner in an attempt to photograph the Japanese battleships Yamato and Musashi.

U.S. Navy Rear Admiral Turner, whose motto was “If you don’t have losses, you’re not doing enough,” saw the cruiser Astoria through many assignments, from assessing Japanese naval strength before U.S. entry in the war, to returning the ashes of a Japanese ambassador to Japan, to the amphibious assault at Guadalcanal. The Astoria was unfortunately sunk, along with the Quincy and the Vincennes, during Operation Watchtower, the landing of 16,000 troops on Guadalcanal, in the Solomon Islands, in August 1942.[1]

13 Apr 1941 - German troops captured Belgrade, Yugoslavia.

13 Apr 1943 - U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt dedicated the Jefferson Memorial.

13 Apr 1945 - Vienna fell to Soviet troops.

13 Apr 1945- Hitler bluffs from bunker as Russians advance and atrocities continue.

Adolf Hitler proclaims from his underground bunker that deliverance was at hand from encroaching Russian troops–Berlin would remain German. A “mighty artillery is waiting to greet the enemy,” proclaims Der Fuhrer. This as Germans loyal to the Nazi creed continue the mass slaughter of Jews.

As Hitler attempted to inflate his troops’ morale, German soldiers, Hitler Youth, and local police chased 5,000 to 6,000 Jewish prisoners into a large barn, setting it on fire, in hopes of concealing the evidence of their monstrous war crimes as the end of the Reich quickly became a reality. As the Jewish victims attempted to burrow their way out of the blazing barn, Germans surrounding the conflagration shot them. “Several thousand people were burned alive,” reported one survivor. The tragic irony is that President Roosevelt, had he lived, intended to give an address at the annual Jefferson Day dinner in Washington, D.C., on that very day, proclaiming his desire for “an end to the beginnings of all wars–yes, an end to this brutal, inhuman, and thoroughly impractical method of settling the differences between governments.”[2]

[1] “USS Astoria attempts pre-war reconnaissance,” The History Channel website, http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history.do?action=tdihArticleCategory&id=6417 (accessed Apr 13, 2009).
[2] “Hitler bluffs from bunker as Russians advance and atrocities continue,” The History Channel website, http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history.do?action=tdihArticleCategory&id=6418 (accessed Apr 13, 2009).

 

World War II History for April 8

08 Apr

Today in WWII History

World War II History for April 8

8 Apr 1939 - Italy invaded Albania.

8 Apr 1945 - Lutheran pastor and theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer was hanged at Flossenburg. American troops liberated the POW camp nine days later.

8 Apr 1949 - The Soviets opened a rail link to the besieged city of Leningrad.

 

World War II History for March 16

16 Mar

Today in WWII History

World War II History for March 16

16 Mar 1935 - Adolf Hitler ordered a German rearmament and violated the Versailles Treaty.

16 Mar 1939 - Germany occupied what remained of Czechoslovakia.

16 Mar 1940 - Geramny bombed the Scapa Flow naval base near Scotland.

16 Mar 1942 - U.S. President Roosevelt ordered men between the ages of 45 and 64 to register for non-military duty.

16 Mar 1945 - Iwo Jima was declared secure by the Allies. However, small pockets of Japanese resistance still existed.

 

Podcast – Sinking of the Graf Spee

16 Feb

Podcast – The Sinking of the Graf Spee

Graf Spee - Side View

Graf Spee

These are the actual radio broadcasts from Dec 17-18, 1939 about the sinking of the German pocket battleship Admiral Graf Speein South America.

Graf Spee was a German pocket battleship of 10,000 tons launched in 1936. The Graf Spee was more heavily gunned than any cruiser and had a top speed of 25 knots and an endurance of 12,500 miles (20,000 km).

The Graf Spee had sunk several merchant ships in the Atlantic before being attacked by a British search group consisting of the cruisers Exeter, Ajax, and Achilles. The damage on the 13th to Graf Spee forced her to seek refuge in Montevideo, Uruguay for several days to make repairs. On the 17th Graf Spee left Montevideo and was scuttled by the crew. Captain Langsdorff of the Graf Spee committed suicide three days later. Most of the crew had been secretly taken off when they were in port and teh rest were rescued after the ship being scuttled.

 

Roosevelt on the European War

16 Jan

Roosevelt’s Fireside Chat immediately after the outbreak of war in Europe

Franklin D. Roosevelt

“The telephone in Franklin Roosevelt’s bedroom at the White House rang at 2:50 a. m. on the first day of September. In more ways than one it was a ghastly hour, but the operators knew they must ring. Ambassador Bill Bullitt was calling from Paris. He had just been called by Ambassador Tony Biddle in Warsaw. Mr. Bullitt told Mr. Roosevelt that World War II had begun. Adolf Hitler’s bombing planes were dropping death all over Poland.”[1]

On September 3, 1939 President Franklin Delano Roosevelt addressed the nation during his Fireside Chat #14. In the speech he maintains that the United States will do it’s best ability remain neutral during the conflict in Europe, but will still be supporting the Allies. He encourages each and every American keep an open mind about what is going on in the world.

Excerpts from the speech by FDR:[2]

My fellow Americans and my friends:

Tonight my single duty is to speak to the whole of America.

Until four-thirty this morning I had hoped against hope that some miracle would prevent a devastating war in Europe and bring to an end the invasion of Poland by Germany.

For four long years a succession of actual wars and constant crises have shaken the entire world and have threatened in each case to bring on the gigantic conflict which is today unhappily a fact.

It is right that I should recall to your minds the consistent and at time successful efforts of your Government in these crises to throw the full weight of the United States into the cause of peace. In spite of spreading wars I think that we have every right and every reason to maintain as a national policy the fundamental moralities, the teachings of religion (and) the continuation of efforts to restore peace — (for) because some day, though the time may be distant, we can be of even greater help to a crippled humanity.

It is right, too, to point out that the unfortunate events of these recent years have, without question, been based on the use of force (or) and the threat of force. And it seems to me clear, even at the outbreak of this great war, that the influence of America should be consistent in seeking for humanity a final peace which will eliminate, as far as it is possible to do so, the continued use of force between nations.

It is, of course, impossible to predict the future. I have my constant stream of information from American representatives and other sources throughout the world. You, the people of this country, are receiving news through your radios and your newspapers at every hour of the day.

[...]

We have certain ideas and certain ideals of national safety and we must act to preserve that safety today and to preserve the safety of our children in future years.

That safety is and will be bound up with the safety of the Western Hemisphere and of the seas adjacent thereto. We seek to keep war from our own firesides by keeping war from coming to the Americas. For that we have historic precedent that goes back to the days of the Administration of President George Washington. It is serious enough and tragic enough to every American family in every state in the Union to live in a world that is torn by wars on other Continents. And those wars today (they) affect every American home. It is our national duty to use every effort to keep (them) those wars out of the Americas.

And at this time let me make the simple plea that partisanship and selfishness be adjourned; and that national unity be the thought that underlies all others.

This nation will remain a neutral nation, but I cannot ask that every American remain neutral in thought as well. Even a neutral has a right to take account of facts. Even a neutral cannot be asked to close his mind or close his conscience.

I have said not once but many times that I have seen war and that I hate war. I say that again and again.
I hope the United States will keep out of this war. I believe that it will. And I give you assurance(s) and reassurance that every effort of your Government will be directed toward that end.

As long as it remains within my power to prevent, there will be no blackout of peace in the United States.

Resources:
Full FDR Fireside Chat 14 Transcript
World War II History Image Archives >> United States Government gallery
[1] Time, “Preface to War.” September 11, 1939.http://www.time.com/time/printout/0,8816,711734,00.html (accessed January 15, 2009).
[2] Roosevelt, Franklin D. “Fireside Chat 14: On the European War.” September 3, 1939. http://millercenter.org/scripps/archive/speeches/detail/3315 (accessed January 15, 2009).

 

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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World War II History for October 11

11 Oct

Today in WW II History

World War II History for October 11

1939 - U.S. President Roosevelt was presented with a letter from Albert Einstein that urged him to develop the U.S. atomic program rapidly.

1942 - The Battle of Cape Esperance, during World War II, began in the Solomons.

The battle for Guadalcanal began in August, when the Marines landed in the first American offensive of the war. The ground fighting saw U.S. troops gain a decisive edge, wiping out detachments and regiments in brutal combat. The most effective Japanese counterstrikes came from the air and sea, with bombing raids harassing the Marines and threatening their dwindling supplies. But before the Japanese could reinforce their own ground troops, the Navy went to work.

The battle of Cape Esperance, on the northwest coast of Guadalcanal Island, commenced at night between surface ships; all Japanese reinforcements came at night, an operation nicknamed the Tokyo Express. The Navy sank one Japanese cruiser, the Furutaka, and three destroyers, while losing only one of their own destroyers. In characteristic fashion, those Japanese sailors who found themselves floundering in the water refused rescue by Americans; they preferred to be devoured by the sharks as a fate less shameful than capture.

Unfortunately, the loss of American manpower was greater than that of hardware: 48 sailors from the American destroyer Duncan were the victims of crossfire between the belligerents, and more than a hundred others died when an American cruiser turned on a searchlight to better target a Japanese ship. It also had the unintended effect of illuminating the sailors of the cruiser, making them easy targets.

The American Navy continued to harass Japanese ships trying to reinforce the Japanese position on the island; relatively few Japanese troops made it ashore. By the end of 1942, the Japanese were ready to evacuate the island–in defeat.

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World War II History for October 9

09 Oct

Today in WW II History

World War II History for October 9

1939 - The U.S. Neutrality Act suffers a public relations setback when the German battleship Deutschland captures the City of Flint, an American cargo ship carrying farming supplies to England.

1940 - London’s Cathedral of St. Paul sustains serious damage to the roof and altar when it is struck by a German bomb.

1941 - Claiming that adherence to the Neutrality Act is not possible when faced with the “unscrupulous ambitions of madmen,” Franklin Roosevelt asks for congressional permission to arm the U.S. merchant fleet.

1944 - British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and Soviet Premier Joseph Stalin begin a nine-day conference in Moscow. The war with Germany and the future of Europe were the topics of discussion.

Germany’s defeat now seemed inevitable, and Stalin was prepared to commit the USSR to intervening in the war against Japan once Germany had formally surrendered. This optimistic outlook enabled a significant portion of the talks to center on the relative spheres of influence of the two superpowers in a postwar European environment. Churchill ceded the disposition of Romania, which Stalin’s troops were liberating from German control even as the conference commenced, to the Soviet Union. But the British prime minister was keen on keeping the Red Army away from Greece. “Britain must be the leading Mediterranean power.” They made a deal: Romania for Greece.

Churchill was more accommodating elsewhere, willing to divvy up the spoils of war. Yugoslavia could be cut down the middle, east for Russia, west for the West. Churchill also laid out a plan by which the German populations of East Prussia and Silesia would be moved into the interior of Germany, with East Prussia split between the USSR and Poland, and Silesia handed over to Poland as compensation for territories Stalin already occupied and intended to keep.

But Churchill was insistent on one issue that would be harder to negotiate in 50-50 terms-freedom. Churchill wanted every nation to be free to select the government most amenable to its people, especially smaller, more vulnerable nations. “Let them work out their own fortunes during the years that lie ahead.” Churchill was frank about the West’s fear of expansionist communism. But none of what was discussed was carved in stone or even put on paper–a fact that would be all too obvious as the Cold War commenced.

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World War II History for October 6

06 Oct

Today in WW II History

World War II History for October 6

1939 - Adolf Hitler denied any intention to wage war against Britain and France in an address to Reichstag.

1944 - Former French premier and Vichy collaborator Pierre Laval tried to kill himself on the day he was to be executed for treason. A physician saved Laval from the cyanide he had taken. Laval was executed a little less than two weeks later.

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