RSS
 

Posts Tagged ‘Bombers’

World War II History for July 24

24 Jul

Today in WWII History

World War II History for July 24

1941 - Vichy France grants Japan bases in its Indochina colonies.

Japan invaded China by moving through Southeast Asia, an area that France had long occupied. France had “agreed” to the occupation under Petain’s puppet government.

1943 - Operation Gomorrah is launched.

On this day in 1943, British bombers raid Hamburg, Germany, by night in Operation Gomorrah, while Americans bomb it by day in its own “Blitz Week.”

Britain had suffered the deaths of 167 civilians as a result of German bombing raids in July. Now the tables were going to turn. The evening of July 24 saw British aircraft drop 2,300 tons of incendiary bombs on Hamburg in just a few hours. The explosive power was the equivalent of what German bombers had dropped on London in their five most destructive raids. More than 1,500 German civilians were killed in that first British raid.

Britain lost only 12 aircraft in this raid (791 flew), thanks to a new radar-jamming device called “Window,” which consisted of strips of aluminum foil dropped by the bombers en route to their target. These Window strips confused German radar, which mistook the strips for dozens and dozens of aircraft, diverting them from the trajectory of the actual bombers.

Lancaster dropping Window
An Avro Lancaster dropping Window (the crescent-shaped white cloud on the left of the picture) from within the accompanying bomber stream.

WWII Radar towers
WWII Radar Station

To make matters worse for Germany, the U.S. Eighth Air Force began a more comprehensive bombing run of northern Germany, which included two raids on Hamburg during daylight hours.

British attacks on Hamburg continued until November of that year. Although the percentage of British bombers lost increased with each raid as the Germans became more adept at distinguishing between Window diversions and actual bombers, Operation Gomorrah proved devastating to Hamburg-not to mention German morale. When it was over, 17,000 bomber sorties dropped more than 9,000 tons of explosives, killing more than 30,000 people and destroying 280,000 buildings, including industrial and munitions plants. The effect on Hitler, too, was significant. He refused to visit the burned-out cities, as the ruins bespoke nothing but the end of the war for him. Diary entries of high German officials from this period describe a similar despair, as they sought to come to terms with defeat. [1]

[1] “Operation Gomorrah is launched,” History.com, http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history.do?action=tdihArticleCategory&id=6529 (accessed Jul 24, 2009).

 
No Comments

Posted in Air, Asian Theater, Country - Japan, Europe Theater, Facts, Images, Media, Pacific Theater

 

World War II History for July 14

14 Jul

Audio: General Charles de Gaulle urges America to Join the Allies (14 July 1941)


Charles de Gaulle 1942
A 1942 WWII photo portrait of General Charles de Gaulle of the Free French Forces and first president of the Fifth Republic serving from 1958 to 1969.

Today in WWII History

World War II History for July 14

14 July 1933 - All German political parties except the Nazi Party were outlawed.

14 July 1940 - British Prime Minister Winston Churchill delivers War of the Unknown Warriors BBC Broadcast in London. [1]

14 July 1940 - A force of German Ju-88 bombers attacked Suez, Egypt, from bases in Crete.

14 July 1941 - Vichy French Foreign Legionaries signed an armistice in Damascus, which allowed them to join the Free French Foreign Legion.

14 July 1941 - Free French General Charles de Gaulle urges America to Join the Allies.

14 July 1941 - British Prime Minister Winston Churchill delivers You Do Your Worst — And We Will Do Our Best speech to the House of Commons. [1]

14 July 1945 - American battleships and cruisers bombarded the Japanese home islands for the first time.

[1] Selected Speeches of Winston Churchill – http://www.winstonchurchill.org/learn/speeches/speeches-of-winston-churchill

 
No Comments

Posted in African Theater, Country - Germany, Country - Japan, Europe Theater, Media, Podcast

 

World War II History for March 18

18 Mar

Today in WWII History

World War II History for March 18

Audio Clip: Today we have a short clip from the BBC from D-Day (June 6, 1944)

 World War II History - D-Day Has Come - BBC - 6 June 1944 [0:37m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

18 Mar 1940 - Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini held a meeting at the Brenner Pass. The Italian dictator agreed to join in Germany’s war against France and Britain during the meeting.

18 Mar 1942 - The third military draft began in the U.S. because of World War II.

18 Mar 1942 - War Relocation Authority is established in United States

On this day, the War Relocation Authority is created to “Take all people of Japanese descent into custody, surround them with troops, prevent them from buying land, and return them to their former homes at the close of the war.”

Anger toward and fear of Japanese Americans began in Hawaii shortly after the bombing of Pearl Harbor; everyone of Japanese ancestry, old and young, prosperous and poor, was suspected of espionage. This suspicion quickly broke out on the mainland; as early as February 19, 1942, President Franklin D. Roosevelt ordered that German, Italian, and Japanese nationals-as well as Japanese Americans-be barred from certain areas deemed sensitive militarily. California, which had a significant number of Japanese and Japanese Americans, saw a particularly virulent form of anti-Japanese sentiment, with the state’s attorney general, Earl Warren (who would go on to be the chief justice of the United States), claiming that a lack of evidence of sabotage among the Japanese population proved nothing, as they were merely biding their time.

While roughly 2,000 people of German and Italian ancestry were interned during this period, Americans of Japanese ancestry suffered most egregiously. The War Relocation Authority, established on March 18, 1942, was aimed at them specifically: 120,000 men, women, and children were rounded up on the West Coast. Three categories of internees were created: Nisei (native U.S. citizens of Japanese immigrant parents), Issei (Japanese immigrants), and Kibei (native U.S. citizens educated largely in Japan). The internees were transported to one of 10 relocation centers in California, Utah, Arkansas, Arizona, Idaho, Colorado, and Wyoming.

The quality of life in a relocation center was only marginally better than prison: Families were sardined into 20- by 25-foot rooms and forced to use communal bathrooms. No razors, scissors, or radios were allowed. Children attended War Relocation Authority schools.

One Japanese American, Gordon Hirabayashi, fought internment all the way to the Supreme Court. He argued that the Army, responsible for effecting the relocations, had violated his rights as a U.S. citizen. The court ruled against him, citing the nation’s right to protect itself against sabotage and invasion as sufficient justification for curtailing his and other Japanese Americans’ constitutional rights.

In 1943, Japanese Americans who had not been interned were finally allowed to join the U.S. military and fight in the war. More than 17,000 Japanese Americans fought; the all-Nisei 442nd Regiment, which fought in the Italian campaign, became the single most decorated unit in U.S. history. The regiment won 4,667 medals, awards, and citations, including 1 Medal of Honor, 52 Distinguished Service Crosses, and 560 Silver Stars. Many of these soldiers, when writing home, were writing to relocation centers.

In 1990, reparations were made to surviving internees and their heirs in the form of a formal apology by the U.S. government and a check for $20,000. [1]

18 Mar 1943 - The Reich called off its offensive in Caucasus.

18 Mar 1943 - American forces took Gafsa in Tunisia.

18 Mar 1944 - The Russians reached the Rumanian border in the Balkans during World War II.

18 Mar 1945 - 1,250 U.S. bombers attacked Berlin.

[1] “War Relocation Authority is established in United States,” The History Channel website, http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history.do?action=Article&id=6746 (accessed Mar 18, 2009).

 
1 Comment

Posted in Media, News, Podcast

 

World War II History for January 8

08 Jan

Today in WWII History

World War II History for January 8

8 JAN 1936 - Japan said it would withdraw from the London Naval Conference unless it won the right to parity in the number of men-of-war it could have in relation to the other powers.

8 JAN 1940 - The Finns scored a major victory on the Karelian front, wiping out the entire Russian 44th Division.

8 JAN 1940 - Rationing began in Britain.

8 JAN 1940 - Italian dictator Benito Mussolini sent a message to Adolf Hitler that cautioned against waging war against Britain.

Mussolini asked if it was truly necessary “to risk all-including the regime-and to sacrifice the flower of German generations.”

Mussolini’s message was more than a little disingenuous. At the time, Mussolini had his own reasons for not wanting Germany to spread the war across the European continent: Italy was not prepared to join the effort, and Germany would get all the glory and likely eclipse the dictator of Italy. Germany had already taken the Sudetenland and Poland; if Hitler took France and then cowed Britain into neutrality–or worse, defeated it in battle–Germany would rule Europe. Mussolini had assumed the reigns of power in Italy long before Hitler took over Germany, and in so doing Mussolini boasted of refashioning a new Roman Empire out of an Italy that was still economically backward and militarily weak. He did not want to be outshined by the upstart Hitler.

And so the Duce hoped to stall Germany’s war engine until he could figure out his next move. The Italian ambassador in Berlin delivered Mussolini’s message to Hitler in person. Mussolini believed that the “big democracies…must of necessity fall and be harvested by us, who represent the new forces of Europe.” They carried “within themselves the seeds of their decadence.” In short, they would destroy themselves, so back off.

Hitler ignored him and moved forward with plans to conquer Holland, Belgium, Luxembourg, and France. Mussolini, rather than tie Italy’s fortune to Germany’s–which would necessarily mean sharing the spotlight and the spoils of any victory–began to turn an eye toward the east. Mussolini invaded Yugoslavia and, in a famously disastrous strategic move, Greece.

8 JAN 1941 - Roosevelt’s budget message to Congress requested a defense appropriation of $10,811,000,000 for fiscal 1942.

8 JAN 1942 - Jesselton (Kota Kinabalu) in British North Borneo (Sabah) was taken by the Japanese.

8 JAN 1942 - Kuala Lumpur’s outer defense lines were penetrated by the Japanese in Malaya.

8 JAN 1942 - The seige of Sevastopol was lifted by Red Army forces.

8 JAN 1943 - General Konstantin K. Rokossovsky sent a surrender ultimatum to Paulus at Stalingrad.

8 JAN 1944 - Count Ciano and other Italian Fascist leaders were placed on trial in Verona.

8 JAN 1944 - German troops began falling back to positions to block Allied advances to Rome through the Liri valley.

8 JAN 1944 - The Russians captured Kirovograd.

8 JAN 1944 - US Navy ships bombarded the Shortland Islands in the Solomons.

8 JAN 1945 - Hitler agreed to the withdrawl of German forces to Houffalize, which was already under Allied attack.

8 JAN 1945 - Heavy fighting broke out in central Budapest.

8 JAN 1945 - Frankfurt Germany was attacked by 1,000 US bombers.

“Mussolini questions Hitler’s plans,” The History Channel website, http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history.do?action=Article&id=6670 (accessed Jan 8, 2009).

Goralski, Robert. World War II Almanac 1931-1945: A Political and Military Record. New York, NY: Perigee Books, 1981.

, , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

 
No Comments

Posted in Asian Theater, Country - USA, Europe Theater, Facts

 

World War II History for December 4

04 Dec

Today in WW II History

World War II History for December 4

1942 - U.S. bombers attacked the Italian mainland for the first time during World War II.

1942 - Polish Christians come to the aid of Polish Jews

On this day in Warsaw, a group of Polish Christians put their own lives at risk when they set up the Council for the Assistance of the Jews. The group was led by two women, Zofia Kossak and Wanda Filipowicz.

Since the German invasion of Poland in 1939, the Jewish population had been either thrust into ghettos, transported to concentration and labor camps, or murdered. Jewish homes and shops were confiscated and synagogues were burned to the ground. Word about the Jews’ fate finally leaked out in June of 1942, when a Warsaw underground newspaper, the Liberty Brigade, made public the news that tens of thousands of Jews were being gassed at Chelmno, a death camp in Poland-almost seven months after the extermination of prisoners began.

Despite the growing public knowledge of the “Final Solution,” the mass extermination of European Jewry and the growing network of extermination camps in Poland, little was done to stop it. Outside Poland, there were only angry speeches from politicians and promises of postwar reprisals. Within Poland, non-Jewish Poles were themselves often the objects of persecution and forced labor at the hands of their Nazi occupiers; being Slavs, they too were considered “inferior” to the Aryan Germans.

But this did not stop Zofia Kossak and Wanda Filipowicz, two Polish Christians who were determined to do what they could to protect their Jewish neighbors. The fates of Kossak and Filipowicz are unclear so it is uncertain whether their mission was successful, but the very fact that they established the Council is evidence that some brave souls were willing to risk everything to help persecuted Jews. Kossak and Filipowicz were not alone in their struggle to help; in fact, only two days after the Council was established, the SS, Hitler’s “political” terror police force, rounded up 23 men, women, and children, and locked some in a cottage and some in a barn-then burned them alive. Their crime: suspicion of harboring Jews.

Despite the bravery of some Polish Christians, and Jewish resistance fighters within the Warsaw ghetto, who rebelled in 1943 (some of whom found refuge among their Christian neighbors as they attempted to elude the SS), the Nazi death machine proved overwhelming. Poland became the killing ground for not only Poland’s Jewish citizens, but much of Europe’s: Approximately 4.5 million Jews were killed in Poland’s death and labor camps by war’s end.

“Polish Christians come to the aid of Polish Jews,” The History Channel website, http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history.do?action=Article&id=6400 (accessed Dec 4, 2008).

, , , , , ,

 
No Comments

Posted in Europe Theater

 

World War II History for September 28

28 Sep

Today in WW II History

World War II History for September 28

1939 - During World War II, Germany and the Soviet Union agreed upon a plan on the division of Poland.

1942 - General Arnold fights for unique bombers

On this day in 1942, Gen. Henry “Hap” Arnold gives highest priority to the development of two exceptional aircraft–the B-35 Flying Wing and the B-36 Peacemaker–intended for bombing runs from bases in the United States to targets in Europe.

General Arnold was a man of distinction from the beginning of his career: Not only was he one of the first pilots in the U.S. Signal Corps, he was taught to fly by none other than one of the Wright brothers. During World War I, Arnold was director of aviation training for the Army. Between the wars, he embraced a controversial military philosophy that emphasized strategic bombing, eliminating the need for the use of ground forces altogether.

At the time of the United States’ entry into the Second World War, the Army Air Forces had become an increasingly distinct military service. Arnold was made its first chief. Along with this honor came the opportunity of a seat with the Joint Chiefs of Staff; initially intended to boost his status to that of his counterpart in Britain, it also increased the stature and independence of the Army Air Forces. Arnold was able to form alliances with British RAF allies who also favored the use of strategic bombing in lieu of ground-force operations.

In 1942, Arnold gave the highest priority to the development of two extra long-distance transatlantic planes that would prove most useful to his strategic bombing game plan: the B-35 and the B-36 transatlantic bombers. The B-35 had been first proposed in early 1941, intended for use in defending an invaded Britain. But the design was so radical (it was tailless), the plane was put on the back burner. It was finally revived because of advantages the plane afforded over the B-36–bombing range in relation to gross weight, for example. Fifteen B-35 planes were ordered for construction–but the first did not take flight until 1946. Designs for the B-36 were also developed early in 1941, on the assumption that the United States would inevitably be drawn into the war and it would need a bomber that could reach Europe from bases in America. It was to be a massive plane–162 feet long with a 230-foot wingspan. But its construction lagged, and it was not completed until after the war.

Although Hap’s “high priority” could not cut through the military bureaucracy, 1947 would see the Nation Defense Act establish an autonomous Air Force–a dream for which he had worked. The B-35 would become the prototype for the B-2 Stealth bomber built in 1989. And the B-36 was used extensively by U.S. Strategic Air Command until 1959, but never dropped a bomb.

==========

Also included as a special feature in today’s post is an audio clip of President Franklin D. Roosevelt giving the speech ‘There Can Be No Peace’ from Aug 1939, almost two years before the United States joined the war.

The speech start out with this quote: “It is becoming increasingly clear that peace by fear has no higher or more enduring quality than peace by the sword.”

 FDR - There Can Be No Peace - Aug 1939 [1:28m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

 
1 Comment

Posted in Air, Country - Germany, Country - USA, Europe Theater, Facts, Media, Podcast, Sea, Today

 

World War II History for September 25

25 Sep

Today in WW II History

World War II History for September 25

1942 - British bombers attempted to destroy the local headquarters of the German Gestapo in Norway. The plan failed.

Germany invaded Norway in April 1940, in a stunning blitzkrieg campaign, a response to Britain’s laying of mines in Norwegian waters–which was itself a response to Norway’s iron-ore trade with the Axis power. But in one short month, the British and French troops that had landed in Norway to aid in its defense were chased out, as well as Norway’s royal family, who set up a government-in-exile in London. The Germans immediately established a Reich commissioner to rule the occupied territory. The commissioner outlawed all political parties but one–the pro-Nazi National Unity Party. It was led by Vidkun Quisling, the former Norwegian minister of war. His name would become synonymous with acquiescence and collaboration. Quisling, now a German puppet, ruled as a Nazi wannabe, an overlord who would brook no dissent, even sending thousands of his own countrymen to German concentration camps. A majority of Norwegians despised both Quisling and his German masters. Teachers and clergy resigned their positions in the state-sponsored church in order not to be implicated in the new fascist regime.

One means of keeping defiant locals of newly occupied countries under control was the use of the Gestapo. An office was typically set up in conquered nations to terrorize the populace. On September 25, during a Nazi Party rally in Oslo, British aircraft, aiming to destroy the records of the Norwegian Resistance (kept in Gestapo headquarters, but not as yet acted upon), bombed the building. The bombs missed their target, but surrounding buildings were hit, and four people were killed. The Brits did put a scare into the Nazis, though, who ran from the city, leaving their Party’s rally in ruins.

, , , ,

 
No Comments

Posted in Air, Europe Theater, Today

 

World War II History for September 18

18 Sep

Today in WW II History

World War II History for September 18

1941 - German bombers killed more than 1,000 Russians when they bombed Leningrad.

1945 - General Douglas MacArthur moved his command headquarters to Tokyo.

Gen. Douglas MacArthur moves his command headquarters to Tokyo, as he prepares for his new role as architect of a democratic and capitalist postwar Japan.

Japan had had a long history of its foreign policy being dominated by the military, as evidenced by Prime Minister Fumimaro Konoye’s failed attempts to reform his government and being virtually pushed out of power by career army officer Hideki Tojo. MacArthur was given the task of overseeing the regeneration of a Japan shorn of its imperial past. As humiliating as it would be for the defeated Japanese, the supreme allied commander in the South Pacific would lay the groundwork for Japan’s rebirth as an economic global superpower.

The career of Douglas MacArthur is composed of one striking achievement after another. When he graduated from West Point, only one other person, Robert E. Lee, had exceeded MacArthur’s performance, in terms of awards and average, in the institution’s history. His performance in World War I, during combat in France, won him decorations for valor and resulted in his becoming the youngest general in the Army at the time. He retired from the Army in 1934, only to be appointed head of the Philippine Army by its president (the Philippines had U.S. Commonwealth status at the time).

When World War II broke out, MacArthur was called back to active service-as commanding general of the U.S. Army in the Far East. Because of MacArthur’s time in the Far East, and the awesome respect he commanded in the Philippines, his judgment had become somewhat distorted and his vision of U.S. military strategy as a whole myopic. He was convinced that he could defeat Japan if it invaded the Philippines. In the long term, he was correct. But in the short term, the United States suffered disastrous defeats at Bataan and Corregidor. By the time U.S. forces were forced to surrender, he had already shipped out, on orders from President Roosevelt. As he left, he uttered his immortal line, “I shall return.”

Refusing to admit defeat, MacArthur was awarded supreme command in the Southwest Pacific, capturing New Guinea from the Japanese with an innovative “leap frog” strategy. True to his word, he returned to the Philippines in October 1944. With the help of the U.S. Navy, which succeeded in destroying the Japanese fleet, leaving the Japanese garrisons on the islands without reinforcements, the Army defeated adamantine Japanese resistance. On March 3, 1945, MacArthur handed control of the Philippine capital back to its president.

On September 2, 1945, MacArthur signed the instrument of surrender on behalf of the victorious Allies, aboard the USS Missouri, docked in Tokyo Bay. But the man who oversaw Japan’s defeat was about to put it on the road to its own kind of victory.

, , ,

 
No Comments

Posted in Air, Country - Japan, Pacific Theater, Today

 

World War II History for June 24

24 Jun

Today in WW II History

World War II History for June 24

1940 - France signed an armistice with Italy.

1941 - U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt pledged all possible support to the Soviet Union.

1945 - Soviet troops, in a parade, past Red Square in celebration of their victory over Germany.

As drums rolled, 200 soldiers performed a familiar ritual: They threw 200 German military banners at the foot of the Lenin Mausoleum. A little over 130 years earlier, victorious Russian troops threw Napoleon’s banners at the feet of Czar Alexander I.

Also on this day in 1945, British bombers destroy the “Bridge Over the River Kwai.” Thousands of British and Allied prisoners of war, forced into slave labor by their Japanese captors, had built a bridge, under the most grueling conditions, over the River Kwai, linking parts of the Burma-Siam (now Thailand) railway and enabling the Japanese to transport soldiers and supplies through this area. British aircraft bombed the bridge to prevent this link between Bangkok and Moulein, Burma. This episode of the war was dramatized in extraorRdinary fashion in the 1957 film Bridge on the River Kwai, directed by David Lean, and starring Alec Guinness and William Holden.

1945 - British bombers destroyed the “Bridge Over the River Kwai.” The bridge had been built by thousands of British and Allied prisoners of war.

Technorati Tags: , , , , , , , , , ,

 
1 Comment

Posted in Facts, Today

 

World War II History for June 20

20 Jun

Today in WW II History

World War II History for June 20

1941 - German troops entered Russia on a front from the Arctic to Black Sea.

1943 - British bombers attacked sites in Germany and Italy under Operation Bellicose. It was the first time “shuttle bombings” took place during the war.

Taking off from airbases in Britain, bombers made for the southwestern German city of Friedrichshafen, at one time the home to Zeppelin airship construction. It now was the site of steel construction works, which were heavily damaged in the British attack. The Brits then flew, not back to Britain, but to airbases in Algeria. Refueled, they then headed north for the Italian naval base in La Spezia, in Liguria. This “shuttle” strategy enabled the bombers to kill two enemies with one operation-Bellicose.

The damage done to the steel works in Germany was so extensive that the assembly line had to be completely abandoned. Unbeknownst to Britain, that assembly line included the manufacture of more than just steel, but also new V2 rockets, to be spun out at the rate of 300 a month. The Brits unwittingly spared themselves retaliation-at least from V2s.

Technorati Tags: , , , , , , , , , ,

 
No Comments

Posted in Air, Today

 
« Older Entries
 
Get Adobe Flash playerPlugin by wpburn.com wordpress themes