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Posts Tagged ‘Mussolini’

World War II History for April 7

07 Apr

Today in WWII History

World War II History for April 7

Apr 07, 1939 Mussolini invades Albania. (More…)

Apr 07, 1941 Quarter of Pacific Fleet ordered to Atlantic : 3BB, 1CV, 4CL, 18DD, 3AO. (More…)

Apr 07, 1942 Japanese subs off western India sink 5 merchantmen this week. (More…)

Apr 07, 1942 Colorado only western state to agree to accept voluntary relocation of enemy aliens. (More…)

Apr 07, 1942 Relocation begins of Japanese from coastal defense zones. (More…)

Apr 07, 1943 Marine 1st Lt. James Swett, on his 1st combat mission, shot down 7 Japanese VAL’s over Guadalcanal-the 1st American to achieve this score in a single mission. (More…)

Apr 07, 1943 British and American armies linked up between Wadi Akarit and El Guettar in North Africa to form a solid line against the German army. (More…)

Apr 07, 1944 Kohima’s water supply is cut off by the Japanese. (More…)

Apr 07, 1944 Counterattacking German forces make some advances in the Crimea but suffer heavy casualties. (More…)

Apr 07, 1944 Two Jewish inmates escaped from Auschwitz-Birkenau Concentration Camp and made it safely to Slovakia. One of them, Rudolf Vrba, submitted a report to the Papal Nuncio in Slovakia, which was forwarded to the Vatican. (More…)

Apr 07, 1945 Soviet units cross the Danube River and smash into Vienna. Street fighting commenced. (More…)

Apr 07, 1945 Gottingen was taken by US troops. (More…)

Apr 07, 1945 Japanese air and naval units suffer a disastrous defeat in the battle of the East China Sea. Task Force 58 planes intercepted the Japanese Second Fleet heading for Okinawa. The 72,200-ton battleship Yamato was subjected to 3 hrs of bombing and torpedo attacks and finally capsized with only 269 survivors from the 3,292 man crew. It was the largest single loss involving a warship in history. Other casualties of the battle were the cruiser Yahagi, 4 destroyers and 54 aircraft. The US only lost 10 planes out of the 900 sortied. (More…)

Apr 07, 1945 British 14th Army forces isolated a large Japanese force between Mandalay and Meiktila. (More…)

Apr 07, 1945 Iwo Jima based aircraft make their first attacks on Japan. Fighters begin arriving on Okinawa. (More…)

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

 

World War II History for June 18

18 Jun

Today in WWII History

World War II History for June 18

18 June 1940 - Benito Mussolini arrived in Munich to meet with Adolf Hitler. Mussolini’s foreign minister, Count Ciano, recorded in his diary that Mussolini left the meeting “very much embarrassed,” and feeling “that his role is secondary.”

Hitler & Mussolini
Hitler and Mussolini

18 June 1940 - The Soviet Union began its occupation of the Baltic States.

 
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Posted in Country - Germany, Europe Theater, Media, Today

 

World War II History for May 22

22 May

Today in WWII History

Audio Clip: For this memorial day weekend we bring you a couple clips. The first clip is a news report from 1941 about the sinking of the HMS Hood.

 World War II History - Sinking of the HMS Hood - 05-24-1941 [0:49m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

World War II History for May 22

22 May 1939 - Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini signed a military alliance between Germany and Italy known as the “Pact of Steel.”

22 May 1944 - Operation Chattanooga Choo-Choo began.

Operation Chattanooga Choo-Choo was an allied offensive by fighter-bombers of the British 2nd Tactical Air Force and US 9th Air force (21-28 May, 1944) against German locomotives and rolling stock in northern Europe. The object of the the offensive was to reduce the quantities of such equipment available to the Germans as a means of reinforcing their armies in north-west France once Operation ‘Overlord’ had been launched.

 
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Posted in Europe Theater, Media, News, Podcast, Today

 

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).

 
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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.

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

 

World War II History for October 28

28 Oct

Today in WW II History

World War II History for October 28

1922 - Benito Mussolini took control of the Italian government and introduced fascism to Italy.

1940 - During World War II, Italy invaded Greece.

Mussolini surprised everyone with this move against Greece; even his ally, Adolf Hitler, was caught off-guard, especially since the Duce had led Hitler to believe he had no such intention. Hitler denounced the move as a major strategic blunder. According to Hitler, Mussolini should have concentrated on North Africa, continuing the advance into Egypt. Even Mussolini’s own chief of army staff found out about the invasion only after the fact. But despite being warned off an invasion of Greece by his own generals, despite the lack of preparedness on the part of his military, despite that it would mean getting bogged down in a mountainous country during the rainy season against an army willing to fight tooth and nail to defend its autonomy, Mussolini moved ahead out of sheer hubris, convinced he could defeat the Greeks in a matter of days.

He also knew a secret, that millions of lire had been put aside to bribe Greek politicians and generals not to resist the Italian invasion. Whether the money ever made it past the Italian fascist agents delegated with the responsibility is unclear; if it did, it clearly made no difference whatsoever-the Greeks succeeded in pushing the Italian invaders back into Albania after just one week, and the Axis power spent the next three months fighting for its life in a defensive battle. To make matters worse, virtually half the Italian fleet at Taranto had been crippled by a British carrier-based attack. Mussolini had been humiliated.

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Posted in African Theater, Europe Theater, Today

 

World War II History for October 4

04 Oct

Today in WW II History

World War II History for October 4

1940 - Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini met in the Alps at Brenner Pass. Hitler was seeking help from Italy to fight the British.

1943 - Heinrich Himmler encourages his SS group leaders

On this day in 1943, the Reichsfuhrer-SS, Heinrich Himmler, addresses the squad leaders of his Nazi secret police, attempting to fill them with pride for the work they’ve accomplished-the murder of more than 1 million Jews in German-occupied Russia during a one-and-a-half-year period. “Most of you know what it means to see a hundred corpses lying together, five hundred, or a thousand,” claimed Himmler. “To have stuck it out and at the same time…to have remained decent fellows, that is what has made us hard. This is a page of glory in our history which has never been written and shall never be written.”

It was Himmler who oversaw the establishment of the Auschwitz concentration camp cluster, as well as the Warsaw ghetto massacre. The organizing of some prisoners for slave labor and the inflicting of gruesome medical experimentation on others can also be attributed to him. Consequently, it is little wonder that he could so blithely say, “Whether or not 10,000 Russian women collapse from exhaustion while digging a tank ditch interests me only in so far as the tank ditch is completed for Germany.”

1944 - Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower distributed to his combat units a report by the U.S. Surgeon General that revealed the hazards of prolonged exposure to combat (“shell shock”).

“[T]he danger of being killed or maimed imposes a strain so great that it causes men to break down. One look at the shrunken, apathetic faces of psychiatric patients…sobbing, trembling, referring shudderingly to ‘them shells’ and to buddies mutilated or dead, is enough to convince most observers of this fact.”

On the basis of this evaluation, as well as firsthand experience, American commanders judged that the average soldier could last about 200 days in combat before suffering serious psychiatric damage. British commanders used a rotation method, pulling soldiers out of combat every 12 days for a four-day rest period. This enabled British soldiers to put in 400 days of combat before being deleteriously affected. The Surgeon General’s report went on to lament the fact that a “wound or injury is regarded, not as a misfortune, but a blessing.” The war was clearly taking a toll on more than just men’s bodies.

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Posted in Europe Theater, Ground, Today

 

World War II History for September 13

13 Sep

Today in WW II History

World War II History for September 13

1940 - Italy invaded Egypt by crossing the Libyan border.

Mussolini’s forces finally cross the Libyan border into Egypt, achieving what the Duce calls the “glory” Italy had sought for three centuries.

Italy had occupied Libya since 1912, a purely economic “expansion.” In 1935, Mussolini began sending tens of thousands of Italians to Libya, mostly farmers and other rural workers, in part to relieve overpopulation concerns. So by the time of the outbreak of the Second World War, Italy had enjoyed a long-term presence in North Africa, and Mussolini began dreaming of expanding that presence-always with an eye toward the same territories the old “Roman Empire” had counted among its conquests. Chief among these was Egypt.

But sitting in Egypt were British troops, which, under a 1936 treaty, were garrisoned there to protect the Suez Canal and Royal Navy bases at Alexandria and Port Said. Hitler had offered to aid Mussolini in his invasion, to send German troops to help fend off a British counterattack. But Mussolini had been rebuffed when he had offered Italian assistance during the Battle of Britain, so he now insisted that as a matter of national pride, Italy would have to create a Mediterranean sphere of influence on its own-or risk becoming a “junior” partner of Germany’s.

As the Blitz commenced, and the land invasion of Britain by Germany was “imminent” (or so the Duce thought), Mussolini believed the British troops in Egypt were particularly vulnerable, and so announced to his generals his plans to make his move into Egypt. Gen. Rodolfo Graziani, the brutal governor of Ethiopia, another Italian colony, disagreed, believing that Italy’s Libya forces were not strong enough to wage an offensive across the desert. Graziani also reminded Mussolini that Italian claims of air superiority in the Mediterranean were nothing more than propaganda.

But Mussolini, a true dictator, ignored these protestations and ordered Graziani into Egypt-a decision that would disprove the adage that war is too important to leave to the generals.

1945 - Iran demanded the withdrawal of Allied troops.

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Posted in African Theater, Asian Theater, Ground, Today

 

World War II History for September 12

12 Sep

Today in WW II History

World War II History for September 12

1938 - In a speech, Adolf Hitler demanded self-determination for the Sudeten Germans in Czechoslovakia.

1942 - The Laconia is sunk

On this day in 1942, a German U-boat sinks a British troop ship, the Laconia, killing more than 1,400 men. The commander of the German sub, Capt. Werner Hartenstein, realizing that Italians POWs were among the passengers, strove to aid in their rescue.

The Laconia, a former Cunard White Star ship put to use to transport troops, including prisoners of war, was in the South Atlantic bound for England when it encountered U-156, a German sub. The sub attacked, sinking the troop ship and imperiling the lives of more than 2,200 passengers. But as Hartenstein, the sub commander, was to learn from survivors he began taking onboard, among those passengers were 1,500 Italians POWs. Realizing that he had just endangered the lives of so many of his fellow Axis members, he put out a call to an Italian submarine and two other German U-boats in the area to help rescue the survivors.

In the meantime, one French and two British warships sped to the scene to aid in the rescue. The German subs immediately informed the Allied ships that they had surfaced for humanitarian reasons. The Allies assumed it was a trap. Suddenly, an American B-24 bomber, the Liberator, flying from its South Atlantic base on Ascension Island, saw the German sub and bombed it-despite the fact that Hartenstein had draped a Red Cross flag prominently on the hull of the surfaced sub. The U-156, damaged by the air attack, immediately submerged. Admiral Karl Donitz, supreme commander of the German U-boat forces, had been monitoring the rescue efforts. He ordered that “all attempts to rescue the crews of sunken ships…cease forthwith.” Consequently, more than 1,400 of the Laconia’s passengers, which included Polish guards and British crewmen, drowned.

1943 - During World War II, Benito Mussolini was taken by German paratroopers from the Italian government that was holding him.

1944 - U.S. Army troops entered Germany, near Trier, for the first time during World War II.

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Posted in Atlantic Theater, Europe Theater, Sea, Today

 

World War II History for July 25

25 Jul

Today in WW II History

World War II History for July 25

1934 - Austrian chancellor Engelbert Dollfuss was shot and killed by Nazis.

1941 - The U.S. government froze all Japanese and Chinese assets.

1943 - Italian Fascist dictator Benito Mussolini was overthrown in a coup.

Benito Mussolini, fascist dictator of Italy, is voted out of power by his own Grand Council and arrested upon leaving a meeting with King Vittorio Emanuele, who tells Il Duce that the war is lost. Mussolini responded to it all with an uncharacteristic meekness.

 
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Posted in Country - USA, Europe Theater, Today

 
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