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.
1936, 1940, 1941, 1942, 1943, 1944, 1945, Germany, bombers, Mussolini, Hitler, Russia, Stalingrad, Roosevelt, Japanese, Budapest
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