Posted on 01/26/2011 4:36:26 AM PST by Homer_J_Simpson
Gordon W. Prange, At Dawn We Slept
Winston S. Churchill, The Grand Alliance
#7 – The Artie Shaw version of “Stardust.”
I will take that any day over -
#6, Another Glenn Miller piece called “A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square.”
News of the Week in Review
Twenty News Questions * – 9
British Wearing Down Weak End of the Axis – 10
* Find the answers to the questions in the thread for Saturday, January 29
http://www.onwar.com/chrono/1941/jan41/f26jan41.htm
Italians counterattacking in Albania
Sunday, January 26, 1941 www.onwar.com
Albania... There is an Italian counterattack near Klisura which has a slight local success.
North Africa... The Italians pull out of Mechili. The British blocking force from 4th Armored Brigade is carelessly handled and does nothing to prevent their escape.
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/andrew.etherington/month/thismonth/26.htm
January 26th, 1941
UNITED KINGDOM:
Churchill complains to the Ministry of Labour and CIGS about the slow progress on the installation of the latest and best guns at Dover. He tries to unblock the bureaucratic log jam which is holding up progress.
Churchill replies to Wavell’s refusal of another South African division:
... I thought you wanted to have a large strategic reserve in the Delta...there is no need to send another division to swell the troops in Kenya. ... How can you expect me to face the tremendous strain upon our shipping, affecting as it does all our food and import of munitions, to carry divisions from England to the Middle East when a South African division would have less than half the distance to come?
ALBANIA: Italy mounts an unsuccessful counter-attack on the town of Klisura, captured by the Greeks two weeks ago.
LIBYA: Italian forces withdraw from Mechili, south of Derna, in Cyrenaica. Careless opposition from British 4th Armoured Division allows many to escape.
KENYA Cunningham writes a letter to Wavell proposing to capture the port of Kismayu around 12 February. The discovery of water at Hagadesu has released just enough transport to make it possible.
ATLANTIC OCEAN: At 0212, the burning and abandoned Lurigethan was torpedoed and sunk by U-105. The ship had been bombed and damaged on 23 January in convoy SL-61 by a German Fw200 aircraft from KG 40. The survivors were picked up by corvette HMS Arabis, which stayed near the ship to wait for a tug. (Dave Shirlaw)
http://worldwar2daybyday.blogspot.com/
Day 514 January 26, 1941
Operation Compass. 80 miles West of Tobruk, Italians troops and tanks pull out of Mechili, evading British 4th Armored Brigade (7th Armored Division) which has engaged them since January 24. With Italians in full flight West along the coastal road pursued by the advancing Australians, the failure at Mechili convinces British General O’Connor that a more decisive flanking move is required. O’Connor will order 7th Armored Division commander General O’Moore Creagh “you are going to cut the coast road South of Benghazi, and you are going now!”
200 miles West of Ireland, British corvette HMS Arabis is escorting British SS Lurigethan which is burning after being bombed 3 days ago. U-105 misses HMS Arabis with 2 torpedoes. At 2.12 AM, U-105 sinks SS Lurigethan instead (15 crew and 1 gunner killed, HMS Arabis picks up 35 crew).
Compared to the BISMARCK and TIEPITZ, the KG Vs were pigs. Too slow, too undergunned. The LIONs would have been another kettle of fish.
More news from the front:
“Our antiaircraft artillery shot down 5 fighter planes. Out of that 2 were the enemy planes.”
However, few seem to realize that the worst is yet to come.
The key to the historical success of the Royal Navy wasn’t so much the technical prowess of the ship, but the quality of the men, especially those of command rank. Royal Navy captains were expected to aggressively fight their ships against all odds and if necessary, go down with them. Sometimes it didn’t work out so well, such as with Admiral Holland on HMS Hood, but more often it did, as at the River Plate.
I would take KGV over Bismarck any day, not because of the ship, but because of the guy with the gold braid on the bridge.
Happy Birthday to Gen Douglas MacArthur who is now serving as Military Advisor to the Commonwealth Government of the Philippines.
Guenther Lutjens had a lot more sea time than Tovey. And he did pretty well at it, off Norway, and during Operation “Berlin”. The Germans’ problem was over supervision by Raeder, and to a lesser degree, various higher staffs.
IMHO, if Bismarck’s steering gear wasn’t damaged the way it was, if he [Lindemann refused to call BISMARCK ‘she’] could maneuver, and for some reason chose to fight, he’d have still sunk. But he’d have eaten KG V for breakfast, assuming he didn’t concentrate on RODNEY as the greater danger, as was the actual case. And he’d have shot the hell out of RODNEY, too.
Lutjens did well as a surface raider, but he only had two stand-up fights against comparable British forces; Denmark Strait and the final fight against KGV and Rodney.
As far as how Lutjens fought at Denmark Strait, don’t forget Capt. Lindemann’s line “I’m not going to sit around and have my ship shot out from under my ass.” After quickly dispatching HMS Hood, KM Bismarck and an unready HMS Prince of Wales (KGV class) essentially fought to draw. Prince of Wales withdrew because, rushed into action before she’d been properly worked up, one of her main gun turrets malfunctioned. However, before she retired, she inflicted a serious injury on Bismarck, hitting “him” below the waterline forward, causing Bismarck to ship water, slow her speed, and lose valuable oil. Lutjens also declined to pursue Prince of Wales, which would have gotten any RN admiral sacked in disgrace.
The Kriegsmarine had decent ships, crewed and commanded by brave, loyal sailors and good officers. However, as commanders, they didn’t have the “Nelson Touch” either individually or as an institutional credo. Look at Lutjens’ predecessor, Marschall; he sucessfully exercised initiative off Norway. He was rewarded by being sacked.
I don’t think I did too well this week.
1. Italy invaded Greece on October 28th last year.
2. Well since the Pillars of Hercules are both two highly defendable out croppings at the Straights of Gibraltar (one on the European side and the other on the North African coast), if Italy had both side of it they would control all shipping in and out of the Mediterranean making it Italy’s personal lake as they would like it.
3. It’s too early for the non-aggression pact so I’ll guess it was (d) fishing rights.
4. I have no idea. I assume India had a huge population back then and with the other commonwealth let’s guess 350 million.
5. Ugh. These are hard this week. 1929?
6. (a) Brazil – milreis, (b) Philippines – peso, (c) Egypt – piaster, (d) Turkey – pound
7. Are you kidding me? Kunming – The Burma Road?, Laredo, Texas – boarder crossing into Mexico?, Vladivostok – The Siberian Railroad.
8. (a) No idea, (b) Sicily, (c) Malta.
9. Don’t know who this is.
10. I have to guess (c) on this one.
11. (a) The guy who replaced now VP Wallace, (b) Don’t know, (c) Frank Murphy
12. (a) at sea level
13. Dawes was Coolidge’s VP which would make the successor Charles Curtis under Hoover.
14. Hate these. (a) Don’t know, (b) This is Ethiopian leader Hallie Salassie’s wife, (c) Currently Donovan is FDR’s personal envoy to Europe
15. I know it was written in 1814 by Francis Scott Key, but I must admit I don’t know when it was adopted as our national anthem. How about after the Civil War, 1866.
16. (a) cinnabar – mercury, (b) cassiterite – tin, (c) bauxite – aluminum, (d) galena – lead.
17. (a) 800
18. Total guess, longest littoral Atlantic, shortest, Gulf
19. Plasma is the fluid that blood cells travel in.
20. I’m going to say Indochina.
Too bad he didn't stay there.
By the way, I didn’t even know you were in Congress, only 20 days. Very sad.
MacArthur; most over-rated high-ranking commander of WW2. It’s not just that he wasn’t that good, it’s that he made himself out as though he were great, while whatever success he had was on the backs of competent subordinates who made him look good but got no ink.
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