Posted on 10/11/2011 5:17:00 AM PDT by Homer_J_Simpson
Winston S. Churchill, The Grand Alliance
#1 - “Piano Concerto in B Flat” (“Tonight we Love”) - Freddy Martin, with Jack Fina
#2 - “Chattanooga Choo Choo” - Glenn Miller, with Tex Beneke and the Modernaires
#3 - ““I Don’t Want to Set the World On Fire”” - Horace Heidt, with Larry Cotton and Donna & Her Don Juans
#4 - “Blue Champagne” – Jimmy Dorsey, with Bob Eberly
#5 - “Jim” - Jimmy Dorsey, with Bob Eberly and Helen O’Connell
#6 – “I Don’t Want to Set the World On Fire” – Tommy Tucker, with Amy Arnell and Voices 3
#7 - “You and I” – Glenn Miller, with Ray Eberly
#8 – “Green Eyes” - Jimmy Dorsey, with Bob Eberly and Helen O’Connell
#9 - “Jim” – Dinah Shore
#10 – “Elmer’s Tune” – Dick Jurgens
http://www.onwar.com/chrono/1941/oct41/f11oct41.htm
Soviets evacuate women and children
Saturday, October 11, 1941 www.onwar.com
In the Soviet Union... The mass evacuation of women and children from Moscow begins. Thousands of workers and students are employed in digging anti-tank ditches on the outskirts of the city.
"Joseph Goebbels speaks at the opening ceremonies of 1941's German Book Week, held in Weimar in October.
German books had, by this time, been thoroughly "Aryanized," and works written by Jewish authors had been banned.
The goal of publishing, like every other area of German cultural life, was to instill a virulent antisemitism in the German people, and books increasingly became another medium for Nazi propaganda."
I'm near certain this story is bogus in a way that Soviets (and Democrats, but I repeat myself ;-) ) often lied about events -- they take their own actions and accuse their enemies of committing them.
Throughout the war there were several peace feelers advanced by both sides, but the first ones came from Stalin and were brushed aside by Hitler.
Toward war's end the sequence was reversed, with the same results.
But the important point of the story is to dig at President Roosevelt -- it's Stalin's way of letting FDR know that if FDR didn't want to play ball on Stalin's terms, then Stalin had other options.
And that's why, by war's end, FDR was so committed to Soviet victory he was willing to overlook whatever Stalin might want to do in Eastern Europe.
In my opinion, this fact is key to understanding what happened in WWII.
Though I know I’m going to regret acknowledging that I ever watched this movie but the German “peace feelers” reminds me a lot of that scene from the movie “Mars Attacks” when the martians are chasing people with that translator machine saying “Don’t run, we are your friends” while they are shooting them.
This “peace offer” may not be entirely bogus, but what it really probably amounts to is a request for the Soviets to surrender.
But your right, the Soviets are using this as leverage against the United States and Britain. The First Moscow Protocol was signed just 10 days ago and this is most likely posturing in order to make sure the West is serious about the supplies that Stalin really needs now very badly.
I have a bit of a harsher opinion on FDR’s handling of the Soviets late in the war, but I’ll save that for when we get there.
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/andrew.etherington/month/thismonth/11.htm
October 11th, 1941
UNITED KINGDOM: Destroyer HMS Albrighton launched. (Dave Shirlaw)
GERMANY: Berlin: Don’t listen to foreign broadcasts the German people are warned today by Goebbels. He is reported by Berlin Radio to have said: “It is not a question of being afraid to here what they say. It is simply a preventative measure. Germs are treacherous enemies, even of a healthy people.” One result, he adds, is too much grumbling.
U-470, U-668 laid down.
U-439 launched.
U-209 commissioned. (Dave Shirlaw)
U.S.S.R.: Kaluga falls to the Germans in their advance on Moscow. Bryansk is evacuated by the Russians as the German pincers contract.
Archangel: PQ-1, the first convoy bringing much-needed supplies to help the Russian war effort here, arrived today. It sailed from Hvalfjord in Iceland on 28 September escorted by the cruiser HMS Suffolk, two destroyers and an anti-submarine group. Depending on the ice conditions, convoys using this route may have to travel up to 2,000 miles, frequently on stormy seas and in freezing temperatures.
Convoys on this route have to take an oil tanker along with them to fuel the escorts. This means working to a complicated schedule so that the tankers can return safely with the westbound convoys which will be designated QP. Efforts were made to establish a refuelling base for the route on the Norwegian island of Spitzbergen.
Rear-Admiral Philip Vian took two cruisers and two destroyers there on 27 July, but he found it too exposed to German air attack to be safe as a port of call.
The second PQ convoy is due to leave next week. By the time it arrives here the winter freeze will have begun. The Russians are hoping to keep the port open throughout the winter, but the Allies are nervous of risking valuable ships sailing hazardously through the narrow channels in the ice. They may have to divert to Murmansk.
Soviet submarine SC-322 reported missing. All hands lost. (Dave Shirlaw)
CANADA: Corvettes HMS Nanaimo and Lethbridge departed as close escort for the Sydney, Nova Scotia to Liverpool 31-ship convoy SC-49 as far as Iceland. Both ships were Flower-class corvettes. SC-49 arrived safely in Liverpool, on 27 Oct 41. (Dave Shirlaw)
U.S.A.: Les Brown and his Orchestra’s record of “Joltin’ Joe DiMaggio” with vocal by Betty Bonney makes it to the Billboard Pop Singles chart. This is the first of his records to make the charts and it stays there for 3 weeks and rises to Number 16. (Jack McKillop)
I’m just going to jump in here out of total ignorance because I’m jammed up for time.
I don’t think the Germans ever threw out “peace feelers” at this point in the war. Why should they? They came into this game with the idea of exterminating the USSR, and right now they think they are on the cusp of accomplishing that. Hitler of all people would never give a guy like Stalin a break if he thought he had his boot on Stalin’s neck.
The Soviets, on the other hand, may have put out some very quiet peace feelers. I believe there is a story that about this time they tried to do so quietly through the Bulgarian ambassador, but were actually rebuffed by the ambassador who refused to convey them to the Germans. The Bulgarian ambassador is reported to have replied that he thought the USSR would win in the end. I don’t know if that story has been accepted as historical fact.
Armstrong Albemarle
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Armstrong_Whitworth_Albemarle
Looks like an overweight, underpowered ripoff of a JU-88 but with tricycle gear and two vertical stabilizers cribbed from a Hudson. A total failure as a bomber.
Naturally, I can't find it now, and googling up data on the subject produces a lot of doubt that any of these stories are true.
But what's most curious is that no report I've ever read even mentions the alleged peace feelers reported in "today's" New York Times.
First draft of history?
How about first draft of comedy?
Today the peace feelers would be published by the Times to embarrass a Republican President, but if offered by 0bama the Times would bury the story to protect him.
Back then, long before the information revolution, there would have naturally have been all sorts of rumors and speculation. However, reporters had a keen nose for BS because some of them actually did their jobs as journalists. So none made it into print for lack of corroboration.
First draft of comedy may be more exact. Like I said, any peace feelers by Hitler, if real, are likely farce anyway. This is the same guy who sat in the bunker as the world collapse around him still hanging on to the concept the victory could still be had....at least until he married Eva and gave up all hope as men are prone to do. He did at that point at least prove to the world that he was the worst planner of honeymoon events in the history of man.
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