Posted on 04/26/2012 4:11:19 AM PDT by Homer_J_Simpson
The News of the Week in Review
Twenty News Questions – 8
Planes Herald the Coming Summer Offensive (Baldwin) – 9-10
Answers to Twenty News Questions – 10
Coast Japanese Await New Homes (Davies) – 11
* Note the long title. This is an example of the extremely rare 8 column communiques.
http://www.onwar.com/chrono/1942/apr42/f26apr42.htm
Hitler promises Germany victory this year
Sunday, April 26, 1942 www.onwar.com
Adolf Hitler making a speech [photo at link]
In Berlin... Hitler announces in the Reichstag that this summer will bring major victories to the Germans on all fronts and that supreme effort is needed by the German people as this crucial time. His position as absolute ruler of Germany is affirmed and extended.
In the Philippines... The Japanese on Mindanao receive reinforcement to fight the Philippino resistance to their invasion.
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/andrew.etherington/frame.htm
April 26th, 1942
UNITED KINGDOM:
RAF Fighter Command: Bath is again bombed, it is believed that the Empire Hotel next to Bath Abbey is the target as this accommodates Admiralty staff. In raids of the past two days casualties total 401 dead, 357 seriously injured and 515 slightly injured.
The Luftwaffe aircraft lost were Do17Z U5+GW of 12/KG2 shot down by a Beaufighter of 219 Sqn
Ju88A-6 5K+DW of 12/KG3 shot down by a Beaufighter of 255 Sqn
Do217E-4 F8+EM of 4/KG40 cause of crash uncertain
Do17 of 12/KG2 Cause uncertain.
GERMANY: Hitler tells of “Great Victories” to come this summer while addressing the Reichstag. He calls for a “Supreme Effort” to accomplish this. They confirm his absolute power and make him “Supreme Judge” of the Reich, giving him powers to act independently of the law.
In a speech full of foreboding and intimations of catastrophe, Hitler today assumed absolute power of life and death over every German, and abolished all laws that might stand in his way.
A proclamation read to the Reichstag and endorsed by the deputies said that the Führer “without being bound by existing legal regulations, in his capacity as Leader of the nation, Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces, Head of the Government, and supreme executive chief, Supreme judge and Leader of the Party, must be in a position to force with all means at his disposal every German, whether common soldier or high official, to fulfil his duties.”
In the hour-long speech, the familiar histrionics were almost completely absent. Although the Führer claimed to have mastered “a peril unexampled in history” and averted disaster on the eastern front by ruthless action, he had many references to nerves at breaking point, obedience wavering and sense of duty lacking. His voice rose to a scream when he threatened: “I will ruthlessly eliminate everybody who does not stand up to the task.”
He admitted that German forces had been compelled to retreat - he called it “a backward movement”. This move, he said, enabled his army to hold the front against “vast masses of new, highly-trained” Soviet troops.
Ominously, Hitler compared the plight of the German forces last winter with the fate of Napoleon’s army in 1812. But, he argued, “We have mastered a fate that broke Napoleon.” He promised that next winter - an admission that the war would continue for another year - the troops would have better clothing, transport and equipment. “The Bolshevik colossus will be fought by us until he is smashed,” Hitler said. “The loss of this war would be the end of us.”
His speech was dutifully applauded, but the usual frenzied acclamation were noticeably absent. Göbbels noted afterwards that the Führer was at times “rather difficult to understand ... the terrific physical and spiritual exertions have taken their toll.” After the speech Hitler told Göbbels that he felt numb.
FINLAND: The severely injured Aarne Snellman, CO of the Finnish 17th Division, is promoted to major-general. (Mikko Härmeinen)
COMMONWEALTH OF THE PHILIPPINES: Japan reinforces its taskforce on Mindanao.
PACIFIC: Japanese submarine RO.30 is sunk by USS Tautog west of Hawaii. (Mike Yared)(144 and 145)
U.S.A.: San Francisco: Admiral’s King and Nimitz meet. Kings asks Nimitz to consider stationing one division of battleships, preferably Batdiv 3 (Idaho, Mississippi, New Mexico) in New Zealand. Nimitz persuaded King to return all the old battleships to San Francisco. (John B. Lundstrom)(225)
Adolph Hitler, the Soviet Union’s greatest general.
kind of like Bill Buckner, 'the Mets' World Series MVP.
Dad was on New Caledonia in preparation for battle on Guadalcanal and Bougainville.
...dad pased in ‘06 and would never talk about the ‘war’ aspect of his tour. he would talk about the people, the rats the size of cats that would steal his candy and soap, how they had to wait out ‘washingmachine charley’ in shelters before going back to their cots or hammocks...fishing with TNT...
but he would never talk about the battles...you could see his eyes glaze over when you asked him about it....
Ahhh...#15 of the “Twenty Questions” has the names of the plants commandeered by Roosevelt last week.
I don't know if you could call the answers to the Sunday quiz common knowledge, exactly. I have found that all this information appeared in stories from different sections of the paper during the previous week. So only those who read the paper front to back are likely to know all the answers.
From the front page, we have the escape from captivity of General Henri Giraud.
This is his second escape from the Germans as he was also captured during the First World War at the 1914 Battle of Guise. He escaped a short time after his capture.
His second capture was on May 19th, 1940 when the French 7th Army surrendered in the Netherlands. He was being held at the Königstein Fortress when he, at 63 years of age, scaled down a stone cliff and hoped a passing train. He wound up in Vichy France where made his way to Switzerland.
He will go on to meet with Eisenhower in the tunnels of Gibraltar about the TORCH landings in which he will be a real pain in Ike’s backside. Giraud would insist that he have full command of the troops landing on French soil. In essence, he told Eisenhower that he wanted his job.
Ike was trying to establish Giraud’s lesser position as smoothly as possible, but his aid General Mark Clark was less diplomatic. At the end of the first meeting with Giraud he told the French General bluntly, “Old gentleman, I hope you know that from now on your ass is out in the snow.” When the discussions on supreme command reached an impasse, Clark was again his ineloquent self when he told Giraud, “We would like the honorable general to know that the time of his usefulness to the Americans for the restoration of the glory that was France is now, we do not need you after tonight.”
Giraud would finally accept his role but under the command of Admiral Jean Darlan. When Darlan was assassinated later that year, Giraud would assume his command.
"Shortly after, Stein relocated to Cologne, Germany, and became Sister Teresia Benedicta, a Carmelite nun.
While at a convent in the Netherlands in 1942, Stein was arrested by the Gestapo. She was deported to Auschwitz, where she comforted many inmates.
She was gassed there on August 8, 1942, ostensibly in retaliation for the anti-Nazi activities of Dutch Catholic bishops.
"Stein was recognized as a saint by the Roman Catholic Church in 1998.
A chapel stands in her honor at Auschwitz."
"This filmstrip scene depicts Germany being "overrun" by Jews.
The caption, "13 Jews daily," gives the impression that Germany was the destination of choice for European Jews on the move.
Nothing, however, could have been further from the truth.
The social climate was obviously inhospitable, and Nazi laws expressly prohibited Jews from entering the country."
Now I wish I'd gotten the whole article. I now remember reading about Giraud in Korda's bio of Eisenhower and even in Wouk's novel.
He was quite the character. Very.....French.
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