Posted on 01/17/2015 4:11:17 AM PST by Homer_J_Simpson
William L. Shirer, The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich
Stephen E. Ambrose, Band of Brothers
http://www.etherit.co.uk/month/0/17.htm
January 17th, 1945 (WEDNESDAY)
UNITED KINGDOM: Light cruiser HMCS Ontario commissioned Belfast.
Aircraft carrier HMS Venerable commissioned. (DS)
BELGIUM: Against light opposition the 502nd Parachute Infantry closed out the battle at Bastogne for the 101st Airborne Division by seizing the village of Bourcy, seven kilometres northeast of Bastogne. Eighty four prisoners were taken bringing to 1,728 seized by the division since the battle began on 16 December 1944. The remainder of the division is trucked to the rear and goes into VIII Corps reserve in the vicinity of Sibert. During the one month battle for Bastogne the division took, 3,458 casualties. (Jay Stone)
In one 30 hour period the 1st Battalion, 506th Parachute Infantry took 5.8% of those casualties, to include one Field Artillery Forward Observer. Taking lots of casualties can never be equated with effectiveness but the battalion, along with its comrades in Task Force Desorby, gave more than it got. (Jay)
GERMANY: U-1308, U-2534 commissioned.
U-2523 sunk at position 4 at the Blohm and Voss yard in Hamburg, by bombs. Wreck broken up.
U-2515 sunk in Dock 111, Hamburg, by bombs while damaged sections from mining were being replaced. Wreck broken up.
(DS)
HUNGARY: Swedish diplomat Raoul Wallenberg, credited with saving tens of thousands of Jews, disappears while in Soviet custody. (Rodney Sanders)
POLAND: Warsaw is cleared of German resistance by the Russians.
Konev’s 1st Ukrainian front liberates Krakow via Kielce. (Russ Folsom)
CANADA: Auxiliary minelayer HMS Menestheus commenced conversion to amenities ship North Vancouver, British Columbia.
Corvette HMCS Parry Sound departed St John’s as escort for Convoy HX-332. (DS)
U.S.A.: Submarine USS Mero launched. (DS)
Lack of food can do that to you. Thoughts on food during that period from Uncle C:
"One of the most pathetic things I (saw) in Paris on my first trip up there was that the people were so short of food, and many of the lines in front of the food shops would extend for two or three blocks and then they would only get a little as the rations were very small."
(Regarding a young son of the French caretaker of the chateau where Uncle C's unit was bivouacked) "He always kept our table supplied with flowers, and we would give him some candy now and then, and he was such a good boy that he always took it home where it was divided up among the other children as they were short of food as it was, and sweets were something they just did not have at all."
Mr. niteowl77
My dad arrived in France in February 1945, and he saw the civilians’ hunger first-hand. Afterward he always said, “If you’re hungry enough, you’ll eat anything.”
As occurred in the Utopia brought to Russia by the communists.
52 They will lay siege to all the cities throughout your land until the high fortified walls in which you trust fall down. They will besiege all the cities throughout the land the LORD your God is giving you. 53 Because of the suffering that your enemy will inflict on you during the siege, you will eat the fruit of the womb, the flesh of the sons and daughters the LORD your God has given you. 54 Even the most gentle and sensitive man among you will have no compassion on his own brother or the wife he loves or his surviving children, 55 and he will not give to one of them any of the flesh of his children that he is eating. It will be all he has left because of the suffering your enemy will inflict on you during the siege of all your cities.
Fulfilled in Jerusalem and throughout Israel and Judah.
HMS Venerable was operated only briefly by the RN. Sold to the Dutch in 1948. Operated by them as the Karel Doorman 1948-68. Sold to Argentina 1968, operated as Veintcinco de Mayo. As such, she was very nearly involved in the 1982 Falklands War, but was recalled to port. Scrapped in 2000.
I remember hearing an old vet saying "You'd be amazed at what a woman would do for a little bit of food".
And so sad that a man would require it.
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