Posted on 02/21/2015 4:33:42 AM PST by Homer_J_Simpson
John Toland, The Rising Sun: The Decline and Fall of the Japanese Empire, 1936-1945
James Bradley, with Ron Powers, Flags of Our Fathers
http://www.etherit.co.uk/month/1/21.htm
February 21st, 1945 (WEDNESDAY)
UNITED KINGDOM: Frigate HMCS Port Colborne departed Londonderry for tropicalisation refit.
GERMANY: Wörms, a rail centre 12 miles north of Mannheim, was one of 40 transport links hit in a major series of raids by the RAF and USAAF last night. Bomber Command’s 349 aircraft dropped 1,116 tons of bombs on this town.
The US 8th Army Air Force sent 1,195 effective bombers, escorted by 650 fighters, to drop 400,000 incendiaries on Nürnberg. Recent targets in the same series included Dresden and Chemnitz and have raised some doubts about morality.
After Dresden an Associated Press correspondent wrote: “Allied air chiefs have adopted terror bombing of German populated centres ... to hasten Hitler’s doom.”
U-4711 launched.
U-2539 commissioned.
NORWAY: U-260 sailed from Kristiansand on her final patrol.
BURMA: Nyaungu: Seven days after crossing the Irrawaddy, Major General “Punch” Cowan’s 17th Indian Division has broken out of the bridgehead and is racing to Meiktila, the main Japanese base in central Burma. The success of the crossing owes much to the British deception to persuade Lt-Gen Shihachi Katamura that the main crossing would be to the north of Mandalay. By striking south, Lt-Gen William Slim, the British 14th Army commander, aims to cut off Katamura’s 15th Army and destroy it.
BONIN ISLANDS: Iwo Jima: Casablanca class carrier USS Bismark Sea is sunk, and the carrier USS Saratoga is damaged by Kamikaze attacks off Iwo Jima, between 1645 and 2030 hours. Other ships including USS Lunga Point (CVE-94) and an LST receive damage.
Two Japanese suicide planes hit Bismark Sea despite being heavily damaged by defensive gunfire. The kamikaze aircraft started uncontrollable fires that reached several ready use magazines and set off the ammunition. All efforts to save the ship were halted by the exploding ammunition and she sank 90 minutes after being hit. Three hundred and eighteen of her 860 crewmembers were lost in this incident.
COMMONWEALTH OF THE PHILIPPINES: Bataan falls to US troops in the Philippines. Corrigedor Island in Manila Bay and Manila City continue to hold out against the US forces.
CANADA: Corvette HMCS Nanaimo completed refit Esquimalt, British Columbia.
ATLANTIC OCEAN: At 0839, U-1064 attacked Convoy UR-155 about 25 miles out of Belfast and reported three ships totalling 17,000 tons sunk. In fact, only the Dettifoss was hit and sank within seven minutes, taking 15 lives (three of them passengers) with her. 29 survived the sinking, being rescued after an hour in the sea by HMS Fusilier and were taken to Scotland and from there to Iceland. The sinking of Dettifoss was a harsh blow so soon after the Goðafoss had been sunk by U-300 near Reykjavík on 9 Nov 1944. All public activities in Iceland were cancelled on 24 Feb 1945. U-1064 suffered slight depth charge damage after attack for Fusilier.
Canada Ping!
Iwo was a house of horrors.
Reading about the carnage fills me with revulsion, frankly.
The human impulse is to turn your eyes and your mind and your heart away.
But we probably shouldn’t. It’s good to remember the real cost of war, lest we ever enter into it too lightly.
Farther north, in 9th Army's sector, the Americans are ready to launch Operation Grenade, intended to clear the west bank of the Rhine. The Germans have not correctly identified the full strength of the American force opposing them, as 9th Army actually has eleven divisions, not the nine identified by the Germans, and the Germans have missed a new corps, XVI, which has not been previously committed. You can see in the German dispositions that they have used the time they bought with the flooding of the Roer and, as best they can, layered a defense in depth with reserve infantry divisions and the mobile counterstrike units of 9th and 11th Panzer Divisions. This is the largest concentration of forces left to the Germans on the western front. Operation Grenade, in conjunction with the Canadian Operation Veritable and 1st Army's Operation Lumberjack, is going to destroy it, and with it, effectively wreck the German army in the western theater.
In the East, things have settled down. Konev's 1st Ukrainian Front has finished clearing Upper Silesia as far as the Neisse River, and ordered his troops to halt. Uncharacteristically for the Soviets, Konev's forces have not seized bridgeheads across the river for the next phase of operations. Nothing of note will happen in this sector until mid-April.
Nothing is happening right now on the Kustrin or Stargard axes either. The Germans have plotted the main strength of Zhukov's 1st Belorussian Front in the bulge between Kustrin and Stargard. However, they don't know what the Soviets are going to do, and they are about to commit a cardinal error (or Zhukov is about to do to the Germans what he always did to them). The Germans are going to lose track of 1st Guards Tank Army. If you want to know what the Soviets are going to do, follow the tank armies. 1st Guards is going to “castle” behind 2nd Guards Tank Army, and together they are going to clear western Pomerania. This is the effect of the abortive Stargard Operation: the Soviets believe the flanks need to be clear before they press on to Berlin. With the Allies still bogged down behind the Rhine, they figure they have the time.
There is no real change on Rokossovsky's 2nd Belorussian Front today; he is waiting for Zhukov to shift forces. When Zhukov is ready, Rokossovsky will launch his own operation in tandem.
My favorite quote from Robert E. Lee.
So Stettinius goes to Mexico, and commits a huge gaffe by calling Mexico “our home” instead of “our friend.” Then he throws the secretary under the bus.
Now, what other democrat public official would read anything put in front of him, and then throw the little people under the bus when he screws up?
All part of being a democrat I guess...
"Chronic intoxication, weakening of memory, vice, murder, and sudden death are but some of the increasingly frequent results."
So if you can't sleep at night, gentlemen, just count sheep.
Today that would cover, what, lower Manhattan?
Plus most of Queens and the Hamptons.
Remember the rash of crimes attributed to the use of Ambien? Maybe there’s something to this ... although you’d think the papers would be full of murder and sudden death (apart from the war).
Most of the “sleeping pills” in use in the 1940s were barbiturates; very potent, highly addictive and frequently obtained without prescription, or freely prescribed just for the asking. These Central Nervous System depressants were the “downers” referred to in “Valley of the Dolls.” These were also commonly used in deliberate overdose as suicide drugs.
Barbiturates were later replaced in the 1960s by the Benzodiazepine class of drugs, of which Valium (Diazepam) was the first and best known. So then we got the “Valium Housewife,” which was the subject of the Rolling Stones song “Mother’s Little Helper.” Later versions include Xanax (Alprazolam) and Klonipin (Clonazepam). While milder in side effects than the barbiturates, they are still very bad ju-ju and should be avoided. They are very common as drugs of abuse.
Ambien is the current class of drugs use for sleep inducement, and we are just now learning all the side effects of Ambien such as somnambulism.
All of which leads to what Tax-Chick says. If you want to go to sleep, count sheep. Or better, call me up and I’ll tell you my life’s story. It seems to have that effect on most people.
He actually called it "own" but you are correct, he probably looked to it as a home since the Left loves the Mexican Revolution of 1917 and all that it did towards bringing socialism to Mexico and making the populace equal... equally impoverished.
Of all the places Trotsky could have fled to, Mexico seemed closest to "home".
Hmmm...my uncle (R.I.P.) prior to the Pacific Island campaigns washed out of the Marine Corps (he was an officer)purportedly due to sleep walking. Perhaps he was taking too many sleeping pills?
I am sure getting kicked out for sleep walking this raised a few eyebrows at the time, certainly from his dad who was on active duty in the Navy in WWI, WWII and Korea and retired as a Lt. Commander.
ping to my reply...
I’m not a shrink but I did stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night...
I’m guessing the first ingredient was stress, the second may have been that the doctor gave him sleeping pills to deal with the stress. Combine the two, and sleepwalking isn’t a surprise.
It’s unfortunate how little the psychiatric and medical professions actually knew about the pills they were rolling out back then. And how little they knew about isolating and identifying people’s problems, and then treating them. They still don’t know as much as they think they do, and assume the answers to everyone’s problems are found in an orange plastic bottle with a white top. And too many patients want that to be true, too. I suppose it’s easier than taking a good hard look at your life and committing to changing it.
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