Posted on 03/03/2015 4:17:47 AM PST by Homer_J_Simpson
John Toland, The Rising Sun: The Decline and Fall of the Japanese Empire, 1936-1945
#1 - Rum and Coca-Cola - Andrews Sisters
#2 Accentuate the Positive Bing Crosby, with the Andrews Sisters
#2 - Dont Fence Me In Bing Crosby, with the Andrews Sisters
#3 Accentuate the Positive - Johnny Mercer, with Pied Pipers
#4 - Rum and Coca-Cola Abe Lyman, with Rose Blane
#5 - Cocktails For Two - Spike Jones, with Carl Grayson
#6 - Candy - Johnny Mercer, with Jo Stafford and the Pied Pipers
#7 - Im Beginning to See the Light - Harry James, with Kitty Kallen
#8 - A Little on the Lonely Side - Frankie Carle, with Paul Allen
#9 Dont Fence Me In - Sammy Kaye, with Billy Williams
#10 - I Wanna Get Married - Gertrude Niesen
http://www.etherit.co.uk/month/2/03.htm
March 3rd, 1945 (SATURDAY)
UNITED KINGDOM: Tonight, Luftwaffe fighters shoot down 20 British bombers as they return from bombing Kamen and the Dortmund-Ems canal.
Boom defense vessel HMS Baritone launched.
Frigate HMS Burghead Bay launched.
NETHERLANDS: RAF bombers kill over 500 civilians in the Hague when they miss their target, a V2 launch site.
GERMANY: U-3037, U-4709 commissioned.
The commander of U-733 died after an accident in Wesermünde. [Oberleutnat zur See Hans Hellmann].
NORWAY: U-1024 sailed from Kristiansand on her first and final patrol.
BURMA: Lt William Basil Weston (b.1924), Green Howards, led an attack superbly but fell at a bunker. To save his men casualties, he blew up the bunker - and himself - with a grenade. (Victoria Cross)
COMMONWEALTH OF THE PHILIPPINES: Manila: The last pockets of Japanese resistance are cleared. Over 20,000 Japanese soldiers have died in the battle for the city.
VOLCANO ISLANDS: Iwo Jima: Corporal Charles Joseph Berry of the US Marine Corps, 1st Battalion, 26th Marines, 5th Marine Division, displays conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life and beyond as a member of a machine-gun crew in action against Japanese forces. MOH
AUSTRALIA: Frigate HMAS Macquarie launched.
CANADA: HMS LST 3560, 3561, 3562, 3563, 3564, 3565, 3566, 3567, 3568, 3569, 3570, 3571, 3572, 3573, 3574 ordered. All cancelled 18 Aug 45.
U.S.A.: The motion picture “The Picture of Dorian Gray” is released. Directed by Albert Lewin, this horror movie based on an Oscar Wilde novel stars George Sanders, Donna Reed, Angela Lansbury and Peter Lawford. The film is narrated by Cedric Hardwicke.
Destroyers USS John A Bole and Robert K Huntington commissioned.
Destroyer USS Bordelon launched.
ATLANTIC OCEAN: ASW trawler HMS Southern Flower sunk by U-1022 at 64.05N, 23.15W.
Farther south, Patton's 3rd Army is on the move along the Moselle. In between the Moselle and the American 1st Army are a bunch of understrength and immobile units, and to whatever strength is there the Germans are trying to transfer to the more active sectors.
In Pomerania, from west to east, the Soviets are pushing to the Baltic east of Stargard.
The next map crop contains the right hand portions of those Soviet units penetrating to the Baltic that were shown in the previous crop. This shows how they are isolating X SS Corps and Grp. Von Tettau.
Farther East, the 2nd Belorussian Front continues its drive on a broad front to the Baltic west of Danizg.
And the Germans continue to give ground grudgingly south of Danzig along the west bank of the Vistula.
Bummer about Morris H. Rosen...
Harmon, Frank Maxwell Andrews, Simon Bolivar Buckner, Jr. and Lesley J. McNair, all lieutenant generals at the time of their deaths, were the highest-ranking Americans to die in World War II. Harmon and Andrews were killed in plane crashes. McNair was killed by friendly fire (position bombed by allied planes at the beginning of the Normandy breakout). Buckner was the only one killed by enemy action.
Seventh Army Lt. Gen. Alexander Patch died in November 1945 (he was then in the US as commander of the 4th Army).
Third Army Lt. Gen. George Patton died December 1945 in a traffic accident (he then was commanding the Fifteenth United States Army based in Bad Nauheim). He had been promoted to 4 star general on April 14, 1945.
I learned several other things in looking this stuff up.
11 generals were promoted from 3 stars to 4 stars between March 5 and April 15, 1945. That is about 5% of all generals ever promoted to 4 stars. Before WW II there had only been 10 active generals promoted to 4 stars so this was almost doubling that count. Three: Eisenhower, Hap Arnold and Joseph Stillwell had been promoted in 1943 and 1944.
Although the rank of Lieutenant is below the rank of Major, the rank of Lieutenant General is above the rank of Major General. The reference to this did not explain why.
General Stilwell and Admiral McCain also died shortly after the war. Stilwell in 1946 and McCain just a few days after the Japanese surrender.
Think of these three ranks: Captain, Colonel, General. They each need an assistant, someone to "act in their place": a "lieu-tenant." So, we have a Lieutenant standing in for a Captain, a Lt. Colonel in lieu of a full Colonel, and a Lt. Gen. acting for a full General.
"Major," according to them, derives from the antiquated "Sergeant Major," and would be an even more junior assistant: a Sgt. Maj. reporting to a Lt., a Major to a Lt. Col., and a Major Gen. to a Lt. Gen.
Lots of dotted and broken lines on today’s maps. The Germans are beginning to crack.
Yes, and on both fronts. It’s like July-August 1944. But this time, the Germans have run out of room, run out of raw materials, run out of motivation, and run out of cannon fodder.
There is no recovery from this disaster.
Not much for Commodores, eh?
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