Posted on 03/19/2015 4:23:32 AM PDT by Homer_J_Simpson
William L. Shirer, The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich
Winston S. Churchill, Triumph and Tragedy
http://www.etherit.co.uk/month/2/19.htm
March 19th, 1945 (MONDAY)
GERMANY: Hitler orders a total scorched earth policy on all fronts. This is the “Nero Command”, ordering the destruction of all industry, transport links, food supplies and agriculture.
“If the war is lost, the nation will also perish”.
US 7th Army captures Saarlouis. The US 3rd Army reaches Worms.
U-2368 launched.
JAPAN: Beginning at 0545 hours, aircraft from the carriers of Task Force 58 begin an attack on Japanese warships in the Kobe and Kure areas. These attacks are in support of the upcoming Okinawa invasion. At least 16 Japanese ships are damaged including the battleship Yamato, aircraft carriers Amagi and Katsuragi and the light aircraft carrier Ryuho.
At 0708 hours, one hour and 23 minutes after launching a strike force, the aircraft carrier USS Franklin (CV-13, Captain Leslie E, Gehres) had 31 aircraft on her flight deck, five bombers, 14 torpedo planes and 12 fighters. All were loaded with ammunition, fuel, GP bombs and Tiny Tim rockets. A Japanese Yokosuka D4Y Navy Carrier Bomber Suisei (Comet), Allied Code Name “Judy,” dove out of the 2,000-foot (610 meter) clouds and drops two 250-kilo (550 pound) semiarmor piercing bombs; one struck the flight deck centreline penetrating to the hangar deck, effecting destruction and igniting fires through the second and third decks and knocking out the combat information centre (CIC). The second hit aft tearing through two decks and fanning fires which triggered ammunition, bombs and rockets. The ship lay dead in the water, took on a 13 degree list to starboard, lost all radio communications, and continued to burn. All interior communications are lost creating confusion among the crew. Some junior officers pass out officers’ clothing to enlisted crewmen to help them but this causes additional confusion when these “pseudo” officers begin abandoning ship without orders. Other sailors were blown overboard or forced to abandon ship due to the raging fires. A total of 103 officers and 604 enlisted men voluntarily remained on the ship to fight the fires.
The Franklin lay dead in the water for four hours only 55 miles (89 km) from the coast of Japan. Franklin was taken in tow by the heavy cruiser USS Pittsburgh (CA-72) until she managed to churn up 14 knots and reach Ulithi Atoll in the Caroline Islands. Casualties aboard the ship were 724 killed and 265 wounded.
Two officers were awarded Medal of Honors for their actions on this day.
The first was the ship’s chaplain, Lieutenant Commander Joseph T. O’Callahan, USNR, a Jesuit Priest. According to the citation accompanying the medal, Father O’Callahan “ministered to the wounded and dying, comforting and encouraging men of all faiths; he organized and led fire fighting crews into the blazing inferno on the flight deck; he directed the jettisoning of live ammunition and the flooding of the magazine; he manned a hose to cool hot, armed bombs rolling dangerously on the listing deck, continuing his efforts, despite searing, suffocating smoke which forced men to fall back gasping and imperiled others who replaced them.” The second officer was an engineering officer, Lieutenant (jg) Donald Gary. His citation reads, “Stationed on the third deck when the ship was rocked by a series of violent explosions set off in her own ready bombs, rockets, and ammunition by the hostile attack, Lt. (j.g.) Gary unhesitatingly risked his life to assist several hundred men trapped in a messing compartment filled with smoke, and with no apparent egress. As the imperiled men below decks became increasingly panic stricken under the raging fury of incessant explosions, he confidently assured them he would find a means of effecting their release and, groping through the dark, debris-filled corridors, ultimately discovered an escapeway. Staunchly determined, he struggled back to the messing compartment three times despite menacing flames, flooding water, and the ominous threat of sudden additional explosions, on each occasion calmly leading his men through the blanketing pall of smoke until the last one had been saved. Selfless in his concern for his ship and his fellows, he constantly rallied others about him, repeatedly organized and led fire-fighting parties into the blazing inferno on the flight deck and, when firerooms 1 and 2 were found to be inoperable, entered the No. 3 fireroom and directed the raising of steam in one boiler in the face of extreme difficulty and hazard.”
Aircraft carrier USS Enterprise was slightly damaged by Kamikaze aircraft.
TERRITORY OF ALASKA: The US Navy commissions a training area at Cold Bay, Aleutian Islands, to train Soviet Naval personnel how to operate surface vessels being transferred to the Soviet Union under Lend-Lease. A total of 138 vessels are transferred and eventually, 15,000 Soviet sailors will be trained to operate them.
U.S.A.: Submarine USS Catfish commissioned.
We are just wrapping up IWo, and the invasion if Okinawa starts in a couple of weeks. The scale and scope of the men and material is simply difficult to comprehend today.
Lots of Patton news today.
I saw that the tankers were still/already complaining about the Sherman needing a bigger gun, a “muzzle brake” (to clear the blast faster so they could see shots), and more armor against the German Panthers and Tiger.
The Pershing tanks are starting to show up in theater in very limited numbers.
They proved to be more than a match for the best German tanks.
Of course, the end is so near, it hardly matters at this point. The Reich is crumbling so fast now that even if the complaints were addressed, there wouldn’t be nearly enough time to produce anything better than what we have.
The die is cast.
M26 Pershing vs Panther The Battle of Cologne 1945 Interview War Documentary
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t8a29-1OM9Y
Hard to believe it will all be over in less than two months.
No kidding. But there’s still a whole lot of blood to be spilled.
File under: Mistakes Made Only Once
Tell it to the Marines.
Or airmen.
The Last to Die
The war in the Pacific ended as it began, with a surprise attack by Japanese warplanes
By Stephen Harding
Air & Space Magazine
Just after 2 p.m. on August 18, 1945, U.S. Army Sergeant Anthony J. Marchione bled to death in the clear, bright sky above Tokyo. A month shy of his 20th birthday, Marchione died like so many before him had in the Second World War—quietly, cradled in the arms of a buddy. What sets his death apart from that of other Allied airmen is that the young man from Pottstown, Pennsylvania, died after the Japanese had accepted the Allied terms of surrender. He was the last American killed in air combat in World War II.
http://www.airspacemag.com/military-aviation/the-last-to-die-10099776/?no-ist
But the German army is disintegrating and there are no more replacement tanks for them. Hitler squandered most of his Western armor in the Ardennes offensive and his silly order to hold the Rhineland. So, we will make do with the Sherman for the remainder of the war in Europe.
Yesterday's Situation map showed 4th Armored several miles from Worms. Today's report says 3rd Army has it. Patton is moving fast again.
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