Posted on 04/20/2015 4:11:08 AM PDT by Homer_J_Simpson
http://www.etherit.co.uk/month/3/20.htm
April 20th, 1945 (FRIDAY)
UNITED KINGDOM: The first production de Havilland Vampire F. 1 jet fighter (TG 274) makes its maiden flight at Samlesbury, Lancashire. (22)
GERMANY: Berlin: At his 56th birthday party, Hitler is stooped and trembling, his uniform stained with food. The cheerless luncheon is attended by Göring and Himmler, who then flee the city, after giving the Führer their birthday congratulations.
Adolf Hitler celebrates his 56th and last birthday in the ruins of the Reich Chancellery in Berlin. The cheerless luncheon ceremony is attended by various high ranking Nazi satraps, including Göring and Himmler, who then flee the doomed city amidst a mass exodus directly after the giving the Fuhrer their birthday congratulations. Both will be accused of treason and dismissed from all official offices by Hitler in little more than a week’s time.
After an air-raid interruption by marauding RAF Mosquitos, Hitler, accompanied by one-armed Reich Youth Leader Artur Axmann, decorates a group of Hitler-Youth boys with the Iron Cross for bravery against the Russians (who are at the same moment steadily investing the outlying suburbs to the south and east of the city). The occasion is filmed by the propaganda cameras for the weekly ‘Wochenschau’, and will be the last photographic sequence taken of Hitler, his hands shaking and palsied by Parkinson’s disease, before his suicide ten days later. After the ceremony, the Hitler-Youth boys aged 10-16, are sent back into defence of the city where most will perish. (Russ Folsom)
After an air-raid interruption by marauding RAF Mosquitos, Hitler, accompanied by one-armed Reich Youth Leader Artur Axmann, decorates a group of Hitler-Jugend with the Iron Cross for bravery against the Russians. The occasion is filmed by the propaganda cameras for the weekly ‘Wochenschau’, and will be the last photographic sequence taken of Hitler, his hands shaking and palsied by Parkinson’s disease. After the ceremony, the Hitler-Jugend boys aged 10-16, are sent back into defence of the city where most will perish. (Russ Folsom)
The Second Byelorussian Front under Marshal Rokossovsky has now reinforced the offensives launched by Zhukov and Konev four days ago. Today Rokossovsky battled over marshy ground to cross the western branch of the Oder towards Neubrandenburg, Stralsund and Rostock, effectively preventing the 3rd Panzer Army from reinforcing the defence of Berlin. Konev crosses the River Spree, and takes Calau on the approach to Berlin from the south followed by Zossen, the Wehrmacht high command headquarters. Although the direct eastern attack by Marshal Zhukov’s First Byelorussian Front has encountered strong resistance near Seelow, Germany’s Ninth Army is being squeezed between the advancing armies of Zhukov and Konev. However Hitler has resisted pleas that it should be allowed to withdraw. Some government departments are being moved to southern Germany and Schleswig-Holstein, but Hitler rejected suggestions that he should also leave.
Zhukov takes Prötzel.
The French 1st Army advances rapidly in the Stuttgart area, taking the city.
Nuremberg, site of the ostentatious NSDAP ‘Partei Tag’ rallies, is captured by the US 7th Army.
At Flossenburg KZ, approx. 15,000 prisoners are assembled to make a forced march in the direction of Dachau concentration camp. Thousands are killed on the way, and the paths that they marched are littered with dead. As the already starved and weakened prisoners fell from exhaustion, SS guards bringing up the rear would kill them by a shot in the back of the head. Death was also caused by beatings. The prisoners marched from Friday to Monday with many perishing from exhaustion. On the 23rd of April they were liberated en route by American troops between the towns of Cham and Roding.
(Nuremberg document 2309-PS)
On the night of April 20th, near Hamburg, 20 children, ten boys and ten girls, originally from Auschwitz and used in medical experimentation, are transported from the Neuengamme KZ to the Bullenhuser Damm School in the Rothenburgsort district and murdered in the cellar by the SS. A few hours later 24 Soviet prisoners are also murdered there. (Russ Folsom)
The Eighth Air Force flies Mission 962: 837 bombers and 890 fighters are dispatched to hit rail targets north-northwest to south-southwest of Berlin, Bavaria and Czechoslovakia; they claim 7-0-4 Luftwaffe aircraft; 1 B-17 is lost:
- 82 B-17s are sent to hit the rail industry at Nauen and 77 bomb the marshalling yards at Wustermark, 57 hit Neuruppin and 82 Oranienburg; 1 hits Neuruppin Airfield, a target of opportunity. Escorting are 258 P-51s; 1 is lost.
- Marshalling yards are the target of 289 B-17s as 137 bomb Brandenburg, 66 hit Seddin (66) and 82 attack Treuenbrietzen; 1 B-17 is lost. The escort is 227 P-51s.
- 56 B-24s hit a rail bridge and junction at Zwiesel, 53 hit a marshalling yard and rail junction at Muhldorf while 56 bomb the railroad and rail junction at Irrenlohe and 54 attack Klatovy; 1 hits the secondary target, the marshalling yard at Straubing. 228 P-47s and P-51s escort.
564 Ninth Air Force A-20s, A-26 Invaders and B-26s strike oil storage at Deggendorf and Annaburg, marshalling yards at Memmingen and Wittenberg, ordnance depots at Nordlingen and Straubing, and other targets including flak positions; fighters escort the bombers, fly patrols, sweeps, and armed reconnaissance, attack special targets, and cooperate with US ground forces including the VII Corps west of Dessau, the VIII Corps between Plauen and Chemnitz, the XII Corps in the Grafenwohr area, the XX Corps attacking toward the Danube River and Regensburg, and the XIX Corps in the Magdeburg-Barby area.
ITALY: The US Fifth Army fights its way out of the Apennines and onto the Po River plain. Without Hitler’s authorization, General Heinrich Von Vietinghoff orders his army to retreat across the Po.
Allied air forces commence Operation CORNCOB today. This is a three-day attack on the bridges over the rivers Adige and Brenta to cut off German lines of retreat on the peninsula. During the night of 19/29 April, Twelfth Air Force A-20s and A-26s on night intruder missions continue to pound Po River crossings and vehicle movement throughout the Valley; B-25s and B-26s considerably damage 4 of 6 railroad bridges and fills attached on the Brenner line, and also hit HQ in the battle area and 2 Reno River bridges north of Bologna.
Fifteenth Air Force bombers again pound railway systems and road bridges in an effort to hinder the supply or withdrawal of enemy forces in northern Italy; 700+ B-24s and B-17s hit railroad bridges at Campodazzo, Ponte Gardena, and Campo di Trens, a viaduct at Avisio, marshalling yards at Vipiteno, Fortezza, and Brennero, and road bridges at Lusia, la Carrare, and Boara Pisani, and in Austria, the Mariahof viaduct and Innsbruck marshalling yard. 115 P-38s dive-bomb the Innsbruck, Austria-Rattenberg, Austria-Rosenheim, Germany railroad line, hitting marshalling yards at Hall, Schwaz, Jenbach, Kundl, and Worgl, Austria and Kiefersfelden, Germany, 4 rail bridges, and several box cars, and cut rail lines at 42 places between Innsbruck and Rosenheim.
CHINA: 7 Fourteenth Air Force B-25s hit the town of Neihsiang and attack railroad targets of opportunity from Saiping to Lohochai and from Linying, Burma to Hsuchang; 9 B-25s bomb Loyang and Luchou; 100+ P-51s, P-40s, and P-47s concentrate attacks against town areas throughout southern and eastern China, also hitting troops, gun positions, river traffic, and other targets of opportunity.
BURMA: 32 Tenth Air Force P-38s knock out 3 bridges and damage 5 others in central Burma behind the enemy lines; 12 P-47s hit a troop concentration and ration dump at Tonglau, 18 attack a troop concentration around a monastery at Kengkawmanhaung, and 12 attack troops along a stream near Wan Nahpeit; 497 transport sorties land or drop 784 tons of supplies in forward areas.
JAPAN: III Corps completes its capture of Northern Okinawa. Attacks against the Shuri Line in the south begin.
A new US offensive on Okinawa has run into heavy resistance from General Ushijima’s 80,000-man defence force concentrated on the southern end of the island. Despite intense bombardment, Lieutenant-General John Hodge’s XXIV Corps, advancing on Machinato and Yonabaru airfields, has gained only 1,800 yards in two days, with the defenders operating from a vast network of tunnels and caves. US forces control the rest of Okinawa and Ie Shima, an offshore island needed as an air base, has been taken after a six-day battle.
B-29 bombers destroy the Musashi aircraft factory assembly plants. This stops production of the Nakajima Hayate Ki84-Ia fighter plane. (Ron Babuka)
COMMONWEALTH OF THE PHILIPPINES: U.S. Army troops, supported by USAAF aircraft and USN vessels, land on Catanduanes Island (13.45N, 124.15E) in the Philippine Islands.
Far East Air Forces aircraft support of the ground forces on Luzon, Cebu, and Negros Islands continues. USMC F4U Corsairs and SBD Dauntlesses attack targets on Mindanao and SBDs attack Japanese infantry positions on Jolo Island’s Mount Daho.
BONIN ISLANDS: 11 VII Fighter Command P-51s from Iwo Jima bomb Haha Jima.
In a heavy ground fog five USAAF P-61s and three US Marine PBYs crash.
EAST INDIES: Submarine USS Guitarro (SS-363) lays mines in Berhala Strait off the northeast coast of Sumatra.
Thirteenth Air Force B-24s bomb Sepinggang and Labuan Island Airfields on Borneo while USN PV Ventura attack various targets. P-38s and B-25s hit Tarakan Island.
FORMOSA: Fifth Air Force B-24s bomb Tainan Airfield while P-51s attack Koshun Airfield.
Hard to believe this was seventy years ago.
In the words of the poet, “Hardly a man is left alive...”
"The Flossenbürg, Germany, work camp, where prisoners labored in a stone quarry and in the manufacture of arms and munitions, had functioned since 1938.
Camp personnel evacuated prisoners from the facility on April 20, 1945, setting the inmates forth on an eight-day death march toward Dachau.
American troops reached Flossenbürg and liberated the few inmates who remained on April 23.
Hastily buried bodies of prisoners who had perished or been murdered lined the route of the march.
General George Patton was appalled by the deaths and the makeshift graves that would have to be exhumed.
He issued a blunt command: 'I want no American soldier digging for these bodies.
Round up the town Bürgermeister and whatever civilians are available and have them commence digging.'
The German women seen here were among those conscripted for that duty."
I read every word of this article.
The word "Jew", or any derivative form, does not appear, even once.
So, for those who wonder if the New York Times' insane political correctness is a recent-years' phenomenon, the clear answer is: no, political correctness (however they define it) is part of the NYT's journalistic DNA.
Second, the non-war-related article about Dr. Leopold Brandenburg. I'm a bit surprised there isn't a Wikipedia article about him. He was in his day called "physician to the underworld," and was famous for, among other things, successfully replacing the fingerpads of a criminal named Robert Philipps (aka "Roscoe Pitts") using skin grafts from Mr. Philipps' torso; he later was busted for running an abortion mill in the Bronx, and eventually served 44 months on the narcotics charges in the NYT article, though if I am reading the record correctly it took two trials for the conviction to stand on appeal.
I seem to recall you saying your forebears were from Stettin. With the Russkies on their doorstep, shouldn’t they be high-tailing it westward now?
And when the filthy bastards got to Berlin they raped every woman in the city.
It’s too bad the Nazis and Soviets couldn’t have both lost.
“Zhukov takes Prötzel.”
Is that an ulcer medicine?
Here's a better way to think about it: in Eastern Europe we saw National Socialists (Nazis) at war against International Socialists (Soviets), and the socialists won.
By stark contrast, in Western Europe we saw National Socialists (Nazis) at war against Democratic Socialists (FDR, Churchill, etc.) and, again, the socialists won.
Steiner’s assault will bring it under control.
That’s the current talking point in the bunker, anyhow.
I still believe that had the Nazis taken Moscow, Stalin would have been deposed. Perhaps Khrushchev would have been the ringleader of such a coup, who knows how different the Soviet Union could have turned out then.
Whistling past the graveyard.
My forebears had the good sense to high-tail it in 1848. The dumb ones stayed behind.
On a serious note, even though Stettin is on the west bank of the Oder Estuary, it was awarded to Poland in the post-war settlement. Despite the fact that Stettin was ethnically German and so was all of the surrounding countryside for many centuries, there are few ethnic Germans living there now.
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