Posted on 08/23/2014 4:19:59 AM PDT by Homer_J_Simpson
Barbara W. Tuchman, Stilwell and the American Experience in China, 1911-45
Winston S. Churchill, Triumph and Tragedy
http://www.onwar.com/chrono/1944/aug44/23aug44.htm#
Romania surrenders to Soviets
Wednesday, August 23, 1944 www.onwar.com
In Bucharest... Romanian King Michael dismisses Marshal Antonescu and appoints General Senatescu as prime minister. The Romanian government accepts Soviet armistice terms. There is fighting near the city.
On the Eastern Front... The converging attacks of Soviet 2nd and 3rd Ukrainian Fronts cut off about 12 divisions of the German 6th Army. Many of the Romanian forces that were part of 6th Army have either deserted or crossed over to the Soviet lines. In the continuing advance, 2nd Ukrainian Front forces also capture Vaslui, 35 miles south of Jassy.
On the Western Front... The British 21st Army Group is advancing rapidly toward the Seine River. To the right, the US 1st Army (part of US 12th Army Group) also drives forward to the Seine. The US 19th Corps captures Evreux. French forces are employed as the spearhead of the US 5th Corps advance toward Paris. On the Atlantic coast, elements of the US 3rd Army link up with French resistance members near Bordeaux.
In Occupied France... French resistance members have gained control of most of Paris after heavy fighting.
In Southern France... Elements of the French 2nd Corps (part of US 7th Army) reach the outskirts of Marseilles and Toulon.
In New Guinea... The last Japanese resistance on the island of Numfoor is overcome and most of the American force is redeployed.
From London... Admiral Fraser replaces Admiral Somerville as commander of the British Eastern Fleet, in the Indian Ocean. The fleet includes 4 battleships and 4 fleet carriers at this point.
In Washington... At Dumbarton Oaks, senior Allied representatives meet to discuss postwar security.
http://www.etherit.co.uk/month/thismonth/23.htm
August 23rd, 1944 (WEDNESDAY)
UNITED KINGDOM:
The US Eighth Air Force in England flies Mission 567:
6 B-17s drop leaflets in France and Belgium during the night. During the day, 142 P-47 Thunderbolts bomb and strafe rail transportation from Saint-Omer to Reims, France.
A V1 bomb kills 211 civilians in East Barnet, in Hertfordshire, and a B-24 bomber crashes on an infants’ school at Freckleton, near Blackpool, in Lancashire, killing 57 people including 35 children. The aircraft had been based at the nearby Warton airfield. (An in-depth report)
ENGLISH CHANNEL: USN motor torpedo boats PT-511, PT-514 and PT-520 take part in night engagement (that lasts into the following day) that turns back the last German attempt to reinforce the besieged garrison at Le Havre, France; the PTs sink German artillery ferries AFP 98 and AFP 108.
FRANCE: The French resistance has largely freed Paris after fierce fighting. East of Paris Melun falls to US forces. South of Paris French troops with the US V Corps move forward to join the advance toward the French capitol.
Montgomery advances toward the River Seine.
Paris: German engineers begin placing explosive charges around the Eiffel Tower.
In the south French troops reach the outskirts of both Marseilles and Toulon.
In northern France, 4 US Ninth Air Force B-26s drop leaflets in the Lisieux-Bernay area; fighters fly ground forces cover, sweeps, armed reconnaissance over the battle areas and along the Seine River, and attack artillery positions; 150+ C-47 Skytrains fly supply and evacuation missions and several hundred reconnaissance aircraft fly tactical, visual, photographic, and artillery adjustment reconnaissance missions.
The German submarine U-180 is last heard from in the Bay of Biscay west of Bordeaux, France in approximate position 44.00N, 02.00W.
GERMANY: U-2341 laid down.
Ltnt. Kurt Braun, as Commander in deputise, brought U-763 from La Pallice in France via Bergen, Norway to Flensburg in Germany. He left La Pallice on 23 Aug, 1944, 4 days before his 21st birthday!
U.S.S.R.: 12 divisions of the German 6th Army are cut off by the Second and Third Ukraine Fronts. The Second Ukraine Front also takes Vaslui south of Jassy.
ITALY: The US Twelfth Air Force dispatches medium bombers to attack road and rail bridges north of the Arno River and roads leading north from Florence, and also hit bridges in the Rhone Valley of France; widespread haze in parts of France and Italy prevents accurate bombing; fighter-bombers continue to attack communications, gun positions, and road movements in the Provence battle areas.
AUSTRIA: B-17 Flying Fortresses and B-24 Liberators of the USAAF’s Fifteenth Air Force in Italy bomb six targets in Austria: In Vienna, 68 bomb the Vosendorf Oil Refinery, 53 bomb the marshalling yard and 13 bomb the industrial area. Other targets hit are Markersdorf Airfield at St. Polten by 133 bombers, an aircraft engine plant at Wiener Neudorf by 94 aircraft (23 used H2X radar), and the industrial area at St. Leonhaid by 26 aircraft. Twelve aircraft are lost.
HUNGARY: One Fifteenth Air Force bomber bombs the marshalling yard at Nagykanizsa.
The US Fifteenth Air Force attacks targets at Ferrara, Italy, missing a river bridge but hitting a synthetic rubber factory.
ROMANIA: Rumanian King Michael dismisses Marshal Antonescu, who is subsequently arrested. General Sanatescu is appointed as Prime Minister. Romania then accepts Russian armistice terms. (Greg Kelley)
MEDITERRANEAN SEA: The German garrison on Isle de Proquerolles, except isolated stragglers, surrenders to Commander Task Group 86.3 (TG 86.3) in light cruiser USS Omaha (CL-4); the island will then be occupied by Senegalese troops.
BURMA: 32 USAAF Tenth Air Force P-47 Thunderbolts support British advances down the railroad in the Pinbaw area hitting gun positions, troops, and HQ buildings, immediately north of Pinbaw, and along Nansonti Creek; and 6 P-47s bomb Onsansaing, and 8 P-51 Mustangs bomb an encampment near Kadu.
CHINA: 4 Tenth Air Force P-51s hit Lungling and Mangshih; 5 others attack guns, fuel dump, and other targets of opportunity along the Burma Road from Wanling to Lungling while 7 more hit buildings and vehicles during sweeps of the general Mangshih-Chefang area; and 12 P-51s hit targets of opportunity southwest of Lungling and 2 P-40s strafe trucks at Chefang.
The Fourteenth Air Force dispatches 7 B-25s and 21 fighter-bombers to attack villages, compounds, other targets of opportunity near Hengyang, Lingyang, and Anjen; 40+ fighter-bombers hit villages, shipping, troops, supplies, and other targets of opportunity around Ichang, Yangtien, Siangtan, and Yiyang, and south of Sungpai and Siangyin.
JAPAN: The Japanese General Staff decides to abandon the central Solomons and concentrate its forces in the northern islands of the archipelago, notably Bougainville.
COMMONWEALTH OF THE PHILIPPINES: USN submarine USS Grayling (SS-209) delivers supplies to Filipino guerrilla forces on Panay Island.
NEW GUINEA: US forces are withdrawn from Noemfoor after this area is captured.
USAAF Far East Air Force B-24s pound the Galela, Halmahera Island, area; in New Guinea, B-24s hit Langgoer Airfield and Saumlakki; fighter-bombers hit the airfield at Nabire, Moemi, and Urarom, the village of Moari, and town of Manokwari; B-25s, A-20s, and fighter-bombers continue to attack barge hideouts, troops, villages, and general targets of opportunity around Wewak.
PACIFIC OCEAN: US Seventh Air Force B-24s from Saipan Island bomb Yap and Iwo Jima Islands while US Thirteenth Air Force radar-equipped B-24s attack airfields and defences in the Palau Islands.
USN submarine USS Paddle (SS-263) sinks Italian merchant passenger/cargo ship SS Ada off Hamamatsu, Japan, in position 34.37N, 137.53E.
CANADA: Destroyer HMCS St Clair paid off.
U.S.A.: The top pop song hits today are
(1) “I’ll Be Seeing You” by Bing Crosby;
(2) “Amor” by Bing Crosby;
(3) “Milkman, Keep Those Bottles Quiet” by Ella Mae Morse; and
(4) “Is You Is Or Is You Ain’t (Ma’ Baby)” by Louis Jordan And His Tympany Five.
Submarine USS Toro launched.
Submarine USS Piper commissioned.
Coast Guard manned Army FS-193 was commissioned at New Orleans. The first commanding officer was LTJG G. W. Hayman, USCGR. She was assigned to and operated in the Southwest Pacific area.
Coast Guard-manned Army vessel FS-346 was commissioned at Kewaunee WI with LTJG F. J. Bell, USCGR, as commending officer. She was assigned to and operated in the Southwest Pacific area during the war. She was decommissioned 30 August 1945.
ATLANTIC OCEAN: The Canadian-built, British-registered cargo ship Fort Yale (7,134 GRT), Captain George W. Mortimer, Master, was sunk by U-480 in the English Channel, 17 miles SE of the Isle of Wight, in position 50.23N, 000.55W. On 08 Aug 44, while proceeding as part of convoy ETC-72, Fort Yale struck a mine in the English Channel, in position 49.26N, 000.33W. The ship was able to make the Normandy beachhead and was unloaded. Fort Yale was under tow by the British tug Hudson and the American tug Farallon when she was attacked by U-480. One person was lost from the 68 crewmembers and DEMS gunners onboard.
U-989 damaged SS Louis Kossuth.
Thanks as always for this wonderful series - it’s a real treat to check each morning to see how things are going in an armed conflict in which the good guys are actually trying to prevail (in contrast, it’s just awful that the current regime has its head in a place where the sun don’t shine).
One of the last articles was interesting in it’s implication on the importance of logistics in a campaign of this size. Fall is coming on, and the weather is about to turn to storms and gales, limiting deliveries at make-shift beach facilities. Cherbourg is ours, but it isn’t big enough, and the krauts are holding out in Brest and Navarre, busily destroying as much port capability as they can. The breakout through France continues, but it can’t go on indefinitely without resupply - I’ll be looking forward to seeing how all that plays out.
"Yohovet and Abraham Alcana, Sephardic Jews from the island of Rhodes, pose solemnly for the photographer.
Nazi efforts to eradicate the island's Jews accelerated in the summer of 1944 when Adolf Eichmann sent his assistant, Anton Burger, to the island.
Jews were assembled at various points and sent by ship to Athens, where they were imprisoned before being sent to Auschwitz.
Abraham, age 70, and Yohovet, age 60, were among those whom the Nazis deemed too old for work.
They were consigned to the gas chambers upon their arrival at Auschwitz"
And in the “Some Things Never Change” department, note Churchill’s August 23 missive to the Minister of Information, complaining about the lack of coverage of the Soviet perfidy in sitting around and allowing the Polish patriots to get slaughtered by the Nazi’s in the Warsaw uprising.
I don’t think the MSM of that time was as bad as the lickspittles we have today, but it seems clear they were quite willing to cover for the commies when needs be: the sins of omission we routinely experience in the news coverage today apparently started a long, long time ago.
http://ww2db.com/battle_spec.php?battle_id=110
http://www.historynet.com/why-anvil-gets-no-respect.htm
“One of the last articles was interesting in it’s implication on the importance of logistics in a campaign of this size.”
I am also learning a great deal about the invasion of the south of France and the importance of logistics. Two articles above about operation Anvil/Dragoon. British didn’t want it but Ike won out. Marseille will now see 25% of Allied shipping pass through it.
Thanks much for those wonderfully interesting articles. I’m not a real student of history, but I did take courses back when they actually taught history in college history classes, and until this morning I never even knew we had staged an amphibious landing in the South of France, let alone the ultimate (if largely unrecognized) consequences of it.
The Germans are fast being pushed back into Germany
Their backs will stiffen considerably in front of the West Wall.
A whole lot of very costly war-making left.
They were busy fighting WW2 at the time, I think Churchill knew very well what the commies were. It was Roosevelt who seemed not to think the commies were bad guys. Just check the telegraphs in this thread.
In #4 FDR seems to think the commies in China are alright, because they like “anyone who will kill Japanese”
In #5 Churchill knew very well that China was going to be engulfed in civil war with the commies.
The Germans will get the chance to stiffen when the allied spearheads run out of gas.
Ditto.
Thanks, Homer for the high quality of these wonderful and fascinating daily updates. I again commend you on doing such a good job of cutting and pasting the various NYT articles in a fashion that makes them easy to read.
It is gratifying to read such well-written articles, knowing there was a time in the not too distant past where the best newspapers expressed themselves so well and were at the same time patriotic to America. They still call America’s enemy, “the enemy.”
Right. A little early for Monty to call out “We won.” Usually doing stuff like that before the match is over leads to disaster. I think Market-Garden might be an example.
Agreed. I think Churchill was clearer about freedom from government tyranny than Roosevelt whose policies embraced it.
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