Posted on 12/07/2014 4:32:29 AM PST by Homer_J_Simpson
[Homer’s father’s 32nd Division is holding down the north end of the line opposite the Japanese 1st Division.]
Stalin telegraphed next day:
Marshal Stalin to Prime Minister 7 Dec 44
I have received your reply to my message about a Franco-Soviet Pact and about the frontier of France on the Rhine. I thank you for your advice.
At the time of receiving your reply we had already begun discussions with the French about the pact. Your proposal in preference for a tripartite Anglo-Franco-Soviet Pact as an improvement in comparison with the Anglo-Soviet Pact has been approved by myself and my colleagues. We have made a proposal to de Gaulle for the conclusion of such a tripartite pact, but we have not yet had his reply.
I have delayed my reply to your other messages. I hope to reply soon.
Winston S. Churchill, Triumph and Tragedy
http://www.onwar.com/chrono/1944/dec44/07dec44.htm#
Soviets reach Lake Balaton
Thursday, December 7, 1944 www.onwar.com
On the Eastern Front... In Hungary, Soviet forces reach Lake Balaton, southwest of Budapest. To the south, Baros on the Drava River is captured.
In Liberated Romania... A new government takes office. It is led by General Nicolae Radescu and pledges to fully implement the terms of the armistice, to provide assistance to the Allies and to purge all pro-Nazis.
On the Western Front... The US 3rd Army penetrates the Siegfried Line northwest of Saarlautern.
In the Philippines... On Leyte, the US 77th Division lands about one mile south of Ormoc. There is some Japanese resistance. One of the 12 escorting destroyers is sunk by a Kamikaze attack. Meanwhile, the US 7th Division continues attacking northward toward Ormoc.
In Japan... An earthquake strikes the Tokai area, disrupting rail communications and temporarily halting production at the Mitsubishi aircraft works at Nagoya.
http://www.etherit.co.uk/month/11/07.htm
December 7th, 1944 (THURSDAY)
FRANCE: French troops under de Tassigny attack German forces trapped in the Colmar pocket.
In the U.S. Third Army’s XX Corps area, the 10th Infantry Regiment, 5th Infantry Division finishes clearing its sector and ties in with the 95th Infantry Division; in the Metz area, Fort Plappeville surrenders to the 2d Infantry Regiment. The XII Corps regroups for an assault on the West Wall between Saarbruecken and Zweibruecken by the 35th and 26th Infantry Divisions. The 35th Infantry Division is still engaged at Sarreguemines. The 26th Infantry Division reaches positions within sight of Maginot Line forts at Wittring and Achen.
In U.S. Seventh Army’s XV Corps area, the 44th Infantry Division is approaching Enchcnberg against lively opposition. The 100th Infantry Division seizes Mouterhouse. In the VI Corps area, the 94th Cavalry Reconnaissance Squadron and elements of the 19th Armored Infantry Battalion attached to the 79th Infantry Division begins an attack on Gambsheim.
The French First Army opens an attack on the Colmar Pocket in the I Corps zone while the II Corps is containing determined counterattacks in the Ostheim, Guemar, and Mittelwihr areas. I Corps drives on Cernay and Thann, The 2d Moroccan Division takes Bischwiller and establishes a bridgehead at Pont d’Aspach.
GERMANY: In the U.S. Ninth Army’s XIX Corps area, the commander of 116th Infantry Regiment, 29th Infantry Division, reports that continued efforts to take the Julich strongpoints will be fruitless; during the past six days the regiment has suffered heavy casualties and is unfit to continue the action; the 115th Infantry Regiment replaces the 116th and prepares to continue the assault.
In the U.S. First Army’s V Corps area, the corps virtually finishes clearing its sector to the Roer River. The 2d Ranger Battalion pushes to the crest of Castle Hill, where it is under heavy fire and repels 2 counterattacks. When a platoon advances to reinforce the rangers, the Germans withdraw hastily. Combat Command the R of 5th Armored Division pulls back from Bergstein during the night but by this time The 28th Infantry Regiment, 8th Infantry Division, has advanced almost to the village from the south.
In the U.S. Third Army’s XX Corps area, the 90th Infantry Division attempts to improve and consolidate the bridgehead in the Pachten-Dillingen area with little success: The 357th Infantry Regiment establishes a thin perimeter on the northern flank and holds it against a major counterattack but is separated from the 358th Infantry Regiment in the Dillingen-Pachten area by the fortified West Wall belt; German fire continues to prevent construction of a vehicular bridge, but a footbridge is improvised and the bridgehead resupplied during the night of 7/8 December. The 95th Infantry Division continues to battle West Wall positions in its Saarlautern bridgehead: the 379th Infantry Regiment makes limited progress in Saarlautern-Roden; the 377th Infantry Regiment takes over the fight for Fraulautern; the 378th Infantry Regiment is virtually at a standstill in the Ensdorf area and its 2d Battalion is still west of the Sarre River.
Early in the morning, eight USAAF Fifteenth Air Force bombers bomb the Main marshalling yard at Salzburg with the loss of two bombers.
During the night of 7/8 December, RAF Bomber Command dispatches Mosquitos to attack three cities: 52 bomb Cologne, six hit Hanau and one attacks Mannheim.
NORWAY: Aircraft of the Fleet Air Arm carry out Operation Urbane, laying mines and attacking shipping off Stavanger.
AUSTRIA: Twenty two USAAF Fifteenth Air Force B-17 Flying Fortresses and B-24 Liberators make predawn raids on the following: eight bomb Klagenfurt city and marshalling yard (M/Y) with the loss of one aircraft; five hit the M/Y at Villach; four bomb the Main M/Y at Innsbruck; two bomb Lienz; and one each bomb Mittersill and Spittal and the railroad junction at Wolfberg. P-38 Lightnings, and P-51 Mustangs fly reconnaissance and reconnaissance escort missions.
HUNGARY: In the south Russian forces reach Lake Balaton. Right wing elements of the Third Ukrainian Front clearing the region between the Danube River and Lake Balaton seize Adony, about 25 miles (40 kilometers) south of Budapest, and Enying, less than 20 miles (32 kilometers) from Szekesfehervar; center elements report the south bank of Lake Balaton clear; left flank forces clearing the region between Lake Balaton and the Drava River take Barcs. Moscow announces that the Germans are bringing reinforcements from Italy and the Western Front to defend Budapest.
ROMANIA: General Radescu leads a new Romanian government into office. They pledge to implement the terms of the armistice and to assist the Allies with the purge of all pro-Nazis.
U.S.S.R.: Frigates HMCS Saint John, Stormont, Port Colborne, Nene, Loch Alvie and Monnow arrived Kola Inlet with Convoy JW-62.
ROMANIA: Lieutenant General Nicolae Radescu, the Prime Minister and Minister of Interior, leads a new Romanian government into office. They pledge to implement the terms of the armistice and to assist the Allies with the purge of all pro-Nazis. In 1945, Soviet Premier Josef Stalin had Andrey Vyshinsky, the Soviet deputy Commissar for Foreign Affairs, communicate the threat of dismembering the Romanian state to force Radescu’s resignation from the post of prime minister. On 6 March 1945 the first communist-dominated government of Romania took office under the direction of Petru Groza. Over the next few years, the communists would completely consolidate their power. Pursued by the communist authorities, in 1946 Radescu sought refuge in the British embassy, and ultimately left Romania not for the U.K. but for New York City, where he dies in 1953.
ITALY: In the British Eighth Army’s V Corps area, the village of Piedura falls to the 46th Division, but the Germans retain the ridges near there.
Weather grounds USAAF Twelfth Air Force medium bombers. Despite the weather, fighters and fighter-bombers attack railroads, roads, bridges, rolling stock, and other targets over widespread areas of northern Italy, from La Spezia to north of the Po River Valley; bad weather obscures most primary targets but alternate targets are fairly successfully hit.
In the early morning, a USAAF Fifteenth Air Force bombs an oil storage facility at Trieste.
During the night of 7/8 December, three USAAF Twelfth Air Force A-20 Havocs bomb targets of opportunity in Po River Valley.
YUGOSLAVIA: Yugoslavia reports several crossings of the Danube River near Vukovar in Slovenia by Soviet and Yugoslav units. Berlin claims that German withdrawal from Montenegro and western Serbia “progressed according to plan.”
Seventy nine RAF bombers of No. 205 (Heavy Bomber) Group transport supplies to partisans.
GREECE: Athens: British tanks and troops have been ordered onto the streets of Athens today to crush an uprising by ELAS (the National Liberation Army), the military wing of KKE, the country’s communist party, and EAM, a left-wing “front “ organization. Dozens of people, some of them British troops, have died.
The trouble began on 1 December when George Papandreou, the Social-Democratic premier of an Allied-installed coalition provisional government, went ahead with a decree to demobilize all guerilla groups of both left and right which had fought against the Germans. EAM, which had left the coalition over the issue, called a general strike, and on 3 December bloody clashes between communists and police left 12 dead. On 5 December Churchill ordered the commander of British troops in Greece, Lt-Gen Ronald Scobie, to restore order whether or not Papandreou lent his authority. Scobie declared martial law in Athens as ELAS men moved to take over police stations and other key points. Before dawn today, ELAS movced into the city in strength, advancing on the government quarter where the outnumbered main force of British troops has put up barricades.
In Britain, Labour MPs have condemned Churchill’s move against “popular movements which have vigorously assisted in the defeat of the enemy.” But Churchill told MPs that no government could be secure if there were private armies “owing allegiance to a group, a party or an ideology instead of to the state or nation.”
CHINA: Four USAAF Fourteenth Air Force B-25 Mitchells B-25 Mitchells and eight P-40s attack and considerably damage Sankiao; four B-25s, operating individually, attack truck convoys and other targets of opportunity in the Hengyang area and in Siang-Chiang Valley while 15 P-51 Mustangs hit shipping at Hong Kong, claiming a destroyer and freighter sunk. Sixty five P-51s, P-40s, and P-38 Lightnings on armed reconnaissance over wide areas of China attack storage areas, troops, bridges, railroad targets, and gun positions around Paoching, Anking, Hengyang, Tuhshan, Nan Tan, Kengtung, and Luchai and between Kweilin and Liuchow.
MANCHURIA: The USAAF Twentieth Air Force’s XX Bomber Command flies Mission 19: 108 B-29 Superfortresses, operating from Chengtu, China, are dispatched to bomb the Manchuria Airplane Manufacturing Company and an adjacent arsenal at Mukden; 80 hit the primary target and ten other B-29s bomb a rail yard short of the primary target, and several other bombers strike alternate targets; the B-29s claim 10-10-30 fighters; seven B-29 Superfortresses are lost.
BURMA: Nine USAAF Tenth Air Force B-25 Mitchells knock out the east span of the road bridge at Tonbo; 21 P-47 Thunderbolts support ground forces in the Bhamo area; 63 blast concentrations of enemy troops and supplies at Male while four others hit supplies at Myauk-le. Fourteen; P-47s knock out a bridge at Mansam and damage three bridges at Mongmit and Namyao; 17 others hit Nawnghkio and bomb supply areas at Na-kawnkongnyauiig.
Eight USAAF Fourteenth Air Force B-25 Mitchells hit a storage area at Lashio, Burma.
COMMONWEALTH OF THE PHILIPPINES: In the U.S. Sixth Army’s X Corps area, the Japanese continue to cling stubbornly to the ridge southeast of Limon, preventing the 2d Squadron, 112th Cavalry Regiment (Special) from advancing. The 1st Squadron reaches the Leyte River, where it makes contact with Troop A and 126th Infantry Regiment, 32d Infantry Division. In the XXIV Corps area, USN Task Group Task Group 78.3 lands troops of the 77th Infantry Division at Deposito on the eastern shore of Ormoc Bay. Leyte, at 0707 hours after a bombardment by destroyers and LCI(R)s; the troops move inland at once, at 0707 307th Infantry Regiment clearing Ipil and at the 305th Infantry Regiment reaching the Bagonbon River. The 7th Infantry Division pushes on toward Ormoc, the 184th Infantry Regiment reaching the Tabgas River and the 17th Infantry Regiment taking Hill 380. This virtually completes the battle of the ridges, although fighting continues for several days before the division reaches its objective, the Talisayan River. Fighting continues in the Buro Airstrip area. The 1st Battalion, 149th Infantry Regiment, 38th Infantry Division, gains a hold on the southwestern edge, making contact with the 1st Battalion, 187th Glider Infantry Regiment, 11th Airborne Division.
Within three hours of the first soldiers’ going ashore, however, enemy air attacks begin. Kamikazes damage destroyers USS Mahan (DD-364) and Lamson (DD-367); USS Mahan is scuttled about off Ormoc by destroyer USS Walke (DD-723); destroyer USS Flusser (DD-368) and rescue tug ATR-31 extinguish USS Lamson’s fires and she is towed to Leyte Gulf. Other suiciders damage high speed transports USS Ward (APD-16) and Liddle (APD-60); Ward is scuttled by destroyer USS O’Brien (DD-725). Still other kamikazes damage tank landing ship USS LST-737, sink medium landing ship LSM-318 and damage (by near-misses) LSM-18 and LSM-19.
USAAF Far East Air Forces (FEAF) B-24 Liberators bomb Malogo Airfield, the town of Masbate on Masbate Island, and Sanbon Field on the southeastern tip of Luzon Island. Other FEAF aircraft fly armed reconnaissance and harassing missions over Mindanao Island attacking various targets of opportunity.
Opposing the 8th phase of the TA Operation, USAAF Fifth Air Force fighter-bombers and USMC F4U Corsairs attack Japanese shipping in San Isidro Bay, Leyte, sinking a fast transport and four army cargo ships; and damaging the escort destroyers HIJMS Ume and Sugi. .
Both USAAF Majors Richard I. Bong and Thomas B. McGuire shoot down two Japanese aircraft while covering American landings at Ormoc, Leyte Island. Bong gets his 37th and 38th victories when he shoots down a “Sally” bomber (Mitsubishi Ki-21, Army Type 97 Heavy Bomber) and a “Tojo” fighter (Nakajima Ki-44, Army Type 2 Single-seat Fighter Shoki). McGuire shoots down two “Tojo” fighters for his 29th and 30th victories.
JAPAN: American troops waging war against Japan in the Pacific have come to know one Japanese voice better than any other. It belongs to “Tokyo Rose”, an American citizen of Japanese parentage featured in regular propaganda broadcasts to the Allied troops by the Japanese Broadcasting Company. Her message is not always very subtle; in a sexy, sultry voice she tells the GIs that the girls they left behind are being unfaithful. “Rose’s” real name is Iva Ikuko Toguri d’Aquino.
EAST INDIES: In the Netherlands East Indies, USAAF Far East Air Forces (FEAF), B-25 Mitchells hit Miti (Miti Island), Kaoe and Lolobata Airdromes on Halmahera Island and Galela Airfield on Galela Island.
MARIANAS ISLANDS, SAIPAN: In a combined high-low attack Japanese “Betty” bombers (Mitsubishi G4M, Navy Type 0 Attack Bombers) based on Iwo Jima, Volcano Islands, strafe airfields on Saipan at 0404 hours. In the afternoon, 13 “Betty” bombers bomb the bases at 1435 hours; six of the aircraft are shot down by antiaircraft fire but three USAAF B-29 Superfortresses are destroyed, three are seriously damaged and 20 are slightly damaged.
PACIFIC OCEAN: In the South China Sea, two USAAF Fourteenth Air Force B-24 Liberators claim a cargo vessel sunk.
TERRITORY OF ALASKA: ALEUTIAN ISLANDS: Nine USAAF Eleventh Air Force bombers fly two negative shipping searches.
CANADA:
Tug HMCS Glenkeen launched Kingston, Ontario.
Corvette HMCS Nanaimo arrived Esquimalt, British Columbia, for refit.
UNITED STATES: The top songs on the pop record charts are: “The Trolley Song” by The Pied Pipers; “Dance with the Dolly” by The Russ Morgan Orchestra, vocal by Al Jennings; “I’m Making Believe” by Ella Fitzgerald and The Ink Spots; and “Smoke on the Water” by Red Foley.
ATLANTIC OCEAN: German submarine U-482 is listed as missing. The submarine is possibly lost to mines northwest of Malin Head, County Donegal, Eire, in the minefields A1 or A2 which crossed its route; all 48 crewmen were lost.
The landing of the 77th Infantry south of Ormoc is the beginning of the end for the Japanese on Leyte.
Great story about the patrol jumping off the cliff to get away.
I wonder why it took 2 Lieutenant Colonels to lead a 25-man patrol.
I don't think I heard of Merode in any way until an art history class in college; only later did I learn about the fighting there in 1944. As in the Frenzerburg fight, elements of the German 3rd Parachute Division were involved… unlike the Frenzerburg, Schloss Merode would be rebuilt.
(I recently ran across some hauntingly beautiful nighttime photos of the Christmas market recently held there.)
Well, it's December 7, 1944. Uncle B's 9th ID is relieving the "Big Red One" (to which his 47th IR had been attached for much of November) in the Luchem-Langerwehe-Jüngersdorf-Merode area. The grim work of W of Düren continues.
Meanwhile, Uncle C is living in a tent in a field N of Rouen, trying to keep his company's trucks running when he isn't pulling them out of the mud that made the last part of 1944 so miserable.
Mr. niteowl77
Must have been a very special patrol.
That sure was a heartwarming p1 article about Spitfires strafing Leftists in Athens. That’s probably the best use of Spitfires I’ve heard of since the battle of Britain.
Happy Pearl Harbor Day, everyone.
In 1942, the Ward was reconfigured as a high speed transport APD-16.
Three years to the day after Pearl harbor, the Ward, now APD-16 was hit by a Kamikaze, abandoned and sunk by gunfire from the American destroyer O'Brian whose commander just happened to have been thecommander of the Ward on Dec 7, 1941.
Or maybe there were 2 LTC's back at battalion who wanted to get their names in the paper.
Could be.
Amazing convergence of circumstances.
A very poignant moment for that commander, I'm sure.
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