BIG 3 SET FINAL STEPS TO CRUSH GERMANY, TURN TO PEACE ISSUES IN BLACK SEA TALK (2/8/45)

Microfilm-New York Times archives, Monterey Public Library | 2/8/45 | Bertram D. Hulen, James B. Reston, Clifton Daniel, Gene Currivan, Ford Wilkins, Lindesay Parrott

[Homer_J_Simpson]

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

11

12

13

14

15

16

17

[Homer_J_Simpson]

Free Republic University, Department of History presents World War II Plus 70 Years: Seminar and Discussion Forum
First session: September 1, 2009. Last date to add: September 2, 2015.
Reading assignment: New York Times articles and the occasional radio broadcast delivered daily to students on the 70th anniversary of original publication date. (Previously posted articles can be found by searching on keyword “realtime” Or view Homer’s posting history .)
To add this class to or drop it from your schedule notify Admissions and Records (Attn: Homer_J_Simpson) by freepmail. Those on the Realtime +/- 70 Years ping list are automatically enrolled. Course description, prerequisites and tuition information is available at the bottom of Homer’s profile. Also visit our general discussion thread.

[Homer_J_Simpson]

[Homer_J_Simpson]

The Nimitz Graybook

[Homer_J_Simpson]

Continued from January 27.

William L. Shirer, The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich

[Homer_J_Simpson]

Continued from February 4.

John Toland, The Rising Sun: The Decline and Fall of the Japanese Empire, 1936-1945

[Homer_J_Simpson]

Continued from yesterday.

1

2

Winston S. Churchill, Triumph and Tragedy

[Homer_J_Simpson]

This letter from Homer’s father to his younger sister and B-I-L (Homer’s aunt and uncle) still has the Company F, 128th Infantry return address.

[Homer_J_Simpson]

Staff Chiefs Meet (Hulen) – 2
Dutch Oppose Idea of Oaks Big 5 Veto (Reston) – 3
Patton over River (Daniel) – 3-5
Americans in Assault Boats Beat Torrents and Nazi Fire (Currivan) – 5
Russians Smash On – 6-7
RAF ‘Heavies’ Rock Reich Front Towns – 7
Polish Government in London Dissolves Underground Home Army with Loyalty Plea – 7
MacArthur Enters Manila; Hailed by Freed Prisoners (Wilkins) – 8
U.S. Forces Clear Northern Manila (Parrott) – 8-9
M’Arthur Presses Care for Civilians – 9-10
Fires Are Still Burning in Manila; Sabotage Long Planned by Foe – 9
Camp O’Donnell: Here on Luzon Ended the Tragic ‘March of Death’ from Bataan (photos) – 10-12
Latest Casualties of War as Reported by Army and Navy – 13-14
War News Summarized – 14
Giant Squeeze on Nazis (by Hanson W. Baldwin) – 15
The Texts of the Day’s Communiques on the Fighting in Various War Zones – 16-17

[Homer_J_Simpson]

http://www.etherit.co.uk/month/1/08.htm

February 8th, 1945 (THURSDAY)

UNITED KINGDOM: Aircraft carrier HMS Pioneer commissioned.

GERMANY: Montgomery opens Operation Veritable, a British 2nd Army and Canadian 1st Army offensive to clear the lower Rhineland.

Allied bombing crews are being kept busy. Tonight RAF Bomber Command attacked targets at Politz, Wanne-Eickel and Krefeld; last night Goch, Cleve and the Dortmund-Ems canal were hit. On 3 February the USAAF attacked Berlin with over 1,200 heavy bombers, escorted by 900 fighters. Five square miles of central Berlin were set on fire; Tempelhof airport was badly damaged. Among 1,000 casualties of the raid was Roland Freisler, the notorious president of the People’s Court, who died when the court was bombed and he was hit by a falling beam.

Vienna has also been bombed by US Liberators, 29 of which were shot down, five during two minutes of intense flak.V2 rocket installations in the Netherlands were hit in daylight raids by RAF fighter-bombers. Other targets included E-boat shelters at Ijmuiden and - to assist the advance of XXX Corps across the German-Dutch border - troop concentrations near Goch, where there were also civilian casualties.

Luftwaffe ace Hans Ulrich Rudel loses his lower right leg to a 4cm shell. (Fox)
U-1406 commissioned.

U-4709 launched.

HUNGARY: In Mészáros utca near Déli railway station László Deseõ, 15 years old at the time of the siege, kept an hourly diary of the destruction that raged around him:

February 8. Numerous wounded. There are Russian snipers positioned in the house opposite and when someone allows themselves be spotted in the window they shoot at them.…Wagner [a forcibly recruited Hungarian SS soldier from Budakeszi] has been seriously wounded. Two hours ago he laughingly admitted that the destruction of the whole house had been his responsibility because he could have led the horses to a neighbouring empty cellar. Heavy fighting all night.

U.S.S.R.: Yalta: Allied commanders take time off from the conference to visit the historic battlefield at Balaklava.

U.S.A.: Destroyer USS Shields commissioned.

[Tax-chick]

P. 15: “We believe tweed is the perfect male fabric.”

LOL!

In the real news, it’s interesting, in a sad way, watching the construction of the post-war international order. Hundreds of millions consigned to totalitarian oppression for the next 50 years or more ...

The Times is really ginning up sentiment against the Japanese ... not that it’s difficult: just show the truth.

[fso301]

The Times is really ginning up sentiment against the Japanese ... not that it’s difficult: just show the truth.

Yep. They've hidden it for the past three years.

[EternalVigilance]

Feasting with a monster.

I know all the arguments of political and war expedience. But still I’m sickened by their warm and jovial feasting with a monster.

[fso301]

Noticed in the 4th to the last paragraph on Shirer's p2 where Stalin appeared puzzled that the Kuomintang and Communists couldn't put up a united front against the Japanese.

Yeah right. On Stalin's orders the communists in China fought the Kuomintang, the Japanese and even Americans just like communists everywhere else in the war did. French communist resistence members had no problem informing on non-communist resistance activities. Filipino communist guerillas, the Huks fought and informed against non-communist guerillas as well as the Americans.

The situation in eastern Europe was a real mess with all the different partisan groups.

[Tax-chick]

Yes, I agree. On the other hand, we know more now than they did then. Churchill and Roosevelt really to sell themselves the Stalin myth, because there was no other way to win the war. There was also very little they could do about his post-war plans for Europe.

[Patton@Bastogne]

Yalta was a disaster ...

[Patton@Bastogne]

Yalta was a disaster ...

[Steven Scharf]

The first entry in today’s Gray Book references the 13th Bomber Command sighting an unescorted enemy aircraft carrier in the Makassar Strait launch aircraft.

Makassar Strait is off of Borneo, south of the Philippines. Apparently, Borneo was one of the island skipped. I can find no other reference to this aircraft carrier. Would this not be a sitting duck?

I did see a reference to the Australians taking Borneo in May of 1945 in a battle they were criticized for as a waste of time and manpower.

[colorado tanker]

I suppose it is the sort of thing diplomatists say to one another, but the toasts are stomach turning, aren't they?

And the idea that the Finns started the war and gosh, if we'd just asked, in 1939 Russia would have chosen us over the Ribbentrop Pact? What utter nonsense.

[colorado tanker]

There was also very little they could do about his post-war plans for Europe.

The reality is the Red Army is now so large we could not have ejected it from any of the Eastern European territory they occupy or are about to occupy, even if we wanted to. And the British Army is exhausted.

[colorado tanker]

Homer, your family must have felt so blessed to be getting these letters. Reading between the lines it sounds as if your Dad had a very close call.

And I can believe he felt like he was freezing to death trying to fight a war in a Philippine typhoon!