9TH ARMY AT THE RHINE, FOE FLEES IN ROUT; RUSSIANS CLOSING TRAP; NEW GAINS ON IWO (3/3/45)

Microfilm-New York Times archives, Monterey Public Library | 3/3/45 | Clifton Daniel, Harold Denny, C.P. Trussell, Warren Moscow, Robert Trumbull, George F. Jones, more

[Homer_J_Simpson]

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[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]

Selections from West Point Atlas for the Second World War
Luzon, P.I., 1941: Final Operations on Luzon, 3 February-20 July 1945
Southeast Asia, 1941: Final Allied Offensives in the Southwest Pacific Area 19 February-1 July 1945
West-Central Germany and Belgium, 1945: The Rhineland Campaign – Operations, 8 February-5 March 1945
Eastern France and the Low Countries, 1944: Summary – The Rhineland Campaign, 8 February-21 March 1945
Poland, 1945: Russian Offensive to the Oder – Operations 12 January-30 March 1945
The Western Pacific: Allied Invasions of Iwo Jima and Okinawa (Operation Iceberg), 1945
China, 1941: Operation Ichigo, 1945 and Final Operations in the War
China-Burma, 1941: Third Burma Campaign – Slim’s Offensive, June 1944-March 1945

[Homer_J_Simpson]

The Nimitz Graybook

[Homer_J_Simpson]

Continued from February 28.

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

[Homer_J_Simpson]

Continued from February 25.

James Bradley, with Ron Powers, Flags of Our Fathers

[Homer_J_Simpson]

Here is a short audio clip from off Iwo Jima where a Japanese plane is downed by a battleship (0:46).

Leslie Nichols, MBS

[Homer_J_Simpson]

Billboard Top Ten for the Week of March 3, 1945

#1 - “Rum and Coca-Cola” - Andrews Sisters
#2 – “Accentuate the Positive” – Bing Crosby, with the Andrews Sisters
#2 - “Don’t Fence Me In” – Bing Crosby, with the Andrews Sisters
#3 – “Accentuate the Positive” - Johnny Mercer, with Pied Pipers
#4 - “Rum and Coca-Cola” – Abe Lyman, with Rose Blane
#5 - “Cocktails For Two” - Spike Jones, with Carl Grayson
#6 - “Candy” - Johnny Mercer, with Jo Stafford and the Pied Pipers
#7 - “I’m Beginning to See the Light” - Harry James, with Kitty Kallen
#8 - “A Little on the Lonely Side” - Frankie Carle, with Paul Allen
#9 – “Don’t Fence Me In” - Sammy Kaye, with Billy Williams
#10 - “I Wanna Get Married” - Gertrude Niesen

[Homer_J_Simpson]

Neuss is Captured (Daniel) – 2-4
Luftwaffe Tries to Halt 1st Army (Denny) – 4
Senate Tightens Draft Clause To Defer Bona Fide Farmers (Trussell) – 4
Russians 4 Miles From Coast Of Pomerania, Nazis Report – 5
U.S. Fliers Battle Nazis, Bag 109; RAF Sears Cologne, Rips Berlin – 6
War News Summarized – 6
Japanese Weaken (Moscow, Trumbull) – 7-8
M’Arthur Raises Corregidor Flag (Jones) – 8
Massacre Proof Found on Palawan (by Lindesay Parrott) – 8-9
Peril Spurs Japan to Coalition Move – 9
Roosevelt Thinks It Good Idea to Let Nazis Repair Soviet (by John H. Crider) – 9
London, Paris Hail Roosevelt’s Talk – 10
The Texts of the Day’s Communiques on Fighting in Various Zones – 12-14
Stilwell Warns Strikes Irk Army – 14
Lend-Lease Bill is Delayed Again – 14

[Homer_J_Simpson]

http://www.etherit.co.uk/month/2/03.htm

March 3rd, 1945 (SATURDAY)

UNITED KINGDOM: Tonight, Luftwaffe fighters shoot down 20 British bombers as they return from bombing Kamen and the Dortmund-Ems canal.
Boom defense vessel HMS Baritone launched.

Frigate HMS Burghead Bay launched.

NETHERLANDS: RAF bombers kill over 500 civilians in the Hague when they miss their target, a V2 launch site.

GERMANY: U-3037, U-4709 commissioned.

The commander of U-733 died after an accident in Wesermünde. [Oberleutnat zur See Hans Hellmann].

NORWAY: U-1024 sailed from Kristiansand on her first and final patrol.

BURMA: Lt William Basil Weston (b.1924), Green Howards, led an attack superbly but fell at a bunker. To save his men casualties, he blew up the bunker - and himself - with a grenade. (Victoria Cross)

COMMONWEALTH OF THE PHILIPPINES: Manila: The last pockets of Japanese resistance are cleared. Over 20,000 Japanese soldiers have died in the battle for the city.

VOLCANO ISLANDS: Iwo Jima: Corporal Charles Joseph Berry of the US Marine Corps, 1st Battalion, 26th Marines, 5th Marine Division, displays conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life and beyond as a member of a machine-gun crew in action against Japanese forces. MOH

AUSTRALIA: Frigate HMAS Macquarie launched.

CANADA: HMS LST 3560, 3561, 3562, 3563, 3564, 3565, 3566, 3567, 3568, 3569, 3570, 3571, 3572, 3573, 3574 ordered. All cancelled 18 Aug 45.

U.S.A.: The motion picture “The Picture of Dorian Gray” is released. Directed by Albert Lewin, this horror movie based on an Oscar Wilde novel stars George Sanders, Donna Reed, Angela Lansbury and Peter Lawford. The film is narrated by Cedric Hardwicke.
Destroyers USS John A Bole and Robert K Huntington commissioned.

Destroyer USS Bordelon launched.

ATLANTIC OCEAN: ASW trawler HMS Southern Flower sunk by U-1022 at 64.05N, 23.15W.

[henkster]

Today's German maps, starting in the West. The Allies have reached the Rhine. The German forces are still listed on the map, but we're pretty much looking at “ghost divisions.”

Farther south, Patton's 3rd Army is on the move along the Moselle. In between the Moselle and the American 1st Army are a bunch of understrength and immobile units, and to whatever strength is there the Germans are trying to transfer to the more active sectors.

In Pomerania, from west to east, the Soviets are pushing to the Baltic east of Stargard.

The next map crop contains the right hand portions of those Soviet units penetrating to the Baltic that were shown in the previous crop. This shows how they are isolating X SS Corps and Grp. Von Tettau.

Farther East, the 2nd Belorussian Front continues its drive on a broad front to the Baltic west of Danizg.

And the Germans continue to give ground grudgingly south of Danzig along the west bank of the Vistula.

[chajin]

Gen. Harmom (page 11) was never found, declared dead the next year; cf. here

[freedumb2003]

Bummer about Morris H. Rosen...

[Steven Scharf]

Harmon, Frank Maxwell Andrews, Simon Bolivar Buckner, Jr. and Lesley J. McNair, all lieutenant generals at the time of their deaths, were the highest-ranking Americans to die in World War II. Harmon and Andrews were killed in plane crashes. McNair was killed by friendly fire (position bombed by allied planes at the beginning of the Normandy breakout). Buckner was the only one killed by enemy action.

Seventh Army Lt. Gen. Alexander Patch died in November 1945 (he was then in the US as commander of the 4th Army).
Third Army Lt. Gen. George Patton died December 1945 in a traffic accident (he then was commanding the Fifteenth United States Army based in Bad Nauheim). He had been promoted to 4 star general on April 14, 1945.

I learned several other things in looking this stuff up.

11 generals were promoted from 3 stars to 4 stars between March 5 and April 15, 1945. That is about 5% of all generals ever promoted to 4 stars. Before WW II there had only been 10 active generals promoted to 4 stars so this was almost doubling that count. Three: Eisenhower, Hap Arnold and Joseph Stillwell had been promoted in 1943 and 1944.

Although the rank of Lieutenant is below the rank of Major, the rank of Lieutenant General is above the rank of Major General. The reference to this did not explain why.

[henkster]

General Stilwell and Admiral McCain also died shortly after the war. Stilwell in 1946 and McCain just a few days after the Japanese surrender.

[Hebrews 11:6]

I've also wondered about those ranks, and I've just asked a couple of search engines. Here is a summary for what I found--take it or leave it:

Think of these three ranks: Captain, Colonel, General. They each need an assistant, someone to "act in their place": a "lieu-tenant." So, we have a Lieutenant standing in for a Captain, a Lt. Colonel in lieu of a full Colonel, and a Lt. Gen. acting for a full General.

"Major," according to them, derives from the antiquated "Sergeant Major," and would be an even more junior assistant: a Sgt. Maj. reporting to a Lt., a Major to a Lt. Col., and a Major Gen. to a Lt. Gen.

[Hebrews 11:6]

Now you need your sarcasm tag. Must be a quality developed by necessity by all Cub fans.

[colorado tanker]

Lots of dotted and broken lines on today’s maps. The Germans are beginning to crack.

[henkster]

Yes, and on both fronts. It’s like July-August 1944. But this time, the Germans have run out of room, run out of raw materials, run out of motivation, and run out of cannon fodder.

There is no recovery from this disaster.

[colorado tanker]

Not much for Commodores, eh?