Posted on 03/28/2015 4:14:27 AM PDT by Homer_J_Simpson
You have no grounds to claim that the Royal Air Force frustrated the attacks by the “V” weapons. The R.A.F. took their part, but in my opinion their effort ranks definitely below that of the anti-aircraft artillery and still farther below the achievements of the Army in cleaning out all the establishments in the Pas de Calais, which so soon would have opened a new devastating attack upon us in spite of all the Air Force could do.
As to V2, nothing has been done or can be done by the R.A.F.
I thought it a pity to mar the glories of the Battle of Britain by trying to claim overweening credit in this business of the “V” weapons. It only leads to scoffing comments by very large bodies of people.
Winston S. Churchill, Triumph and Tragedy
http://www.etherit.co.uk/month/2/28.htm
March 28th, 1945 (WEDNESDAY)
GERMANY: The US III Corps takes Marburg.
891 Eighth Air Force B-17s, escorted by 345 P-51s, bomb targets in Berlin and Hannover while 215 Ninth Air Force A-20s, A-26s and B-26s bomb two oil-storage depots and other targets.
General Eisenhower radios to Stalin in regard to future plans regarding a push south, leaving Berlin. He orders the Allied forces not to advance beyond the Elbe, thus leaving Berlin to the Soviets. As recently as last autumn Churchill and Roosevelt were contemplating a thrust to get to the city before the Russians. But western forces are still some 200 miles short, while the Russians are less than 50 miles away. Eisenhower says that he is not prepared to risk the lives of his men for the pursuit of political advantage over an ally.
The critics of the supreme commander’s decision argue that the British, Canadians and Americans are meeting almost no resistance and could easily be first to Berlin, while the Russians are up against the fanatical SS units ready to fight to the last. Churchill, who has just returned from a visit to the Allied forces in Germany, is filled with foreboding. He believes that Stalin will exploit the political advantage to be gained by raising the Red Flag over the Führer’s capital. The British prime minister intends to appeal to Eisenhower to change his mind. “We should shake hands with the Russians as far to the east as possible,” he says.
Berlin: Hitler forces Guderian, his chief of the army general staff, to take six weeks’ sick leave after a series of disagreements.
POLAND: Gydnia falls to the Soviets.
BURMA: Over 30 Tenth Air Force fighters attack the Japanese battle lines.
The Japanese effort to take Maiktila fails.
Members of the Burmese National Army fighting with the Japanese rise up and kill their commanding officers.
CHINA: Almost 170 Fourteenth Air Force B-25s and fighters attack river traffic, airfields and other targets. During the night of 28/29 March, ten XX Bomber Command B-29s mine the mouth of the Hwangpoo River and the south channel of the Yangtze River at Shanghai.
FRENCH INDOCHINA: Fifth Air Force B-24s and B-25s attack port facilities at Hanoi and Haiphong and coastal targets. During the night of 28/29 March, 17 XX Bomber Command B-29s mine waters at Saigon and Camranh Bay.
MALAYA: During the night of 28/29 March, 32 XX Bomber Command B-29s mine waters in the Singapore area.
The US submarine Trigger (SS-237), commanded by David R. Connole, is lost. Probable cause of loss is attributed by ASW and a/c in East China Sea All hands are lost. (Joe Sauder)
NETHERLANDS East Indies: B-24s of the RAAF No. 25 Squadron stage through Corunna Downs to hit Japanese shipping in the Lombok Strait. (Mike Mitchell)
BONIN ISLANDS: Seventh Air Force P-51s attack Chichi Jima and five B-24s hit the island during the night.
COMMONWEALTH OF THE PHILIPPINES: Fifth and Thirteenth Air Force A-20s, B-24s and B-25s attack targets on Mindanao, Luzon, Cebu and Negros. Army ground units capture Lahug and Opon Airdromes on Cebu.
RYUKYU ISLANDS: Aircraft of Task Force 58 and Task Group 52.1 continue attacking preinvasion targets on Okinawa. The Royal Navy’s Task Force 57 retires to refuel.
TRUK ATOLL: Ten Seventh Air Force B-24s bomb Truk.
“Berlin: Hitler forces Guderian, his chief of the army general staff, to take six weeks’ sick leave after a series of disagreements.”
Hitler: “Guderian, take off for the rest of the war.”
Aw heck, they didn't have hardly any tanks left anyway.
“Berlin: Hitler forces Guderian, his chief of the army general staff, to take six weeks’ sick leave after a series of disagreements.”
Apparently Hitler wins the competition for the prediction of the exact date of VE day.
And by the way, do we ever take Arnhem?
Page 3 NYT: Patton’s defense of the smaller, lighter, more agile American Sherman tanks over the German Tigers and Panthers is interesting and informative. I’ve seen lots of stats, pictures, and comparative analysis between these tanks, but to my mind the report of user, especially such a premier user as Patton, is very authoritative and pursuasive.
His points seem to be that
1) His Shermans are mechanically tougher and easier to maintain [seems like I’ve heard that and the minimal need for a supply-line of spare parts before]
2) The more cumbersome Tigers have a shorter “road life” [not sure what that means other than they are not as agile and are more like sitting ducks (?)]
3) The 40-ton versus 70-ton difference would have had a significant impact in overseas transport and landing of these tanks
4) Finally, he ends with an interesting statement: “The outstanding advantage which our tanks possess over the German tank is the mechanical traverse and stabilizer, through the use of which we get most of our kills.”
Not sure how a “mechanical traverse and stabilizer” works compared to other tanks, but it is interesting to hear well-expressed thoughts from a premier tank user who has demonstrated superiority in using the tank in the field.
Page 10 NYT: “A Passover Proclamation”
Maybe this was a standard annual call for prayer for the rebirth of Israel, I don’t know, but in the midst of a dramatic war comes this dramatic call that we know now came to fruition shortly after. Amazing times.
NYT page 22 bottom right: Did anyone catch the little snippet where it’s saying the Allies are moving so fast they are driving right off the the maps they were going to use for the day? Sounds like Patton is back in top form. Can the supply line keep up with him?
To me the race now is just as much for Patton to beat the Ruskies to Berlin as it is to beat the Germans (or Monty). I wonder who knew the importance of that at that time. Patton seem to express concerns along those lines. I don’t know who else.
It is March 28, 1945. For George Edwin Farrar, Harry Allen Liniger, Wilfred Frank Miller, and the rest of the former prisoners of Stalag Luft IV, it is the fifty-first day of marching.
The prisoners were divided into large groups or “columns” for the march. Farrar, Liniger, and Miller may or may not have been part of the same column. Such records do not exist. For Farrar and Miller, we are unsure exactly where in the march they were on that day, but we do know where Harry Liniger was. Harry was boarding a train.
A note Liniger wrote that day on a piece of cigarette rolling paper was recently found tucked into his New Testament by his son, Harry. Almost 69 years later, it briefly describes that day.
51 day on the road. Boarded train at 2PM March 28. Recd [received] 3/8 of a loaf of bread per man. 60 men on a car.
Liniger March Note
Joseph P. O’Donnell, another former prisoner of Stalag Luft IV, describes that day in more detail in his book, The Shoe Leather Express. O’Donnell writes that they arrived at 3PM and were loaded sixty-five men to each boxcar – boxcars that were designed to hold forty men or eight horses, providing the name “the 40 and 8.” They were “jammed into the boxcars and the doors were sealed shut.” O’Donnell continues to describe the scene, explaining that there was not enough room for all of the men to sit down at the same time. The sick were allowed to lie down and the rest of the men took turns sitting and standing.
The train ride did not turn into a “ride” for a very long time. The train sat without moving, other than occasional movements back and forth of one hundred to two hundred feet. The tops of the boxcars were unmarked, making them targets for allied aircraft. Transportation modes were prime targets of the allies. O’Donnell considered their “confinement in the boxcars and the intermittent movement of the boxcars as a diabolic and intentional plan by the German commandant to have us destroyed by our own Air Force.”
O’Donnell described conditions in the boxcars as “unbearable”, considering the number of P.O.W.’s with chronic dysentery. The men were denied water that was available nearby during their torturous wait. Finally, on March 30, after forty hours of confinement, the train began its journey to Fallingbostel, a thirty mile trip. The men were never let out of the boxcars until they arrived in Fallingbostel.
From the Fallingbostel train station, the men were marched to Stalag Luft XIB.
Thank you to Harry Allen Liniger, Jr. for sharing his father’s note.
http://thearrowheadclub.com/category/my-dad-ed-farrar/wwii/timeline/1945/march-1945/march-28-1945/
Surely we will at some point.
Well, it is off to the library to gather the news for the end of June 1945. You guys are going to be shocked at what happens in April and May.
A great article, thanks for pointing it out.
The M-4 Sherman was 33 tons, the new M-26 Pershing 46 tons.
I didn’t notice any comments from Patton on Pershings.
I hope they hang that Austrian paper-hanging son of the devil by his heels from a lamppost.
He’s such a coward though, he’ll probably kill himself...
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