Posted on 06/11/2015 5:19:46 AM PDT by Homer_J_Simpson
Winston S. Churchill, Triumph and Tragedy
* We have read dozens, if not hundreds, of stories filed by Drew Middleton going back to September 1942. He has been part of the press corps around Gen. Eisenhower all along. Now, here is a photo of the two at the end of the Great Crusade. It looks more like a schmooze than an interview.
http://www.etherit.co.uk/month/5/11.htm
June 11th, 1945 (MONDAY)
UNITED KINGDOM: Paid off and returned to RN at Sheerness - frigates HMCS Monnow, Ribble, Nene, Loch Alvie.
CZECHOSLOVAKIA: The Soviet authorities start the forcible expulsion of ethnic Germans from the Sudetenland to the west.
U.S.S.R.: Stalin writes to US President Truman “During the war the strategic materials and foodstuffs shipped to the U.S.S.R. under Lend-Lease played an important role and to a significant degree contributed to the successful outcome of the war against the common enemy, Hiterlite Germany”. (255)(Pat Holscher)
KURILE ISLANDS: Task Force 92 consisting of the light cruisers USS Richmond (CL-9) and USS Trenton (CL-11) and five destroyers begin bombarding Japanese installations on Matsuwa Island in the Kurile Islands at 0021 hours local. The seven ships fire 3,677 rounds of 5-inch (127 mm) and 6-inch (152.4 mm) rounds of ammunition. At 0232 hours local, the ships enter the Sea of Okhotsk and make an unsuccessful sweep of the area and then sail back to Matsuwa Islands and begin a second bombardment at 2347 hours local. After firing another 1,344 rounds, the bombardment ceases at 0002 hours, 12 June, and the task forces retires to the Aleutian Islands.
Eight Eleventh Air Force B-24s bomb Kurabu Zaki airfield on Parmushiru Island and Kataoka airfield on Shimushu Island in the Kurile Islands using radar.
JAPAN: During the night of 11/12 Jun, 26 XXI Air Force B-29s mine Shimonoseki Strait and Tsuruga Bay. This is Mission 201.
Kamikazes are again in action off Okinawa. One kamikaze crashes the large support landing craft LCS(L)(3)-122 near the conning tower. The commander, Lieutenant Richard M. McCool, Jr., is awarded the Medal of Honor for his actions that day. His citation for this award reads, “When his own craft was attacked simultaneously by two of the enemy’s suicide squadron early in the evening of 11 June, he instantly hurled the full power of his gun batteries against the plunging aircraft, shooting down the first and damaging the second before it crashed his station in the conning tower and engulfed the immediate area in a mass of flames. Although suffering from shrapnel wounds and painful burns, he rallied his concussion-shocked crew and initiated vigorous firefighting measures and then proceeded to the rescue of several trapped in a blazing compartment, subsequently carrying one man to safety despite the excruciating pain of additional severe burns.
Unmindful of all personal danger, he continued his efforts without respite until aid arrived from other ships and he was evacuated. By his staunch leadership, capable direction, and indomitable determination throughout the crisis, Lt. McCool saved the lives of many who otherwise might have perished and contributed materially to the saving of his ship for further combat service.”
Another kamikaze crashes alongside the armed U.S. merchant freighter SS Walter Colton.
CANADA: Paid off in Canada - HMCS ML 079, HMCS Prince David and HMCS St Francis.
Middleton was willing, iirc, to get off his butt and out of HQ and travel at least near to the front lines—or was that Baldwin?
I reviewed Middleton’s long entry in the index by author and found that he was primarily a headquarters guy. After Torch he filed a number of stories from the front lines and he spent a month or so in France after D-Day but mostly he was at “Allied Headquarters in North Africa” or SHAEF HQ. Baldwin rarely leaves New York and when he does it is usually for Washington D.C.
We have often discussed Baldwin but Middleton not so much. Still, by following these threads I have developed great respect for his reporting and insight. He was not an Ernie Pyle front line guy, but he seemed to have the ability to penetrate the fog of war and explain what was really going on. Of course, if he could stand with Ike and shoot the breeze, he probably had some darn good sources.
Thanks. Middleton’s photo certainly doesn’t suggest someone who has been on-the-march and roughing it. The fact that by war’s end his reporting hadn’t alienated Ike suggests political ability.
Well, Middleton was just being a good American. I still chuckle when I recall Churchill’s rants about Americans eating too much meat.
Looks like Bradley’s church was a post Christian liberal congregation even then. ‘Mythical heaven’.
Page 11: “Patton Has Fear of Another War”...and leads little children in singing Onward Christian Soldiers in his home church!
I never heard of the Central Christian Church but it is still there in Moberly, MO. I'm not sure what the point is of that "aggressive human effort" if heaven is just a myth.
Doesn’t look like they can swing a web page these days - couldn’t find it on Google, although their preschool appears to have a facebook page, and there are several directory type listings for it. Not showing up on the UCC locater page but you can find it on Google maps.
Not in an Episcopal church today.
Baldwin and Middleton got better at reporting as the war went on, just as the Americans got better at fighting. Another reporter who impressed me was Ralph Parker, who covered the Russo-German War. His reporting was perceptive and accurate. Sometimes he was given more information by the normally secretive Soviets than SHAEF provided to the American press.
Stilwell to Reporter: How many troops do you think it will take to contour Japan?
Reporter: “Half a million but I am not a general.”
Three German soldiers executed by German Executioner for hiding pistols. Warrants issued by Montgomery?
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