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http://www.etherit.co.uk/month/6/23.htm

July 23rd, 1945 (MONDAY)

UNITED KINGDOM: Destroyer HMS Trafalgar commissioned.

FRANCE: Paris: The trial of Philippe Petain was twice suspended today in disorder. Paul Reynaud, the former president of the council of ministers, accused Petain of plotting to betray France in 1940, Petain, who is 89, was the hero of France in 1914-18, but collaborated with the Nazis as head of state from 1940-45. He denied the court’s competence to try him and declared: “A marshal of France asks mercy of none.”

General Jacob L. Devers assumes command of the US Army Ground Forces. (Marc James Small)
JAPAN: In the Kurile Islands, 2 Eleventh Air Force B-24s radar-bomb Kurabu Cape Airfield on Paramushiru Island.

Far East Air Forces B-24s bomb Miho and Saeki.

Karafuto: USS Barb sinks a train. More...

CANADA: Corvettes HMCS Collingwood, Lethbridge and Lunenburg paid off Sorel, Province of Quebec.
Minesweeper HMCS Gaspe and HMC ML 113 paid off.

U.S.A.: The first passenger train observation car is placed in service by the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad.

The assistant G-2, Island Command, Peleliu, LT. W.C. Phelan, USNR produced the document titled “Japanese Military Caves on Peleliu: “KNOW YOUR ENEMY”, CinCPac-CinCPOA BULLETIN 173-45. It consists of 45 pages and is an extensive study and analysis of the cave system found on Peleliu. (William L. Howard)

Life Magazine reports, complete with diagrams and artist’s renderings on the terrifying Sun Gun that the Nazis had been planning. The Nazis were working on building a space station before the war, and the big obstacle had been creating a rocket powerful enough to reach space. The Sun Gun was going to be a huge mile-wide mirror, built a piece at a time like a puzzle, orbiting the earth to focus the rays of the sun to incinerate cities and boil oceans. (W Rinaman)

Sirs:

Re letter from Army Sergeant’s Name Withheld in TIME [July 23] in which Sgt.

Withheld intimates that the Catholic Church is responsible for the disunity between the Americans and the Russians:

Catholics have been brought up to fear and dislike Communism because of its avowed ungodliness. As Catholics we are indeed convinced that Christianity and Communism are irreconcilable in the same way that as Americans we believe that totalitarianism and democracy are incompatible.

And too, it is high time that a distinction be made between hating Communism and hating Russians, hating Naziism and hating Germans. We hate no individual; we only hate his ideals.

Nevertheless, insofar as such an action does not interfere with our own way of life, we heartily ratify the action of our Government in joining hands with a state no matter what color its banner, if such a union will further our aim of beating Japan. Few Quixotes still proclaim that this war is being fought for ideals, and I believe there is no American — Protestant, Catholic, etc. — who is unwilling to welcome any type of government into an alliance which will cooperate in preventing future wars.

William F. Buckley Jr.

Lieutenant, U.S.A.

Camp Gordon, Ga.

(William Rinaman)

Minesweeper USS Gavia commissioned.