Posted on 07/24/2015 4:41:36 AM PDT by Homer_J_Simpson
John Toland, The Rising Sun: The Decline and Fall of the Japanese Empire, 1936-1945
Winston S. Churchill, Triumph and Tragedy
http://www.etherit.co.uk/month/6/24.htm
July 24th, 1945 (TUESDAY)
FRANCE: Paris: Paul Reynaud and Edouard Daladier, both former premiers, and the former president, Albert Lebrun testify against Marshal Petain.
GERMANY: The Potsdam Declaration is agreed to by Churchill, Truman and Stalin; after Stalin is informed of the existence of the Atomic Bomb. Truman decides that it will be used, if the Japanese do not come to terms. The Potsdam agreement will be released on the 26th.
JAPAN: Tokyo: Japan says that it is open to peace negotiations but not to threats.
15 US carriers and 4 British carriers begin a series of raids against the Japanese Home Islands. (See) Tonight the BBs will bombard Kushimoto and Shionomisaki.
Amplifying the above, American and British carrier-based aircraft from Task Force 38 and Task Group 37.2 and begin attacks on targets in the Inland Sea, especially looking for warships hidden in coves at the Kobe and Kure naval bases. During this first day of operations, 1,747 sorties are flown and the Americans sink the battleship-carrier HIJMS Hyuga, the heavy cruiser HIJMS Tone, a training ship, a target ship and a guardboat; they also damage the aircraft carrier HIJMS Ryuho, the battleship-carrier HIJMS Ise, battleship HIJMS Haruna, heavy cruiser HIJMS Aoba, light cruiser HIJMS Oyodo, and 11 other ships. British aircraft damage the escort aircraft carrier HIJMS Kaiyo.
801 RN Sqn, Seafire a/c, S/Lt (A) Glenford “Glen” Emerson “Bid” Beddoe RNVR (Canadian) from HMS Implacable hit by flak and spun into sea during attack on Awa Shima, southern Honshu Island.
The Twentieth Air Force dispatches 625 B-29 Superfortresses in 7 missions against targets in the Nagoya and Osaka, Japan areas; 1 B-29 is lost.
- Mission 284: 82 B-29s attack the Sumitomo Light Metals Industries propeller factory at Osaka; most of the machine tools had been removed but the facility is completely wrecked; 4 others hit alternate targets; 1 B-29 is lost.
- Mission 285: 81 B-29s hit the Kawanishi Aircraft Plant at Takarazuka destroying 77% of the plant; 3 others hit alternate targets.
- Mission 286: 153 B-29s hit the Osaka Arsenal and Kuwana; the arsenal sustains additional damage amounting to 10% of the original roof area; 9 others hit alternate targets;
- Mission 287: 66 B-29s attack the Aichi aircraft plant at Eitoku; the plant sustains its heaviest damage of the war; 5 others hit alternate targets.
- Missions 288 and 289: 113 B-29s hit the urban are of the city of Tsu; 2 others hit alternate targets.
- Mission 290: 77 B-29s attack the Nakajima plant at Handa destroying the principal assembly buildings; 1 B-29 hit an alternate target.
- 91 P-51s, operating out of Iwo Jima, hit airfields and other tactical targets at Hamamatsu, Suruga Bay, and other points in the Nagoya, Japan area.
509BG perform another Pumpkin Raid. [Once again, the following chart is presented in a more legible form at the linked original - HJS.]
Ops. Miss. Date Aircraft Cdr. Crew Bombing Target Lat Long Result
24 7 24/07/45 44-27296 Price B-7 Primary Radar Ogaki urban Unobserved
24 5 24/07/45 44-27297 Bock C-13 Primary Visual Sumitomo Aluminum, Niihama Excellent
24 5 24/07/45 44-27298 Taylor A-1 Primary Visual Sumitomo Copper Ref. Niihama Excellent
24 5 24/07/45 44-27299 Devore A-3 Secondary Visual Sumitomo Rayon, Niihama Excellent
24 6 24/07/45 44-27300 Westover A-4 Primary Visual Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Excellent
24 7 24/07/45 44-27301 Eatherly C-11 Secondary Visual Toyo Rayon Factory, Otsu Excellent
24 7 24/07/45 44-27302 McKnight B-8 Secondary Visual Heavy Industry, Yokkaichi Harbour Excellent
24 6 24/07/45 44-27353 Albury C-15 Primary Visual RR Yards, Kobe Excellent
24 6 24/07/45 44-86291 Ray C-14 Primary Visual Kawasaki Factory, Kobe Excellent
24 6 24/07/45 44-86292 Lewis B-9 Primary Visual Steel Works, Kobe Unobserved
(David Hebditch)
Task Group 35.3 consisting of 4 light cruisers and 6 destroyers conducts a high-speed antishipping sweep off Japan.
CHINA: 100+ Fifth Air Force B-24s fly their first strike from Okinawa, bombing the Chiang Wan Airfield north of Shanghai; Seventh Air Force B-25s from Okinawa hit Wusung and Lunghua Airfields in the Shanghai area while A-26 Invaders and B-25s attack the Tachang and Tinghai Airfields; and fighter-bombers hit shipping and targets of opportunity throughout the general area attacked by the bombers.
BOUGAINVILLE: Private Frank John Partridge (1924-64) of the 8th Battalion of the Australian Military Forces, was awarded the VC for action on 24 July 1945, Frank was the first Militia man to be awarded the VC . He seized a bunker and rushed another before wounds forced him to halt.
MALAYA: Whilst engaged in preparatory clearing operations for the forthcoming landings in Malaya (Operation Zipper) minesweeper HMS Squirrel is mined and has to be scuttled by gunfire. There are 7 casualties. Location: off Phuket Island in the Gulf of Thailand. (Alex Gordon)(108)
CANADA: Corvettes HMCS The Pas and Rimouski paid off Sorel, Province of Quebec.
U.S.A.: “If we enter into this treaty, we take the power away from the Congress, and the President can send troops all over the world to fight battles everywhere. If you say that is the policy of this country, I say the American people will never support any senator or representative who advocates that policy, and do not make any mistake about it.”
— Senator Burton Wheeler during Senate debate over U.S. entry into the United Nations (Mark Logsden)
President Truman approves the plans for the invasion of Kyushu.
Various items salvaged from the French passenger liner Normandie will be auctioned this week. The liner was undergoing converstion to a troop transport when a welders torch started a fire on February 9, 1942.
Monsignor Mansour Stephen of Brooklyn’s Roman Catholic church of Our Lady of Lebanon will acquire some items for their new church. The Bronze Doors ($1,025), ten bronze plaques ($975), a bronze railing ($155), a cloisonn
enamel bas-relief of a Norman knight ($380), and a bronze statue ($690) entitled “La Paix” (Peace). Slightly remodeled, “La Paix” will be enshrined in the church’s square tower. (John Nicholas and Will Rinaman)
— Senator Burton Wheeler during Senate debate over U.S. entry into the United Nations (Mark Logsden)
Sigh...
Ichigo (EE-chee-go) has a number of meanings in Japanese. One is "strawberry," 苺. Another is "one specific moment": one half of the Japanese proverb ichigo ichie, 一期一会, literally, "One specific moment, one meeting," but metaphorically meaning a specific moment in which you experience the whole of life. It is a saying often heard in relation to the Japanese tea ceremony, with the sense that experiencing a specific tea ceremony, the host and guest meet as if they were experiencing a whole lifetime.
Having said that, Operation Ichigo is written 一号作戦 ichigo sakusen, and simply means, "Operation Number One." It's hard to know whether that was meant as an allusion to either strawberry (one can imagine an American military attack called "Operation Strawberry," though the choice would be unlikely), and/or to a specific moment where the fate of the Kwantung Army was to be settled, or to no allusion at all.
One more quick point before switching over to work: we talked about Kure a few weeks ago, how it was upwind about 10 miles from Hiroshima, and suffered from radioactive dust for quite a while afterward. Kure was the main base for the IJN, while Yokosuka near Tokyo and Sasebo in the south were ancillary, but it must have been the nearness to Hiroshima, along with the obliteration from the successive Superfort bombings, that reversed this, with Yokosuka being the COMSUBGRU7 and Seventh Fleet headquarters to this day, and Sasebo being the gateway to USN activities off Taiwan, the China coast, and Viet Nam.
Someday canned beer will be back
Of course, Stalin knew all about the US atomic program, from his many spies in that program. Stalin is still working hard to ingratiate himself with the Brits and Americans, although they now see that they have less need of his military assistance.
The British and Americans are planning a 1946 Big Three meeting in Washington, leading to a postwar Peace Conference. Stalin almost certainly had no intention of attending as he never left the area controlled by the Red Army.
The US Navy is well aware that at least three Japanese subs are operating in the area of the Philippine Sea Frontier, the naval administrative zone covering the Philippine Sea between Tinian and Leyte. Apparently one destroyer has already been sunk by these subs. I would not consider these waters safe for transit.
Isn’t 5:31 a.m. a bit early for beer?
...or late...
Stalin wants the Japanese to hold out a little longer so he can replace them in Manchuria and Korea just like he replaced the Germans in Eastern Europe.
And where the Red Army goes, the Commissars follow like camp whores. Or like cockroaches; once they infest your country, you can’t get rid of them. It’s already obvious in Eastern Europe.
I agree with you. Of course Stalin knew. The Roosevelt Administration was rotten with communists.
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