Posted on 07/31/2015 4:59:05 AM PDT by Homer_J_Simpson
Major General H.W. Blakeley, USA, Ret., 32d Infantry Division World War II
Stephen E. Ambrose, Band of Brothers
http://www.etherit.co.uk/month/6/31.htm
July 31st, 1945 (TUESDAY)
AUSTRIA: Linz: Pierre Laval, the puppet leader of German-occupied Vichy France, surrenders to US forces. The French will commit him to trial and execute him. This morning he landed at Linz and is now in the hands of the Free French army at Baden-Baden, in Germany. After the Germans took him from France to Germany, he fled to Italy before taking refuge in General Franco’s Spain. But after a “frank” talk between Franco and Sir Victor Mallet, the British ambassador in Madrid, Laval left Barcelona in the same Junkers Ju88 aircraft (a present from the Nazis) in which he had escaped from France. He was accompanied by his wife and a large quantity of luggage. He is expected to arrive soon in Paris, where he is second on the list, after Petain, of those charged with treason.
Laval had served as minister of state under Henri Petain after the French surrender in June 1940 but was dismissed by Petain in December 1940 for negotiating privately with Germany. By 1942, Laval had won Hitler’s confidence and became premier of Vichy France and Petain was relegated to a figurehead. Laval collaborated with Hitler’s programs of oppression and genocide and was forced to flee east after the Allied liberation of France.
EUROPE: When the fighting finally stopped in Europe some 11,078,000 non-German men, women and children were homeless refugees. Some had fled before advancing armies, others had been forcibly deported by the Nazis, others still were ex-PoWs. About a quarter of the population of Germany was also destitute.
The Allied authorities were faced with a vast multi-lingual mass of destitute people - hungry, sick and often mentally disturbed. Many set off immediately on foot for their homelands, turning war-torn Europe into a huge web of chaotic migratory paths. Officials feared that the precarious post-war order would break down. It is thanks to the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration, in co-operation with organizations such as the Red Cross, that some 8,221,000 people have now been repatriated.
The displaced person, as they officially known, are first segregated according to nationality. Even this first step is complicated. Some survivors are so severely traumatized that they have no memory of their former lives. Others, many of them those whose homelands are now under Soviet domination, do not wish to return to their former homes. From camps divided by nationality the people are then transported by air, sea and land to reception centres in their native lands. Here they are given medical examinations, food, clothing, information about lost relatives, money, and transport to whatever may be left of their former homes. The current rate of repatriation across Europe is some 78,500 people per day. In northern Italy alone there are 40 reception camps; one at Treviso can take 20,000 people a day.
In China the problem is on a different scale. Here 43 million people fled from the Japanese, abandoning everything that they owned to save their lives.
SINGAPORE:The four-man midget submarine XE.3, commanded by Lieutenant Ian Edward Fraser (b. 1920), RNR, crept into the Johore Straits at Singapore to attack the Japanese heavy cruiser Takao, whilst XE.1 headed for Myoko. After 11 hours bumping along the bottom in often dangerously shallow water, Fraser managed to position XE.3 directly below Takao, and his diver, L/S James Joseph Magennis (1919-86) RN, squeezed out a hatch which could only be partly opened, blocked by the cruiser’s hull, to attached limpet mines to the her. The task was made even more difficult by problems with his breathing apparatus. Once Magennis had returned to XE.3, Fraser released the submarine’s main weapons - large explosive charges carried on each side of the vessel. However, one of the racks for the limpet mines would not release, upsetting the trim of the submarine; Magennis once more had to swim outside to help free it, which he managed after several minutes of difficult work. XE.3 was then able to make her escape. Meanwhile, XE.1 could not find Myoko, so her crew decided also to attack Takao, even though there was a risk that XE.3’s charges might go off whilst they were underneath the cruiser. Charges dropped, XE.1 followed her sister out to sea. Takao was badly damaged by the explosions and never went to sea again. Fraser and Magennis both received the Victoria Cross.
JAPAN: Over Japan, the US Far East Air Force dispatches 80+ B-24s to pound the Kagoshima railroad yards and several other targets in the general area including the Sasebo naval base, Yaki-shima, and Nagasaki; A-26 Invaders and B-25s bomb Kanoya and Miyazaki Airfields and nearby targets, the Sasebo naval base, Marushima, warehouses at Nagasaki, and a factory and power plant on Koyagi Island; P-51s attack flak positions at Moji, blast shipping at Iki Island and off the northwest and west coast of Kyushu, hit an island west-southwest of Sasebo, bomb railroad targets and warehouses in the Izumi area, and in general attack the railroad and road net and other communications targets throughout Kyushu and P-61 Black Widows continue harassing missions during the night.
USN’s Task Force 38 and RN’s Task Group 37.2 cease flying operations and retire from an oncoming typhoon.
CANADA: Minesweeper HMCS Star and HMC ML 101 paid off.
Minesweepers HMCS Truro and Trois-Rivieres transferred to RCMP at Sydney, Nova Scotia for rum running patrol duties. Renamed Herches and MacBrien respectively. Plans to transfer HMCS Lachine as Starnes and Digby as Perry cancelled.
U.S.A.: Washington: Today the US secretary of war, Henry Stimson, sent President Truman a memorandum on how to persuade Japan to surrender. As part of a package of measures which also includes conventional bombing, invasion and diplomacy, he took it for granted that the US would use the atomic bomb now under development. Policymakers are aware of the appalling effects of atomic bombs; but they are also concerned at possible Allied casualties in an invasion of Japan, estimated at 500,000. The formal decision was recommended by a US government committee on 31 May: “We could not give the Japanese any warning ... the most desirable target would be a vital war plant ... closely surrounded by workers’ houses,” it reported. Both Mr. Stimson and Mr. Churchill have made it plain that they consider the bomb a weapon of war like any other. There is little dissent among top officials or scientists, though some scientists long involved in the project have doubts about using it.
The United States Navy redesignates its Boeing B-17F and G aircraft as the PB-1 Fortress. (23)
Destroyer USS Richard E Kraus laid down.
Destroyers USS Kenneth D Bailey, Floyd B Parks, Sarsfield commissioned.
Thank you so much for your diligent efforts in this series, Homer.
Only about a week left to go; the bombs are probably already at Tinian by now.
George Takei is not pleased.
One of the quirks of entertainment history, demonstrating the lack of American understanding of Asia throughout much of the early-to-mid 1900s...the sidekick in The Green Hornet is Kato (pronounced KAY-toe, not KAH-toe as a Japanese would pronounce it), which is a Japanese name, except that the sidekick is Filipino--and in the TV series, played by someone who was 3/4 Chinese and 1/4 German.
OTOH, the supporting character in Star Trek is Sulu, which is a Filipino name, except that the character is Japanese.
I had know idea Japans defenses were decimated to the point we could park Destroyers off their coast recking havoc with our 16 inch guns. NiCE!
Jeez, I read that one headline as...
Army releases Eleanor Roosevelt.
I didn’t know they had her but they should have never let her go.
I think 5 in. was about the biggest the DDs had.
“Stalin Slightly Ill”
Sometime during the course of the meeting Stalin had a slight heart attack and the Soviets hushed it up.
I don’t know if Stalin had the heart before or after Truman told him of the Bomb.
Thanks again for all your great work in this thread, Homer.
Stalin Ill
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Stalin
Death and legacy
Joseph Stalin, lying in state in Hall of Columns of the House of Unions in Moscow.
Stalin’s health deteriorated towards the end of World War II. He suffered from atherosclerosis from his heavy smoking, a mild stroke around the time of the Victory Parade, and a severe heart attack in October 1945.[301]
In the early morning hours of 1 March 1953, after an all-night dinner and a movie,[302] Stalin arrived at his Kuntsevo residence 15 km west of Moscow centre, with interior minister Lavrentiy Beria and future premiers Georgy Malenkov, Nikolai Bulganin, and Nikita Khrushchev, where he retired to his bedroom to sleep. At dawn, Stalin did not emerge from his room.
Stalin’s grave in the Kremlin Wall Necropolis
Although his guards thought that it was strange not to see him awake at his usual time, they were strictly instructed not to bother him and left him alone the entire day. At around 10 p.m., he was discovered by Peter Lozgachev, the Deputy Commandant of Kuntsevo, who entered his bedroom to check on him and recalled the scene of Stalin lying on his back on the floor of his room beside his bed, wearing pyjama bottoms and an undershirt, with his clothes soaked in stale urine. A frightened Lozgachev asked Stalin what happened to him, but all he could get out of him was unintelligible responses that sounded like “Dzhhhhh.” Lozgachev used the bedroom telephone to frantically call a few party officials; he told them that Stalin may have had a stroke and asked them to send good doctors to the Kuntsevo residence immediately.[303][304] Lavrentiy Beria was informed and arrived a few hours afterwards. The doctors arrived in the early morning of 2 March when they changed Stalin’s bedclothes and tended to him. They diagnosed him with a cerebral hemorrhage (stroke) caused by hypertension (high blood pressure), with stomach hemorrhage facilitating.[305] He was treated in his dacha with leeches, as was customary at the time.[306] On March 3 his double Felix Dadaev was called back from vacation to Moscow “to be ready to stand in for Stalin if needed”, but he never needed to. On March 4 Stalin’s illness was broadcast in the media with surprising detail such as pulse, blood pressure and urinalysis; for convenience the time of his stroke was said to be March 2 and his location as Moscow. The bedridden Stalin died on 5 March 1953, at the age of 74.[1]
There is an adding machine in the press room but it only goes up to millions............................
RE: Page three and the USS Guam. Here is a link to a Freeper Foxhole thread on the USS Alaska CB-1 from way back in the day.
The USS Alaska and USS Guam were kind if odd ships, about the closest ship type to them would have been the German “Pocket Battleships” Obviously bigger than the current heavy cruiser classes but not quite big enough to rate as a battle cruiser regardless what our intrepid reporter thinks.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-vetscor/1698603/posts
Regards
alfa6 ;>}
Churchill Refuses Knighthood Honor
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Declining_a_British_honour
Info on the order of the garter which Churchill declined:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Order_of_the_Garter
Here is info on British honors:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orders,_decorations,_and_medals_of_the_United_Kingdom
One of the symptoms of this is that a Japanese can be easily insulted by any perceived put-down. For example, when the Versailles Treaty established the 5-5-3 warship rule, with Japan being the 3, the Japanese perceived this as a put-down, which would have to be avenged at some point. When America seemed not to be bothered by European colonies in Africa and Asia, but did seem to be bothered by Japanese colonies in Asia, that was also a perceived put-down, and the Japanese had to do what it took to show the Americans that they were just as much Big Boys as the British, French, or Dutch.
Another symptom is that a Japanese can know how to be graceful, but generally not how to be gracious. "Gracious" means to have the ability to give grace, and that is a uniquely Judeo-Christian concept. A few months ago I told the story related to me by a Marine who fought on Okinawa, how when they captured their first Japanese they all acted like they were going to torture and kill him, until another Marine said, "C'mon guys, someone give him a cigarette," and they immediately changed their demeanor to offering the captured Japanese cigarettes and water, etc. The Japanese would never have done the same.
Part of the reason for this is that the Japanese had their scores to settle, such as were discussed above. But there is something else here. There is no concept in Japanese ethics of the inherent dignity of the individual, something which requires a belief in a monotheistic Judeo-Christian God who ascribes dignity to all. The Japanese concepts of giri, or duty to recompense those who have given you something, and on, the shame associated with not doing so, mean that one keeps very strict accounts: if I owe you something you get it, but if I don't owe you something, you don't get it. And this duty/shame is handed down through generations: if my great-grandfather received something from your great-grandfather, at some point someone will have to pay it back in some way.
Which leads to one more thing. The Japanese, I think, believe something that they began thinking during the 80s, but then screwed up on with their own bubble economy that collapsed in '89: they believe that they have finally paid us back for the graciousness with which we handled them in the Occupation and beyond. This means the US-Japan alliance now hangs in the balance, and desperately needs someone who understands the major differences between them and us, and the subtleties of their own cultural thinking. The last person we need in Tokyo is Caroline Kennedy, the last person we need directing her is John Kerry, and the very last person we need being the face of America is Barack Obama. Shinzo Abe is dealing with his own Obama-clones in trying to thread the needle between building a necessary Japanese military and not feeding the nationalist desire to Putin-like attempt to rebuild the Empire, and he needs the support of American leaders who understand the times and what is necessary. But then, our present leader thinks our enemies are our friends, and our friends are our enemies. God help us.
Iwo P51s are in the news a lot. Captured airmen were allowed to give any info to ease their situation. Good info here:
http://506thfightergroup.org/mustangsofiwo.asp
In July, the last full month before the Japanese agreed to unconditional surrender, the Iwo Jima fighter groups received some P-51D-25s as replacement aircraft. Many of these had the lead-computing K-14 gyro gunsight in place of the old N-9 which required a good deal of skill and “Kentucky Windage” in making deflection shots. The K-14 required a smooth touch on the controls to be truly effective, but was deadly accurate in nearly any tactical situation. It could only be defeated if the target aircraft rapidly reversed its turn in a curving combat, momentarily tumbling the gyros when the P-51 attempted to follow.
One 21st group pilot familiar with the K-14 was shot down and captured by the Japanese. Under standing authority from intelligence officers, captured airmen were allowed to divulge almost any information which would ease their situation, and the 21st pilot explained about the K-14.
The Japanese took this information as a lesson learned, but the tale has an ironic and—to the Mustang pilots—a humorous end. In one of the last large dogfights the Mustangs fought over Japan, at least eight Franks were shot down because their pilots assumed all P-51s now had the K-14 when actually only a relatively few replacement aircraft had the lead-computing sight. When the Franks reversed their turns to topple the K-14 gyros they presented their pursuers with a brief no-deflection shot for which the N-9 was ideally suited! Had the Franks kept turning in their original direction they would have stood a good chance of outmaneuvering the 51s.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.
