Posted on 03/22/2011 5:06:57 AM PDT by Homer_J_Simpson
Winston S. Churchill, The Grand Alliance
#1 - “Frenesi”-Artie Shaw
#2 - “It All Comes Back to Me Now” - Gene Krupa, with Howard Dulany
#3 - “Perfidia” - Xavier Cugat
#4 - “Song of the Volga Boatmen” - Glenn Miller
#5 - “Oh Look at Me Now” - Tommy Dorsey, with Frank Sinatra and the Pied Pipers
#6 - “I Hear a Rhapsody” - Charlie Barnet, with Bob Carroll
#7 – “Ampola” ((Pretty Little Poppy) - Jimmy Dorsey, with Bob Eberly and Helen O’Connell
#8 - “Anvil Chorus” – Glenn Miller
#9 – “I Hear a Rhapsody” – Jimmy Dorsey , with Bob Eberly
#10 - “I Dreamt I Dwelt in Harlem” – Glenn Miller
http://www.onwar.com/chrono/1941/mar41/f22mar41.htm
German raiders returning home
Saturday, March 22, 1941 www.onwar.com
In the North Atlantic... The Scharnhorst and Gneisenau reach French waters. As well as the dispersing convoys found, one other ship has been sunk, bring the total to 22 ships of 115,600 tons. Considerable disruption to the British convoy system has been caused.
In East Africa... In the advance west of Jijiga the Allied forces overrun another defensive position at the Babile Pass.
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/andrew.etherington/month/thismonth/22.htm
March 22nd, 1941
UNITED KINGDOM: The government agrees to let US grain ships deliver an emergency cargo of flour to Vichy France.
Plymouth: Fire appliances are sent from all over the south-west to relieve the city’s exhausted firemen.
RAF Bomber Command: 2 Group: A Blenheim of 107 Sqn. sinks a 2,000-ton ship off Norway.
London:
Churchill sends a personal letter to Cvetkovic telling him that Hitler and Mussolini faced certain defeat. If Yugoslavia stooped to the fate of Romania, or committed the crime of Bulgaria and became accomplice in the attempted assassination of Greece, her ruin would be certain and irreparable.
ALBANIA: Italian Army chaplains climb Monastery Hill under a flag of truce, trying to arrange a cease-fire in order to bury the many dead of the Puglie and Bari Divisions which cover the slopes. The Greeks refuse when the Italians cannot guarantee that the cessation of hostilities will apply to the entire front of the offensive. (Mike Yaklich)
YUGOSLAVIA: Belgrade: The British Minister passes on to London the contents of the secret sections of the Yugoslav agreement to join the Axis. They include opt out clauses so that Yugoslavia does not have to give military assistance to any other Axis power. Yugoslavia would not be required to come into the war against Greece. The opt out clause could be made public if the Yugoslavs thought it necessary ‘for compelling domestic reasons’ such as to calm any unrest about joining the Axis.
ETHIOPIA: In the advance west of Jijiga the Allied forces overrun another defensive position at the Babile Pass. The Italians evacuate Harar, west of Jijiga, and declare it an “open city” and in western Ethiopia, Belgian colonial troops capture Gambela. (Jack McKillop)
ATLANTIC OCEAN: The German battleships Scharnhorst and Gneisenau reach French waters and enter Brest after a 20-day cruise. As well as the dispersing convoys found, one other ship has been sunk, bring the total to 22 ships of 115,600 tons. Considerable disruption to the British convoy system has been caused. (Jack McKillop)
HMS Ark Royal re-establishes air patrols in the hope of relocating Scharnhorst and Gneisenau. During the day a catapult malfunction destroys a Fairey Swordfish; flinging the fuselage into the sea ahead of the carrier. Unable to stop, Ark Royal ran over the Swordfish and is overhead when the aircraft’s depth charges detonate. Ark Royal needs to return to Gibraltar for repairs.
U.S.A.: Actor James Stewart is inducted into the U.S. Army at Fort MacArthur. (Jack McKillop)
Washington: The United Press News Agency reports:
The US Credit Commission has published a report which General Marshall read at a secret session on March 5. The report explains that at the end of February the USA received further precise data about the Panzer divisions that Germany deployed last year in its armoured drive to the English Channel. The US Army is going to form eight armoured divisions of this kind. At the moment it has only two.
ANTARCTICA: An emergency evacuation of East Base, U.S. Antarctic Service, Marguerite Bay, is carried out. Two Curtiss R4C Condor flights (Aviation Chief Machinist’s Mate Ashley C. Snow and Radioman First Class Earl B. Perce, naval aviation pilots) bring out the entire complement of 24 people to Mikkelson Island, the emergency landing field 25 miles (40 kilometres) northeast of Adelaide Island, whence they are taken on board miscellaneous auxiliary USS Bear (AG-29), which soon sails for Punta Arenas, Chile, to rendezvous with Interior Department motorship MS North Star.
The two R4C-1s used for the Antarctic exploration were former U.S. Marine Corps aircraft. The R4C-1 was a Curtiss Model AT-32E Condor, a twin-engine biplane transport that was really an anachronism when it flew on 30 January 1933. Newer, faster monoplanes like the Boeing 247 and Douglas DC-1 were being designed or produced but Eastern Air Transport and American Airways (later Eastern Airlines and American Airlines) bought them. The two Marine aircraft served with Marine Utility Squadron Six (VJ-6M), Aircraft One, Fleet Marine Force, based at Quantico, Virginia and VJ-7M, Aircraft Two, Fleet Marine Force, based at San Diego, California during the late 1930s.
Both aircraft were abandoned in Antarctica, the first on 3 January 1941 and the second on 22 March 1941. It would be nice if someone would dig down and see how these aircraft fared over the last 69 years.
Anyone wishing to see a photo of one of these two birds can go to:
http://oldairplanepictures.com/gallery2/main.php?g2_itemId=679
(Jack McKillop)
http://worldwar2daybyday.blogspot.com/
Day 569 March 22, 1941
At 3 AM, German battlecruisers Scharnhorst and Gneisenau are met by destroyers from Brest and arrive safely in port at 7 AM. They have covered 17,800 miles in 60 days, sinking or capturing 22 merchant vessels (total 113,690 tons). Royal Navy sends destroyers HMS Kelly, Kipling, Kashmir and Jackal to intercept but it is too late.
Battle of Keren, Eritrea. British and Indian troops continue to hold Fort Dologorodoc despite fierce Italian counterattacks and shelling from across the Dongolaas Gorge. British make plans to remove Italians from positions overlooking the roadblock to allow sappers and miners to reopen the road.
Mid-Atlantic, halfway between Sierra Leone and Brazil, German armed merchant cruiser Kormoran stops empty British tanker Agnita with shellfire. After the crew abandons ship and is taken prisoner, Kormoran requires demolition charges plus 9 105mm shells and finally a torpedo to sink the empty ship.
No more reviews of Jimmy Stewart movies for the duration. I guess considering his job in the army we are fortunate he came back to make more movies. What this blurb doesn't mention is that he failed the army physical for being underweight for his height so he hired a personal trainer to help him bulk up to make the grade. Mission accomplished.
Thanks for the link. I saved it to use if the song remains in the Top 10. Since Dorsey’s version of “I Hear a Rhapsody” will be the #23 song of 1941 I am sure it will.
Think we’d see unions “acting patriotically” today? I doubt it.
Also, interesting that this is the date of the announcement about forming the Tuskeegee Airmen.
}:-)4
Maybe. Did you find that picture in Life magazine?
Even those unions only ‘acted patriotically’ right after the Army said they were all going to be fired and replaced by government workers. Yeah, suddenly after that they got AAALLL patriotic. Right...
Another interesting aspect of Jimmy Stewart’s entry into the Army was initially he was drafted. When he had his physical after being drafted is when he fail due to being underweight. It was the second time around when he volunteered when he finally met the weight requirement.
I wouldn’t mind road testing her.
Steering wheel is on the wrong side, but is sure has all the bells and whistles.
“JEEP WAGONS’ GET TESTS AT FORT DIX
FORT DIX, N.J., march 21 - Driving one of the Army’s new “jeep wagons,” Major Gen. Clifford R Powell, Forty-fourth Division commander, passed the division’s “drivers clinic” today with flying colors
The tests comprised indoor and outdoor examinations and are conducted by enlisted personnel of the 119th Quartermaster Regiment. under the supervision of the New Jersey Motor Vehicle Department and the Pennsylvania State Police.
After driving the “jeep wagon,”, officially known as a command car, cross-country through muddy fields and up and down steep slopes in gravel pits on the west side of the camp, General Powell said he was convinced that the new vehicles could do everything “except swim or climb a tree.”
Considered far more rigid than the examinations for State drivers’ license, the Army test includes besides cross-country driving, indoor tests for color blindness, steering with an artificial horizon, headlight glare and coordination. About 30 per cent of the nearly 5,000 auto and truck drivers of the division have failed to pass the tests. Those with poor coordination or those suffering night blindness are permanently rejected, but those who fail the road tests receive further training.
More than 3,000 divisional licenses have been issued by Colonel David S. Hill, division quartermaster, to drive any government vehicle. General Powell will also receive one of the cards..............................................
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