Posted on 09/30/2011 4:40:11 AM PDT by Homer_J_Simpson
Winston S. Churchill, The Grand Alliance
Raiders Fly Far – 2-3
The International Situation – 2
Nazis Execute 3 Generals to Stem Revolt in Bohemia – 3-4
Czech Executions Mark Munich Pact Anniversary – 4
Spy Scare in Sofia – 4
Russians Strike in Center; Germans Report a Victory – 5
One-Year Soldiers Get Alternative to Draft – 5
British Confident at Singapore Base – 6
War Games Show Army Still Lags * – 7-8
Sons of Willkie and M’Phail are In the Navy Now (photo) – 8
The Texts of the Day’s Communiques on the War – 9-10
British Said to Use Smoke to Shield Cities from Air – 10
* This is one of Hanson W. Baldwin’s final reports from the Louisiana Manoeuvres (I always feel like I bought too many vowels when I write that word.) and Homer recommends it. It is a thought provoking look at the State of the U.S. Army in the Fall of 1941. On a side note, Baldwin’s recital of the conventional wisdom on African-Americans in the military is interesting and a little sad. I wonder if opinion will change by 1944, when the Red Ball Express begins rolling in France. Probably not much. (You can read CougarGA7’s review of the story of that outfit on the WWII + 70 general discussion thread.)
http://www.onwar.com/chrono/1941/sep41/f30sep41.htm
Germans take aim at Moscow
Tuesday, September 30, 1941 www.onwar.com
On the Eastern Front... German General Guderian’s Panzer Group 2 is moved north to form the right wing of the planned German attack on Moscow. They begin with an advance toward Orel and Bryansk. In the south, Kleist’s Panzer Group 1 attack from Dnepropetrocvsk. Soviet resistance is minimal.
In Moscow... An Allied planning conference continues. Harriman attends from the US, Beaverbrook, from Britain and Molotov heads the Soviet delegation.
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/andrew.etherington/month/thismonth/30.htm
September 30th, 1941
UNITED KINGDOM: Submarine HMS Taurus laid down. (Dave Shirlaw)
GERMANY: U-801 laid down.
U-205 suffered a blow when one of its men, Fähnrich zur See Fritz Säger, took his own life. (Dave Shirlaw)
U.S.S.R.: Guderian’s Second panzer Army has completed its move north to be the right wing of the German attack on Moscow. The Kiev battle is complete, which is why Hitler moved it to the south. These units begin to advance from Glukhov toward Orel and Bryansk.
Kleist’s 1st Panzer Army attacks east from the Dniepr at Dnepropetrovsk, and easily breaks through the Soviet defensive line. They are headed for Donetsk and Berdyansk on the Sea of Azov.
Leningrad’s defenders have stopped the Germans seven miles from the city, within sight of its church spires. Today General Zhukov arrives to take charge of the cities defences.
Kiev: Members of Einsatzgruppe C, led by Otto Rasch, are relaxing at the end of a particularly efficient piece of work. In two days they have murdered 33,771 Jews at Babi Yar, a ravine on the outskirts of the city.
Four days ago they put up posters asking Jews to report for resettlement. Rasch is proud to report that none of those who duly reported apparently realized that they were to die. The masses gathered at the prescribed place with their bundles of food and clothing. Divided into groups of 100, they were marched to the edge of the ravine.
The SS men varied their routine. First they machine-gunned the Jews and kicked them off the edge. Then they made them walk a plank and shot them in the neck. Children were simply thrown over.
The dead and half-dead piled up at the bottom, slowly moving as the living struggled to prevent themselves being suffocated by the growing weight of the dead. Moaning and sobbing rose up from the bleeding, bruised mound. When there was a break in the killing at the top of the ravine, the SS moved in at the bottom and used pistols to despatch those who still moved.
Miraculously, a handful of Jews escaped from Babi Yar. Among them was Dina Pronicheva, who pretended to be dead.
MEDITERRANEAN SEA: Destroyers HMS Legion and Gurkha sank the Italian submarine Adua off the Algerian coast]. (Dave Shirlaw)
TURKEY embargoes chrome exports to Germany.
CANADA: HMS Seaborn renamed HMCS Sambro and became depot ship Halifax, Nova Scotia for destroyers and auxiliaries. HMS Seaborn was formerly the US yacht Seaborn and had been acquired by Northumberland Ferries Ltd. in 1939 and renamed the Charles A. Dunning. But she was almost immediately taken over for naval service and given her old name. On 7 December 1939 she was commissioned HMS Seaborn, flagship of the Rear Admiral with the 3rd Battle Squadron. When the 3rd Battle Squadron was withdrawn to the United Kingdom she was renamed HMCS Sambro, depot ship for destroyers and auxiliaries. On 6 March 1943 she was renamed HMCS Venture II, depot ship for fairmiles. To avoid confusion, the schooner Venture was re-designated Harbour Craft 190 and continued her duties as before. At the same time the depot ship dropped her Roman suffix and became the third Canadian Venture. She remained HMCS Venture until paid off on 14 January 1946. Sold for commercial purposes, she still existed in 1953 under the Panamanian flag.
Minesweeper HMCS Burlington arrived Halifax from builder Toronto, Ontario]. (Dave Shirlaw)
U.S.A.: US General Marshall directs MacArthur to arrange for the “regular use” of British and Imperial air fields at Port Darwin, Rabaul, Port Moresby, and Singapore, for the “emergency use” of fields in the Netherlands East Indies, and to ask the British to develop an additional air field in the northern part of Borneo.
Sayre writes to MacArthur to complain of MacArthur’s lack of co-operation with the High Commission in civil defence.
WPD develops plans for the stockpiling of ammunition and POL throughout the South-West Pacific. (Marc Small)
At the instigation of Arnold, Marshall offers MacArthur the choice of MG Lewis Brereton, MG Jacob E Fickel, or BG Walther H Frank to head up the expanded FEAF.
Glad to see the Brits are “confident” in the steady imporvements they’ve undertaken to make Singapore impregnable. No doubt when the Japanese come in in their landing barges from the sea they’ll be shot to pieces. Oh, wait...
Oh, for sure Singapore is impregnable, a truly mighty fortress, protected to the north by hundreds of miles of impenetrable jungle.
Well, it sure is a relief to hear that Timoshenko’s brave Red Army men, inspired by their devotion to the glorious Stalin, have inflicted a decisive defeat on the fascist beasts under the command of the perfidous scum Guderian. I guess we will not have to worry about the crushed and burned out panzers of what was once the Second Panzer Group.
And as for this Col. Gen. Karl von Rundstedt, I haven’t heard of him before. Is he related to Field Marshal Gerd von Rundstedt, C in C of Army Group South? Funny that such high-ranking people with the same names should be in the same theater.
"Gassing tests are conducted at Auschwitz.
"3,500 Jews unable to escape from Ejszyszki, Lithuania, are locked in a synagogue and then moved to a cattle market, where they are denied food and water."
"Two Polish Jews doing forced labor pose with their German bosses and tormentors.
The pained expressions on the faces of the two Jewish men stand in stark contrast to the smiles of the German overseers.
The sight of two well-dressed Jewish men shoveling coal and sweeping the streets apparently brought joy to the faces of these Nazis."
That's why I shed no tears over Dresden.
"Soviet troops in Kiev, Ukraine, booby-trap two hotels, the post office, a radio station, and other major buildings, which are exploded via wireless radio after German troops have settled in.
About 1,000 Germans are killed.
The Germans immediately plot a reprisal."
"Beginning in September 1941, German Jews had to wear the Star of David on their clothes.
The star, which made their "racial" background readily identifiable, contained the word Jude.
This Jewish couple was photographed on the streets of Berlin.
With the stars, they had lost any hope of escaping torment at the hands of Nazis they encountered.
The stars also made it easier for the Germans to identify Jews for deportation to the East, which was tantamount to a death sentence."
The Wehrmacht's War of Annihilation
"When Hitler launched his campaign in the East, the German Wehrmacht (Armed Forces) became direct, active partners in his racial war of annihilation.
It engaged not only in military operations but also in ideologically motivated actions.
"Military guidelines and pronouncements by high-ranking officers mirrored Hitler's conviction that the campaign against the Soviet Union was no ordinary war.
Attempting to justify the planned total eradication of "Jewish Bolshevism" in the quest for Lebensraum (Living space), field officers--including Field Marshal Walther von Brauchitsch (pictured) --stressed the necessity of brutal measures.
Consequently, the ensuing campaign of devastation trampled on the traditional international rules of war.
Captured Red Army soldiers were not seen as "comrades in arms" but as "useless mouths to feed" who could be ruthlessly liquidated.
"It is estimated that between two and three million Soviet prisoners of war perished at the hands of the German military.
Most were allowed to starve to death.
Others died of exposure after having their warm clothing confiscated, or from exhaustion or epidemics.
Others, if they could not keep up, were shot during long marches to prison camps.
Survivors suffered horribly as slave laborers and subjects of medical experiments.
"The Army turned over to Einsatzkommandos for immediate execution more than 500,000 "politically undesirable prisoners of war." Selected were Communist functionaries, members of the intelligentsia, and all Jews.
Wehrmacht units also assisted the Einsatzgruppen by physically securing areas surrounding mass shootings.
They sometimes participated in "combing" operations to ferret out and "cleanse" captured Soviet territory of Jews.
"Frustrated by partisan guerrilla activity, the Wehrmacht's reprisal policy featured public hangings and executions of large numbers of defenseless civilians.
Jews became easy targets because of their identification as purported supporters of Bolshevism.
Troops shot those "walking about" during curfew, burned down entire villages suspected of harboring partisans, drove off livestock, destroyed food reserves, and sometimes forced the rounded-up Jews to clear minefields with rakes.
"An Einsatzgruppe A report credited the Wehrmacht with shooting 19,000 partisans and "criminals," identified as "mostly Jews," by the end of 1941.
"The Wehrmacht even took part in ghetto liquidations, usually under the guise of "anti-partisan" campaigns. In the fall of 1941, the Army helped murder an additional 20,000 Jews in eight such "actions" in the Belorussian region alone. In Latvia, firing squads that murdered captive Jews included Wehrmacht personnel.
Anti-partisan reprisal massacres of civilians (again, mainly Jews) and cooperative undertakings between army units, Einsatzgruppen, and police also occurred in the Balkans, and typified the Wehrmacht's complicity in the Holocaust."
Dozens of cities in Germany and Japan -- plus cities bombed by Germans and Japanese in the USSR and China -- suffered deaths and destruction comparable to Dresden.
So what made Dresden so special?
Answer: nothing whatever, except, except...
The bombings of Dresden from February through April, 1945, bracket (imho) the time when Winston Churchill began to become more worried about Soviet aggression than Nazi aggression, and so he criticized his own carpet-bombing policy in effect up to that point, and began to blame the bombers -- and Bomber Chief Harris -- for being, oh, too, too mean to those poor dear Germans, who never did anything to hurt anyone, and we shouldn't be so nasty to them any more...
And once again, imho, Churchill's actions were calculated, cold-blooded, ruthless and utterly necessary to lay the groundwork for turning Germany from our greatest enemy to a staunch ally against Communist expansion.
So, I don't really blame Churchill for stabbing his bombers in the back, but I don't think we need to buy into any of the propaganda about how Dresden was somehow a special case deserving extraordinary sympathy.
Thank you for posting these reports; the German campaign of extermination was staggering, like one or more Sept. 11s every day for four years.
If we figure 40 months from June 1941 to the end of 1944, then we are looking at around 5,000 Jews killed each day.
But that's not even close to being two 9/11s per day, since our one 9/11 came to a population of around 300 million Americans.
Compare: those 6 million murdered Jews came from 9 million total European Jews -- maybe 15 million worldwide.
So, if we want the real apples-to-apples comparison, then imagine a small nuclear bomb going off in a US city, killing 100,000 people -- every day for 40 months.
At the end of that time, our total population is reduced from 300 million to 180 million.
That would be an equivalent Holocaust to Americans.
A lot of omission in that report, to the extent I'd consider anything from there untrustworthy propaganda from an apparent communist apologist.
As we all know here, of course, the problem wasn't the Germans, but the Soviet, who refused to sign the Geneva convention. And the Russian POWs were certainly not treated harshly in comparison to the way the Reds treated their prisoners, when they bothered to take them.
That is pure rubbish, and I'm certain you know better.
From the beginning, Hitler planned his invasion of the Soviet Union to be a "war of destruction" of Communists, Jews and anyone else deemed a "useless eater".
Hitler's whole idea was to eliminate as much of the native population as necessary to make "lebensraum" for Germans.
One result was: during Operation Barbarossa in 1941, the Germans took 3.2 million Soviet POWs, of whom 2.8 million (88%) soon died in captivity, from exposure & starvation.
There are no numbers for Germans captured by Soviets during Barbarossa.
But the war's overall number is 3.5 million axis soldiers captured by Soviets, of whom one million (29%) died in captivity.
These include nearly all of the Germans captured at Stalingrad in January 1943.
By contrast, the death rate for western allies in German POW camps was about 3%.
The death rate for axis POWs in British & American hands was virtually zero.
Survival rates for Soviet soldiers captured after 1941 were much higher -- about 80% survived -- because Germans figured out they needed the manpower, and did not want all of their own POWs to die in Soviet hands.
As for the flimsy excuses justifying atrocities:
"An official justification used by the Germans for this policy was that the Soviet Union had not signed the Geneva Convention.
This was not legally justifiable, however, as under article 82 of the Geneva Convention (1929), signatory countries had to give POWs of all signatory and non-signatory countries the rights assigned by the convention.[49]
Beevor indicates that about one month after the German invasion in 1941 an offer was made by the USSR for a reciprocal adherence to the Hague conventions.
This 'note' was left unanswered by Third Reich officials."In contrast, Tolstoy discusses that the German Government as well as the International Red Cross made several efforts to regulate reciprocal treatment of prisoners until early 1942, but received no answers from the Soviet side.
"Further, the Soviets took a harsh position towards captured Soviet soldiers as they expected each soldier to fight to the death and automatically excluded any prisoner from the "Russian community".
Many Soviet POWs and forced labourers transported to Nazi Germany were, on their return to the USSR, treated as traitors and sent to gulag prison camps.
The remainder were barred from all but the most menial jobs."
Soviet POWs in 1942:
Soviet POWs in 1945 at Mauthausen concentration camp:
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