Posted on 07/01/2012 5:28:43 AM PDT by Homer_J_Simpson
Stephen E. Ambrose, “Band of Brothers”
That is how it starts: Camp Toccoa, Georgia in July 1942. And that is all the excerpt we will have for now. I know that certain historical purists shun the writings of Stephen Ambrose as of suspect origin. Those purists will have to avert their eyes from time to time because I am not going to leave “Band of Brothers” completely out of WWII + 70. For many of our younger readers the HBO series was their introduction to the war so including excerpts from the book and occasional references to the TV/DVD series will be good for circulation. The first part of the book covers a lot of ground, calendar wise. The first 42 pages cover the entire period from July 1942 through March 1944. The first of the five DVDs that make up the series goes all the way to June 6, 1944. So for the time being these excerpts and references will be infrequent – Homer.
http://www.onwar.com/chrono/1942/jul42/f01jul42.htm
Rommel approaches El Alamein
Wednesday, July 1, 1942 www.onwar.com
In North Africa... The Afrika Korps under Rommel reaches the British defensive positions at El Alamein. The British 4th Brigade arrives at Alam el Onsol just before the German 90th Light Division. To the south, at the west end of Ruweisat Ridge, the 15th and 21 Panzer Divisions are pressing forward to Point 64 in fierce fighting.
In the Arctic... The outbound convoy PQ-17 to Murmansk has been discovered by the German intelligence service B Dienst. Acting on this information, German U-boats U-255 and U-408 find the convoy. They are joined by 8 other U-boats.
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/andrew.etherington/frame.htm
July 1st, 1942
UNITED KINGDOM: The first USAAF B-17, assigned to the 97th Bombardment Group (Heavy), of the BOLERO air movement via the North Atlantic route lands at Prestwick, Scotland. (Jack McKillop)
Minesweeper HMS Truelove laid down.
Rescue tug HMS Destiny launched.
Escort carrier HMS Dasher commissioned. (Dave Shirlaw)
GERMANY:
U-414, U-707 commissioned.
U-528 launched.
U-284, U-926 laid down. (Dave Shirlaw)
Rastenburg: Hitler’s headquarters claimed today that Sevastopol has fallen to the Wehrmacht after 25 days of vicious hand-to-hand fighting. To celebrate the capture of the Crimean fortress General von Manstein has been promoted to Field Marshal.
However, little but ruins has fallen into the Germans’ hands. The city has been pounded to pieces by Stukas dive-bombers and heaviest collection of guns yet used in the war. In the end the defenders, without air cover, could only be supplied by submarine.
The Russians fought from house to house, room to room, and had to be burnt out with flame throwers. The Germans also used toxic gas to force them out. When it became inevitable on 30 June that the city would fall every available boat was used to evacuate the defenders. Many did not get away. Some are fighting on, defiant to the end.
MEDITERRANEAN SEA: At 1343, U-97 fired two torpedoes at a small convoy NE of Port Said and hit the Marilyse Moller amidships with one torpedo. The ship exploded and sank immediately. A first torpedo had missed her at 1341 hours. The master and 30 crewmembers were lost. Four crewmembers were picked up by armed trawler HMS Burra and landed at Port Said. (Dave Shirlaw)
NORTH AFRICA: The German advance in North Africa reaches El Alamein. The 15th and 21st Panzer Divisions are fighting at the west end of Ruweisat Ridge. There attacks will continue through July 4, making little progress.
Rommel’s assault on the El Alamein Line, which began today, does not just threaten the British position in Egypt and the Suez Canal. If it is successful its effect could be very much greater.
Hitler believes that he is now in a position to overrun the whole of the Middle East by double envelopment. Field Marshal Fedor von Bock’s Army Group South began a major offensive in the Ukraine on 28 June aimed at the Caucasus. With this secured, von Bock could drive on into Turkey, whose ill-equipped armed forces would offer little resistance, enter the Middle East by the “back door” and join hands with Rommel.
The loss of the Middle East would not only make British communications with India tenuous in the extreme but also deny Britain its main source of oil. This would put even greater pressure on the US oilfields and, in all probability, produce a major fuel crisis for the Allies. This in turn would severely affect strategy, not just against Germany and Italy but in the Pacific as well. It is thus even more crucial that the Eighth Army stops Rommel in his tracks.
Cairo: Ash Wednesday - staff at the British embassy and military headquarters frantically burn papers, expecting the Germans to arrive at any moment.
US Army, Middle East Air Force (USAMEAF) B-24s bomb the harbor at Tobruk, Libya during the night of 1/2 July. (Jack McKillop)
PALESTINE: Axis planes raid the port of Haifa.
ARCTIC OCEAN: Convoy PQ-17 from Iceland to Murmansk is spotted by U-255 and U-408. This alert brings 8 other U-boats to join the operation.
CHINA: Lake Tai: Japan’s 13th Army is to extend its rural pacification programme in the Lower Yangtze to eliminate Chinese guerrilla activity.
The 13th, working with Wang Chingwei’s puppet regime, is setting up a second model peace zone on the Chekiang/Kiangsu border south of Lake Tai, where 5,000 Chinese Communist guerrillas are operating. It will be modelled on the successful, militarily protected peace zone set up last year in the Yangtze Delta. By this April, 600,000 war refugees had returned to live there behind its palisades controlled by collaborators.
PACIFIC: The USN submarine USS Sturgeon (SS-187) sinks the unmarked 7,267-ton Japanese transport SS Montevideo Maru about 65 miles (105 km) west of Luzon, Philippine Islands. The transport had sailed from Rabaul, New Britain Island, Bismarck Archipelago, on 22 June 1942 destined for Hainan Island carrying 1,250 Australian civilians and POWs of the 2/22 Battalion. The only survivors of the sinking are 18 Japanese seaman. (Jack McKillop)
CANADA: An agreement regarding the international trade in wheat is signed between Argentina, Australia, Canada, the United Kingdom and the United States. (Dave Shirlaw)
U.S.A.: In Alaska, the 11th Air Force activates the XI Bomber Command (Provisional) comprising the 28th Composite Group and its assigned squadrons. A B-17 flies weather reconnaissance over Kiska Island, Aleutian Islands and lands early due to weather.
The US Navy aerial strength in the Aleutian Islands consists of 40 PBY-5A Catalinas assigned to the three squadrons of Patrol Wing Four (PatWing-4). Patrol Squadron Forty One (VP-41) with 10 aircraft is at Naval Air Station (NAS) Dutch Harbor; VP-42 with 24 aircraft is at Cold Bay; and VP-51 with 6 aircraft is at Sand Point. The latter two squadrons are serviced by seaplane tenders. (Jack McKillop)
IBM perfects the Vacuum Tube Digital Mulitiplier, which calculates 1,000 times faster than existing mechanical devices.
Washington: The US-Polish lend-lease agreement is signed.
The FBI arrests 250 aliens who allegedly plotted to blow up the Pennsylvania railroad.
A U.S. armed freighter of 7,551 tons is sunk by the German submarine U-126 north of Trinidad. Seven of the 56 crewmen and armed guard perish. (Jack McKillop)
The first Army Engineer Fire Fighting Detachment is approved. (Jean Beach)
Caribbean Sea: June was the worst month of the war so far for Allied shipping losses. The total was 173 ships, amounting to 834,196 tons. Of this no less than 144 ships were sunk by U-boats.
The figures are a triumph for the German strategy of taking the U-boat offensive into the heart of American waters. Some 60% of the huge total of sinkings were in the Caribbean and the Gulf of Mexico.
It was already clear by the middle of last month that the situation was grave. The American chief of staff, General George C. Marshall, then wrote to Admiral King urging him to introduce convoys. He pointed out that 20% of the Puerto Rican fleet, 22% of the bauxite fleet and 3.5% of all tanker tonnage had been lost. “The losses by submarines off our Atlantic seaboard and in the Caribbean now threaten our entire war effort,” wrote General Marshall.
Two days later Admiral King himself wrote that “escort is not just one way of handling the submarine menace; it is the only way that gives any promise of success.” He complains, however, that the US still has very little in the way of anti-submarine forces.
The unescorted Warrior (ex-John Jay) was hit at 1831 by two torpedoes on the port side, the first hit abaft the bridge and the second struck in the #5 hatch, breaking the main shaft. The ship sank rapidly by the stern and disappeared in five minutes about 125 miles east of Trinidad. Despite this, the four armed guards from the forward 3-inch gun fired four rounds but went down with the ship. The survivors had launched two lifeboats and were picked up by USS Herbert four hours after the attack and were brought to Trinidad. Three crewmen and four armed guards of the eight officers, 34 crewmen and 14 armed guards aboard died. The Warrior was armed with one 4-inch, one 3-inch, four 50 cal. and two 30 cal. guns.
At 1744, the unescorted Cadmus was torpedoed and sunk by U-129 in the Gulf of Mexico. Two men were killed on board and the remaining 20 crewmen reached the coast of Mexico between Tampico and Vera Cruz after five days. (Dave Shirlaw)
ATLANTIC OCEAN: SS City of Birmingham was en route to Bermuda at 11 knots about 250 miles east of Cape Hatteras, escorted by USS Stansbury, which took station a mile distant. At 0127 just after the escort ship had signalled by flags and blinkers for a change of course, two torpedoes from U-202 hit the City of Birmingham in quick succession on the port side and another was seen passing ahead of the ship. The first torpedo struck about 100 feet abaft the bow in the #1 hatch and the second under the bridge. The second hit caused all the sections in the forward part of the ship to flood. She quickly listed 45° to port and sank within five minutes. Most of the ten officers, 103 crewmen, five armed guards (the ship was armed with one 4in and two .30cal guns) and 263 passengers on board abandoned ship in an orderly fashion in five lifeboats, five rafts and seven floats. The armed guards left last and jumped into the water. Stansbury picked up the survivors within two hours after she had dropped depth charges to chase away the U-boat. Five crewmen, one stewardess and two passengers were lost and one of the crew later died on board the escort. In the First World War, the Master, Lewis P. Borum, was master on the American SS City of Memphis (5252 tons, built 1902), which had been en route from Cardiff to New York in ballast on 17 Mar 1917 when she was torpedoed and sunk by UC-66 south of Fastnet. (Dave Shirlaw)
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.