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RED ARMY HOLDING GERMAN TIDE BACK IN MOST SECTORS (8/4/42)
Microfilm-New York Times archives, Monterey Public Library | 8/4/42 | Ralph Parker, Meyer Berger

Posted on 08/04/2012 5:01:44 AM PDT by Homer_J_Simpson

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TOPICS: History
KEYWORDS: milhist; realtime; worldwarii
Free Republic University, Department of History presents World War II Plus 70 Years: Seminar and Discussion Forum
First session: September 1, 2009. Last date to add: September 2, 2015.
Reading assignment: New York Times articles delivered daily to students on the 70th anniversary of original publication date. (Previously posted articles can be found by searching on keyword “realtime” Or view Homer’s posting history .)
To add this class to or drop it from your schedule notify Admissions and Records (Attn: Homer_J_Simpson) by freepmail. Those on the Realtime +/- 70 Years ping list are automatically enrolled. Course description, prerequisites and tuition information is available at the bottom of Homer’s profile. Also visit our general discussion thread
1 posted on 08/04/2012 5:01:57 AM PDT by Homer_J_Simpson
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To: Homer_J_Simpson
Selections from West Point Atlas for the Second World War
Papua, New Guinea, 1942
Japanese Advance, 21 July-16 Sept. 1942
The Solomons: Guadalcanal and Florida, 1942
Southwest Russia, 1942: German Advance to Stalingrad, Operations, 24 July-18 November 1942
The Far East and the Pacific, 1941: Status of Forces and Allied Theater Boundaries, 2 July 1942
India-Burma, 1942: Allied Lines of Communication, 1942-1943
2 posted on 08/04/2012 5:03:22 AM PDT by Homer_J_Simpson ("Every nation has the government that it deserves." - Joseph de Maistre (1753-1821))
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To: Homer_J_Simpson
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Richard Tregaskis, Guadalcanal Diary

3 posted on 08/04/2012 5:05:00 AM PDT by Homer_J_Simpson ("Every nation has the government that it deserves." - Joseph de Maistre (1753-1821))
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To: r9etb; PzLdr; dfwgator; Paisan; From many - one.; rockinqsranch; 2banana; henkster; meandog; ...
The index by author on Homer’s profile is now updated through August 16, 1942.

Red Army Holding German Tide Back in Most Sectors (Parker) – 2-3
War News Summarized – 2
Nazis Strengthen Defenses of Norse ‘Invasion Coast’ – 3-4
Fuchow is Raided by Fliers of U.S. – 4
Fouls and Erratic Base Running Win British at Service Ball Game (Berger) – 5
The Texts of the Day’s Communiques on the War – 6-7

4 posted on 08/04/2012 5:07:01 AM PDT by Homer_J_Simpson ("Every nation has the government that it deserves." - Joseph de Maistre (1753-1821))
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To: Homer_J_Simpson

http://www.onwar.com/chrono/1942/aug42/f04aug42.htm

Yeremenko takes charge in Stalingrad
Tuesday, August 4, 1942 www.onwar.com

On the Eastern Front... Andrei Yeremenko arrives in Stalingrad and meets Nikita Khrushchev, the political member of his Military Council. Khrushchev is responsible for indoctrination, propaganda, morale, and welfare of the troops. He is also responsible for ensuring maximum cooperation from local Party authorities, and if need be, ensuring that Yeremenko remains politically reliable. Yeremenko is given four days to set up his defenses. He puts his headquarters in the new Tsaritsyn Bunker. The dividing line between his front and Gordov’s runs right through the center of the city.


5 posted on 08/04/2012 5:10:03 AM PDT by Homer_J_Simpson ("Every nation has the government that it deserves." - Joseph de Maistre (1753-1821))
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To: Homer_J_Simpson

http://homepage.ntlworld.com/andrew.etherington/frame.htm

August 4th, 1942

UNITED KINGDOM: Westminster: American servicemen in Britain will not be subject to British law, the House of Commons decided today. MPs passed the USA (Visiting Forces) Bill through all its stages in a single day after government reassurances about the way American courts martial will work. Sir Donald Somervill, the attorney-general, said that British witnesses summoned before such hearings would have the same rights and immunities as they would in a British court. But British courts would enforce the orders of American judges for their appearance.

The government charges that Mohandras Gandhi and his All-Indian Congress Party favoured “appeasement” with Japan. (Jack McKillop)

BELGIUM: The first trainload of Jews is deported to Auschwitz.

U.S.S.R.: (Sergey Anisimov)(69)Baltic Fleet, Ladoga and Onega Flotillas: Shipping loss. MS “TSch-205 “Gafel”” - grounded by storm (floated Aug.14)

MEDITERRANEAN SEA: The German submarine U-372 is sunk in the Mediterranean southwest of Haifa, Palestine, in position 32.28N, 34.37E, by depth charges from the RN destroyers HMS Sikh and HMS Zulu and the escort destroyers HMS Croome and HMS Tetcott and by depth charges from an RAF Wellington Mk VIII of No 221 Squadron based at Shandur, Egypt. All 48 men aboard the U-boat survive.

EGYPT: Cairo: Winston Churchill has decided to shake up the command of the British forces in North Africa. The prime minister, who arrived in Cairo yesterday to see for himself, wants a new commander-in-chief. Churchill acknowledges General Auchinleck’s success in stopping Rommel at El Alamein last month, but is impatient to take the offensive against the Germans, who are still only 60 miles from Alexandria. Auchinleck wants to build up his reinforcements first. The Eighth Army is likely to have a new commander, too.

AUSTRALIA: Major General George C. Kenney assumes command of the Allied Air Forces, Southwest Pacific Area at Brisbane. The US aircraft under his command consist on paper of 62 heavy bombers, 70 medium bombers, 53 light bombers, 235 fighters and 36 transports.

He also has a larger number of serviceable RAAF aircraft. Among the 235 USAAF fighters almost all are unfit for action. The 36 transport aircraft are of 19 different types and only about half are flyable. A month later he will have 41 transport aircraft, 15 of which are “totally unserviceable”. (Jack McKillop and Michael Alexander)

PACIFIC OCEAN: A US submarine sinks a Japanese freighter off northern Honshu, Japan.

Destroyer USS Tucker mined and sunk in the Segond Channel, New Hebrides. Six killed . (Dave Shirlaw)

TERRITORY OF ALASKA: ALEUTIAN ISLANDS: The USAAF 11th Air Force dispatches an LB-30 Liberator to fly a photo mission and 2 B-17 Flying Fortresses and 3 B-24 Liberators, covered by 8 P-38 Lightnings, to escort USN tenders to Nazan Bay, Atka Island; two Kawanishi H6K Navy Type 97 Flying Boats, Allied Code Name “Mavis,” and a possible third are downed near Atka Island by 2 of the P-38’s, in their first aerial combat in any theater; weather cancels bombing mission to Kiska Island. A radar-equipped USN PBY Catalina carries out a predawn bombing attack of the submarine base and Main Camp on Kiska dropping 92 empty beer bottles on the targets. (Jack McKillop)

CANADA: Patrol vessel HMCS Departue Bay commissioned. Seized Japanese fishing vessel. (Dave Shirlaw)

U.S.A.: The motion picture “Holiday Inn” premieres at the Paramount Theater in New York City. Directed by Mark Sandrich, this musical comedy stars Bing Crosby, Fred Astaire and Walter Abel. Crosby sings Irving Berlin’s legendary song “White Christmas” but the song is not an immediate hit with the public. It’s popularity increases when American servicemen start requesting that it be played over the Armed Forces Radio Network. Bing sang “White Christmas” on the first broadcast of Armed Forces Radio’s “Mail Call” on 11 August 1942 and that could be where the GIs caught on to it. Bing performed a lot on AFR programs, and sang “White Christmas” just after VJ day on AFR’s “GI Journal” show.
One reason why “White Christmas” might not have been an immediate hit, aside from the fact that the song was first heard during the dog days of August, was the now-forgotten recording ban imposed by James C. Petrillo, president of the American Federation of Musicians. He insisted that the major record companies—Columbia, Victor and Decca—pay a1/4 to 3/4 cent royalty on each recorded disc to a union “employment fund.” Presumably, musicians would share in this, but it wasn’t all that clear. The union’s 138,000 members could no longer make records as of July 31, 1942. Record companies could still reissue discs, with some bizarre results. When movie audiences became enthralled by “As Time Goes By” in the movie “Casablanca,” they could only get versions recorded in 1931 by Rudy Valee or Jacques Bernard. Harry James’s record of “All or Nothing at All,” recorded in 1939, became a smash when reissued in 1943 with Frank Sinatra. Not being able to record with orchestras, Sinatra, Bing Crosby and other vocalists started cutting records a cappella with other singers. The result was such hits as Crosby’s “Sunday, Monday or Always” and Sinatra’s “Close to You.” But Petrillo could only go so far in wartime; instrumentalists could still record “V-Disks,” distributed by Armed Forces Radio, which is probably why “White Christmas” became a serviceman’s favorite before it became an all-time hit among the general public.
As a further historical note, Decca caved in to Petrillo’s demands in August, 1943. At this point, a bunch of startup recording companies, such as Capitol and Signature, had come on the scene. Fearing such new competition, Columbia and Victor finally gave in in November, 1944. The ban spelled the beginning of the end for the big swing bands, that had depended so much on income from records. And popular taste moved on to small-band bebop, folk singers and, then, rock ‘n roll. (Matt Clark and Jack McKillop)

Destroyer escort USS Keith laid down.

Destroyer USS Doran commissioned. (Dave Shirlaw)

ATLANTIC OCEAN: While escorting an eastbound convoy, HMCS Sackville engages three U-boats in a 36 hour period. In the foggy weather, Lieut. Alan Easton and his crew seriously damaged one submarine, hitting another with 4-inch gunfire, and shook up the third with depth charges in an action that will win the DSC for Lieut. Easton and commendations for the crew. (Gene Hanson)

US Army Middle East Air Force (USAMEAF) B-24s strike a convoy during the night of 4/5 August, claiming hits on 2 merchant ships. (Jack McKillop)

At 1615, the Empire Arnold, dispersed from Convoy E-6, was torpedoed and sunk by U-155 about 500 miles NE of Trinidad. Eight crewmembers and one gunner were lost. The master was taken prisoner by
the U-boat, landed at Lorient on 15 September and taken to the POW camp Milag Nord. 42 crewmembers, seven gunners and two passengers were picked up after eight days by the Norwegian merchantman Dalvanger and landed at Georgetown, British Guinea on 14 August.
At 0159, the unescorted Havsten was hit by one torpedo from U-160 (Lassen) and at 0205, missed by a second torpedo. The U-boat then surfaced and shelled the tanker with 20 rounds, setting her on fire and
the crew abandoned ship. The second engineer and another crewmember had been killed on watch below. The U-boat took prisoners the master Captain Gjert Olsen and the British radio officer. They were taken to the POW camps Marlag und Milag Nord, but the master eventually came back to Norway. On 14 August, the lifeboats reached land. At 1031 on 6 Aug 1942, Italian submarine Enrico Tazzoli sank the drifting wreck of the Havsten by two torpedoes in 11°18N/54°45W.

At 1558, the unescorted Richmond Castle was torpedoed and sunk by U-176 SE of Cape Farewell. 14 crewmembers were lost. The master, 44 crewmembers and five gunners were rescued: The master and 14 survivors by the Irish Pine and landed at Kilrush. The chief officer and 16 survivors were picked up after 12 days by HMS Sunflower and landed at Londonderry. The remaining 18 survivors were picked up by the British merchantman Hororater and landed at Liverpool.
At 0401, U-553 attacked the convoy ON-115 and damaged the Belgian Soldier. The ship then fell out of the convoy and was sunk by a coup de grâce from U-607 at 0229 on 4 August. 21 men were lost from 53
crewmembers (24 Belgians) and seven gunners. (Dave Shirlaw)


6 posted on 08/04/2012 5:13:38 AM PDT by Homer_J_Simpson ("Every nation has the government that it deserves." - Joseph de Maistre (1753-1821))
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To: Homer_J_Simpson
South, Into The Unknown-Part 2

The Fuehrer's Directive of 31st July demanded that on the Caucasus front the second phase of Operation Edelweiss was now to begin—the capture of the Black Sea coast.

Army Group A was to employ its fast formations, now grouped under the command of First Panzer Army, in the direction of Armavir and Maikop. Other units of the Army Group, the Army-sized combat group Ruoff with General Kirchner's LVII Panzer Corps, were to drive via Novorossiysk and Tuapse along the coast to Batumi. The German and Rumanian mountain divisions of General Konrad's XLIX Mountain Corps were to be employed on the left wing across the high Caucasian passes to outflank Tuapse and Sukhumi.

To begin with, everything went according to plan—with absolutely breathtaking precision.
On the day when the new Fuehrer Directive was issued the III and LVII Panzer Corps also made a big leap forward in the direction of the Caucasus. General von Mackensen with the 13th Panzer Division, newly placed under his command, took Salsk on the same evening. Advancing across several anti-tank ditches, the division on 6th August gained Kurgannaya on the Laba, and the 16th Motorized Infantry Division took Labinsk.

In the evening of 9th August Major-General Herr's 13th Panzer Division stormed the oil town of Maikop, the administrative seat of a vast region of oilfields. Fifty aircraft were captured intact.
The oil storage-tanks, however, had been destroyed and the plant itself paralyzed by the removal of all key equipment.
Progress was also made by XLIX Mountain Corps and by V Army Corps, which had forced a crossing of the Don east of Rostov. By 13th August the divisions took Krasnodar and forced a crossing of the Kuban.

The advance of LVII Panzer Corps proceeded equally successfully. After a rapid southward thrust through the Kuban steppes the Panzer Combat Group Gille of the "Viking" SS Panzer Grenadier Division, and Combat Groups "Nordland" and "Germania" behind it, were deployed along the northern bank of the Kuban. The Panzer Group Gille crossed the river; the group under von Scholtz put across at Kropotkin and swiftly established a bridgehead, thereby clearing the road to the southern bank of the Kuban for the Army-sized Combat Group Ruoff.
The "Viking" Division was then turned south-west, in the direction of Tuapse, at the head of LVII Panzer Corps. Under the command of General of Waffen SS Felix Steiner, the Scandinavian, Baltic, and German volunteers who were grouped together in the "Viking" Division penetrated into the north-westerly and south-westerly part of the Maikop oilfields.

During the first few days of August 1942 the fast formations of Army Group A were thus sweeping along their entire front through the Kuban and Kalmyk steppes in order to engage the elastically resisting and slowly withdrawing Russian divisions before they reached the Caucasus, and in order to prevent them from escaping into the mountains and there establishing a new defensive line.

Signaller Otto Tenning, who was then driving in the command car of the point battalion of 3rd Panzer Division, has given the author the following report:

"The next place we came to was Salsk. For our further advance through the Kalmyk steppe orders were that we must not fire at enemy aircraft. In this way the Russians were to be prevented from making out the position of our most advanced units, since through the raised clouds of dust it was probably impossible from the air to tell friend from foe. I was detailed with my scout car to 1st Company and was doing a reconnaissance with Sergeant Goldberg. We were cautiously approaching a small village when the recce leader suddenly spotted something suspicious and sent a radio signal: 'Enemy tanks lined up along the edge of the village.' To our surprise we discovered a little later that these supposed tanks were in fact camels. There was much laughter. From then onwards dromedaries and camels were: no longer anything unusual. Indeed, our supply formations made a lot of use of these reliable animals."

The advanced formations of 3rd Panzer Division reached the town of Voroshilovsk on 3rd August.
The Russian troops in the town were taken by surprise, and the town itself was captured after a brief skirmish towards 1600 hours. A Russian counter-attack with tanks and cavalry was repulsed.

The advance continued.
Men of the "Brandenburg" Regiment went along with the forward units, always ready for special assignments. Rumanian mountain troops too were included in the formations under 3rd Panzer Division.

The native Caucasian population was friendly and welcomed the Germans as liberators.
There simply is no denying the fact that entire tribes and villages readily, and, indeed, against the wishes of the German High Command, volunteered to fight against the Red Army. These freedom-loving people believed that the hour of national independence had come for them. Stalin's wrath, when it struck them later, would be terrible: all these tribes were expelled from their beautiful homeland and banished to Siberia.

The faster the advance towards the Caucasus was gaining ground the clearer it became that the Russians were still withdrawing without any great losses in lives or material. The German formations were gaining territory—more and more territory—but they did not succeed in savaging the enemy, let alone annihilating him. A few upset peasant carts and a few dead horses were all the booty lining the route of the German advance.

In order to cover the increasingly long eastern flank of the drive to the Caucasus, General Ott's LII Army Corps with 111th and 370th Infantry Divisions were wheeled eastward on a broad front and deployed towards the Caspian Sea. Elista, the only major town on the Kalmyk steppe, fell on 12th August.

Meanwhile the 3rd and 23rd Panzer Divisions continued to move southward. The Kalmyk steppe lay parched under a scorching sun. The thermometer stood at 55 degrees Centigrade. A long way off, in the brilliantly blue summer sky, the troops saw a white cumulus cloud.
But the cloud did not move.
The following day, and the day after, it was still in the same spot.
It was no cloud. It was Mount Elbrus, 18,480 feet high, with its glistening glaciers and its eternal snow— the greatest mountain massif of the central Caucasus.

"How many miles have we done to-day?" Colonel Reinhardt, the commander of 421st Infantry Regiment, asked his adjutant.
First Lieutenant Boll looked at his map, on which the routes of advance of 125th and, next to it, 198th Infantry Divisions—forming V Corps—were marked. He measured off the distance.
"Forty miles, Herr Oberst."
Forty miles. That was the distance the infantry had marched that day. Under a searing sky, through the treeless Kuban steppe. On the march the columns were enveloped in thick clouds of greyish-brown dust. Only the heads of the horsemen showed above it. The farther south they advanced the looser the connection became between individual regiments. Only the distant trails of dust indicated that somewhere far to the right and far to the left there were other marching columns similarly advancing to the south.

In the shade of his command car Reinhardt studied the map.
"Absolutely terrifying, those distances," the adjutant observed.
Reinhardt nodded. His finger moved across the map to the Kalmyk steppe. "Kleist's tanks are no better off either."

Indeed, they were no better off. The XL Panzer Corps— since 2nd August subordinated to First Panzer Army—had taken Pyatigorsk with 3rd Panzer Division on 10th August and Mineralnyye Vody (Mineral Water) with 23rd Panzer Division, and had thus reached the foot of the Caucasus.
The last great obstacle still ahead was the Terek river. Would they be able to cross it and then gain the high mountain-passes by way of the Ossetian and Georgian Military Highways?

The III and LVII Panzer Corps at the centre of the front were meanwhile driving on through heat and dust, from the Don into the Maikop oilfield region, attempting to overtake the retreating enemy. Colonel Reinhardt stabbed the map at Krasnodar.
"That's our objective."
Then he pointed to Maikop.
"And that's where Kleist has to get. Then we'll see what we've collected in the pocket formed by our Seventeenth Army and Kleist's First Panzer Army between these two cornerstones."
The adjutant nodded. "It's a good plan, Herr Oberst, but I have a feeling that the Russians are not going to oblige us by waiting for the bag to close."
Reinhardt passed the map back to Boll.
"We'll see," he grunted.
"Got any water left?"
"Not a drop, Herr Oberst. My tongue's been sticking to the roof of my mouth like a piece of fly-paper for this past hour."
They climbed back into their car.
"Let's go; we've got to drive another six miles to-day."

That was what the advance was like for 421st Infantry Regiment, 125th Infantry Division, and it was much the same for all the infantry, jagers, and mountain units of Ruoff's group in early August 1942.
For a while the war on the southern front assumed the character of desert warfare. The pursuit of the Soviets through the Kuban steppe turned into a race from watering-point to watering-point. There were few stops for food. Admittedly, emergency supplies of drinking-water were carried for the troops in large water-cisterns, but these could not, of course, carry enough for the horses as well. As a result, new watering-places had to be captured every day.

On the right wing of Army Group A the Russians withdrew elastically in the face of pressure by the German Seventeenth Army, in the same way as they had done successfully on the middle Don. The Soviets would systematically hold on with strong rearguards to the few villages and numerous river-beds: at first they would defend them stubbornly, and presently they would abandon them so quickly that they lost scarcely any prisoners. In this way they implemented Marshal Timoshenko's new instruction: the enemy's advance was to be delayed, but at the decisive moment the units were to be withdrawn to avoid encirclement at all costs. That was the new elastic strategy of the Russians. The Soviet General Staff had dropped Stalin's old method of contesting every inch of ground, a method which had time and again led to encirclement and gigantic losses.

The lower Soviet commands very soon learned these tactics of delaying actions and elastic resistance, a technique which had been struck from the German training manuals since 1936. By making skilful use of the numerous river-courses running across the line of the German attack, the Russians time and again delayed the German advance and pulled back their own infantry.

In these circumstances the German divisions of the Army-sized Combat Group Ruoff and of First Panzer Army did not succeed in implementing the key task of Directive No. 45: "The enemy forces escaping over the Don are to be encircled and annihilated in the area south and south-east of Rostov." Once again Hitler's plan had misfired.
They moved on interminably—pursuing, marching, and driving. The advance continued, farther and farther. The troops moved from river to river: the Kagalnik was overcome, the Yeya was crossed. There were eight more rivers to cross before the Württemberg V Corps reached the Kuban. This Corps was employed against Novorossiysk between the Rumanian Third Army on its right and the LVII Panzer Corps and, behind it, the XLIX Mountain Corps on its left. The XLIV Jäger Corps followed behind General Kirchner's fast divisions. At Tikhoretsk the oil pipeline from Baku to Rostov crossed the railway and road. The Russians were stubbornly defending this key point with strong artillery, anti-tank guns, and three armored trains.

The 88 flak combat parties, put under 125th Infantry Division, had a difficult task. But at last the advanced units of 125th and 198th Infantry Divisions linked up.
Tikhoretsk fell.
The Russians gave way. But they did not flee in panic. Striking suddenly from vast fields of man-high sunflowers, the Russians frequently caught the German troops in their fire. But as soon as the Germans tried to come to grips with them they were gone. At night individual vehicles were ambushed. It was no longer possible to send out motor-cycle dispatch-riders. In this manner V Corps with 125th, 198th, 73rd, and 9th Infantry Divisions reached the Krasnodar area by 10th August 1942. In a mere sixteen days the infantry-men had covered the roughly 200 miles from Rostov to the capital of the Kuban Cossacks, fighting and marching through the scorched earth of the sun-seared Kuban steppe, but also through magnificently fertile river-valleys.

Around them stretched unending fields of sunflowers, huge areas of wheat, millet, hemp, and tobacco. Enormous herds of cattle moved across the limitless steppe. The gardens of the Cossack villages were veritable oases. Apricots, mirabels, apples, pears, melons, grapes, and tomatoes grew in luxuriant profusion. Eggs were as plentiful as sand on the seashore, and there were gigantic herds of pigs. It was a splendid time for the cooks and paymasters.
Krasnodar, the centre of the Kuban district, on the northern bank of the Kuban river, then had about 200,000 inhabitants. It was a town of large oil refineries. General Wetzel employed his V Corps for a concentric attack on the town—the 73rd Infantry Division from Franconia from the north-west, the Hessian Regiments of the 9th from the north, and the men from Württemberg of the 125th and 198th Infantry Divisions from the north-east and east. The Russians offered stubborn and furious resistance in the orchards and the suburbs. They wanted to hold open the town centre, with its bridge over the Kuban, in order to take across as many human beings as possible and, even more important, whatever material they could move. Anything that could not be taken across to the southern bank was set on fire, including the vast oil-storage tanks.

By noon on 11th August Major Ortlieb with the 1st Battalion, 421st Infantry Regiment, had worked his way forward to within charging distance of the bridge—a mere 50 yards. Packed closely together, Russian columns were moving over the bridge.
The 2nd Company was given the order to attack. Captain Sätzler sprang to his feet, his pistol in his raised hand. He took only three steps before he collapsed, shot through the head.
The company charged on. Its forward sections were within 20 yards of the ramp. At that moment the watchful Soviet bridge officer detonated the charges. At half a dozen separate points the bridge went up with a roar like thunder, complete with the Russian columns on it. Among the smoke and dust, men and horses, wheels and weapons, could be seen sailing through the air. Horse-drawn vehicles, the horses bolting, raced over the collapsing balustrades, hurtling into the river and disappearing under the water.

This action proved that the Russians had learnt a lot in recent months.
The demolition of the bridge cost the Germans two days. Not until the night of 13th/14th August did the 125th Infantry Division succeed in crossing the river by assault boats and rafts.
During the preceding day Major Ortlieb had reconnoitered the crossing-point right under the watchful eyes of the Soviets entrenched on the far side. Disguised as a peasant woman, a hoe over his shoulder and a basket over his arm, he had calmly walked along the river.

Under the concentrated fire of German artillery and the 3.7cm. flak battery the troops accomplished the crossing of the Kuban and succeeded in building a pontoon bridge.
The V Corps was marching into the land of the Circassians.
The Muslim population had hoisted the crescent, the flag of Islam, over their houses and was welcoming the Germans as their liberators from the atheist Communist yoke.

7 posted on 08/04/2012 5:38:29 AM PDT by Larry381 ("Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.")
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To: Homer_J_Simpson

August 2, 1942:


"Parisian Jew Paulette Zelasneg, pictured at age six, wears her Yellow Star.
On July 16, 1942, La Grande Rafle ("The Big Sweep") began in Paris, as foreign Jews living in the city were rounded up."


August 3, 1942:


"With trains bringing thousands of fresh laborers to replace those who dropped from exhaustion and malnutrition, Monowitz-Buna developed into a vast industrial machine, with the huge chemical firm I.G. Farben at its hub.
In the midst of industrialized inhumanity, prisoners struggled to remain human rather than to become animals.
Primo Levi recounted that precisely 'because the Lager (camp) was a great machine to reduce us to beasts, we must not become beasts; that even in this place one can survive, and therefore one must want to survive, to tell the story, to bear witness.' "


August 4, 1942:


"SS chief Heinrich Himmler wipes sweat from his forehead during an inspection of Auschwitz III, or Monowitz-Buna.
The camp was named after the village of Monowice and the word for synthetic rubber, Buna, which the I.G. Farben company sought to produce by using thousands of concentration-camp workers.
Accompanying Himmler was Bauleiter (chief engineer) Faust of I.G. Farben.
Due in part to Allied air attacks, no synthetic rubber was ever produced at Monowitz-Buna."



8 posted on 08/04/2012 5:44:27 AM PDT by BroJoeK (a little historical perspective....)
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To: Homer_J_Simpson

While escorting an eastbound convoy, HMCS Sackville engages three U-boats in a 36 hour period. In the foggy weather, Lieut. Alan Easton and his crew seriously damaged one submarine, hitting another with 4-inch gunfire, and shook up the third with depth charges in an action that will win the DSC for Lieut. Easton and commendations for the crew.

HMCS Sackville is the last of Canada’s 123 corvettes, one of many convoy escort vessels built in Canada and the United Kingdom during WW II. She is Canada’s oldest fighting warship and has been our official Naval Memorial since 1985. It is very appropriate that the ship is in Halifax, Nova Scotia, as this “East Coast Port” was an important assembly point and destination for convoys during the Battle of the Atlantic.

Watch our video to learn about the ship’s incredible story!

http://canadasnavalmemorial.ca/


9 posted on 08/04/2012 5:49:49 AM PDT by Snowyman
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To: Snowyman

Thanks for sharing the link and the video. Boy, that’s a tiny little ship isn’t it? I have been seasick a few times in my life and it is no fun. I can’t imagine experiencing it on the North Atlantic, with ice coating every surface and U-Boats launching torpedoes at your vessel. I guess one gets acclimated to the conditions but those were some tough sailors.


10 posted on 08/04/2012 8:04:40 AM PDT by Homer_J_Simpson ("Every nation has the government that it deserves." - Joseph de Maistre (1753-1821))
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To: Larry381

Timonshenko from the limited knowledge I have was portrayed as an incomptenet lackey of Stalin especially after he got destroyed at 2nd Kharkov. Although from the reading you posted he did a good job of giving ground to preserve the Red Army.


11 posted on 08/04/2012 12:51:16 PM PDT by C19fan
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