Posted on 05/22/2013 4:18:15 AM PDT by Homer_J_Simpson
#1 - “I’ve Heard That Song Before” – Harry James, with Helen Forrest
#2 - “Velvet Moon” - Harry James
#3 – “That Old Black Magic” - Glenn Miller, with Skip Nelson and the Modernaires
#4 - “Taking a Chance on Love” - Benny Goodman, with Helen Forrest
#5 – “Brazil” - Xavier Cugat
#6 – “It Started All Over Again” - Tommy Dorsey, with Frank Sinatra, Pied Pipers
#7 - “Don’t Get Around Much Anymore” - The Ink Spots
#8 - “As Time Goes By” - Jacque Renard, with unknown vocalist
#9 - “As Time Goes By” - Rudy Vallee
#10 – “Murder, He Says” - Dinah Shore
* This completes Hanson’s 12-part situation report for the European Theater of Operations. He finished with a little speculation as to where the next Allied blow will fall.
http://www.onwar.com/chrono/1943/may1943/f22may43.htm
Allies win the Battle of the Atlantic
Saturday, May 22, 1943 www.onwar.com
A U-boat sinking [photo at link].
From Berlin... Admiral Dontiz orders all U-boat patrols in the north Atlantic to break off operations against the convoys. The submarine losses have grown too high. This decision effectively ends the battle of the Atlantic with an Allied victory. Some boats are moved south to the Caribbean and to waters off the Azores.
On the Eastern Front... In the Caucasus, the German 17th Army continues to counterattack. Soviet forces continue to hold the offensive.
In the Aleutian Islands... On Attu American forces make some progress along the Clevesy Pass.
In the United States... Mississippi river flooding continues. In total, 150,000 people become homeless.
In Washington... The Trident Conference continues.
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/andrew.etherington/frame.htm
May 22nd, 1943 (SATURDAY)
UNITED KINGDOM: Frigate HMS Duff launched.
Minesweeping trawler HMS Ganilly launched. (Dave Shirlaw)
GERMANY: General der Jagdflieger Adolf Galland flies the 4th prototype of the Me262 (code PC+UD werknummer 262 000004). (Russ Folsom) He reaches 520mph and says that it would regain air superiority for Germany. But Hitler wants it made into a bomber.
Ruhr: As emergency services deliver bread, milk and coffee to households which have had their power supplies cut, Albert Speer, Hitler’s armaments minister, has pulled 7,000 men out of the Atlantic Wall defences in France to repair the breached Ruhr dams. At least 476 people died, and 156 are missing (91), after a nine-foot wave of 100 million cubic metres of water tore through the Mohne valley, wrecking road and rail bridges and flooding towns and villages. Among the dead are many slave labourers, including women from the Ukraine. A further 47 died in the Eder area.
German Admiral Karl Doenitz withdraws his U-boats from the North Atlantic after mounting losses.
U-877 laid down. (Dave Shirlaw)
BALTIC SEA: Finnish patrol boats in action against their Soviet counterparts. VMV 17 is hit by gunfire, two men lost and one wounded, in addition two wounded in other boats. Two enemy boats sunk. (Dave Shirlaw)
ITALY: The Allies bomb Sicily and Sardinia.
U.S.S.R.: Moscow: There are increasing signs that both sides are about to launch their long-prepared summer offensives on the eastern front. Artillery barrages are rumbling all along the front, and there is intense aerial activity while the ground forces spare for position. The battle will almost certainly centre on the great Soviet salient bulging into the German lines before Kursk. Hitler planned to launch Operation Citadel, a huge attack to cut off the salient, on 9 May, but postponed it on 5 May until mid-June to allow more preparation. He knows that the course of the war depends on it.
Soviet submarine Shch-408 of the Baltic Fleet is sunk off Vaindlo Island by the Finnish minelayer Ruotsinsalmi. (Mike Yared)(146 and 147)
JAPAN: The large Japanese Naval Force consisting of the battleships HIJMS Musashi, HIJMS Kongo and HIJMS Haruna; the aircraft carrier HIJMS Hiyo; the heavy cruisers HIJMS Tone and HIJMS Chikuma; and five destroyers that departed Truk Atoll in the Caroline Islands on 16 May, arrives in Tokyo Harbor and joins the Attu relief force. (Jack McKillop)
TERRITORY OF ALASKA: ALEUTIAN ISLANDS: US troops in south Attu penetrate the valley that leads to Chichagof; those in the north remain in their positions. The Southern Landing Force is blocked in their attempts to take Sarana Nose, a high point at the junction of Sarana and Chichagof Valleys, but by nightfall, the Northern Landing Force has taken the position.
Bad weather forces cancellation of all air missions by the USAAF’s Eleventh Air Force.
Fifteen Navy Type 1 Attack Bombers, Allied Code Name “Betty,” make a torpedo attack on the gunboat USS Charleston (PG-51) and destroyer USS Phelps (DD-360) patrolling Attu. The ships suffer only negligible damage and shoot down one “Betty.” (Jack McKillop)
CANADA: Corvette HMCS Napanee arrived Montreal, Province of Quebec for refit. (Dave Shirlaw)
U.S.A.: Naval Air Station Hitchcock is commissioned as a blimp patrol facility to cover the Gulf Coast of Galveston, Texas. (Jack McKillop)
Destroyer escorts USS George and Lovelace laid down.
Destroyer USS Kimberly commissioned.
Destroyer USS Caperton launched.
Destroyer escort USS Harveson launched.
Light fleet carrier USS Langley launched. (Dave Shirlaw)
ATLANTIC OCEAN: Two Grumman TBF Avengers of Composite Squadron Nine (VC-9) in the auxiliary aircraft carrier USS Bogue (ACV-9) depth charge and damage the German submarine U-569 in the North Atlantic. The sub is subsequently scuttled by her crew in position 50.40N, 35.21W; 25 of the 46-man crew survive. This is the first U-boat sunk by an escort carrier on a hunter-killer patrol. (Jack McKillop)
U-305 was attacked twice at 1302 and 1521 by Avengers from USS Bogue. The boat had to return to base. (Dave Shirlaw)
Page 6, CYA pure disinformation on Yamamoto’s death.
Once again, thank-you for your daily effort in putting together this fantastic series.
Looking it up on Wiki, the allies had intercepted an encripted transmission that said he was flying somewhere on 4/18/43 so they sent a squadron of Lightning fighters to intercept him and his 6 support fighter aircraft......
Of course Roosevelt knew that Yamamoto was dead, and that we had shot him down, enabled to do so by our ability to read their dispatches. You gotta love the speculation/disinformation that perhaps he killed himself. Working on Japanese morale.
Our decoding ability couldn’t be made public. But the info at the time is interesting. I propose the Japanese were truly confused on this issue as we continued to intercept their intelligence info.
Hadn’t heard about the gosh comment by Roosevelt before. This is similar to the Shangri-La statement released. I wonder if there were similar responses to other events.
Mineichi Koga was born in Japan in 1885. He joined the Japanese Navy and served as a naval attaché in Paris before being given command of the Yokosuka Naval Station.
Koga was appointed vice chief of the Naval Staff Board in December 1937 and after the bombing of Pearl Harbor he took part in the capture of Hong Kong.
In April 1943, Admiral Kogo replaced Isoruku Yamamoto as commander in chief of the Combined Fleet. He was unable to halt the decline in the country’s fortunes and presided over the start of Japanese withdrawals from the Gilbert Islands and the Philippines.
Mineichi Koga was killed when on 31st March 1944 his aircraft crashed into the sea. His death was not announced until May 1944 when he was replaced as commander in chief by Soemu Toyoda.
http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/2WWkoga.htm
What is the deal on the U-Boat mutiny? I never heard of that!
I can't find anything on it. It might be a fairy tale.
Koga’s one-year tenure as IJN Chief will see him unable to commit his battle fleet in any significant operations against the growing power of the United States Navy.
On a map, the Japanese Empire looks pretty impressive right now. But while it may not yet be obvious, the perceptive Japanese are already thinking they have lost the war.
Kogas successor:
Toyoda’s career reached its peak on 3 May 1944 when he was appointed the Commander-in-Chief of the Combined Fleet, succeeding the recently deceased Admiral Mineichi Koga. At the helm of the Combined Fleet, Toyoda’s A-Go Operation resulted in a major depletion of Japanese naval airpower at the Philippine Sea, and the subsequent Sho-Go Operation saw a complete annihilation of ships at Surigao Strait dealt by Rear Admiral Jesse Oldendorf and a disheartening loss of the battleship Musashi by swarming aircraft. Toyoda knew Sho-Go was a big gamble, but he also felt that had he preserved the naval strength by allowing the Americans to take the Philippines and cut off Japanese shipping to the south, the ships would soon run out of fuel, therefore it did not make sense to him to not go on this risky endeavor. “[I]f things went well, we might obtain unexpectedly good results”, said Toyoda, “but if the worst should happen, there was a chance that we would lose the entire fleet. But I felt that that chance had to be taken.” During the Marianas and Leyte Gulf campaigns (A-Go and Sho-Go operations, respectively), Japanese airmen and naval crew reported inflated reports on damages inflicted on the enemy, a common practice by both sides during the Pacific War. Toyoda, unlike his American counterparts, bought into his own propaganda which was based on these inflated numbers. Thinking that the American naval power was hurt much beyond actuality, when encountered with a need for a defense plan for the Philippines, Toyoda called for reinforcement of Leyte from Luzon and China, naming Leyte the location of the decisive battle that would stop the American juggernaut. In hindsight, this aggressive defensive strategy did not pay off; in comparison, General Tomoyuki Yamashita’s plan to make Luzon the site of the final defensive stand was more advantageous, especially given the proof that Yamashita was able to continue his resistance on Luzon until the day of Japan’s surrender.
Toyoda, despite meeting unfavorable outcomes with his previous operations, nevertheless continued with his aggressive plans. He sent battleship Yamato on a suicidal mission with the goals of sinking the fleet supporting the landing operations at Okinawa. That operation, Ten-Go, saw the end of the Yamato in a eerie deja vu of the Dec 1941 sinking of the HMS Repulse and HMS Prince of Wales by overwhelming airpower. While the sinking of Repulse and Prince of Wales marked the end of pre-war British naval presence in south Pacific, the sinking of the Yamato symbolized the end of the once unstoppable Japanese navy. In May 1945, he stepped down from his position as the commanding officer of the Combined Fleet and became the head of Overall Naval Command and then Chief of Naval General Staff.
In the last days of the war, while the dovish Prince Konoye lobbied for methods to negotiate for peace, Toyoda argued to defend the home islands until the last man. .........................At the war trials, he was released under the condition that he would never enter public service (same condition was required of for all released war criminals).
http://ww2db.com/person_bio.php?person_id=45
Toyoda was not against the termination of the war but insisted that the Japanese push for more favorable terms. After the dropping of the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Toyoda’s feelings remained unchanged. With the aid of Emperor Hirohito an agreement was reached that the Japanese would surrender with the stipulation that the occupying forces not impede the imperial system of government and the powers of the Emperor. A letter to this effect was sent on 10 August 1945. The next day James F. Byrnes, U.S. Secretary of State, returned a letter rejecting the demands made by the Japanese government.
On 13 August Toyoda signed a petition for an Imperial Conference concerning the Japanese surrender on the terms that the conference would not be held for a few days and that he be notified before the petition was actually used. Instead, the next morning the Imperial Conference had been called. During the conference both Toyoda and Umezu are said to have voiced their concerns, particularly regarding the subordinate position the Emperor would play under the terms of surrender. Despite these concerns, Hirohito gave the order to bring the war to and end with an unconditional surrender.
After the war, high level leaders of both the German and Japanese governments were tried for war crimes. Because of Admiral Toyoda’s positon at the end of the war he was charged as a war criminal and tried in Tokyo, Japan before a military tribunal in October 1948. Toyoda was charged with violating “the laws and customs of war” (p. 9 of MSS 195 Bx 1 Vol. 1.) The charged specified that Toyoda had:
“willfully and unlawfully disregard[ed] and fail[ed] to discharge his duty as a said officer by ordering, directing, inciting, causing, permitting, ratifying and failing to prevent Japanese Naval personnel of units and organizations under his command, control and supervision to abuse, mistreat, torture, rape, kill, and commit atrocities and offenses against innumerable persons of the United States, its Allies, Dependencies, and other non-combatant civilians” (pp. 9-10 of MSS 195 Bx 1 Vol. 1.)
To this charge Admiral Toyoda plead not guilty and was subsequently the only one of the accused Japanese War criminals found not guilty on all counts. In 1957 Toyoda died of a heart attack.
http://uda-db.orbiscascade.org/findaid/ark:/80444/xv58850
If you do a search for “gosh says Roosevelt” you will find multiple references from the same source in regard to targeted killings
In these recent references Roosevelt was truly astonished! but had also encouraged the targeting. What is your take on the overall article?
I really don’t know, but have been under the impression that the order to shoot down Yamamoto came from the top. I seem to remember that there were fears that using the intercepts to target the admiral could have risked the Japanese figuring out that they were compromised. But again, I’m just going on memory.
I think these articles are exemplars of wartime information warfare, and should be studied by all top-level officers.
“Is he dead? Gosh!”
“That musta been that plane that got shot down in Burma.”
“The Japanese statement is puzzling, because there was no significant activity in the southern theater.”
...while Colonel Tsuji wrote bestsellers and served in the Diet.
We had reports of riots in Berlin a few days ago, and now the newspapers are attacking government policy. Looks like Germany is the land of freedom.
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