Posted on 06/20/2013 6:10:44 AM PDT by Homer_J_Simpson
Winston S. Churchill, Closing the Ring
The News of the Week in Review
Sicily: Chief Target for Allied Airmen in the Mediterranean (map) – 14
‘War of Nerves’ – 15-16
Labor Crisis – 16
Abroad – 16-18
The Nation – 20-22
Quotations – 22
Sidelights – 22
Twenty News Questions – 23
Russians Weigh Chances of German Offensive (by C.L. Sulzberger) – 24
Answers to Twenty News Questions – 25
http://www.onwar.com/chrono/1943/jun1943/f20jun43.htm
King George VI visits Malta
Sunday, June 20, 1943 www.onwar.com
British King George VI at Malta [photo at link]
In the Mediterranean... British King George VI visits Malta.
In New Guinea... US General Krueger establishes 6th Army headquarters at Milne Bay. There is an unsuccessful Japanese attack on the 17th Australian Brigade in the Mubo area.
Over Germany... RAF bombers attack Friedrichshaven during the night (June 20-21) and fly on to air bases in Africa as part of a “shuttle-service” attack.
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/andrew.etherington/frame.htm
June 20th, 1943 (SUNDAY)
UNITED KINGDOM: The first Allied shuttle bombing mission between Britain and North Africa is flown today by RAF Lancasters. (Glenn Steinberg)
Sixty Avro Lancasters of the RAF’s 57 and 97 Squadrons, No. 5 Group attack the old German Zeppelin works at Friedrichshafen, Germany, and then fly to Blida, Algeria, in the first shuttle mission between the UK and North Africa. (Jack McKillop)
Minesweepers HMS Jasper and Pique launched. (Dave Shirlaw)
NEW GUINEA: The 17th Australian Brigade successfully repels a Japanese attack in the area of Mubo.
AUSTRALIA: A force of Japanese aircraft attack Darwin, Northern Territories. 18 Ki 49 Helens of the 61st Sentai bombed Winnelle airfield from high altitude followed minutes later by 9 Ki 48 Lillys from the 76th Sentai, which bombed and strafed Winnelle and Darwin airfields. The bombers were escorted by 22 Ki 43 Oscars of the 59th Sentai. 46 Spitfires scrambled to meet the raid and claimed 9 bombers and 5 fighters destroyed and 8 bombers and 2 fighters damaged. Three Spits were lost. Japanese records show only one Helen and one Oscar were actually shot down, while another Hellen and two Lilly’s crashed landed near their home base. (Steve Alvin)(136)
PACIFIC OCEAN: A Japanese freighter and a transport are sunk by U.S. submarines. (Jack McKillop)
TERRITORY OF ALASKA: ALEUTIAN ISLANDS: Kiska is bombed by six USN PV-1 Venturas based on Adak Island. (Jack McKillop)
U.S.A.: Washington: The most powerful military man in the Allied ranks is this weekend overseeing the final preparations for offensives half a world apart in the Pacific and the Mediterranean. Yet general George C. Marshall is one of the least known military leaders, lacking the charisma of Montgomery or MacArthur.
It is Marshall, though, to whom President Roosevelt turns first for advice. Born in Pennsylvania in 1880, the young Marshall tasted action in the Philippines and France in 1917. But it was as a master of planning that he began his rise through army ranks, finally leapfrogging many more senior generals to become US Army Chief of Staff in September 1939. It was a surprise, but inspired, appointment by Roosevelt. By the time of the Pearl Harbor attack, Marshall had doubled the size of the US Army. His influence is no longer confined to his own service, however, after Pearl Harbor he became chairman of the new Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee at a time when increasing numbers of operations involve more than one service.
Marshall has also emerged as a tough-minded strategist on the international stage. Accompanying Roosevelt to Anglo-American conferences, he has resisted British pressure to defer planning for a second front in France while at home countering the US naval chiefs who favour the Pacific theatre.
Marshall is often regarded as remote, even austere, and without close friends. But this is seen by some as an advantage since choosing the best man for a particular command (as he chose Eisenhower from relative obscurity) is as much a part of his job as the renowned master of logistics. Whether he can ever be spared to command armies in the field - he has been mooted as an eventual commander in Europe - must be doubtful.
Race-related rioting erupt in Detroit, Michigan; federal troops were sent in two days later to quell the violence that resulted in more than 30 deaths. (Jack McKillop)
Howard Hughes pilots the Hughes XA-37. Constructed by the Duramold process, developed and patented by Co. Virginius E Clark, the Army’s chief aeronautical engineer during WWI; it involved moulding resin—impregnated plywood into desired shapes and contours under high heat and pressure. It is 43 feet long, wing span of 60 feet 5 inches gross weight of 28,110 pounds Two PrattandWhitney R-2800 Double Wasp 2000 hp engines. Est. top speed of 433 mph, but Hughes was the only test pilot. (John Nicholas)
Destroyer escort USS Waterman launched.
Submarines USS Rock and Flasher launched.
Destroyers USS Dortch and Gatling launched. (Dave Shirlaw)
NORTH ATLANTIC OCEAN: A US Navy PBY-5A of Patrol Squadron Eighty Four (VP-84) based at Fleet Air Base Reykjavik, Iceland sinks the German submarine U-388 (Type VIIC) south south-west of Iceland and south-east of Cape Farewell, Greenland at 57.36N, 31.20W. This was the first use of the Navy’s homing torpedo (FIDO). All 47 crew of the U-boat die. (Jack McKillop and Alex Gordon)
U-214 damaged Santa Maria. (Dave Shirlaw)
Unions. Bah!
Unions were enemies of freedom then as now. What caught my attention were the articles on the air campaign from North Africa against Sicily. My father was an aircrew member in medium bombers out of North Africa at that time, before he completed that tour and moved to the PTO.
One of the other bomb groups in the area I believe flew B-25s, dad’s group flew B-26 Marauders.
"This shirt was worn by the chief of a group of Romanian Gypsies known as the Calderai.
Like other Gypsies, the owner, Gheorge Ciaoba, wore brightly colored clothes on special occasions.
The shirt is from the years 1942 to 1945, during which the Nazis viciously persecuted the Gypsies, who were often (and easily) identified by their distinctive garments."
Guadalcanal Bag Rises to 94 Planes (Hulen, George E. Jones, first-time contributor) – 7-8
“Race-related rioting erupt in Detroit, Michigan”
Most people trace the decline and fall of Detroit to this incident. This begins the “white flight” to the suburbs. With the demographic shift and the assistance of the UAW, the mayor’s office will see a perpetual series of militant socialist mayors starting in the 1950s. Every decent “productive” citizen and business will be driven from the city.
In 1943 Japanese cities were about to have their due. Detroit was one of the largest and most prosperous industrial cities in the world.
Today, the Japanese cities are gleaming and prosperous. It’s Detroit that consists of rubble.
This article talks about a possible German offensive "in the center -- southwest of Moscow."
It also allows that Hitler "can no longer count on crushing superiority".
No mention of Kursk, which is directly south of Moscow...
BTW, what is CL Sulzberger's position at NY Times in 1943?
Demonstrating that in this era of precision guided "smart-bombs", nothing can reduce cities to ruin faster than assaults by better-made, lower-cost competitive products. ;-)
According to his wikipedia entry C.L. spent his entire career as a correspondent and never assumed a management position at the Times. His current stories have been filed from Cairo but have been on the subject of the Soviet Union, where he was last assigned. The bio also says that Drew Middleton and James Reston both reported to Sulzberger, which does suggest that he was a supervising correspondent of some sort.
According to his obituary, in 1943 C. L. Sulzberger is still just a columnist for the Times. In 1944 he will become the Chief Foreign Correspondent which is a position he will hold until 1954.
The two or three articles on the Russian Front are pretty accurate, although not completely so. Some specifics:
1. That the Red Army has artillery superiority over the Germans. Not entirely true. The Red Army has massive amounts of artillery, but it lacks mobility and flexibility. The Soviets lack the large numbers of trucks to give the artillery the mobility to shift rapidly from one sector to another, and in the case of offensive action, cannot keep up with advancing infantry and armored forces. We’ll see this in late July and August. Also, the Soviets don’t have many radios to establish a good artillery communications net. If you want a massive pre-planned barrage, the Soviets can do that. In the chaos of battle, when you need artillery cover here and now, the Soviet artillery cannot respond. Contrast the Germans, who, while not having the massive quantity of artillery, still have a fairly good amount, and all of it is linked together through a communications net that will allow forward observers in threatened areas to rapidly call down fire where it’s needed. It is not nearly as advanced as American fire control, but it is markedly better than the Soviets.
2. The Red Air Force is claimed to have parity in the air, and this is pretty much true. In fact, at Kursk the Red Air Force will start as underdogs but in the middle of the battle will win dominance over the battlefield. The Germans have shifted a significant number of aircraft to Italy and for the aerial defense of the Reich. Mostly FW190s and Me109s. The Germans will have plenty of Stukas flying close support this summer, but they will not have the fighter cover to keep the Stormoviks off the panzers. The Germans will also suffer from their perpetual bane: logistics. The Germans will not be able to fly as many missions because of shortages of aviation fuel at the forward airfields.
3. The Red Army ground forces are much better. In fact, they are using this lull in operations to train, train, and train some more. The Germans are in for a rude surprise in how much better the Soviets have become. Their operational proficiency is not yet nearly what the Germans have. There are a lot of deficiencies in their forces; T-34s have poor visibility and few radios. In straight up fighting, German panzer divisions are still qualitatively much better than the comparable Soviet tank corps. The lack of trucks for artillery applies to the mobile formations; there are not enough to supply a tank army on a deep penetration, bring up its supporting artillery, and most importantly, keep supporting infantry close.
4. Finally, despite the claims of improvement in the Soviet armed forces, and despite the other deficiencies noted, the article does not note just how much quantitative superiority the Soviets have over the Germans. The articles state that the 190 German divisions in the east are more than adequate for defense alone. The world is going to find out this summer and fall that those 190 divisions are not nearly enough.
Thank you for the excellent analysis, Hanson W. henkster.
I lived in Ann Arbor for a few years. Delightful town. It was very depressing to go into Detroit and see buildings still standing that had been damaged in the riots of the ‘60’s. Now, I understand the city is de-urbanizing by demolishing the damaged buildings and leaving vacant blocks. I even saw one proposal by a businessman to clear several square blocks and start an orchard business. It is indeed a cautionary tale about how permanent liberal government can damage a community.
I’ve seen the aerial photography comparisons of Detroit neighborhoods then and now. Whole swaths of the city are returning to the State of Nature. People leave, the homes and structures are vacant, fall into disrepair and become subject to vandalism. “Devil’s Night” was only possible because of a supply of empty flammable buildings.
So what else is a bankrupt city to do but raze the dilapidated structures?
Detroit is a very good application of the word “implosion.”
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