Posted on 09/01/2013 5:42:59 AM PDT by Homer_J_Simpson
http://www.onwar.com/chrono/1943/sep1943/f01sep43.htm
Americans building airfields in Pacific
Wednesday, September 1, 1943 www.onwar.com
An island airstrip under construction [photo at link]
In the Central Pacific... US forces land on Baker Island and build an air strip within a week. This action is to support the campaign in the Gilbert Islands.
In the Solomon Islands... On Vella Lavella the US force reaches Orete Cove.
On the Eastern Front... Soviet forces capture Dorogobuzh, halfway between Vyazma and Smolensk. To the south, the Red Army continues to advance beyond Taganrog.
http://www.etherit.co.uk/month/thismonth/01.htm
September 1st, 1943 (WEDNESDAY)
UNITED KINGDOM: The population of Britain is now more completely mobilized than that of any other country - far more so than Germany’s. Ministry of labour figures show that there are 22,750,000 men and women in the services, Civil Defence or essential war work such as munitions and service industries. With another million doing voluntary war work, this accounts for over 70% of the 33 million people aged between 16 and 64. One million people over 65 are also in full-time employment.
Before the war, no expert would have believed this possible, said Ernest Bevin, the minister of labour. “Yet we have had to do it and we have done it.” Ten million women up to the age of 45 have already been registered for war work. The recent decision to register those aged between 45 and 50 brought much criticism of Mr. Bevin in parliament and the press for “directing grandmothers”; 200 MPs signed a motion of protest. The minister pointed out that 1,500,000 women over 40 are already at work, and 500,000 of them are over 45.
He believes that older women do not resent the part they are being called on to play in the factories; nor do older men. “The average age of the Merseyside docker is nearly 51 and he is giving a remarkable turn-around of ships. I saw a man there the other day aged 83, wheeling three-hundredweight bags of Cuban sugar. I do no think I have been hard when these examples are borne in mind.”
A third of the women serving in the forces and industry come from the “non-manual, non-industrial classes”. Altogether there are 2,250,000 more people working in the munitions industry than in 1914-18. Around 100,000 women have joined the railways, and others are working as welders in the shipyards.
Frigates HMS Fitzroy and Seymour launched.
Submarine HMS Seneschal laid down.
GERMANY: U-317 is launched and U-1222 is commissioned.
U.S.S.R.: Soviet troops make good progress around Smolensk and Vyazma capturing Dorogobuzh, east of Smolensk, and south around Taganrog.
ITALY: Units of the British join aircraft and artillery in the bombardment of the Calabrian coast in preparation for Operation BAYTOWN, the British invasion of Italy.
USAAF P-40s bomb a zinc plant at Iglesias and strafe a factory north of Gonnesa while medium and light bombers hit Bova Marina, areas near Salina and Sant’ Eufemia d’Aspromonte town area and bridge at Oliveto.
During the night of 1/2 September, 38 RAF (B-24) Liberators of No. 205 (Heavy Bomber) Group visually bomb the North
TUNISIA: All ADMINISTRATIVE functions of the Army Air Forces elements of the Northwest African Air Force are transferred to the appropriate US Twelfth Air Force organizations:
- HQ Northwest African Air Force (NAAF) to HQ Twelfth Air Force,
- Northwest African Strategic Air Force (NASAF) to XII Bomber Command,
- Northwest African Tactical Air Force (NATAF) to XII Air Support Command,
- Northwest African Coastal Air Force to XII Fighter Command,
- Northwest African Air Service Command (NAASC) to XII Air Force Services Command,
- Northwest African Air Force Troop Carrier Command to XII Troop Carrier Command (Provisional),
- NW African Photographic Reconnaissance Wing to Photo Reconnaissance Wing (Provisional), and
- Northwest African Training Command (NATC) to XII Training Command (Provisional).
OPERATIONAL control remains with the Northwest African Air Force.
CHINA: Seven USAAF Fourteenth Air Force B-25 Mitchells and eight P-40s attack a Japanese destroyer and the dock area at Shihhweiyao; a P-40 and three P-38 Lightnings attack a barracks at Yangsin, shipping at Wuchang and Kutang and a train and antiaircraft guns near Puchi; six P-40s sink a small river tanker near Ichang and strafe Japanese cavalry at Ocheng; and three P-40s attack Swatow Airfield and the port area.
BURMA: USAAF Tenth Air Force B-24 Liberators bomb rail facilities at Mandalay.
BAKER ISLAND: The US Army’s 804th Engineer Aviation Battalion lands on Baker Island to build an advance airfield to support the upcoming invasions in the Gilbert Islands. The landing is supported by the USN’s Task Force 11 (Rear Admiral Willis A. Lee, Jr.), formed around small aircraft carriers USS Princeton (CVL 23) and USS Belleau Wood (CVL 24). The dock landing ship USS Ashland (LSD 1) in this operation pioneers the use of this type of ship in amphibious operations. Also involved were the PBY-5A Catalinas of USN Patrol Squadron Thirty Three (VP-33) based on Canton Island. The squadron conducted day searches toward the Gilberts covering the occupation of Baker Island.
CORAL SEA: USN destroyer USS Wadsworth (DD-516) picks up an underwater sound contact and drops seven patterns of depth charges sinking Japanese submarine HIJMS I-20 off Espiritu Santo, New Hebrides Islands, in position 15.38S, 166.57E.
RYUKYU ISLANDS: USN submarine USS Pompano (SS-181) sinks a Japanese merchant vessel off Miyako Island.
BISMARCK ARCHIPELAGO: On New Britain Island, USAAF Fifth Air Force B-25 Mitchells bomb Iboki Plantation and Rein Bay; five Fifth Air Force B-26 Marauders attack the Cape Gloucester area; and 12 RAAF Beaufighters attack the island.
MARCUS ISLAND: Aircaft from the US carriers ESSEX, YORKTOWN and INDEPENDENCE, part of the new Fast Carrier Task Force, attack the island.
SOLOMON ISLANDS: On Vella Lavella Island, a battalion of the U.S. 35th Infantry Regiment, 25th Infantry Division, driving on the Kokolope Bay, reaches the Orete Cove area, about 14 miles (23 kilometers) northeast of Barakoma.
NEW GUINEA: Air attacks on the Japanese at Lae are increased. Allied air operations are intensified in preparation for the offensive against Lae, Northeast New Guinea. The USAAF Fifth Air Force is concentrating on airfields, supply points and shipping in the New Guinea - Bismarck Archipelago area.
Twenty USAAF Fifth Air Force B-24 Liberators and 40+ B-25 Mitchells bomb supply dumps in the Alexishafen-Madang area of Papua, New Guinea.
PHOENIX ISLANDS: From this date through 14 September, 8 US Seventh Air Force B-24s conduct daily sea-search operations from Canton Island.
TERRITORY OF ALASKA: In the Aleutians, 2 US Eleventh Air Force P-40s attempting to intercept Japanese aircraft reported near Attu Island abort because of weather.
CANADA: Corvette HMCS Trentonian launched.
U.S.A.: British Prime Minister Winston S. Churchill arrives at the White House for a conclusion of his Quebec City, Quebec, Canada, talks with President Franklin D. Roosevelt.
Technical Manual (TM) E 30-451, Handbook on German Military Forces, dated 1 September 1943, is issued. This is an update to the prior one. It is interesting to note that this is issued before U.S. and Allied troops have encountered many of the new German weapons. Not covered are such items as the MP 44, the Panzerfausts and many other items. (Bill Howard)
Washington: Averell Harriman is appointed US ambassador to the USSR.
Destroyer escort USS Wyman commissioned.
The USN assumes full responsibility for all airborne antisubmarine operations by US forces in the Atlantic and USAAF units are reassigned.
" The American Jewish Conference was organized in 1943 by the American Zionist movement.
Recognizing that war often results in great political change, many American Jews believed that the time to lobby for the creation of a Jewish state in Palestine was when the Second World War and the Holocaust had ended.
Almost every American-Jewish organization was represented in the 1943 convention of more than 500 delegates.
"Because the conference seemed more interested in establishing a Jewish state than in focusing on the rescue of European Jews, several Jewish organizations--especially the American Jewish Committee--criticized the conference's lack of emphasis on rescuing Holocaust victims.
Moreover, the conference--established by Henry Monsky (pictured)--failed in its attempt to influence the U.S. government on the Palestine issue.
Not until January 1945 did the conference urge rescue and aid for the Jews of Europe.
"The conference was a harbinger of wide American-Jewish commitment to the establishment of Israel.
In September 1945 a Roper poll indicated that 80 percent of American Jews favored the Zionist position.
The most significant achievement of the conference was helping to swing American non-Jewish and political opinion in favor of the creation of a postwar home for the Jews of Europe."
"The Jewish synagogue in Zagreb, Croatia, was demolished in 1943.
The onslaught against Croatian Jewry that began in 1941 with the German invasion of the Soviet Union continued into 1943.
Deportations from Zagreb were personally ordered by Heinrich Himmler in May 1943, and the vast majority of Croatian Jews who were sent to Auschwitz never emerged.
Most Croatian Jews who died, however, were killed not by the Nazis but by the country's ruthless Ustasa regime. "
"Ignacy Isaac Schwarzbart was a Zionist member of the Polish Parliament and the Polish government-in-exile.
He published a Jewish newspaper, The Future, in London, documenting the German Holocaust against Jews in Poland.
Like all such information going to the Allies, his newspaper had little effect on Allied disinclination to rally aid for Jews.
Schwarzbart opposed bombing Auschwitz, fearing that too many Jews would lose their lives to Allied attacks."
Not sure if we have a current word for it.
Consider that a Marine amphibious assault carrier is most obviously "triphibian", but we never hear it called that.
"Combined arms" comes to mind, though that implies multi-service operations, i.e., navy plus army, air force, etc.
So perhaps the reason we don't hear much about "triphibian" these days is that everybody naturally assumes: commanders will automatically select those assets necessary for a mission, be they amphibious, triphibian or, say, "quintophibian" -- land, air, sea surface, undersea and space!
This article gives as good a contemporary explanation for President Roosevelt's views on "Uncle Joe" Stalin as I've seen.
FDR is determined to do nothing which might arouse Stalin's suspicions regarding the western allies future intentions.
Drew Pearson was a communist, along with Edward R. Murrow, he was one of the early infiltrators in the Western Press. As a good Soviet puppet, he’s parroting the Party line.
Later he will partially redeem himself as a damn good wide receiver for the Dallas Cowboys.
But the dissenting statement by the American Jewish Committee (see post of September 2) makes no explicit reference to rescuing Jews in Europe. It is more concerned with the political wisdom, or lack thereof, of pushing for the Zionist solution at this time. All it says about the war is, "at this time it is our duty to concentrate on victory for the United Nations."
Hanson Baldwin has a nice piece about lessons learned from Sicily and the Aleutians. One of the lessons from North Africa and Sicily concerned military government in the occupied zones. This would lead to the creation of a new kind of unit, the European Civil Affairs Division (ECAD), which would run military governments in France, the Low Countries, but primarily in Germany. My son-in-law’s grandfather served in one, eventually running a German city, post-war.
It was particularly interesting how we “administered” Europe and parts of Asia from 1944 onward. I’m sure there is a really dry treatise on this topic out there. Just the sort of thing for my reading list.
I even found the Library of Congress has posted an officer's personal copy of Field Manual 27-5 from 1943. http://www.loc.gov/rr/frd/Military_Law/pdf/mil_gov-civil_affairs.pdf
I'm jumping ahead, but one of the most interesting developments to me concerned the German occupation. It was assumed that in the final conquest German government would collapse and a lengthy occupation would be needed to re-establish a civilian government. In fact, the disciplined and orderly Germans kept their institutions largely intact despite the horrific destruction of the war. Local council elections were held in early 1946. The military occupation was much shorter than originally anticipated.
I’ve got a few of the official US Army histories, mostly the operational ones. The army commissioned some very good historians to write their histories, such as Blumenson, MacDonald, Cole, etc...
The Germans were more or less “allowed” to keep their local civilian bureaucracy in place for the simple reason that the US Army couldn’t fill the void. The Germans knew what they were doing in running the basic levels of government, like utilities, fire protection, and mail. Let them do their jobs.
I get the impression we pretty much did likewise in Japan.
IIRC, Cole did the volume on the Battle of the Bulge, which I thought was very good.
He did. It’s in my library. Ironically, MacDonald was a company commander in the Bulge, wrote “A Time For Trumpets” about the Bulge, authored other volumes of the official history, but not that one.
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