Posted on 09/26/2013 4:49:59 AM PDT by Homer_J_Simpson
Winston S. Churchill, Closing the Ring
The News of the Week in Review
Twenty News Questions – 10
Russia’s Armies Roll Up to the Line of the Dnieper (map) – 11
Russia Wins Rich Area but Faces Huge Tasks (Werth) – 12
Answers to Twenty News Questions – 13
M’Arthur’s Issue One of Strategy (Kluckhohn) – 15-16
Strategy for the Pacific is Being Debated (map) – 15
http://www.onwar.com/chrono/1943/sep1943/f26sep43.htm
Japanese counterattack fails
Sunday, September 26, 1943 www.onwar.com
In New Guinea... Japanese forces launch unsuccessful counterattacks against the Australian brigade around Finschafen.
In the Mediterranean... On the island of Corsica, Free French forces occupy Ghisonaccia airfield. The German garrison continues evacuating.
In Italy... The advance of the British 10th Corps (part of US 5th Army) advances without resistance. The German rearguard has withdrawn, because all German forces inland have successfully been pulled back. To the east, the 13th Corps (part of the British 8th Army) enters Canosa on the Ofanto River.
http://www.etherit.co.uk/month/thismonth/26.htm
September 26th, 1943 (SUNDAY)
FRANCE: The Free French forces capture the Ghisonaccia Airfield on Corsica.
The US Eighth Air Force’s VIII Bomber Command flies Mission 103 against targets in France with the loss of 1 B-17.
(1) 40 B-17s hit Champagne Airfield at Reims at 1751-1752 hours.
(2) 55 B-17s dispatched to the Paris area abandon the mission after crossing the enemy coast.
(3) 63 B-17s dispatched to Meulon Les Mureaux and Citroen in the Paris area are prevented from bombing by the weather.
(4) 37 B-24 Liberators fly a diversion.
72 B-26B Marauders of the US Eighth Air Force’s VIII Air Support Command are dispatched to Conches Airfield during Mission 72; they are recalled due to weather.
GERMANY: Roman Catholic bishops denounce the Nazi policy of euthanasia for the mentally and terminally ill, officially stopped in 1941.
During the night of 26/27 September, RAF Bomber Command Mosquitos bombed three targets: four aircraft hit a blast furnace at Duisburg , four bomb Hamborn , three bomb Cologne and three bomb Aachen. The Mosquitos attacking Aachen are carrying out the first trials of Mark II Oboe but the equipment fails and bombs are released visually or on dead reckoning. There are no losses.
U-771 launched.
U.S.S.R.: Soviet troops penetrate the suburbs of Kiev.
A decision is made to withdraw Spanish Blue Division from Eastern front (Glenn Stenberg)
ITALY: The British X Corps meets no resistance due to German withdrawals. The demolitions and booby traps prove to be plenty of resistance. Advance units from the US XIII Corps 8th Army enter Canosa on the Ofanto River.
The 15th Army Group is directed by General Dwight Eisenhower to secure air bases in Rome area.
The U.S. Fifth Army’s British 10 Corps continues its efforts to break out into the Neapolitan plain; enemy positions are beginning to weaken under its blows. To reinforce the west flank, the U.S. 82d Airborne Division is transferred to Maiori by sea and, under 10 Corps control, takes command of the Rangers. VI Corps is handicapped by autumn rains as well as demolitions, but the 45th Infantry Division takes Teora and the junction of Highways 7 and 91.
In the British Eighth Army area, 13 Corps patrols reach Canosa.
The 1,432 men of the US 100th battalion enter combat.
In the air, USAAF Twelfth Air Force fighters, and light and medium bombers patrol the battle zone, escort convoys, carry out bombing and strafing sweeps against motor transport in the Benevento-Melfi area and north of Foggia, bomb the Pomigliano landing ground, and hit the town of Sarno and military concentrations to the north. Bad weather prevents heavy bomber missions.
GREECE: The Italian garrison on the island of Corfu surrenders to a German force that has recently landed there.
German Ju-88 bombers sank destroyers HMS Intrepid (D 10) and HS Vasilissa Olga in Leros, Dodecanese.
MEDITERRANEAN SEA: At 0800 hrs U-223 successfully managed to break through the Straits of Gibraltar and into the Mediterranean. Her run had started the evening before at 2200hrs.
SINGAPORE: OPERATION JAYWICK, six members of the SOA (Special Operations Australia) Unit operating from the former fishing vessel Krait in three canoes, attach limpet mines to seven Japanese ships in Singapore Harbour. The six men then retire safely.
NEW GUINEA: B-24s bomb But and Dagua Airfields; P-38s claim 9 enemy fighters shot down in the But-Dagua-Wewak areas; other B-24s hit Nubia and Potsdam Plantations.
The Japanese counterattacks around Finschhafen are beaten off handily by the Australian defenders. The Japanese try in vain to destroy the Australian beachhead in the Finschhafen area but the 20th Brigade repels their attacks. Two companies of the Australian 2/17th Battalion moving towards Sattelberg in the hills 6 miles (10 kilometres) northwest of Finschhafen, stop the advance of Japanese reinforcements heading for the town.
In the air, USAAF Fifth Air Force B-24s bomb But and Dagua Airfields; P-38s claim 9 enemy fighters shot down in the But-Dagua-Wewak areas; other B-24s hit Nubia and Potsdam Plantations. The attack on Wewak claims 64 Japanese aircraft destroyed and six ships sunk.
SOLOMON ISLANDS: On Bougainville Island 21 US Thirteenth Air Force B-24s, covered by 14 P-38s, bomb a bivouac near Kahili Airfield; 30 P-40s and P-39Airacobra and 15 USMC F4U Corsairs support 50+ USN SBD Dauntlesses in a strike on the hangar area of the airfield at Kahili and gun positions at Kangu Hill and Jakohina.
PITCAIRN ISLAND: Submarine USS Crevalle made an unscheduled six hour stop on 26 September 1943 at Pitcairn Island of the Mutiny On The Bounty fame. The unexpected stop was for correction of some minor difficulties with the hydraulic system. According to the natives of the island this was the first submarine that the Pitcairn People had seen and they were very excited about observing Crevalle. The Chief of the Island a Mr. Christian, (a direct descendant of Fletcher Christian the leader of the famous British Navy mutiny) and his court were given a guided tour of the submersible. Gifts were exchanged between the Island inhabitants and the Crevalle crew.
U.S.A.: Glen Borens’ diary: USS BUNKER HILL moored main dock, N.A.S. San Diego, Calif.
She had just finished her shake-down cruise and with Air Group 17, had qualified all Pilots.
They told me she was a tight fit in the Panama Canal.
We, ( VF-18 ) were told to board the carrier for transport to Pearl Harbor for further training.
We were 45 percent through our training program. Things got a little tight with an additional 36 fighters aboard. IIRC, a lot of Marines were also loaded FFT to Pearl.
More fun,
Glen
[Having been raised within 10 miles of Fort Riley,Ks., I dodn’t want to go into the Army so I joined the Navy in Oct. ‘42. After a short ‘boot camp’ at Great Lakes, I was sent to Aircraft maint.school at Millington Tenn., After 3 or 4 months of that was 2 weeks of school on airborne radar operation and then to Pensacola for Aerial Free gunnery training. Finishing that, I was put on a train for Alameda,Ca..
VF 18 formed at Alameda in July 1943 where I joined, We trained there for a short time and worked our way to North Island at San Diego, by way of outlying fields. We had left the rest of Air Group 18 behind. The USS Bunker Hill with Air Group 17 complete, finished her shakedown and headed through the Canal, arriving at San Diego on 26 Sept. ‘43 as I remember.]
Destroyer escort USS Paul G Baker laid down.
Destroyer escort USS Cannon commissioned.
Minesweeper USS Improve launched.
Submarine USS Guitarro launched.
Destroyer escorts USS Bright and England launched.
BRAZIL: US forces start using Natal port.
ATLANTIC OCEAN: U-161 sank SS Cisne Branco and SS Itapagé.
U-410 sank SS Christian Michelsen in Convoy UGS-17.
Good stuff Homer.
On page 5 - George Bernard Shaw wonders whether the globe would be better off if humans vanished.....
Where have I heard that before?
It’s interesting to speculate on how Marshall would have fared as Supreme Commander of Overlord. I strongly suspect he would have performed quite well.
He also extols the virtue of Soviet Communism, saying there was more private property in the USSR than any time under the czars. Forget about the purges, the deporations, the Holomodor, the camps... The old man was obviously senile. Or just another lying communist.
After the war, the surviving German officers wrote their memoirs and took part in staff studies commissioned by the United States Army on how to fight the Soviets. To a man, every last one of the Germans suffered from “Bridgeheadphobia,” the fear of Soviet bridgeheads over river obstacles. The reason for that is on display right now. The news of the day is on how the Germans have not been able to successfully defend any river lines in the USSR, and are now trying to make their stand along the Dnieper.
The article notes how the Soviets are sending the cossacks across the river to establish those bridgeheads, and hold them until the bulk of Soviet forces arrive. All of this is true. In fact, the Soviets have already established literally dozens of small bridgeheads over the Dnieper.
So as the Germans write their memoirs and suggestions to the Americans, the one thing they all say is “don’t let the bastards get a bridgehead!” Hans von Luck’s memoirs are the most specific on this. He advised the Americans that if the Soviets got across a river, they had to be attacked immediately with whatever was at hand. It didn’t matter if you only had a platoon, his advice was attack and attack now. Given 24 to 48 hours, the Russians would become so well dug in that you couldn’t eliminate them. From that point, the Russians would pour men and material into the bridgehead until it boiled over.
In the next two weeks, this is going to play out up and down the Dnieper with bad effect for the Germans.
Interesting little item about Benigno Aquino being tabbed as a president of a future Japanese puppet state in the Philippines. I knew the Aquinos were part of a handful of dominant families in the Philippines, that the grandson (Benigno Aquino III) is the current president and the murder of the son (Jr.) led to Marcos’ overthrow. I did not know that the father was a collaborationist.
Drew Middleton’s dispatch is interesting. I infer from it some panic in London that the Russians may win the war before we can open the western front. That would put us at quite a disadvantage in the postwar world.
I think you infer right. From the article:
It is also stressed in London that the plans for joint policy by the United States, Britain and Russia toward Germany and Europe in the post-war years rest on the assumption that Anglo-American forces as well as Russian armies will be on the heels of the retreating German armies. It is reasonable to argue that the Allied forces in Italy are driving the Germans. But, as has been pointed out they are driving them back toward the Lombardy plain, not into Germany.
Mr. Middleton is indeed perceptive. In fact, it is about this time that Stalin meets with his generals to plan the fall and winter follow-on campaigns. It is now evident to him that there will be no “second front” in northwest Europe in 1943. Stalin will tell his generals “screw the little allies, we’ll do it ourselves.” Or words to that effect.
Given what we’ve seen from the Red Army since Prokhorovka, he’s probably right. The Red Army can beat the Nazis by themselves. And I think Middleton sees it, too.
“Mr. Middleton is indeed perceptive. In fact, it is about this time that Stalin meets with his generals to plan the fall and winter follow-on campaigns. It is now evident to him that there will be no “second front” in northwest Europe in 1943. Stalin will tell his generals “screw the little allies, we’ll do it ourselves.” Or words to that effect.
Given what we’ve seen from the Red Army since Prokhorovka, he’s probably right. The Red Army can beat the Nazis by themselves. And I think Middleton sees it, too.”
Are there any plausible scenarios under which the Soviets could have beaten the Nazis if the US had not entered the war?
Roosevelt on the other hand didn't seem worried by Uncle Joe at all, preferring to place faith in the fanciful idea the United Nations would lead to world peace and harmony. But then, his government was penetrated seven ways to Sunday by Russian spies.
Had Hitler not declared war on the United States, he wouldn't have been Hitler.
Certainly, especially since the Russians beat back the Germans attacking Moscow before the US even entered the war. The Germans never had the forces to defeat the Russians by frontal assault on a 1000 mile front. It was shear madness, even if the Germans had taken Moscow, it was futile.
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