Posted on 11/13/2013 4:26:06 AM PST by Homer_J_Simpson
Stephen E. Ambrose, Band of Brothers
#1 – “Paper Doll” - Mills Brothers
#2 - “Pistol Packin’ Mama” - Al Dexter
#3 - “Sunday Monday or Always” - Bing Crosby, with the Ken Darby Singers
#4 - “People Will Say We’re in Love” - Bing Crosby, with Trudy Erwin
#5 – “Pistol Packin’ Mama” - Bing Crosby, with the Andrews Sisters
#6 – “Put Your Arms Around Me Honey” - Dick Haymes, with the Song Spinners
#7 - “Oh What a Beautiful Mornn’” – Bing Crosby, with Trudy Erwin
#8 – “People Will Say We’re in Love” - Frank Sinatra, with the Bobby Tucker Singers
#9 - “I Heard You Cried Last Night” - Harry James, with Helen Forrest
#10 - “Sunday Monday or Always” - Frank Sinatra
http://www.onwar.com/chrono/1943/nov1943/f13nov43.htm
Red Army captures Zhitomir
Saturday, November 13, 1943 www.onwar.com
On the Eastern Front... Soviet forces complete the capture of Zhitomir and advance northward toward Korosten.
In the Gilbert Islands... American B-17 Flying Fortresses bomb Tarawa atoll in preparation for the coming landings.
In the Solomon Islands... On Bougainville, the third wave of the US landing force comes ashore. This includes the rest of the US 37th Infantry Division and the 21st Marine Division. Task Force 39 (Admiral Merrill) provides cover. The cruiser Denver is hit by a torpedo during the landing operation. Some fighting takes place on the Numa-Numa trail.
In Italy... American General Clark, commanding US 5th Army, indicates to British General Alexander, Commander in Chief of Allied forces in Italy, that he believes attacks by his army should be halted for the present. The British 8th Army continues to advance toward the Sangro River and captures Atessa.
http://www.etherit.co.uk/month/thismonth/13.htm
November 13th, 1943 (SATURDAY)
UNITED KINGDOM: Corvette HMCS Hespeler (ex-HMS Guildford Castle) launched Leith, Scotland.
Minesweeping trawler HMS Vatersay launched.
Frigates HMS Cranstoun and Brathwaite commissioned.
Minesweepers HMS Combatant and Chance commissioned.
Frigate HMS Thornborough launched.
Submarine HMS Vampire commissioned.
VICHY FRANCE: The Nazis stop Marshal Petain broadcasting to the nation. Unable to act as premier he goes on strike.
FRANCE: During the night of 13/14 November, RAF bombers of No. 205 (Heavy Bomber) Group bomb two targets in southern France: six aircraft bomb the Var River railroad bridge and four hit a railroad viaduct at Antheor.
GERMANY: The USAAF Eighth Air Force’s VIII Bomber Command flies Mission 130: 117 B-17 Flying Fortresses and B-24 Liberators hit the port area at Bremen at 1120-1145 hours; over 100 aircraft abort the mission due to weather; three B-17s and 13 B-24s are lost. Other targets hit are: eight aircraft bomb targets of opportunity on Heligoland Island in the North Sea; six hit the industrial area at Flensberg; one attacks the industrial area at Kiel; and 11 bomb miscellaneous targets of opportunity.
During the night of 13/14 November, RAF Bomber Command sends 17 Mosquitos to bomb four targets: seven hit the Vereinigte Stahl armaments factory at Bochum; five attack Berlin; and one each bomb Bremen and Emden.
U-318 commissioned.
U-1407 laid down.
U.S.S.R.: Having captured Zhitomir, the Soviets begin moving north toward Korosten.
ITALY: While the British 8th Army continues its advance, capturing Atessa; General Clark advises Alexander that the US 5th Army’s attacks should be halted.
In the U.S. Fifth Army’s VI Corps area, the 157th Infantry Regiment, 45th Infantry Division, scales Hill 640 but is forced off. Hills 640 and 769 must be cleared before the advance on Acquafondata can be continued.
Northwest African Tactical Bomber Force light bombers hit Palena and Atina and later bomb Civitavecchia harbor and a road west of Terracina. USAAF Twelfth Air Force’s XII Air Support Command fighter-bombers, along with RAF Desert Air Force airplanes, bomb Giulianova harbor and shipping, roads leading to the battle zone, and landing grounds of Aquino, Frosinone, and Marcigliana; fighters hit train and trucks in the Pescara-Rieti area.
GREECE: Aegean: British escort destroyer HMS Dulverton (L 63) is in the Aegean north of Rhodes looking for landing forces when she is hit by an Hs.293 glider bomb launched from a German Do.217 aircraft off Kos. The glider bomb struck HMS Dulverton abreast the bridge, inflicting serious damage and starting extensive fires. The destroyer sustained heavy casualties, but her consorts take off six officers and 114 ratings before she is scuttled two hours later by escort destroyer HMS Belvoir (L 32). Three officers, including Captain of the 5th Destroyer Flotilla, and 75 ratings are lost with HMS Dulvarton. Same location as Rockwood entry above. (Alex Gordon & Jack McKillop)(108)
MEDITERRANEAN SEA: The British escort destroyer HMS Dulverton (L 63) is sunk by a Henschel Hs 293A glider bomb from a German Do.217 aircraft off Kos Island in the Dodecanese Islands. The glider bomb struck HMS Dulverton abreast the bridge, inflicting serious damage and starting extensive fires. The destroyer sustained heavy casualties, but her consorts took off six officers and 114 ratings (enlisted men) before she is scuttled two hours later by the escort destroyer HMS Belvoir (L 32). Three officers, including Captain (D) of the 5th Destroyer Flotilla, and 75 ratings are lost with HMS Dulverton.
INDIA: Colonel Francis G. Brink is given responsibility for training of the GALAHAD forces, (American long range penetration group), a task previously held by Lieutenant Colonel Charles N. Hunter. On 1 January 1944, the GALAHAD Force is activated as the 5307th Composite Regiment (Provisional).
MANCHURIA: Mukden: A Red Cross official is allowed by the Japanese to make the first visit to the PoW camp. He meets only with Major Robert Peaty (British army) and the senior American officer, Major Stanley H. Hankins. Major Peaty notes that the question and answer session is “very limited”. (151)(Linda Goetz Holmes)
BURMA: A single USAAF Tenth Air Force B-24 Liberator mines the Rangoon River during the night of 13/14 November.
BONIN AND VOLCANO ISLANDS: Six USAAF Seventh Air Force B-24 Liberators from Guam, escorting US Navy photo aircraft over Iwo Jima and the Bonin Islands, attack shipping at Futamiko in the Bonin Islands while one B-24 from Saipan, carrying out an unsuccessful shipping search, bombs Iwo Jima Island.
PHILIPPINE ISLANDS: USN submarine USS Narwhal (SS-167) lands men and supplies at Paluan Bay on Mindoro Island.
EAST INDIES: In the Netherlands East Indies, USAAF Fifth Air Force B-25 Mitchells and RAAF Beaufighters claim the sinking of a small freighter off Tanimbar Island in the Moluccas Islands.
NEW GUINEA: In Northeast New Guinea, nearly 57 USAAF Fifth Air Force B-24 Liberators and 62 B-25 Mitchells bomb airfields at Alexishafen and Madang in the heaviest Allied air raid on New Guinea while P-40s strafe the area. Other B-24 Liberators hit Kokenau and Timoeka, Dutch New Guinea.
CAROLINE ISLANDS: In the Palau Islands, seven USAAF Seventh Air Force B-24 Liberators from Angaur Island hit oil storage on Malakal Island and attack a bridge between Malakal and Koror Islands.
ELLICE ISLAND: Japanese bombers bomb Funafuti Airfield in Funafuti Atoll destroying two aircraft on the ground.
GILBERT ISLANDS: Eighteen USAAF Seventh Air Force B-24 Liberators, staging through Funafuti and Nanomea airdromes in the Ellice Islands, attack Betio Island, Tarawa Atoll, with fifty five 500-pound (227 kilogram) general purpose bombs and 126 twenty-pound (9, 1 kilogram) fragmentation bombs. One B-24 is lost to antiaircraft fire. Fires are started and they could be seen up to 60 nautical miles (111 kilometers) away. This is the first attack in preparation for the upcoming invasion.
USN land-based aircraft of Task Force 57 begin daily bombings of Japanese positions in the Gilbert and Marshall Islands. TF 57 consists of six USN land-based units: two bombing squadrons with PB4Y-1 Liberators, two patrol squadrons with PBY Catalinas, one bombing squadron with PV-1 Venturas and one photographic squadron with PB4Y-1 Liberators.
MARSHALL ISLANDS: USAAF Seventh Air Force B-24 Liberators bomb Mili Aerodrome in Mili Atoll while USN PB4Y-1 Liberators fly photographic reconnaissance missions over Wotje and Maloelap Atolls.
SOLOMON ISLANDS: At 0430 hours local, Marine Night Fighter Squadron Five Hundred Thirty One [VMF(N)-531] scores its first victory when the crew of PV-1 Ventura number 54 shoots down a “Betty” bomber (Mitsubishi G4M, Navy Type 1 Attack Bomber) about 50 nautical miles (93 kilometers) southwest of Torokina Point on Bougainville Island. The standard procedure for intercepts is that the pilot has to fly within 150 to 700 feet (46 to 210 meters) to visually identify the unknown aircraft (”bogey”) before opening fire; this prevents the accidental shooting down of a friendly aircraft with a malfunctioning Identification Friend or Foe (IFF) system. This Marine Squadron was commissioned 16 November1942 and is the first Marine night fighter squadron in action.
Seventeen USAAF Thirteenth Air Force B-24 Liberators hit antiaircraft positions, dispersal areas, and runway at Bonis Airfield on the northern tip of Bougainville Island. Six B-25 Mitchells carry out a low-level raid on the airfield on Buka Island north of Bougainville. Night fighters harass the Shortland Island and Kahili Airfield in southern Bougainville and Bonis Airfields in northern Bougainville, claiming four grounded airplanes destroyed at the latter.
During the night of 13/14 November, USAAF Thirteenth Air Force P-70 crews begin heckling missions against Bonis Airfield in northern Bougainville and Kahili Airfield in southern Bougainville. Targets in the Shortland Islands are also attacked.
Marine Major General Roy Geiger becomes responsible to Admiral William F. Halsey, Commander South Pacific and Commander Third Fleet, as Vice Admiral Theodore Wilkinson, Commander of the 3rd Amphibious Force, relinquishes command. The 21st Marine Regiment begins an attack for the junction of the Numa Numa Trail with the East-West Trail to ensure the safety of airfield site.
The 129th Infantry Regiment, 37th Infantry Division arrives on Bougainville. During a heavy air attack the light cruiser USS Denver (CL-58) is hit by an aerial torpedo which knocks out all power and communications and kills 20 of her crew. The ship has to be towed away for repairs.
PACIFIC OCEAN: 18 B-24s of the Seventh Air Force’s 11th Bombardment Group (Heavy), staging through Funafuti and Nanomea airdromes in the Ellice Islands attack Betio Island, Tarawa Atoll with 55 500-pound (227 kg) GP bombs and 126 20-pound (9 kg) fragmentation bombs. One B-24 is lost to Japanese AA fire. Fires were started and they could be seen up to 60 miles (96.6 km) away.
US B-17s strike Tarawa in the first attack in preparation for the upcoming invasion.
The Japanese submarine HIJMS I-34 is on a “Yanagi” mission to German-occupied France, the third Japanese Navy submarine to undertake such a mission. The Japanese code name for I-34 is “Momi” (Fir); the Germans code name her the “U-Tanne”. Radio traffic between Tokyo and Berlin concerning the I-34’s mission is transmitted in diplomatic code, but is intercepted and deciphered by Allied code-breakers. I-34 is carrying a cargo of raw rubber bales, tungsten, tin, quinine, medicinal opium and samples of Japanese weapons. Also aboard are Rear Admiral HIDEO Kojima and two Mitsubishi engineers. Alerted by an “Ultra” special intelligence signal, the British submarine HMS/M TAURUS (P 339) sights I-34 running on the surface at 14 knots. At 0730, six torpedoes are fired at the Japanese sub and one hits the starboard side just below her conning tower. She sinks at 100 feet (30,5 meters) about 16 nautical miles (30 kilometers) west-southwest of Penang, Malaya, in position 05.17N, 100.05E. Twenty crewmen in an after section survive the attack and manage to escape through a deck hatch. Of these, 13 are picked up by a native junk and arrive at Penang that evening, but 84 crewmembers are lost. The I-34 is the first Japanese submarine sunk by a British submarine.
SOLOMON ISLANDS: Torokina :The remainder of the US 37th Division and 21st Marines lands on Bougainville.
There is continued Allied concern at the failure of Marine engineers to establish a fighter airstrip at Torokina. The knee-deep swamp conditions are to blame for the lack of progress and the snail’s pace Allied advance.
Offshore the light cruiser USS Denver takes a torpedo for damage.
At 0430 hours local, VMF(N)-531 scored its first victory when a the crew of PV-1 number 54 shot down a , Navy Type 1 Attack Bomber (Allied Code Name “Betty”) about 50 miles (80.5 km) southwest of Torokina Point on Bougainville Island.
The standard procedure for intercepts was that the pilot had to fly within 150 to 700 feet (46 to 210 meters) to visually identify the unknown aircraft (”bogey”) before opening fire; this prevented the accidental shooting down of a friendly aircraft with a malfunctioning IFF system.
This Marine Squadron was commissioned November 16, 1942 and this is the first Marine night fighter squadron in action.
BISMARCK ARCHIPELAGO: USAAF Fifth Air Force B-24 Liberators bomb Gasmata on New Britain Island. Later, nine B-25 Mitchells and 18 Australian Kittyhawks hit Gasmata. This begins the preinvasion bombardment of targets in west New Britain.
CANADA: Frigate HMCS Matane arrived Halifax from builder Montreal, Province of Quebec.
U.S.A.: President Franklin D. Roosevelt signs a bill into law extending the term of President Manuel Quezon of the Philippines “. . . until the expulsion of the Japanese from the Philippines.”
Headquarters, USAAF issues an order redesignating Reconnaissance Squadrons as Tactical Reconnaissance Squadrons.
Submarines USS Turbot and Ulna laid down.
Destroyer escort USS Forster launched.
Frigate USS Carson City launched.
Destroyer escort USS Pride commissioned.
ATLANTIC OCEAN: The milkcow U-488 took on two ill crewmembers from U-193 and U-530.
"The career of Kurt Waldheim demonstrates the ease in which some individuals moved between civil society and Nazism.
When the United States Justice Department put him on its Watch List as a suspected war criminal in 1987, the shroud of secrecy Waldheim had placed over his past quickly unraveled.
"Kurt Waldheim entered law school at the University of Vienna in 1937.
Following the Anschluss, he joined the Nazi Students' Association and became a Storm Trooper.
Waldheim participated in the French and Russian campaigns as a Wehrmacht soldier and was wounded in December 1941.
"Waldheim's service in the Balkans from 1942 to 1945 provided him with direct knowledge of the atrocities committed against Yugoslav partisans.
Although he personally did not participate in the killings, an Austrian commission investigating his role ruled that he was close to persons who issued and carried out atrocities and that he did nothing to disrupt them.
"After the war Waldheim immediately distanced himself from his Nazi past.
He joined the Austrian diplomatic service in 1945, served as foreign minister from 1968 to 1970, and was named the secretary general of the United Nations in 1971.
Although publicly discredited, Waldheim has yet to openly confront his past."
"This circular encourages Palestinians to make contributions to rescue efforts of European Jews.
An excerpt of the text: 'Children of Israel, listen!
Listen to the voice that cries out for help.
Remember our brothers at every moment, when you study and when you rest, when you eat and when you play.
Join together as one individual to rescue and support [our brothers].' "
"Jews seeking to emigrate to Palestine without permission had to evade a British Navy intent on preventing their entry.
In late November 1943, Jews aboard three ships seeking to enter Palestine were detained and sent to a camp on the island of Mauritius.
Committed to caring for their own, the detainees established a hospital.
The nurses and doctors faced many challenges, including an outbreak of typhus."
Thanks for refreshing my memory on Kurt Waldheim.....and especially posting his pic....
I’m no fan of Kurt Waldheim and I detest the UN. That stated, his wartime record has been greatly inflated. He served in the Wehrmacht (as did the vast majority of Austrian men his age during WWII) not the Waffen SS. He was primarily a desk officer assigned to intelligence work. Unless fight armed partisans is considered a war crime, I do not think he would fall into the category of being a major Nazi war criminal.
So Waldheim went to law school? When I was in law school in 1981, one day my Civil Procedure professor turned the class over to a Holocaust survivor. He did this every year. The survivor spent an hour telling us what he had to do to be the only member of his family to survive Auschwitz. Being a history buff, I knew about the Holocaust and wondered what the point of the presentation was. At the end of the presentation, Professor Harvey went to the podium, and all he said was “Your duty as lawyers is to make sure this never happens again.” That’s when I realized what the Rule of Law and the role of the legal profession was all about. Obviously, I never forgot that lecture. Professor Harvey did that presentation every year until about 1995.
Apparently, Waldheim never took Civil Procedure from Professor Harvey.
Also, unfortunately, the vast majority of my classmates walked out of the lecture convinced “that can’t happen here.” And that’s exactly what the average German of 1928 would have said if you described the coming Holocaust to them.
Front page, Congressional inquiry in to liquor shortages.
Priorities!
Consider that Berlin was one of the most sophisticated and cosmopolitan cities in the world. German universities and intellectuals were among the world’s foremost. Also consider how easily Obama has just ignored American laws his dislikes and steamrolls the Senate on appointments all with impunity. Of course it could happen here. Look how easily the left and media have demonized and dehumanized the Tea Party in the eyes of many. Think any of them would object to a little roundup?
Interesting story there about Marines putting razor blades in the trunks of trees to stop Japanese from climbing them.
On independence, the Island became a province of Papua New Guinea. One of the world's largest copper mines was built on the Island, for a time bringing prosperity to a corner of the Island. But Islanders resented PNG taking so much of the spoils and resented the environmental degradation. So, a guerrilla army was formed to fight for independence and it shut down the mine. Eventually, peace talks resulting in autonomy for Bougainville stopped the fighting. But the mine is still closed and there are precious little hopes for other development given the Island's violent history. There's even some nut who claims to be King of Bougainville.
It's a shame. The Island is loaded with mineral wealth. Properly developed, the Islanders could enjoy a very good economy.
There are many things in the world I would like to be. Until today, “King of Bougainville” was not on the list.
(Just in case you don't know who he is, he wears a bandana telling you.)
You just can't make this stuff up. I guess that's why I so prefer non-fiction. :-))
I don’t know if BroJoeK is Jewish; machts nichts. I very much appreciate his contributions to Homer’s daily threads about the war. The Holocaust should never be forgotten, although I fear that as it’s last survivors and perpetrators exit the stage, it will be.
I know I’ve posted this elsewhere on this forum, I don’t know if I’ve posted it on these threads or not. I’m getting old and forgetful. But among the degrees I have is one in Germanic Languages from Indiana University in 1981 (a good year to attend IU Bloomington, I might add). Part of my studies involved reading German literature and screenplays from the 1955-1980 period. To those who poo-poo a liberal arts education, I would say that you can learn a lot if you know what to look for, and I learned a lot about human nature’s dark side from my studies in Germanic Languages.
As I said, in the 1928, the average German would have said “that can’t happen here” in regard to the coming Holocaust. And colorado, it’s for the exact reason you stated. Berlin, and Germany in general, was one of the most cultured, educated and civilized nations in the world. But in 1941 they were rounding up Jews in the Soviet Union. In 1944 they were stuffing their gassed corpses in ovens. It was the German reaction to this starting about 1955 that was interesting.
That year, the “formal” partition of Germany was more or less recognized in the Cold War, Adenauer went to Moscow to formalize the fact to get the USSR to release the surviving German POWs, and the West Germans had more or less rebuilt their country. They were ready at that time to confront what they had done, it was expressed through their culture. There were two main themes in German literature and culture during from 1955. Those themes were “how could we have let this happen?” and “was all our suffering and sacrifice only in the service of evil?”
On the issue of “How could we let this happen?” I invite all of you to read the screenplay for “Biedermann und die Brandstifter” (if you don’t want the original German, it was done in the US as “The Firebugs” or “The Arsonits”). In this Max Frisch play, the bourgeois “everyman” (Biedermann is a literal German translation) rented his upstairs apartment to two thugs who openly said they were going to blow up the entire town. Biedermann dismisses this as just talk. But as the thugs openly carry out their plans under Biedermann’s nose, he is not only in denial but actively helps them. Sure enough, they blow up the entire town. Biedermann asks “why did you do this?” and is told “we told you what were going to do. Why didn’t you believe us?”
The other theme was expressed as one of “lost honor,” which I thought was even more intriguing. This theme was addressed to the German veterans and the families who had lost sons and brothers (usually with the epitaph of “im Osten Gefallen” or “fell in the East.”) The average soldier, no matter for whom he fights, has to believe that he is fighting for some “greater good.” For Germans, it was a matter of honor. And the same applied to the families who lost sons and brothers. They felt a loss of honor to be confronted by the horrors of the Holocaust, and the thought that they had been complicit in its perpetration. It was very hard for the Wehrmacht veteran to accept and deal with. Some unreconstructed hard core Nazis never did.
So, to make that relevant to today, or even in 1981 in Professor Harvey’s Civil Procedure class, yes, it can happen here. Everything that happened in Germany from 1933 to 1945 could play out here, too. A lot of it already is, as the democrat party is in all practical purposes the Communist Party. They were no better than the Nazis, just without the overt nationalistic and racial crap. But Stalin’s USSR was just as evil, or more evil than, Nazi Germany. In fact, the belief that we are somehow “immune” almost guarantees that it will happen here. We are all Biedermann. 0bama was quite clear what he was about, but a nation of Biedermanns was, and still is, in denial about it.
Comments/feedback welcomed.
What struck me was that Hitler did not really have a mandate when the Nazis became the plurality party in the Reichstag. Hitler had been defeated for President and his party did not have a majority.
But the country was willing to put his party in charge of the government almost out of desperation. The Great Depression hit Germany especially hard in an economy already weakened by the Treaty of Versailles. Unemployment was rampant and soup kitchens were popping up everywhere. There was fighting in the streets between Nazi Brownshirts and Communists that the police seemed incapable of stopping. Government incompetence had cut unemployment benefits when they were needed the most. The country wanted a change, but would it be the traditional left or the Nazis?
Hindenberg despised Hitler but finally turned to him to form a government. Still, the Nazis only had three ministries. It was enough. After the Reichstag fire Hitler had Hindenberg suspend a number of civil liberties. That gave the Nazis their opening to stage, in effect, a coup.
Now, I'm not saying the majority of Germans bear no blame because they hadn't voted for the Nazis. Although Hitler never allowed another free election, his regime seemed popular until the war went wrong.
My takeaway is that the Germans did not consciously install the Nazi dictatorship and the early stages of the Nazi government and suspension of portions of the constitution was all done perfectly legally. In the early stages people did not understand the Nazi intention to seize power and never give it up. Another example is Venezuela, where the Chavista takeover all seemed legal and democratic in the beginning. Sure fooled the President of the United States. So, are we Americans immune from something like this happening in the midst of some future crisis? I think not.
We have a small example today. We have a President who decides which laws he will or will not enforce and even if a law is being enforced he can decide if his friends are nevertheless exempt. Because everyone is desperate to head off the impending Obamacare disaster, do you hear any voices being raised that our Dear Leader does not have the authority to do what he is doing?
And that was exactly the point of “Biedermann.” The thugs will tell you exactly what they are going to do if you listen to them.
“Under my plan, electric utility rates will necessarily skyrocket.”
“We can’t have 5% of the world’s population and use 25% of its resources and expect the world to think it’s OK.”
Statements favoring a single-payer health care system.
Calls for $1 Trillion in “additional revenue.”
And then there are the times he tells outright lies, such as “if you like your health care plan, you can keep it.”
Other than a few places like Free Republic, nobody is calling him out on his lies. Nobody is publicly saying what the real world consequences are for all these policy choices. As you say, nobody is saying “what you are doing is illegal.”
I was thinking about all of this while in line for coffee this morning. I looked around the coffee shop, and everyone was Biedermann. Blissfully going through the day, not knowing what is being done to them. Or actively helping it take place, without thinking through the consequences.
I’m sure all the good German Biedermanns felt the same way, even as late as 1941. I fear for our country, that in 20 years, we will look at the ruin of our once great nation and ask “How could we have let this happen?”
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