Posted on 12/07/2013 4:11:42 AM PST by Homer_J_Simpson
Michael Korda, Ike: An American Hero
Winston S. Churchill, Closing the Ring
The Billy Chason crew (he’s the pilot) is assigned to the 533rd Bomb Squadron. The rookies will spend the next 3 weeks in orientation and training before being assigned to a combat mission.
The 381st BG set up for business in Ridgewell last June and has since flown 47 combat missions. Its four squadrons (532nd, 533rd, 534th, and 535th) have lost a total of 40 aircraft to German fighters and flak in the course of those missions. Nine of those lost have been from the 533rd. I tried to calculate the new crew’s chances of successfully completing their quota of 25 missions without being shot down. I wasn’t successful at that but during the recent World War II 70th Anniversary conference I learned from one of the veterans that he was told upon his arrival in England that his life expectancy was 5 ½ missions.
Editorials – 14-17
A Victory Conference
Sword of Stalingrad
German Propaganda
Westchester Budget
Railway Wages
Thoughts of Home
Plane vs. U-Boat
The Japanese-Americans
Topics of the Times
In the Nation: An Opportunity to Justify States’ Rights (Krock)
Letters to The Times – 18-19
http://www.onwar.com/chrono/1943/dec1943/f07dec43.htm
Bomber Harris says he can win the war
Tuesday, December 7, 1943 www.onwar.com
British Lancaster bomber being loaded for a mission [photo at link]
In London... The Air Marshal Harris, commander in chief of RAF Bomber Command, tells his superiors that he believes he can win the war if he is supported in his continuing attacks on Berlin and other targets so that he can send off 15,000 Lancaster missions in the next few months. (In fact, Harris will be able to send 14,500 missions despite arguments about the effectiveness of the bombing.)
In Italy... The US 5th Army secures the Mignano gap and expands its offensive. The US 2nd and 6th Corps attack Monte Sammucro and San Pietro. There is determined German resistance. To the east, the British 8th Army attacks Orsogna.
http://www.etherit.co.uk/month/thismonth/07.htm
December 7th, 1943 (TUESDAY)
UNITED KINGDOM: RAF Air Marshal Harris claims that he will win the war over the next several months with new support for the continuing attacks on Berlin and other German targets. His plan is to make 15,000 missions with 40 squadrons of Lancaster heavy bombers which will be operational in the next three months dropping 13,850 tons of bombs a month and “produce in Germany a state of devastation in which surrender is inevitable”. He will actually make 14,500. The war does not end.
London: Severe justice will be meted out to many thousands of war criminals. So Viscount Simon, Britain’s Lord Chancellor, told parliament today/. But he added: “There must be no mass executions of great numbers of nameless people. It must be justice administered to an individual.” His comments come after Lord Vansittart, former head of the Foreign Office, had warned: “We shall not establish sanity in Germany without a considerable measure of sanitation. War criminals must be followed to the uttermost ends of the earth.”
ITALY: In the British Eighth Army area, V Corps makes an unsuccessful attack on Orsogna.
The U.S. Fifth Army begins the second phase of the assault on the Winter Line in the Mignano Gap. The U.S. II Corps begins envelopment movements against German positions in the St. Pietro area astride Highway 6. In preparation for the assault on Mt. Lungo, the Italian 1st Motorized Group relieves the 1st Battalion, 141st Infantry Regiment, 36th Infantry Division, on the southeastern nose (Hill 253); the 2d and 3d Battalions, 143d Infantry Regiment, prepare for a drive on St Pietro, moving forward to the line of departure on Cannavinelle Hill; the 1st Battalion, 143d Infantry Regiment jumps off toward Mt. Sammucro (Hill 1205) at 1700 hours and gains the crest before dawn of 8 December. On the northern flank, the 3d Ranger Battalion attacks at dusk toward Hill 950, 1 mile (1,6 kilometers) north of Mt. Sammucro. The German defenders absorb the attack well.
USAAF Twelfth Air Force B-25 Mitchells and A-36 Apaches bomb the harbor and town of Civitavecchia; B-25s also attack Pescara, hitting the railroad, road, and town area; A-36s, P-40s, and RAF Desert Air Force fighters hit a gun position west of Orsogna, the towns of Viticuso and San Vittoria, and a bridge at Civitella Roveto.
Heavy cloud cover severely restricts operations but one USAAF Fifteenth Air Force B-26 Marauder attacks a bridge south of Arma di Taggia.
EGYPT: The U.S. and British delegates conclude the SEXTANT Conference at Cairo. To gain landing craft for Operation ANVIL (the plan for the invasion of southern France), plans for amphibious operations against the Bay of Bengal are canceled. Plans for the north Burma campaign are unsettled. The Combined Chiefs of Staff (CCS) set up a tentative timetable for the offensive against Japan as follows: seizure of the Marshall Islands and New Britain Island in the Bismarck Archipelago, January 1944; Manus Island in the Admiralty Islands, April 1944; Hollandia, Dutch New Guinea, June 1944; and the Mariana Islands, October 1944. The CCS issue a directive establishing a unified command in the Mediterranean, effective 10 December. General Dwight D. Eisenhower, whom President Franklin D. Roosevelt has already decided to make commander of Operation OVERLORD (the Normandy invasion), is to be responsible for all operations in the Mediterranean except strategic bombing.
CEYLON: Since British Admiral Louis Mountbatten, Supreme Commander Southeast Asia Command, is ordered to release a large portion of his amphibious resources for use elsewhere, planning is begun for a limited operation (PIGSTICK) on the south Mayu Peninsula in Burma on the Bay of Bengal as a substitute for Operation BUCCANEER (amphibious operation in the Andaman Islands), subject to approval of Chinese Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek.
CHINA: Thirteen USAAF Fourteenth Air Force B-25 Mitchells and escorting fighters attack Chang-te twice.
BURMA: Eight USAAF Fourteenth Air Force P-40s strafe freight cars between Mogaung and Myitkyina.
NEW GUINEA: In Northeast New Guinea, USAAF Fifth Air Force A-20 Havocs bomb troop encampments and dumps in the Finschhafen area and P-40s strafe boats and barges near Madang.
SOLOMON ISLANDS: Eighteen USAAF Thirteenth Air Force B-25 Mitchells carry out strikes against Kahili and Kieta Harbor on Bougainville Island. Torokina Island is bombed by two Royal New Zealand (PV-1) Venturas on patrol.
BISMARCK ARCHIPELAGO: Over 90 USAAF Fifth Air Force B-24 Liberators and B-25 Mitchells attack the Cape Gloucester and Borgen Bay areas on New Britain Island.
During the night of 7/8 December, 26 Australian Beauforts attack Borpop Aerodrome on New Ireland Island.
PACIFIC OCEAN: Glen Boren’s diary: Raid on Naura postponed until the 8th.
MARSHALL ISLANDS: During the night of 6/7 December, 14 USAAF Seventh Air Force B-24 Liberators, staging through Tarawa Atoll in the Gilbert Islands, hit targets on Maloelap and Wotje Atolls and six B-24s from Nukufetau Island in the Ellice Islands bomb Maloelap Atoll, and one other, failing to reach the primary, drops bombs on Mili Atoll. This date marks the beginning of Operation FLINTLOCK (operations against Kwajalein and Majuro Atolls).
U.S.A.: Battleship USS Wisconsin is launched. (Marc Small)
The Combined Chiefs of Staff (CCS) accept the U.S. plan for a strategic air command, the US Strategic Air Forces in Europe (USSAFE), to coordinate the operations of the USAAF Eighth and Fifteenth Air Forces.
The escort aircraft carrier St. Andrews (CVE-49) is transferred to the British as HMS Queen (D 19). She is returned to the USN on 31 October 1946. This is the 31st escort aircraft carrier transferred to the Royal Navy under Lend Lease.
Note the article on veteran voting. The federal govt wants to the military to collect and record the military votes. obviously most would support Roosevelt. The republicans argue it is a state rights issue.
Here is info on the Sword of Stalingrad. And Zero gives out Ipods.
http://gotavapen.se/gota/artiklar/fs/new/stalingrd/stalingrad_eng.htm
Thanks for the link and highlighting that story. I missed it while preparing today's news and I have never heard about the sword.
And Zero gives out Ipods.
Please, don't remind me. No wonder he sent the bust of Churchill back to England. He didn't want a constant reminder of the kind of leader he would never be if he lived 1,000 years. Of course, if it was a bust of Stalin it would still be in the Obama royal residence.
Middleton assumes, like everyone else, that Marshall will now arrive in London to take command of Overlord. Little did he know that on the same day Roosevelt had different thoughts. I think he made the right call, although I imagine Marshall was very disappointed.
The press has been speculating on Marshall for some time now, and that’s pretty much the “consensus.”
And beside that, he was a damn fine Chief of Staff when the Army was at a size it had never seen or even imagined.
I am overdue for reading a good biography or George C. Marshall. I think he was an outstanding man and not given nearly enough historical credit. But that’s probably because, in addition to being a damn fine CoS, as Secretary of State he was the father of the strategy of “Containment,” which ultimately worked and saw the fall of Soviet Communism.
And that’s probably why modern universities don’t want to mention him.
The idea of a retired General becoming a successful Secretary of State and winner of the Nobel Peace Prize makes liberal heads explode. And they have total amnesia about the evils of totalitarian marxism and the triumph well, mostly) of the West over it.
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