Posted on 02/09/2014 4:59:04 AM PST by Homer_J_Simpson
9 February. A patrol from Company K, 128th Infantry, marching across country, received fire from light machine guns and rifles. Captain Mooney, CO of Company K, and 5 men were killed in this action. The rest of the patrol withdrew under heavy fire.
Several bridges washed out by heavy rains.
Major General H.W. Blakeley, USA, Ret., The 32d Infantry Division in World War II
Winston S. Churchill, Closing the Ring
*This page 1 article was marked for rejection because I didn’t save the continuation on another page. Then I realized it doesn’t continue on another page. That is why it has a line through it. Carry on – HJS.
http://www.onwar.com/chrono/1944/feb44/f09feb44.htm
Luftwaffe supplies Korsun pocket
Wednesday, February 9, 1944 www.onwar.com
On the Eastern Front... German air forces make renewed efforts to bring supplies to the troops in the Korsun pocket. Large quantities of fuel and ammunition are delivered, while some of the wounded are flown out.
In Italy... At the Anzio beachhead, German forces capture Aprilia from the British 1st Division which continues to hold “The Factory”.
http://www.etherit.co.uk/month/thismonth/09.htm
February 9th, 1944 (WEDNESDAY)
UNITED KINGDOM: The King and Queen eat a 1/- (one shilling) lunch with Yorkshire miners and declare “It is a long time since we had a better meal.”
Westminster: The bishop of Chichester, Dr. George Bell, speaking in the House of Lords today, questioned the morality of the RAF’s policy of area bombing. He said that he was not forgetting Warsaw or Coventry; his concern was whether the government understood what area bombing was destroying now.
It was not only the vast material damage, much of it irreparable, but also the implications for the future relationships of the people of Europe, as well as morality. Speaking of Berlin, he added: “Men and women have been overwhelmed in a tornado of smoke and flames. It is said that 74,000 persons have been killed. The policy of obliteration openly acknowledged. That is not a justifiable act of war.”
He referred to Air Chief Marshal Sir Arthur Harris’s threat to bomb Berlin until “the heart of Nazi Germany ceases to beat”, and argued that “to justify methods inhumane in themselves by arguments of expediency smacks of the Nazi philosophy that might is right.”
The bishop’s qualms are doubtless shared by many but will carry little weight in the context of total war. In reply to Dr. Bell, Viscount Cranborne, the secretary of state for the Dominions, denied that the RAF indulged in terror raids. He said Britain would continue bombing “with more crushing effect until the final victory is secure.”
London: The unease expressed by the Bishop of Chichester about the RAF’s policy of area bombing has raised questions about the effectiveness of the campaign as well as its morality. Air Chief Marshal Sir Arthur Harris’s view that strategic bombing will bring about the downfall of Germany without the need for a costly invasion of Europe is well known. But is it correct?
Area bombing, such as the great firestorm of Hamburg last July, which killed 42,000 people, is known to have affected worker morale and industrial output seriously in the days immediately following the raids. But the Germans are resilient people; they soon recover; and in the case of Hamburg only 50 working days were lost.
In fact, because of the efforts of Albert Speer, the armaments minister, production of weapons in Germany is steadily rising. Tank production had increased from 760 a month at the beginning of 1943 to 1,229 in December, while the production of aircraft rose from 15,288 in 1942 to 25,094 in 1943.
Perhaps the main achievement of Bomber Command’s valiant effort has been the massive diversion of resources to the air defence of the Reich, which has deprived the Wehrmacht in Russia and Italy of vital air support.
Frigate HMS Wye commissioned.
FRANCE: 12 Lancasters of 617 “Dambuster” Squadron, led by Wing Commander Leonard Cheshire, last night devastated the important Gnome and Rhone aero-engine factory at Limoges with 12,000lb bombs, the heaviest of the war so far.
GERMANY:
U-1209, U-1210 launched.
U-1169, U-1231 commissioned.
FINLAND: Finnish government decides to send Juho Kusti Paasikivi, the former Finnish ambassador at Moscow, to Stockholm to find out what are the Soviet terms for peace.
U.S.S.R.: Generals Malinkovsky and Konev start to wipe out the German Eighth Army at Kirovograd.
INDIAN OCEAN: SS Viva (Master Oscar Andersen) was hit by a torpedo and sunk. Her crew was picked up next day by SS Marwarri and landed in Aden.
BURMA: The 1/7th Gurkha’s position on “Bare Patch” is completely wired; Japanese grenade dischargers during the day have no effect, and the Gurkhas are replying with 2-inch mortars. (Daily Telegraph, 21.10.2003, p.27)
PACIFIC OCEAN: While on her 3rd war patrol USS Bonefish torpedoes and damages the Japanese tanker Tonan Maru No.2 (19262 BRT) off French Indochina in position 11.30N, 109.10E.
TERRITORY OF HAWAII: Submarine USS Gar: USS Gar (LCdr. G.W. Lautrup, Jr) ended her tenth war patrol at Pearl Harbor.
CANADA: Tug HMCS Glenwood 155 tons, 80’x19’8”x7’6”, wood, one Enterprise diesel, 6 cylinders (12”x15”) 400 hp, 10kts ordered from J.H. LeBlanc Shipbuilding Co Weymouth NS. Cancelled during construction, 59% complete, completed 1946, sold 1947 to Saint John Tugboat Co. Saint John , New Brunswick, renamed Ocean Weka #179312. Broken up 1969 and removed from register.
Tug HMCS Glencove laid down Russel Bros Owen Sound, Ontario.
U.S.A.: Destroyer escort USS Weeden commissioned.
USS PCS-1378 commissioned.
Net tender USS Oneota laid down.
LCdr. A.C. Burrows was relieved as Commanding Officer by LCdr. J.B. Grady of submarine USS Whale.
ATLANTIC OCEAN: The very successful anti-submarine group led by Captain F J Walker in HMS Starling fought a notable action in defence of convoy SL.147, sinking U-238 and U-734. Over 150 depth charges were used in a long and relentless battle, one of the depth charges successfully exploding a German torpedo just a few yards before it would have hit Starling. Exhausted by his relentless patrols of the North Atlantic, Captain Walker, awarded the Distinguished Service Order no less than four times, suddenly died aboard ship in July 1944.
U-238 Kl.VIIC is sunk in the North Atlantic south-west of Ireland, in position 49.45N, 16.07W, by depth charges from the British sloops HMS Kite, Magpie and Starling. 50 dead (all hands lost). (Alex Gordon)
U-734 sunk in the North Atlantic southwest of Ireland, in position 49.43N, 16.23W by depth charges from sloops HMS Wild Goose and Starling. 49 dead (all hands lost).
U-193 was damaged by aircraft in the Bay of Biscay.
At 1300, the Kelmscott in convoy HX-278 was torpedoed by U-845 off St. Johns. The ship developed a heavy list but was towed to St John’s and after temporary repairs left for Baltimore on 17 August.
The numbers involved on the Eastern Front are staggering. 15,000 Germans killed in four days, a Russian force of 2 million. Just wow.
Do you ever wonder if the russians, looking at where Germany is today as a country, compared to their suffering and turmoil, think they may have been better off losing the war?
I’d never thought about that. Now that I have, I think the answer is, “No. They don’t.”
I can assure you that my Russian cousins in Dnieprpetrovsk (just behind the lines of the battle reported above) did and do not think so. My grandfather was born there, and one of his brothers was murdered there with his family by the National in 1941.
Thanks for posting these articles. Our society’s failure to remember the lessons of the past is at the root of most of our current problems, and these reminders from the past help us all to remember it and teach it to others.
By the NAZIS. Damned auto speller.
It used to be that you had to run the spell-check to get the system to replace your own words with nonsense. Now it does it on its own and you have to carefully retype things in order to say what you intended.
Concerning the P2 article about the loss of Nikopol, the Germans already have quality issues with their armor plate, the loss of mines in the Ukraine will soon have the Russians saying that German armor plate is no good.
The loss of the Nikopol mines has a HUGE effect on German Steel production.
Starting shortly, Speer orders that Manganese content, as well as nickel, in steel be cut back severely, making armor more brittle, and prone to penetration.
By June, Germany will have less than 30 days supply of some critical minerals like Chromium, Manganese, and Nickel.
Speer stated after the war that the loss of Nickel deliveries from the Petsamo, Finland mines is when he realized Germany had no hope of winning the war, no matter what he did.
Is the Anzio front at a standstill, now?
It was also about this time the Allies will convince Portugal to stop exporting tungsten ore to Germany. Just as the loss of the ferro-alloys is affecting German armor plate, the loss of tungsten will result in less effective armor-piercing shells for tanks and anti-tank guns. One of the reasons you will see so many German soldiers carrying panzerfausts from now on is that they don’t have any other alternatives.
Russians losing the War? Hitler years before laid out plan to kill everyone from Germany to the Ural Mountains. And expand Germany that far. It would have been bad for the Russians and for the rest of the World.
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