Posted on 03/06/2015 4:17:09 AM PST by Homer_J_Simpson
At the beginning of the war the buildings of Malvern School were requisitioned by the Admiralty, and were, I understand, subsequently taken over by the Ministry of Aircraft Production for research purposes. The Malvern boys found refuge at Harrow, whose numbers had been depleted owing to the raids on London; but the prospective entrants to Harrow have now greatly increased, and while Malvern remains at Harrow it is impossible to find accommodation for them. The Governors of both schools are very anxious that the existing arrangements should be terminated, and I should be glad if you would let me know whether there is any possibility of your Ministry being able to dispense with the buildings at Malvern, in order that the school may now return there.
Winston S. Churchill, Triumph and Tragedy
http://www.etherit.co.uk/month/2/06.htm
March 6th, 1945 (TUESDAY)
UNITED KINGDOM: Whilst dived and calibrating instruments, miniature submarine XE-11 collides with a BDV in Loch Striven, Scotland and sinks to the bottom. 2 of the crew are able to escape using DSEA, but the remaining 3 are casualties. (Alex Gordon)(108)
Frigate HMCS Sussexvale arrived Londonderry to join EG-26.
NETHERLANDS: Resistance fighters ambush and attempt to execute SS General Hans Rauter, the arch-persecutor of the Dutch.
GERMANY: The entire front of the US 9th Army has now reached the Rhine River.
Cologne: Tanks and infantry of the US First Army drove into Cologne today to reach the Rhine in the cathedral district. A Panzer hit by an American shell was burning up in front of the cathedral, its ammunition exploding in erratic bursts. The infantry pushed into the southern suburbs, where remains of the city’s defenders are on the retreat to Bonn.
About three-quarters of the city has been destroyed by bombing and shell-fire. Remarkably, the 13th-century Gothic cathedral is hardly damaged; a priest and a Franciscan monk have continued to hold regular services in the vestry. Of the city’s peacetime population of almost a million, fewer than 150,000 remain.
Z.28 German Destroyer, Sunk at 11pm in Sassnitz Roads by RAF air raid. (James Paterson)
U.S.S.R.: Submarine USSR SC-307 received the Red Banner Award. Her commander M.S. Kalinin received the honourable rank of The Hero of the Soviet Union.
COMMONWEALTH OF THE PHILIPPINES: General Mac Arthur meets his wife Jean and son Arthur in Manila Harbor aboard the Columbia Express.
VOLCANO ISLANDS: Iwo Jima: VII Fighter Command, United States’ Seventh Air Force bases the 15th Fighter Group with P-51Ds at South Field.
CANADA: HMS LST 3555, 3556, 3557, 3558, 3559 ordered in Canada. Cancelled 18 Aug 45.
Canadian Park Steamship Company freighter SS Green Hill Park caught fire and exploded while loading cargo in Vancouver, British Columbia. In explosion two crewmembers and six longshoremen were Lost. The ship was declared a Constructive Total Loss but was sold to a Greek owner who had the hulk repaired and operated under the name Phaeax II.
U.S.A.: Florida:
DAV resolutions will endorse rest camps
CLEARWATER - Resolutions will be offered tomorrow night at a meeting of Clearwater chapter, Disabled American Veterans, for the group’s endorsement of the proposed use of state parks and game preserves as rest camps for returned veterans who are discharged as a result of battle strain. Commander Roy F. Mains will outline the program to the chapter. (William L. Howard)
Toothpaste tubes will be diverted to troops
CLEARWATER - Local druggists have been advised by salesmen for wholesale firms that toothpaste in tubes may disappear entirely before the beginning of summer. The reason, they said, was the heavy use of tubes to pack all sorts of ointments and other supplies issued to troops before embarkation to battle zones. The GI issues include a special ointment to be used in gas attacks. According to the drug salesmen, each soldier gets five tubes - with the result that nearly all dental cleaners soon will consist of powders or liquids packed in cardboard cartons or glass bottles. (William L. Howard)
ATLANTIC OCEAN:U-681 shot a T-5 at an ASW trawler, but missed.
SS Empire Geraint damaged by U-775 at 51N, 05W.
I’ve heard of air drops but never heard of dropping in supplies via shells.
Love these posts. Keep it up.
I was at Cologne Cathedral a couple of months ago. It is basically a mammoth, man made, cavern of stone.
The cathedral, being very near to the central railway station, suffered fourteen hits by aerial bombs during World War II. It did not collapse, but remained standing in an otherwise flattened city. The great twin spires are said to have been used as an easily recognizable navigational landmark by Allied aircraft raiding deeper into Germany in the later years of the war, which may be a reason that the cathedral was not destroyed.
I think that there is a site which has video and pictures about the tank duel in and around the square at the Cologne cathedral.
I saw the Dutch resistance “attempted” to execute SS General Hans Rauter and had to look it up. He survived but gets tried and executed after the war.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanns_Albin_Rauter
Yep, the footage of the Cologne duel between the German Panther and American tanks is out there in a number of places. For those interested in the Pershing (one of which destroys the Panther), Belton Cooper's book "Death Traps" contains some interesting info on the introduction of the Pershing to combat in NWE.
As part of the overall drive to Cologne and Bonn, Uncle B's 47th Infantry is making their way to the Bad Godesburg area, but tomorrow will bring one of their more interesting changes in objectives.
Mr. niteowl77
Noticed the small salient over the Rhine at Ramagen.
Think someone might try to sell your uncle a bridge?
Better sell it quickly—it might not last too long.
Thank you again for these posts.
The big news you posted today is about the attack on Cologne and along the Rhine. I can picture Cologne well because I have spent considerable time there from time. (My brother played professional basketball for Cologne, of all things.) I am also reading for the first time Belton Cooper’s seminal work “Death Traps” which recounts his action as a junior officer in the maintenance division of the 3rd Armor Division. The Shermans were a major part of the action in these old NYT reports you posted.
The other articles posted are of interest of course. Iwo was killing many American boys by the minute. And the liberation of the Philippines was happening slowly. I have marched three times in the commemorative 26.2-mile march at White Sands Missile Base: Bataan Memorial Death March. When I last marched a few years ago, there were still some survivors from Bataan and Camp Anderson.
As to March 6th, 1836: “Remember the Alamo.”
Oldplayer
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