Posted on 03/14/2015 4:32:09 AM PDT by Homer_J_Simpson
John Toland, The Rising Sun: The Decline and Fall of the Japanese Empire, 1936-1945
Winston S. Churchill, Triumph and Tragedy
http://www.etherit.co.uk/month/2/14.htm
March 14th, 1945 (WEDNESDAY)
UNITED KINGDOM: The ace crews of RAF Bomber Command’s 617 (”Dambuster”) Squadron have today added to their list of successes, this time with a new weapon. Their target was the Bielefeld viaduct; the means was the largest bomb so far used in the war, the 22,000 pound “Grand Slam”.
To carry it some of 617’s Lancasters have had to be specially adapted with cutaway bomb bays, strengthened undercarriages and four 1,280hp Rolls Royce Merlin engines. To save weight two of the crew are dispensed with. Fourteen Lancasters took off from their base at Woodhall Spa shortly after lunch. All but one, piloted by Sqn-Ldr Jock Calder DSO DFC, carried 12,000-pound “Tallboy” bombs. Calder had a “Grand Slam” and attacked the viaduct from just under 12,000 feet, scoring a direct hit. This destroyed over 200 feet of the viaduct. At the moment of release of the bomb, Calder’s Lancaster shot up some 500 feet, giving the crew some knocks; but they soon forgot these in the realization that they had scored a bull’s-eye.
Submarines HMS Saga and Ace launched.
Boom defense vessel HMS Barcarole launched.
NORTH SEA: U-714 (type VIIC) is sunk near the Firth of Forth, in position 55.57N, 01.57W, by depth charges from the South African frigate HMSAS Natal and the British destroyer HMS Wivern. 50 dead (all hands lost).
Her trials completed, HMSAS Natal - launched in 1944 as HMS Loch Cree - was granted a two-day postponement of her scheduled sailing-date. Her commanding officer, Lt-Cdr D A `Stoker’ Hall, DSC - had asked for this on grounds that his crew needed more time to familiarise themselves with this class of vessel. Most crew members - all volunteers - had not served in purpose-built warships before. They had come off tiny whale catchers and trawlers, converted in South African ports to serve as a/s vessels or minesweepers. About 0900 on March 14, 1945, HMSAS Natal sailed from the Tyne, bound for Scapa Flow in the Orkneys and then for the anti-submarine training base at Tobermory, Isle of Mull. Four hours later, with the crew still shaking-down and finding their way around their new ship, a southbound vessel, Sheaf Crown, signalled urgently that a merchantman had just been torpedoed and sunk in her vicinity.
This was off the east coast of Scotland, and the position given by Sheaf Crown showed that the sinking had occurred just five miles to the north of HMSAS Natal, off the fishing harbour of St Abbs near the Firth of Forth. The frigate arrived there to find survivors of the sunken vessel - later identified as the Danish cargo vessel Magne - bobbing about in a lifeboat and several life rafts. A veteran Royal Navy V and W destroyer, HMS Wivern, was on the scene, and while Lt-Cdr Hall was offering the assistance of his newly-commissioned vessel, the frigate made a positive submarine contact off the port beam, using her new-type `sword’ Asdic scanning equipment (Set 147B) which allowed for a vertical as well as a lateral fix to be made. Loch-class frigates had also been fitted with `Squid’ - a top secret ahead-firing weapon using depth-charge mortars - and this was now used with devastating effect, with the firing of two salvos of six mortars each. These brought up a quantity of light diesel oil and pieces of wreckage. HMSAS Natal suddenly lost Asdic contact after the second attack - in which more oil and a metal tank surfaced - and it was assumed the U-boat had gone straight to the bottom. This was later confirmed when a hunter-killer group, sent from the Tyne and led by HMS Ascension, depth-charge blasted the sea-bed at the exact position of the attack - 55.57N, 01.57W - and brought a considerable quantity of U-boat flotsam to the surface. This included a hand-carved shield depicting a diving U-boat - a memento that was sent to `Natal’ by C-in-C Rosyth who, with a Board of Admiralty headed by Admiral of the Fleet Sir Andrew Cunningham, sent signals to the frigate congratulating her on her early `kill’. HMS Wivern claimed a share in the kill, on the basis of a depth-charge `attack’ she made later that day on an oil-slick 10 miles south of Natal’s encounter with U-714. But this was discounted by naval authorities. It was later learnt that the destroyer, with her outdated equipment, had at no stage been able to make Asdic contact with the submerged U-boat and that her depth-charge `attack’ on an oil-slick later in the day had produced no wreckage. All the recognised authorities have credited HMSAS Natal solely with this successful attack. HMSAS Natal’s feat so soon after commissioning was described at the time as “unique in the annals of the Royal Navy”. The ship received an RN battle honour (`North Sea 1945’), and a number of individual decorations were awarded, including a Bar to Lt-Cdr Hall’s DSC, won for gallantry in the Mediterranean. (Daniel Ross)
GERMANY: The US XII Corps of the Third Army begins attacks southeast over the Moselle from Koblenz.
Heavy fighting around the Remagen bridgehead. The German 7th Army is counterattacking.
The heaviest bomb of WW II, the 22,000-lb “Grand Slam”, is dropped by Lancaster (PD 112) of RAF Dambuster Squadron 617 piloted by Sqn. Ldr. C. C. Calder, on the Bielefeld Railway Viaduct in Germany. (Michael Ballard)
Adolf Eichmann”>Eichmann declares: “I shall go to my grave happy in the knowledge that I have helped to kill six million Jews.”
Second Lieutenant Stephen R. Gregg is presented with the Medal of Honor by Lt. Gen. Alexander M. Patch, commander of the 7th US Army for his actions of 27 August, 1944. (John Collins)
U-4704 commissioned.
BURMA: The last rail line for the Japanese into Mandalay is cut by the 62nd Indian Brigade when they take Maymo.
U.S.A.: Destroyer USS Arnold J Isbell laid down.
Destroyer USS Harold J Ellison launched.
ATLANTIC OCEAN: U-1021 (type VIIC) is listed as missing since today in the North Atlantic south of the Bristol Channel in approximate position 50.34N, 05.07W. 43 dead (all hands lost). Probably sunk in the British mine barrages A1 or ZME 25.. (Alex Gordon)
I believe it was called the “Calliope.” Kind of an answer to the Nebelwerfer.
Artillery on the cheap.
And very effective.
The Soviets learned that early on with the Katyusha, which the Germans greatly feared. The Calliope looks like it has the same playlist as the Stalin Organs.
Colonel Donovan could not have been more incorrect.
“Eichmann declares: “I shall go to my grave happy in the knowledge that I have helped to kill six million Jews.””
Eichman’s last words: “Long live Germany. Long live Argentina. Long live Austria. These are the three countries with which I have been most connected and which I will not forget. I greet my wife, my family and my friends. I am ready. We’ll meet again soon, as is the fate of all men. I die believing in God.[182]”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adolf_Eichmann#Appeals_and_execution
My assumption has been that the Germans feared it because its effect when fired in barrage on exposed men and equipment was somewhat similar to a cluster bomb. Individual rockets were inaccurate and relatively flimsy launch platforms added to the inaccuracies.
Note the sag of the tubes in the photo of the Calliope.
Here' a snippet about the Calliope cut from an old newsreel. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cqfyz_Nc6NI
I recall reading but cannot locate a story about the Soviets on a Moscow flank being down to only a Katusha rocket brigade to defend against a German armor assault.
The entire German column was wiped out.
That would certainly strip away any tank mounted infantry support. a direct hit on top of the turret, or rear deck of 1941 era German tanks would probably disable the tank.
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