Posted on 08/30/2014 4:26:34 AM PDT by Homer_J_Simpson
http://www.onwar.com/chrono/1944/aug44/30aug44.htm#
British attack the Gothic Line
Wednesday, August 30, 1944 www.onwar.com
British 8th Army moves to attack the Gothic Line [photo at link]
In Italy... The British 8th Army begins attacks on the German-held Gothic Line. The British 5th Corps spearheads the attack with support from elements of the Canadian 1st Corps. The Polish 2nd Corps is engaged on the coast at Pesaro.
On the Western Front... The US 12th Army Group and the British 21st Army Group continue to advance. The British 30th Corps (part of British 2nd Army) captures Beauvais.
In Liberated France... The French Provisional Government of General de Gaulle is established in Paris.
On the Eastern Front... Soviet forces capture Ploesti. Most of the Romanian oilfields have been captured by this point.
http://www.etherit.co.uk/month/thismonth/30.htm
August 30th, 1944 (WEDNESDAY)
UNITED KINGDOM: The US Eighth Air Force in England flies 3 missions. (The number in parenthesis after a target name indicates the number of bombers attacking.)
- Mission 590: 107 B-17s and 108 B-24s bomb 8 V-weapon sites in the Pas de Calais area of France; one wing uses GH and H2X methods; escort is provided by 16 P-51 Mustangs without loss.
- Mission 591: Later in the day, B-17s attack the U-boat base and shipyards at Kiel (282), and aircraft plant and other industry in the Bremen area (327); 4 others hit targets of opportunity; escort is provided by 258 P-51s without loss.
- Mission 592: 6 B-17s drop leaflets in France and Belgium during the night.
The prototype Short Seaford (MZ 269), a development of the Sunderland flying-boat makes its maiden flight today. (22)
Corvette HMS Strathroy launched.
FRANCE: General de Gaulle’s Provisional French Government is established in Paris.
Paris: The Free French General Pierre Koenig today took over from an American general as military governor of Paris at Les Invalides. The city had been under American military government since the US 4th Division entered the city along with General Leclerc’s French troops on 25 August. General Koenig said he plans to put some of the French Forces of the Interior FFI Resistance fighters (FFI) into uniform. His priority, he added, is to restore law and order.
Veauvais falls to the British XXX Corps.
The Canadian 2nd Division captures Rouen after suffering heavy casualties. The British XII Corps advances 25 miles (40 kilometres) to Gournay. The U.S. XIX Corps drives rapidly northeast against light resistance reaching positions less than 10 miles (16 kilometres) from Beauvais while the VII Corps captures Laon. Elements of the U.S. Third Army continue their assault on Brest while other units drives east toward the Meuse River and towards Verdun.
In northern FRANCE, about 75 US Ninth Air Force A-20 Havocs and B-26s bomb a fuel dump near Arques-la-Bataille, Rouxmesnil-Bouteilles, and gun positions around Ile de Cezembre; weather grounds the fighters.
In southern FRANCE and ITALY, weather grounds US Twelfth Air Force medium bombers; A-20s hit targets of opportunity during the night of 29/30 August and fuel storage while fighter-bombers pound roads and railroads in the Po Valley in Italy and, on armed reconnaissance over the Rhone Valley in France, attack rail lines and motor and horse drawn vehicles, as US Seventh Army elements continue up the Rhone Valley toward Lyon.
GERMANY: SS General Kammler takes over responsibility for the A4 offensive, from General Heinemann’s LXV Army Korps. (Alex Gordon)
Following a failed suicide attempt, General Karl-Heinrich von Stulpnagel, the military governor of France implicated in the 20 July plot, is hanged.
U-3004 commissioned.
POLAND: Lublin: The first war memorial of the conflict is unveiled, dedicated to the unknown Soviet soldier.
ITALY: Allied commander Harold Alexander plans a bluff to crack the Germans’ Gothic Line and liberate northern Italy. Alexander begins with an attack on the eastern end of the Gothic Line. Next week, Americans will attack the western end in an apparent main assault. The British will then make a second attack in the east. Alexander’s three-punch strategy will be a partial success.
The British 8th Army begins attacks on the Gothic Line.
The 5th Canadian Armoured Division under Major General Bert Hoffmeister breaks through the Gothic Line south of Rimini on the Adriatic.
Field Marshal Kesselring, a master of defensive strategy, has assured Hitler that the Gothic Line is impregnable. His boast is about to be put to the test: today the British V and Canadian I Corps, supported by air attacks on the minefields, crossed the Foglia river and, despite heavy casualties, began to attack the defensive position which the Germans believe to be equal to that of Cassino.
Houses have been razed, trees felled and vineyards bulldozed to create killing grounds for a great rash of concrete machine-gun nests, each carefully sited to protect its neighbour. Artillery posts have been blasted into the Apennine rock, and deep minefields planted from the Adriatic in the east to the distant Ligurian Sea.
The US Fifteenth Air Force in ITALY sends 100+ B-24s and B-17s to hit targets in Yugoslavia; the B-17s bomb railroad bridges at Novi Sad and Vranjeco; the B-24s attack bridges at Cuprija. Nearly 100 P-51s strafe airfields at Kecskemet, Hungary and Oradea, Romania.
ROMANIA : Ploesti falls to the Russians. Most of the Romanian oilfields are now in the hands of the Russians.
The Germans must now rely entirely on their much-bombed synthetic oil factories. Ploesti produces five million tons of crude oil a year, refined on the spot and sent to Germany by rail and by barges on the Danube. It has been the target for continual raids by the US Fifteenth Army Air Force flying from Italy. The bombers faced tough opposition, and many aircraft and their crews have been lost, but their attacks cut the refineries’ output to two million tons, and RAF mining of the Danube prevented much of that from reaching Germany.
USAAF OPERATIONS IN THE CHINA-BURMA-INDIA THEATER OF OPERATIONS
BURMA: TENTH AIR FORCE: Several P-47 Thunderbolts bomb and strafe the town of Man Sai.
CHINA: FOURTEENTH AIR FORCE: B-25 Mitchells attack Hengyang, Pailochi, and Hankow Airfields, roads in the Nanyo and Changsha areas, and boats between Changsha and Hengyang, and Kichun and Wuhsueh; in the Kweiyi and Sintsiang areas 33 P-40s claim 58 trucks destroyed, 175 damaged, and at least 100 Japanese killed; 10 P-51 Mustangs hit scattered targets of opportunity in the same areas; 21 P-40s hit barracks, trucks, and a bridge in the Siangsiang and Siangtan region; and 34 P-40s and P-51s attack a variety of targets, including railroad traffic and facilities, occupied areas, and trucks, at Yangtien, between Hengshan and Nanyo, northeast of Ichang, southwest of Hengshan, and near Hengyang.
CAROLINE ISLANDS: A USAAF Seventh Air Force B-24 Liberator on armed reconnaissance from the Mariana Islands bombs Yap Island In the Palau Islands, Koror and Malakal Islands are bombed by USAAF Fifth and Thirteenth Air Force B-24 Liberators.
MARSHAL ISLANDS: US Seventh Air Force Kwajalein Atoll-based B-24s hit Mille Atoll.
PALAU ISLANDS: Koror and Malakal Islands are pounded by US Far East Air Force B-24s.
COMMONWEALTH OF THE PHILIPPINES: US submarine USS Narwhal (SS-167) lands 10-tons of supplies, 2 Filipino officers and 18 men in Dubut Bay in eastern Luzon.
CANADA: Premier Maurice Duplessis’ Union Nationale Party returns to power in Quebec.
Corvette HMCS Fergus launched Collingwood, Ontario.
Frigate HMCS Lauzon commissioned.
Corvette HMCS Parry Sound commissioned.
U.S.A.: Destroyer escort USS Muir commissioned.
Minesweeper USS Specter commissioned.
Submarine USS Threadfin commissioned.
Coast Guard-manned Army vessel FS-194 was commissioned at New Orleans. The first commanding officer was LTJG C. J. Hanks, USCGR. He was succeeded on 9 November 1945, by LT H. S. Squires, USCG. She was assigned to and operated in the Southwest Pacific area including Milne Bay, Segond Channel, Espiritu Santo, etc.
BRAZIL: A Panair do Brasil Lockheed Model 18-10 Lodestar, msn 18-2114, registered PP-PBI, crashes at Sao Paulo in fog killing all 16 aboard.
ATLANTIC OCEAN: U-548 - One man was missing after crash-diving. [Mechanikergefreiter (A) Walter Heise]
U-482 sank SS Jacksonville in Convoy CU-36.
Stephen E. Ambrose, Band of Brothers
From now on it would be wise to keep a very close eye on all matters bearing on the future settlement of Europe. This is the crucial issue on which the future of the world for generations will depend. In its solution your vision, experience, and great influence may prove a main factor.” *
* My italics.-W.S.C.
Winston S. Churchill, Triumph and Tragedy
“Grave of Pushkin a Nazi Booby Trap”
Burned the church and cut down the forest, too. That’s really tacky.
CASSINO PLANS APPROVED 125 One-Family Homes Will Be Built at Devastated Town
Italian suggestions that the houses be equipped with modern plumbing and lighting were discarded, the commission pointing out that former houses did not have them.
Also, there's probably no sewer system into which the proposed toilets could drain, and no electrical system to power the putative modern lighting. Although the quoted line makes the Allied Control Commission sound like turkeys, "We only bombed your town into dust, and you want toilets?!?" it's really not reasonable to expect the Allies to modernize the entire nation of Italy.
This entire article, reporting up to 1.5 million murdered at Majdanek and claiming its victims came from "22 nationalities", mentions the word "Jews" only once, and then along with "Poles and Russians".
In fact, virtually all of Operation Reinhart's victims were Jews.
Numbers killed at Majdanek are controversial, with each new estimate lower than previous.
In 1948 deaths were estimated at 360,000 then 238,00 in 1999 and as of 2005 the accepted number is 78,000.
So clearly, what's going on in this particular report is Soviet propaganda, attempting to maximize numbers killed and minimize the fact that virtually all were Jews.
As good communist apparatchiks, of course the New York Times reported just what they were told.
Can anyone imagine a presidential campaign today which begins September 23 of the election year?
Also interesting to note that your average trucker today votes Republican, some of those now named after another famous Roosevelt follower who later switched parties -- the Reagan Democrats.
The Germans did not have a sense of decor or landscaping.
But they made damn good tanks.
Nice touch for the Times to reprint the banner for Chateau-Thierry in 1918. I see the price went up from two cents to three. FDR’s inflationary policies, no doubt. That penny was worth it for Hanson Baldwin’s analysis though.
Today’s NYT isn’t worth three cents.
3 cents in 1944 is equivalent to 41 cents today. The actual NY Times newsstand price is now $2.50.
http://www.usinflationcalculator.com/
It may cost $2.50 today but it’s still not worth 3 cents.
Fascinating additions to the “hard news”!
The Soviets had probably already closed the church.
the headline makes me crave soissages
I get $.04 in 1944 worth $.53 today, only adjusted for inflation.
But as the same relative share of GDP, meaning the nation’s total economic output, it would be almost $3.00.
By that measure, today’s NY Times is a 16% discount.
Still, as henkster says, $.03 is too much to support the cause of liberalism.
However you calculate it, much better to spend that money in support of (wait for it), yes of course, Free Republic!
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.
