PRESIDENT ROOSEVELT IS DEAD; TRUMAN TO CONTINUE POLICIES; 9TH CROSSES ELBE, NEARS BERLIN (4/13/45)

Microfilm-New York Times archives, Monterey Public Library | 4/13/45 | Arthur Krock, C.P. Trussell, James B. Reston, Drew Middleton, Gene Currivan, W.H. Lawrence, more

[henkster]

I’m guessing LBJ never got into anything more dangerous than interrogating the native girl in the grass hut.

[Hebrews 11:6]

Nice brief essay there. Your contentions about man's innate predilection to depravity agree with my understanding of the whole of Scripture.

Even so, the Holy Spirit is always constraining evil, to a greater or lesser extent. Woe to those who are left on earth once He stops during the Tribulation after the saints' departure, and to those who choose hell, from which He will be absent.

[abb]

In his definitive bio of LBJ, Robert Caro also said the award was for political reasons.

[colorado tanker]

So much of the government of the western democracies relies on leaders respecting the constitutional boundaries, written or not. When a leader comes along, like Roosevelt or the present regime, who ignores the boundaries it is very difficult for our system to cope.

Sure, the slow process of the judiciary will sometimes put things right, but Roosevelt figured out how to squash that.

So, we pass milestones, like a man can't grow wheat on his own land to feed his own family without government permission. Or, the government arrogates to itself the right to force people to buy insurance products they don't want, and the Chief Justice says there is not a thing wrong with that.

Our system is much more precarious and vulnerable to the will of a would-be dictator than most people think.

[AU72]

In 10 years he’ll be leading the Senate and in 15 will be running for President.

[henkster]

I think the type of leadership a nation has depends on the “feedstock” that is prepared for the next generation of leaders. In the past, our national leaders came from a society that instilled a governing ethos based on hard work, personal accountability, respect for tradition and precedent, deference to the rights of the individual, and most importantly, Christian faith. These principles are no longer being taught in schools or held up publicly as virtues. It is no wonder that a society that does not emphasize the value of these principles isn’t producing a leadership class that possess them.

Just as an anecdote regarding this. One of my best friends’ fathers was a physician who had staff privileges at a fairly large Indianapolis hospital. He was a GP but was well respected in the medical community. He would routinely have groups of 4th year medical students follow him on their “rotations” as they determined what area of medicine they wished to specialize in. Before about 1975, the questions from the medical students mostly involved what sort of diagnoses he typically made, how he would treat various conditions, and trends he saw in public health.

After 1975, the questions changed. They became “how much money do you make doing this?”

Take it as a microcosm of societal change. And that’s just one facet of how we got where we are today.

[ex-snook]

232 Regiment 42 Division [cont’d] April 13, 1945

The regiment remained in Division reserve on 13 April in the vicinity of Obback, patrolling to clear enemy within the area. The First Battalion, minus Companies A and C established a perimeter defense around the Division CP and prepared to take over the defense of dridges at Bergrheinfeld and Escherndorf.

---

It was customary for the 3 Regiments in the Division to rotate with 2 in action and 1 in reserve to replenish supplies and men and to move toward any emergencies. I was still in Schweinfurt gathering records and money from their factory safes. I had not heard of Roosevelt’s death until the next day when we had a ceremony.

---

Let’s Play Where’s Waldo— I was in here somewhere. We filled roofs with snipers.

http://www.thirdreichruins.com/sfurtfdrmem.jpg

The 42nd “Rainbow” Infantry Division held a memorial formation on 13 April 1945 for President Franklin D. Roosevelt, who had died the day before. The Division formed its famous color-guard of flags from all 48 states, with the bombed-out St. Kilian’s Church as a background. The ruins of the church were torn down, and a modern design erected on the spot in 1953. (42nd “Rainbow” Infantry Division. Baton Rouge, LA, Army & Navy Publishing Co., 1946)

[EternalVigilance]

It is awesome to have someone here who was actually there.

Thank you once again, both for your service, and for your willingness to share your recollections with us.

You can’t share too many of those recollections to suit me, and I’d bet I speak for many others in saying that.

[Hebrews 11:6]

As the Allied armies race across Germany, and as the Army and Marines assault the final island before Japan, I imagine the euphoria that must have been building and now accelerating among the troops themselves, their families, the people whose countries had been overrun and were now reclaimed, and the general populations around this planet. I remember the newspapers my grandparents, whose son was fighting through southern Germany, kept and treasured, with red five-inch headlines announcing victory.

Millions died and millions more were traumatized, but hundreds of millions now are realizing that what they feared most would not occur. Relief like that is a blessing indeed. Smart ones know Whom to thank.

[Seizethecarp]

Thanks for posting that, EV.

Even though TJ owned slaves and FDR died in the Jim Crow south having done far less that he could have to remove that blot on American life, he was a man of his time born in 1882 and this final address speaks across time to our struggling current generations on the planet and certainly to my own lost children!

[EternalVigilance]

http://www.trumanlibrary.org/whistlestop/study_collections/nuremberg/documents/index.php?documentdate=1945-04-13&documentid=11-8&studycollectionid=&pagenumber=1

Telegram from John McCloy to UK Commanding General, April 13, 1945, War Crimes File, Rosenman Papers, Harry S. Truman Presidential Museum & Library

[EternalVigilance]

I’m just glad someone benefited from it!

[EternalVigilance]

http://marshallfoundation.org/library/digital-archive/to-louis-b-mayer/

General George C. Marshall To Louis B. Mayer, April 13, 1945
1945

Publisher: The Johns Hopkins University Press
Date: April 13, 1945
Subject: World War II
Collection: Papers of George Catlett Marshall, Volume 5: The Finest Soldier

Summary

To Louis B. Mayer

April 13, 1945 [Washington, D.C.]

Dear Mr. Mayer:

Thanks for your note of April 2nd concerning the use the Army is making of the films which the motion picture industry is so generously furnishing to the Army Pictorial Service.1 I have considered the showing of motion pictures, particularly to the front line troops, a very vital element of sustaining morale, and the job we have been able to do has been made possible in large measure by the complete cooperation of you and the other leaders of the motion picture industry.

I must tell you that I only learnt about two weeks ago that you had suffered a dreadful accident in a fall from a horse. Arnold happened to mention seeing you in the hospital. Evidently this occurred while I was traveling somewhere and did not see the press reports. I do hope you have made a complete recovery.

Faithfully yours,

Document Copy Text Source: George C. Marshall Papers, Pentagon Office Collection, General Materials, George C. Marshall Research Library, Lexington, Virginia.

Document Format: Typed letter.

1. In charge of production at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures, Mayer wrote that Private Mickey Rooney had written praising the U.S. Army for providing motion pictures for the troops overseas under difficult conditions. He quoted actor Rooney (Joe Yule, Jr.): “Saw MGM’s TWO GIRLS AND A SAILOR four times, once in the street when it was ten below, once in a barn, and twice in hospitals. The GI’s loved it.” Mayer said that he had received several excellent reports of the job done by the army in distributing films that the motion-picture industry gave to the Army Pictorial Service. (Mayer to Marshall, April 2, 1945, GCMRL/G. C. Marshall Papers [Pentagon Office, General].) Released in April 1944, Two Girls and A Sailor (directed by Richard Thorpe) starred Van Johnson, June Allyson, and Gloria De Haven, as well as other entertainers in the setting of a World War II canteen. (Ken D. Jones and Arthur F. McClure, Hollywood at War: The American Motion Picture and World War II [New York: Castle Books, 1973], p. 243.)

Mickey Rooney was assigned to the 6817th Special Services Battalion in the European Theater of Operations. Part of a three-man jeep show composed of a musician, singer, and master of ceremonies, he moved with the troops, “armed with battery-powered megaphones and accordions, saxophones, clarinets, and trap drums.” Rooney recalled, “We put on our first show between two Sherman tanks in a Belgian snowstorm, with sixty guys in the audience, three miles from the front, with the sound of howitzers booming in the distance.” (Mickey Rooney, Life Is Too Short [New York: Villard Books, 1991], pp. 211-17.)

Recommended Citation: ThePapers of George Catlett Marshall, ed.Larry I. Bland and Sharon Ritenour Stevens(Lexington, Va.: The George C. Marshall Foundation, 1981- ). Electronic version based on The Papers of George Catlett Marshall, vol. 5, “The Finest Soldier,” January 1, 1945-January 7, 1947 (Baltimore and London: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2003), p. 142.

Digital Downloads
5-097.doc

Collection
Papers of George Catlett Marshall, Volume 5: The Finest Soldier

[EternalVigilance]

Private Mickey Rooney's Jeep Show

[EternalVigilance]

Men, trucks, guns, ammo, equipment, rations, continue to pour across the Rhine and points eastward.

U.S. Army Crossing The Rhine, Oberwesel, 04/13/1945

https://archive.org/details/NPC-7611

[EternalVigilance]

[EternalVigilance]

https://www.warhistoryonline.com/whotube-2/the-liberation-of-arnhem-april-13th-1945.html

The Liberation of Arnhem – April 13th 1945

German POWs march past a Churchill AVRE at the end of fighting at Arnhem

Operation Anger (sometimes known as Operation Quick Anger), was a military operation to seize the city of Arnhem in April 1945, during the closing stages of the Second World War. It is occasionally referred to as the Second Battle of Arnhem or the Liberation of Arnhem.

The operation was part of the Canadian First Army’s liberation of the Netherlands and was led by the 49th British Infantry Division, supported by armour of the 5th Canadian Armoured Division, Royal Air Force air strikes and boats of the Royal Navy.

The Western Allies first tried to liberate Arnhem in September 1944 during Operation Market Garden. Poor planning, the unexpected presence of German armoured units and a delayed advance by ground forces meant that the 1st British Airborne Division were defeated and a new front stabilised south of the city.

Fresh planning to take Arnhem began in the new year as the Canadian First Army sought ways to link up its units advancing into the Netherlands. However it was not until April that the liberation of the city became a distinct possibility. After II Canadian Corps secured the eastern bank of the IJssel river and advanced north, I Canadian Corps prepared to assault Arnhem.

The operation began on 12 April 1945 and proceeded to plan, as the three infantry brigades of the 49th Division leapfrogged each other through the city. Within four days Arnhem was totally under Allied control, allowing the Canadians to advance further into the Netherlands.

[EternalVigilance]

Can’t let April 13th pass by without mentioning that Vienna fell to the Red Army today.

[EternalVigilance]

http://der-fuehrer.org/reden/english/45-04-13_P.htm

Adolf Hitler – proclamation to the soldiers on the Eastern Front

April 13, 1945

Soldiers of the German Eastern Front!

For the last time, our deadly Jewish-Bolshevik enemy has lined up his masses for the attack. He is trying to smash Germany and exterminate our Volk. To a great degree, you soldiers of the east know yourselves what fate is threatening all German women, girls, and children. While the old men and children will be murdered, women and girls will be degraded to barrack whores. The rest will march off to Siberia.

We have anticipated this hour. Since January, everything possible has been done in order to erect a strong front. Our mighty artillery greets the enemy.

Our infantry’s losses have been made good by countless new units. Units on the alert, newly activated units and the Volkssturm reinforce our front. The Bolshevik will this time meet the old fate of Asia, that is, he must and will bleed to death in front of the capital of the German Reich.

He who fails to do his duty at this time commits treason against our Volk.

Any regiment or division that abandons its position acts so disgracefully that it should be ashamed before the women and children who are enduring the terror bombing against our cities.

Above all, watch out for the few treacherous officers and soldiers who, in order to save their own lives, will fight against us, paid by the Russians, perhaps even wearing German uniforms. Whoever orders you to retreat must be immediately arrested and, if necessary, killed on the spot, no matter what his rank may be.

If, in the coming days and weeks, every soldier does his duty at the eastern front, then the last Asian attack will be broken, just as the invasion of our enemies in the west will be broken in spite of everything.

Berlin will remain German. Vienna will again become German, and Europe will never become Russian.

Form a sworn community not with upon the empty concept of a “fatherland” but for the defense of your homeland, your women, your children, and thereby our future.

In this hour, the entire German Volk looks to you, my fighters in the east, and hopes that, through your steadfastness, zeal, arms, and leadership, the Bolshevik attack will drown in a bloodbath. At this moment, in which Providence has removed the greatest war criminal of all time151 from this earth, the turning point of this war is being decided.

Adolf Hitler

[EternalVigilance]

http://83rdinfdivdocs.org/documents/radionews/83rd_Signal_Co_19450413_Germany_Vol_VII_No_29_Truman_president.pdf

83rd Infantry Division - Radio News - April 13, 1945