Remembering History by day WW2

[Peter Clare]

January 28 1941.

West of Ireland the cargo ship Urla 5,198 tons. Boston to Manchester was sunk by the Italian submarine Torelli.

About 400 miles west of Northern Ireland the cargo ship Grelrosa 4,574 tons. New York to the Tyne with a cargo of wheat was sunk by Focke-Wulf aircraft with the loss of five crew.

[Bodston]

Friday 28 January 1944

Beromünster Radio (Switzerland)
This past week, American and British forces made landings behind the German front lines in central Italy, in the small ports of Anzio and Nettuno. . . The invasion landing took place at the same time that fierce fighting was raging on the Garigliano river and at Cassino between Kesselring's German forces and Americans under General Clark and French under General Juin. . . For a 48-hour period the allies were free to build, expand and fortify their bridgeheads at Nettuno without enemy interference and, under cover from the bridgehead, to unload their heavy equipment, guns, armoured vehicles, ammunition etc. and what appears to be a strong landing force. The strip of coast betwwen the landing points and the Appian way is flat and very sparcely populated, which made it easy for the allies to deploy.
Rome lies approximately 25 miles north of the landing zone, but there is no indications that the main objective of the landing is to occupy the Eternal City. Instead it should be viewed as a move to attack from the rear the German front lines on the Garigliano and at Cassino, both of which are located south of the landing zone.

[Peter Clare]

January 29, 1942
Iran signs Treaty of Alliance with Great Britain and USSR

On this day, Britain and the USSR secure an agreement with Iran that offers the Iran protection while creating a "Persian corridor" for the Allies-a supply route from the West to Russia.
Early in the war, Iran collaborated with Germany by exporting grain to the Axis power in exchange for technicians. But the Allies viewed Iran as a valuable source of oil and conveniently situated as a route for shipping Western war material east to the USSR. On August 25, 1941, both Allied powers invaded Iran (which Prime Minister Winston Churchill preferred to call "Persia," so there would be no confusion between "Iran" and "Iraq"), the Soviets from the north and the Brits from the south. In four days, the Allies effectively controlled Iran.
On September 16, the ruling shah abdicated, and his 23-year-old son, Muhammad, assumed power and pushed through the Iranian parliament the Treaty of Alliance, which allowed the Allies freedom to move supplies through the country and gave them whatever else they needed from Iran to win the war. The new shah also vowed "not to adopt in his relations with foreign countries an attitude which is inconsistent with the alliance."
In exchange, Iran was promised wartime protection from Axis invasion-and a guarantee that the Allies would leave Iranian soil within six months of the close of the war.
The alliance started off shakily: the Soviets bought up most of Iran's grain harvest, which caused a bread shortage and riots in the streets. Allied troops put the rebellion down, and the United States shipped in grain to compensate for the losses. The Soviet Union then attempted to agitate for the overthrow of the shah by supporting the Tudeh (Farsi for "masses") party, which the Soviets believed would be more generous in oil concessions. Tudeh forces did manage temporarily to take over northern Iran in December 1944.
When the war ended, the Allies began leaving Iran as promised-except for the USSR. Complaints were made to the United Nations, and pressure was applied by the United States and Great Britain, as this was a violation of one of the terms of the Treaty of Alliance. The Soviets finally began pulling out of Iran in April 1946, but as they withdrew, they continued to foster more bloody rebellions between the shah's government and the Tudeh; the Tudeh were decisively defeated in December 1946 when the shah declared martial law.

[Peter Clare]

USS SERPENS (AK-97) (January 29, 1945)
A 14,250 ton US Liberty ship launched on April 5, 1943 and transferred to the Navy on the 19th. After serving seventeen months in the Pacific region, the holds of the Serpens were converted for the storage of ammunition. While loading depth charges at her berth in Lunga Roads, Guadalcanal, in the Solomon Islands, the Serpens blew up with such force that only the bow of the ship remained afloat. The US Coast Guard manned vessel took 196 crewmen men to their deaths. Also on board were 57 men of an army stevedore unit. All died. Only 2 men survived the explosion which has never been officially explained. The ships captain and 7 others were ashore at the time of the disaster. This was the greatest loss suffered by the US Coast Guard during the war. In all, the US Coast Guard manned a total of 351 naval vessels in the course of WWII.
The Serpens Commemorative Website is... http://www.uss-serpens.org

[Peter Clare]

SS BERLIN (January 29, 1945)
The German passenger liner Berlin (15,286 tons) part of the 'Strength Through Joy' cruises, was later converted to a hospital ship and helped in the evacuation of refugees from the Hela Penninsula. Damaged after striking a mine off Swinemunde it was taken in tow for the port of Kiel but later that same day it hit another mine and this time the ship sank. No lives were lost. After the war ended, the Russians raised the vessel and after repairs it entered the Soviet navy under the name Admiral Nachimov. In May, 1957, it was delivered to Soviet state shipping line and placed into service in the Black Sea serving the Odessa-Batum route. On September 1, 1986, it was involved in a serious collision off Novorossiysk with the motor vessel Pjotr Wassjew after which it sank. Unfortunately on this occasion 398 lives were lost. Other German hospital ships sunk during the war were the Birka, sank after hitting a mine at Altafjord, Norway. Casualties were 115 killed. The Posen was bombed by Russian aircraft off Hella on April 11, 1945. Around 300 lives were lost.

[Bodston]

Monday 29 January 1940

No Fear for the Future
Paris; The French Havas News Agency reported that on Monday evening French Premier Daladier addressed the French people, saying:
Under the protection of its army France has preserved all those goods that other peoples have already lost or for which other nations tremble. Like our ally Great Britain, France feels no fear when it thinks of the future. It is certain of victory. The great fear that is tormenting Europe, makes pause at our borders, outside our entanglements of barbed wire and the casemates where our young men watch and fight. Total war still hesitates to break out - due to our soldiers, who ward off violence with the wall of our strength; who every day in heavy outpost battles before our defensive lines, dictate to enemy patrols how they must act....
It is good for France to be serene; it is only right and fitting for her to have absolute confidence in her fate.

[Bodston]

Thursday 29 January 1942

Rommel's Pincer Operation
Rome; The Italian High Command announced:
Early Thursday morning, Italian and German troops moved in to occupy Benghazi.

[Peter Clare]

WILHELM GUSTLOFF (January 30, 1945)

THE GREATEST SEA TRAGEDY OF ALL TIME. The 25,484 ton German luxury cruise liner, launched in 1937, was built to carry 1,465 passengers and a crew of 400. The Gustloff and her sister ship Robert Ley, were the world's first purpose-built cruise ships. The ship, now converted to a 500 bed hospital ship, set sail from Gotenhafen (former Gdynia) in the Bay of Danzig en-route to the port of Stettin as part of the largest naval rescue operation in history (Operation Hannibal.) Overcrowded with 4,658 persons including 918 naval officers and men, 373 German Women Naval Auxiliaries, 162 wounded soldiers of whom 73 were stretcher cases, and 173 crew, all fleeing from the advancing Red Army, the ship plowed her way through the icy waters of the Baltic Sea. Just after 9pm the ship was hit by three torpedoes from the Russian submarine S-13 (a German designed boat) commanded by Alexander Marinesko. The first torpedo hit the bow of the ship, the second, below the empty swimming pool on E-deck where the Women Auxiliaries were accommodated (most were killed) and the third hit amidships. Indescribable panic reigned as the ship listed and sank in about ninety minutes near the Danish island of Bornholm. Many families committed suicide rather than drown in the freezing waters. Rescue boats picked from the stormy minus 18 degree Celsius seas 964 survivors, many of whom were landed at Sassnitz on the island of Ruegen and taken on board the Danish hospital ship Prince Olaf which was anchored in the harbour. The exact number of drowned will never be known, as many more refugees were picked up from small boats as the Wilhelm Gustloff headed for the open sea and were never counted. Around 4,000 of those who died were children. (Latest research puts the number of people on board at 10,582) Many of the 964 persons rescued from the sea, died later, and it is likely that well over 8,500 souls perished.

The German luxury liner Wilhelm Gustloff as a KdF ship, pre-1939

[Peter Clare]

January 30, 1943
RAF launches massive daytime raid on Berlin

On this day, the British Royal Air Force begins a bombing campaign on the German capital that coincides with the 10th anniversary of Hitler's accession to power.
The Casablanca Conference, held from January 14 to 23, saw Prime Minister Winston Churchill, President Franklin D. Roosevelt, and the Combined Chiefs of Staff meet in Morocco to discuss future war strategy following on the success of the North African invasion, which heralded the defeat of Vichy forces. One of the resolutions of the conference was to launch a combined and sustained strategic bombing effort against the Germans. Strategic bombing was the policy of using bombers to destroy an enemy's warmaking capacity, also referred to as "area bombing." Churchill described it as an "absolutely devastating, exterminating attack by very heavy bombers...upon the Nazi homeland."
To celebrate the anniversary of Hitler's 1933 appointment to the office of chancellor by then-President Paul von Hindenburg, both propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels and head of the Luftwaffe Hermann Goering planned to give radio addresses to the German masses. Goebbels intended to bolster morale by hailing an impending victory in Russia: "A thousand years hence, every German will speak with awe of Stalingrad and remember that it was there that Germany put the seal on her victory." As the speeches were broadcast, RAF fighters rained bombs on Berlin, the beginning of devastating attacks on German cities that would last until the very end of the war. To make matters even worse for the Germans, the next day a massive surrender of German troops occurred at Stalingrad.

[Peter Clare]

30 January 1943

Berlin.

Two formations, each of three Mosquitoes, made dramatic attempts to interrupt large rallies being addressed by Nazi leaders in Berlin on this day. These raids would be the first time the German capital was bombed in daylight.
Three Mosquitoes of 105 Squadron successfully reached Berlin and bombed in mid-morning at the exact time that Goering was due to speak. The speech was postponed for an hour. These three Mosquitoes returned safely.
In the afternoon, three Mosquitoes of 139 Squadron arrived at the time Goebbels was due to speak and again bombed at the correct time but the German defences were alerted and the aircraft of Squadron Leader D.F. Darling was shot down. Darling and his navigator, Flying Office W. Wright, were both killed and are now buried in Berlin.

Bomber Command War Diaries. Middlebrook - Everitt.