Remembering History by day WW2

[Peter Clare]

LEBERECHT MAAS and MAX SHULTZ (February 22, 1940)

Six German destroyers, sailing from the Schilling Roads, the German Naval anchorage at Wilhelmshaven and proceeding to their North Sea action stations, were attacked by mistake by their own Luftwaffe. By a full moon, a Heinkel 111 from 4/KG26, on its way to attack merchant shipping along Britain's east coast, spotted the wake of the destroyers and believing them to be enemy merchant ships started its bombing run. The last destroyer Leberecht Maas was hit by the third bomb dropped. The fourth bomb hit amidships and Leberecht Maas broke in two and sank in a ball of fire. Only 60 of the destroyers crew survived, 282 men drowned.
The next ship attacked was the Max Schultz which blew up in a violent explosion after hitting a newly laid British mine and sank, taking to the bottom its entire crew of 308 men. Of the two ships, a total of 590 men perished. A German court of inquiry began on board the heavy cruiser Admiral Hipper. It was established that the cause of the tragedy was the failure of the German Navy Group West to inform the Luftwaffe that its ships were at sea.

[Peter Clare]

February 23, 1945
Marines raise the flag on Mt. Suribachi

On this day, during the battle for Iwo Jima, U.S. Marines raise the American flag atop Mt. Suribachi, the highest point on the island of Iwo Jima and a key strategic point. Later, Marine commanders decide to raise a second, larger flag, an event which an Associated Press photographer captured on film. The resulting photograph became a defining image of the war.

The amphibious landings of Marines, after severe and relentless bombing of the island, began the morning of February 19, 1945, as the secretary of the navy, James Forrestal, accompanied by journalists, surveyed the scene from a command ship offshore. As the Marines made their way onto the island, seven Japanese battalions opened fire on the 9,000 Marines headed for them. By that evening, more than 550 Marines were dead and more than 1,800 were wounded.
In the face of such fierce counterattack, the Americans reconciled themselves to the fact that Iwo Jima could be taken only one yard at a time. A key position on the island was Mt. Suribachi, the center of the Japanese defense. The 28th Marine Regiment closed in and around the base of the volcanic mountain at the rate of 400 yards per day, employing flamethrowers, grenades, and demolition charges against the Japanese hidden in caves and pillboxes (low concrete emplacements for machine-gun nests). Approximately 40 Marines finally began a climb up the volcanic ash mountain, which was smoking from the constant bombardment, and at about 10 a.m. on February 23, a half-dozen Marines raised a small American flag on the peak--but not before disposing of a Japanese officer who attempted to prevent them. With Mt. Suribachi claimed, one-third of Iwo Jima was under American control. This first flag-raising was photographed by Marine photographer Sgt. Louis R. Lowery. On Lowery’s way down Mt. Suribachi, he ran into AP photographer Joe Rosenthal and two other Marine photographers, PFC Bob Campbell and PFC Bill Genaust, who was shooting movies, informing them that the flag-raising they were looking for had already occurred, but encouraging them to check out the view from the top of the hill. The three men continued up the volcano.
Once atop Mt. Suribachi, Rosenthal attempted but was unable to find the soldiers involved in the first flag-raising, deciding instead to photograph the second flag-raising, which featured a much bigger and more photogenic Stars and Stripes. Lowery's film was sent back to military headquarters for processing via ordinary army post--and took a month to arrive. Rosenthal’s film was sent by seaplane to Guam, and sent from there via radio-photo to the United States. The photograph so impressed President Roosevelt that he ordered the men pictured in it to return home for a publicity tour. Rosenthal later won a Pulitzer Prize for the photo, but for years was forced to deny erroneous reports that he personally staged the second flag-raising and attempted to pass it off as the original. Although the famous photograph has long led people to believe that the flag-raising was a turning point in the fight for Iwo Jima, vicious fighting to control the island actually continued for 31 more days.

[Bodston]

Friday 23 February 1945

Winston Churchill to Joseph Stalin
The Red Army celebrates its twenty-seventh anniversary amid triumphs which have won the unstinted applause of their allies and have sealed the doom of German militarism. Future generations will acknowledge their debt to the Red Army as unreservedly as we do who have lived to witness these proud achievements. I ask you, the great leader of a great army, to salute them from me today, on the threshold of final victory.

[Peter Clare]

February 24, 1944
"Merrill's Marauders" hit Burma

On this day, Maj. Gen. Frank Merrill's guerrilla force, nicknamed "Merrill's Marauders," begin a campaign in northern Burma.
In August 1942, President Franklin D. Roosevelt and Prime Minister Winston Churchill agreed to create an American ground unit whose sole purpose would be to engage in a "long-range penetration mission" in Japanese-occupied Burma. This mission would consist of cutting Japanese communications and supply lines and otherwise throwing the enemy's positions into chaos. It was hoped that this commando force could thus prepare the way for Gen. Joseph Stillwell's Chinese American Force to reopen the Burma Road, which was closed in April 1942 by the Japanese invaders, and once again allow supplies and war material into China through this route.
Within the military, a type of "Help Wanted" ad was put up with the president's authority, an appeal for applicants to participate in a "dangerous and hazardous mission." About 3,000 soldiers volunteered from stateside units to create what was officially called the 5307th Composite Unit, code named "Galahad." It would go into history as Merrill's Marauders, after Brig. Gen. Frank Merrill, their commander.
Brigadier General Merrill trained his men in the art of guerrilla warfare in the jungles of India, for secrecy's sake. The commando force was formed into six combat units--Red, White, Blue, Green, Orange, and Khaki--with 400 men in each (the remaining 600 men or so were part of a rear-echelon headquarters that remained in India to coordinate the air-drops of equipment to the men in the field).
The Marauders' mission began with a 1,000-mile walk through dense jungle, without artillery support, into Burma. On February 24, 1944, they began their Burmese campaign, which, when done, consisted of five major and 30 minor engagements with a far more numerous Japanese enemy. They had to carry their supplies on their backs and on pack mules, and were resupplied only with airdrops in the middle of the jungle. Merrill's Marauders succeeded in maneuvering behind Japanese forces to cause the disruptions necessary to throw the enemy into confusion. They were so successful, the Marauders managed even to capture the Myitkyina Airfield in northern Burma.
When their mission was completed, all surviving Merrill's Marauders had to be evacuated to hospitals to be treated for everything from exhaustion and various tropical diseases to malnutrition or A.O.E. ("Accumulation of Everything"). They were awarded the Distinguished Unit Citation in July 1944, which was re-designated the Presidential Unit Citation in 1966. Every member of the commando force also received the Bronze Star, a very rare distinction for an entire unit. Merrill remained in the Far East and was made an aide to General Stillwell.

[Peter Clare]

TANGO MARU, RYUSEI MARU (February 24, 1944)
After the sinking of the Suez Maru it was decided to replace those sick prisoners who had drowned with more prisoners from Java. Around 3,500 Javanese labourers, (romusha), plus a few hundred Allied P.O.W.s, were assembled in Surabaya to board the 6,200-ton transport TANGO MARU Accompanying the Tango was the 4,805-ton transport RYUSEI MARU carrying 6,600 Japanese soldiers from various units. When about forty miles north of Lombok Island the two ships were spotted by the American submarine USS Rasher commanded by Lt. Cdr. Willard Laughon. Four torpedoes were fired from the Rasher, three of which found their mark on the Tango. Within minutes the Tango Maru was gone, drowning over 3,000 romusha and P.O.W's. Rasher's sights were now lined up on the Ryusei Maru. Four more torpedoes were fired and again three hits were recorded. It took only six minutes for the Ryusei Maru to sink. In the process 4,998 Japanese soldiers and crewmen were either killed or drowned.

[Peter Clare]

SS STRUMA (February 24, 1942)

The Romanian ship Struma sailed from Constansa under the command of a Bulgarian captain, G.T. Gorbatenkoin, and flying the Panamanian flag. There were 769 Romanian Jews on board, including 269 women and children, many from the town of Barland, their hope was to reach Palestine. After three days at sea, the Struma anchored off the outer harbour at Instanbul, with engine trouble. Here she awaited British permission to proceed to Palestine, permission which the British refused (a mistake they were to regret) one reason given was 'It will encourage a flood of refugees'. Turkey, for some unknown reason, likewise refused them to disembark although the local Jewish community, who were already running a camp for Displaced Persons, were quite willing to take the Struma's passengers and were in the meantime supplying them with food and water. One of the passengers, Medeea Marcovici, suffered an embolism and was transferred to the Jewish hospital in Instanbul. She was granted a visa for Palestine and died there in 1996.
After two months at Istanbul with engines that were damaged beyond repair, conditions on board became appalling, many of the passengers now suffering from dysentery and malnutrition. Eventually the Turkish police arrived to tow the Struma out into the Black Sea. The British had exerted strong pressure on Turkey to pursue this course. The enraged passengers fought then off but a second attempt, where force was used, succeeded and the Struma was towed out and cast adrift outside Turkish territorial waters. This inhuman decision by the Turkish and British governments was to destroy the special relationship between Britain and the Zionist Jews. On the water for 74 days since leaving Conatansa, the Struma, hopelessly overcrowded, and with no country willing to accept them, was suddenly torpedoed and sunk by the Russian submarine SHCH-213 commanded by Lt. Col. Isaev, just ten miles from Istanbul. All on board, a total of 769 persons, perished except one, nineteen year old Romanian Jew David Stoljar who today (1999) lives in Oregon, USA. The British High Commissioner in Palestine, Sir Harold MacMichael, stated: "The fate of these people was tragic, but the fact remains that they were nationals of a country at war with Britain, proceeding direct from enemy territory. Palestine was under no obligations towards them".

[Bodston]

Saturday 24 February 1940

On the Battlefield in Finland
A correspondent of the American United Press News Agency reported after a stay with the Finnish troops northeast of Lake Ladoga:
I was told that the first detachment of a Soviet division had run into a Finnish trap at Syskyjärvi and was wiped out to the last man. I did not see many traces of the fighting but only a large number of of still useable tanks and a few trucks loaded with war matériel. As we travelled farther along the road, we met a transport train of captured equipment. The Finns were bringing back a great quantity of tractor vehicles and cannon. Part of this matériel is ready to be used again at once, the rest has first to be taken to repair workshops. The Soviet 18th Division was one of the most powerful motorized units to fight in the Finnish-Soviet war; so naturally the equipment captured here by the Finns, is of a higher quality than anything they seized in the past.

[Peter Clare]

February 25, 1890
Molotov is born

Vlacheslav Mikhaylovich Skryabin, foreign minister for the Soviet Union who took the revolutionary name Molotov, is born in Kurkaka, Russia.
Molotov was an enthusiastic advocate of Marxist revolution in Russia from its earliest days. He was an organizer of the Bolshevik Party in 1906 and suffered arrest in 1909 and 1915 under the czarist government for his subversive political activities. In 1921, after the coup d'etat that brought Vladimir Lenin to power and overthrew the old czarist regime, he became secretary of the revolutionary government's Central Committee. After Lenin's death in 1924, Molotov supported Joseph Stalin as Lenin's successor; when Stalin did assume power, Molotov was rewarded with full membership in the Soviet Politburo, the executive policy-making body.
In 1930, he was made chairman of the Council of People's Commissars, a position roughly the equivalent of prime minister. On the eve of World War II, Molotov was also made Soviet commissar of foreign affairs--that is, the foreign minister for the USSR. It was in this position that he negotiated the infamous Molotov-Ribbentrop Nonaggression Pact (August 1939) with Nazi Germany, in which the antifascist Soviet Union and anti-Marxist Germany agreed to respect each other's spheres of influence (an agreement that angered and stunned the world, and that only lasted a short time).
When Germany invaded the Soviet Union, Molotov became a member of the State Defense Committee, a war cabinet post, and negotiated alliances with the United States and Great Britain, arguing for a "second front" that would draw the Germans westward and away from the USSR. He won a reputation as a hard and relentless advocate for Soviet interests (nicknamed "Stone Ass" by Roosevelt), and did little to hide his contempt for the Western democracies--even as he desperately needed and relied upon them.
After the war, Molotov left the foreign ministry, but took it up once again upon the accession of Nikita Krushchev to power. Disagreements with Krushchev led to his dismissal from that post, and "anti-party"--really anti-Krushchev--involvement led to his being deposed from all government posts and denounced as a "henchman" of Stalin. He was then relegated to various low-profile jobs, including ambassador to Outer Mongolia. He retired from public life in 1962 and died in 1986. Though he held many notable posts in the Soviet government, many remember him for another reason--during the war, Molotov advocated the use of throwing bottles filled with flammable liquid and stuffed with a lit rag at the enemy, and the famous "Molotov cocktail" was born.

[Peter Clare]

HMS MAHRATTA (February 25, 1944)

The 1,920 ton destroyer was torpedoed and sunk by an acoustic homing torpedo from the U-956 (or the U-950) in the Barents Sea while escorting the forty-three merchant ship convoy JW-57 to Russia. The convoy had set sail from Loch Ewe in Scotland on the 20th of February. Eleven officers and 209 ratings lost their lives. There were only seventeen survivors.

[Bodston]

25 February 1943

At the Kasserine Pass
General Eisenhower's HQ in North Africa; The American United Press News Agency reported:
After three days of battle, British and American forces in central Tunisia have driven German and Italian troops out of the Thala area and back some 16 miles to the Kasserine Pass.
Reports of the battle say that British and American armored forces, supported by motorized artillery and infantry, have for the time being succeeded in halting the German armored detachments outside Thala and along the road leading from the Kasserine Pass to Tebessa (on the Algerian-Tunisian border).