Remembering History by day WW2

[Bodston]

Tuesday 10 March 1942

Tokyo; The Japanese Domei News Agency reported:
Japanese Imperial Headquarters state that a total of 1,959 enemy tanks have been seized since the commencement of hostilities, as of March 7.

[Bodston]

Friday 10 March 1944

Beromünster Radio (Switzerland)
Now the winter is loosing its last burst of snow and cold in a desperate but vain defence against the approach of the spring, the world war too is taking a turn toward what may prove significant changes in the whole picture. The outermost zones of the Third Reich have come under threat. German strategy must now defend two or even three fronts and, although those defending the interior (and consequently shorter) line are known to hold a certain advantage, Germany is facing overwhelming odds of personnel and equipment and can no longer keep pace with the vastly superior Allied forces on land, sea and in the air.

[Peter Clare]

March 11, 1942
MacArthur leaves the Philippines

On this day, following President Franklin D. Roosevelt's orders, Gen. Douglas MacArthur pulls out of the Philippines, as the American defense of the islands collapses.
The Philippines had been part of the American commonwealth since Spain ceded it at the close of the Spanish-American War. When the Japanese invaded China in 1937 and signed the Tripartite Pact with fascist nations Germany and Italy in 1940, the United States responded by, among other things, strengthening the defense of the Philippines. General MacArthur was called out of retirement and took command of 10,000 American Army troops, 12,000 Filipino enlisted men who fought as part of the U.S. Army, and 100,000 Filipino army soldiers, who were poorly-trained and -prepared. MacArthur radically overestimated his strength and underestimated that of Japan's. The Rainbow War Plan, a defensive strategy for U.S. interests in the Pacific drawn up and refined by the War Department, required that MacArthur withdraw his troops into the mountains of the Bataan Peninsula and await better-trained and equipped American reinforcements. Instead, MacArthur decided to take the Japanese head on-and never recovered.
The day of the Pearl Harbor bombing also saw the Japanese destruction of almost half of the American aircraft based in the Philippines. Amphibious landings of Japanese troops along the Luzon coast followed. By late December, MacArthur had to pull his forces back defensively to the Bataan Peninsula-the original strategy belatedly pursued. By January 2, 1942, the Philippine capital, Manila, fell to the Japanese. President Roosevelt had to admit to himself (if not to the American people, who believed the Americans were winning the battle with the Japanese in the Philippines), that the prospects for the American forces were not good--and that he could not afford to have General MacArthur fall captive to the Japanese. A message arrived at Corregidor on February 20, ordering MacArthur to leave immediately for Mindanao, then on to Melbourne, Australia, where he was to assume command of all United States troops. MacArthur balked; he was fully prepared to fight alongside his men to the death, if necessary. MacArthur finally obeyed the president's order on March 11.

[Peter Clare]

HMS HARVESTER (March 11, 1943)

Built as HMS Handy for the Brazilian Navy but before completion she was requisitioned by the Royal Navy and renamed Harvester. While escorting a North Atlantic convoy, HX-228, the Harvester sighted the U-boat U-444 (Oblt. Albert Langfeld) while she was attempting a torpedo attack on the convoy. At full speed the destroyer rammed the submarine and a few minutes later the French corvette Aconit rammed her a second time. Meanwhile another U-boat, the U-432, fired a torpedo at the damaged Harvester which sank almost immediately. The death toll on the Harvester was eight officers and 136 ratings, the few survivors were picked up by the Aconit. The U-444 sank with a loss of 41 crew. There were 4 survivors. The U-432 (Kptlt. Heinz Otto Schultze) was also sunk during this engagement by depth-charges from the Aconit. Casualties were 26 dead, 20 survivors.

[Peter Clare]

March 12, 1938
Hitler announces an Anschluss with Austria

On this day, Adolf Hitler announces an "Anschluss" (union) between Germany and Austria, in fact annexing the smaller nation into a greater Germany.
Union with Germany had been a dream of Austrian Social Democrats since 1919. The rise of Adolf Hitler and his authoritarian rule made such a proposition less attractive, though, which was an ironic twist, since a union between the two nations was also a dream of Hitler's, a native Austrian. Despite the fact that Hitler did not have the full approval of Austrian Social Democrats, the rise of a pro-Nazi right-wing party within Austria in the mid-1930s paved the way for Hitler to make his move. In 1938, Austrian Chancellor Kurt von Schuschnigg, bullied by Hitler during a meeting at Hitler's retreat home in Berchtesgaden, agreed to a greater Nazi presence within Austria. He appointed a Nazi minister of police and announced an amnesty for all Nazi prisoners. Schuschnigg hoped that agreeing to Hitler's demands would prevent a German invasion. But Hitler insisted on greater German influence on the internal affairs of Austria-even placing German army troops within Austria--and Schu!
schnigg repudiated the agreement signed at Berchtesgaden, demanding a plebiscite on the question. Through the machinations of Hitler and his devotees within Austria, the plebiscite was canceled, and Schuschnigg resigned.
The Austrian president, Wilhelm Miklas, refused to appoint a pro-Nazi chancellor in Schuschnigg's stead. German foreign minister Hermann Goering then faked a crisis by engineering a "plea" for German assistance from inside the Austrian government (really from a German agent). On March 12, 1938, German troops marched into Austria. Hitler announced his Anschluss, and a plebiscite was finally held on April 10. Whether the plebiscite was rigged or the resulting vote simply a testament to Austrian terror at Hitler's determination, the Fuhrer garnered a whopping 99.7 percent approval for the union of Germany and Austria.
Austria was now a nameless entity absorbed by Germany. It was not long before the Nazis soon began their typical ruthless policy of persecuting political dissidents and, of course, all Jewish citizens.

[Peter Clare]

1945	Anne Frank died on March 12, 1945 German Jewish girl author of a diary of her family's two years in hiding during World War II, 1929-1945 Think of all the beauty still left around you and be happy. More quotations from Anne Frank

[Peter Clare]

March 13, 1944
London suspends travel between Ireland and Britain

On this day, Britain announces that all travel between Ireland and the United Kingdom is suspended, the result of the Irish government's refusal to expel Axis-power diplomats within its borders.
In 1922, an independent Irish republic was established after generations of conflict between Ireland and Britain. One of the conditions of that agreement was that Britain would retain control of three naval bases along the Irish coast in order to continue Ireland's defense. But as war loomed in the late 1930s, Irish Prime Minister Eamon de Valera negotiated an agreement that ended the British occupation of those naval bases; Ireland had declared a pre-emptive state of neutrality in any European war, and the presence of the Royal Navy on independent Irish soil violated that neutrality. De Valera did not want Ireland to become an object of attacks aimed at Britain.
De Valera was willing to bargain away Irish neutrality, though, in exchange for Northern Ireland's being returned to the Irish Republic. The British were not willing to pay that price but did agree to end conscription in Northern Ireland once De Valera denounced conscription--because it forced Irish men to fight in what De Valera believed was an English war--as an "act of aggression."
Irish neutrality was challenged in 1941, with German air raids against Dublin. It was challenged again in 1942, when the United States landed troops in Northern Ireland, under the understanding that it was under the control of its ally, Britain. De Valera protested. President Franklin D. Roosevelt was stunned at this intransigence and applied pressure to the de Valera government, attempting to change Ireland's neutrality stance. De Valera did not relent. Finally, when the Irish prime minister refused to expel from Ireland the diplomats of the Axis powers, Britain retaliated by suspending all travel between the Irish Republic and the United Kingdom. Ireland did not flinch and, when the war ended, developed good relations with all the powers involved.

[Peter Clare]

SMOLENSK

On March 13, 1943, three attempts were planned on Hitler’s life. Field Marshal Guenther von Kluge, commander of Army Group Center on the eastern front, finally managed to lure Hitler into visiting his headquarters at Smolensk. However a number of officers on Kluge’s staff had other thoughts on how to assassinate Hitler. Colonel Henning von Tresckow, who hated Hitler and the Nazis, together with Lt. Fabian von Schlabrendorff, Colonel Rudolf von Gersdorff and Cavalry Captain Georg von Boeslager had hatched a plan to get rid of their Führer.

Plan 1
Captain von Boeslager and his company were to serve as armed escort to Hitler’s motorcade. During the drive from the airfield the Führer’s car was to be gunned down in an ambush. The attempt was aborted when Hitler arrived with his own armed escort of 50 SS guards.

Plan 2
The second attempt was to take place during lunchtime in the mess hall. At a given signal, Tresckow was to rise from the table and open fire on Hitler as he ate lunch, but the sight of so many SS close to Hitler arouses fear of failure and so once again the attempt was aborted.
Plan 3

As Hitler leaves by plane for Berlin, Tresckow instructs Schlabrendorff to hand over a package to Colonel Heinz Brandt who is flying back with Hitler. The package, containing two bottles of brandy, is a gift for Major-General Helmuth Stieff in Berlin. Concealed in the package is a time bomb but it failed to explode owing to the high altitude cold air freezing the acid in the detonator cap. When news of Hitler’s safe arrival reached the plotters, Schlabrendorf immediately flew to Berlin with the regular courier plane and retrieved the package from Colonel Brandt, replacing it with two genuine bottles.

In February, 1945, Albert Speer, Hitler’s Armaments Minister, came to the conclusion that his Führer was deliberately committing high treason against his own people. It was then that Speer decided that Hitler must be eliminated. During one of his many walks in the Chancellery gardens he took note of a ventilation shaft leading to Hitler’s bunker. An idea formed in his mind and he discreetly asked the head of munitions production, Dieter Stahl, if he could procure some of the new gas, Tabun, which he intended to conduct into the ventilation shaft of the bunker. Stahl, who was sympathetic to the idea, revealed that Tabun was effective only after an explosion and would not be suitable for the purpose which Speer intended. Another gas had to be found but the whole idea was thwarted when armed SS sentries were placed around the bunker entrances and on the roof. A chimney had also been built around the ventilation shaft to a height of ten feet which put the air-intake of the shaft out of reach. At the Nuremberg War Crimes Trials, Albert Speer was sentenced to twenty years imprisonment, which he served to the very last minute, in Spandau Prison, Berlin.

[Bodston]

Wednesday 13 March 1940

The Final Battles
Finnish Headquarters reported:
The defenders of (the Finnish city of) Viipuri (Russian Vyborg) fought on to the last hour (before the ceasefire). Despite an overwhelming deployment of infantry and artillery the Soviets were unable to envelop the city, or to break down resistance in the city centre near the main rail station and in two of the western suburbs. Another violent assault ensued at 5:00 A.M. after a two-hour bombardment of barricades and fortified positions by Soviet minethrowers and gun tanks. The Soviets did not succeed in achieving a victory before the ceasefire came into force.

Daily Keynote from the Reich Press Chief
13 March 1940:
The German Press is to treat the conclusion of peace between Finland and Russia in the following way. The first thing to emphasize is that Britain failed to find in Finland a dupe like Poland which it could make pass through the fire for its sake without in the least making good on its promises to lend assistance. It must also be emphasized that throughout this conflict Germany has maintained strict neutrality. As yesterday's developments show, Germany's strictly neutral posture has turned out to be the right one.

Daily Keynote from the Reich Press Chief
13 March 1940:
For the rest, the crucially important thing is that the German people's will to fight is not impaired. We must avoid creating any premature mood of peace, in view of the battle that the German people now have to wage.

[Peter Clare]

March 14, 1943
Germans recapture Kharkov

On this day, German troops re-enter Kharkov, the second largest city in the Ukraine, which had changed hands several times in the battle between the USSR and the invading German forces.
Kharkov was a high-priority target for the Germans when they invaded the Soviet Union in June 1941, as the city was a railroad and industrial center, and had coal and iron mines nearby. Among the most important industries for Stalin's war needs was the Kharkov Tanks Works, which he moved out of Kharkov in December 1941 into the Ural Mountains. In fact, Joseph Stalin was so desperate to protect Kharkov that he rendered a "no retreat" order to his troops, which produced massive casualties within the Red Army over time.
Hitler's troops first entered Kharkov in October 1941. In May 1942, the Soviets launched an effective surprise attack on the Germans just south of Kharkov, enabling the Red Army to advance closer to the occupied city, and finally re-enter it on February 16, 1943. Hitler began planning an immediate recapture as early as February 21-Red Army Day-hoping that success there would reverse the Soviet momentum of the previous three months. On March 10, German troops launched their major offensive; the Soviets had already suffered the loss of 23,000 soldiers and 634 tanks in the recapture and defense of Kharkov and were forced to rely on 1,000 Czech troops for aid.
On March 14, the tide in Kharkov turned again, and the Germans took the city once more. "We have shown the Ivans we can withstand their terrible winter. It can hold no fear for us again," wrote an SS officer. This proved to be a meaningless boast when the Red Army liberated the city that summer, and untrue, as the brutal Soviet winter actually did take a terrifying toll on German troops.