Remembering History by day WW2

[Peter Clare]

1941 : FDR approves Lend-Lease aid to the USSR


On this day in 1941, President Roosevelt, determined to keep the United States out of the war while helping those allies already mired in it, approves $1 billion in Lend-Lease loans to the Soviet Union. The terms: no interest and repayment did not have to start until five years after the war was over.
The Lend-Lease program was devised by President Roosevelt and passed by Congress on March 11, 1941. Originally, it was meant to aid Great Britain in its war effort against the Germans by giving the chief executive the power to "sell, transfer title to, exchange, lease, lend, or otherwise dispose of" any military resources the president deemed ultimately in the interest of the defense of the United States. The reasoning was: If a neighbor was successful in defending his home, the security of your home was enhanced.
Although the Soviet Union had already been the recipient of American military weapons, and now had been promised $1 billion in financial aid, formal approval to extend the Lend-Lease program to the USSR had to be given by Congress. Anticommunist feeling meant much heated debate, but Congress finally gave its approval to the extension on November 7.
By the end of the war, more than $50 billion in funds, weapons, aircraft, and ships had been distributed to 44 countries. After the war, the Lend-Lease program morphed into the Marshall Plan, which allocated funds for the revitalization of "friendly" democratic nations--even if they were former enemies.

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1944 Chief of staff Kruls names De Quay chairman of Universal Commission

1942 94 U boats sunk this month (619,000 ton)
1942 9th day in battle at El Alamein

1941 13 U boats sunk this month (62,000 ton)
1941 Prior to U.S. in WW II, Germany torpedoes U.S. destroyer Reuben James

1940 63 U boats sunk this month (325,000 ton)
1940 Deadline for Warsaw Jews to move into Warsaw Ghetto

1939 27 U boats sunk this month (135,000 ton)

[Peter Clare]

30/31 October 1944

Cologne: 905 aircraft - 438 Halifaxes, 435 Lancasters, 32 Mosquitos. No aircraft lost. This was an Oboe-marked raid through cloud, and Bomber Command estimated that only 'scattered and light' damage was caused in the western parts of the city. But the local report shows that enormous damage was caused in the suburbs of Braunsfeld, Lindenthal, Klettenberg and Sülz, which were 'regelrecht umgepflügt' - 'thoroughly ploughed up' - by the huge tonnage of high explosive dropped (3,431 tons of high explosive and 610 tons of incendiaries were dropped). A vast amount of property, mostly civilian housing, was destroyed but railways and public utilities were also hit. There was little industry in the area which was bombed.
62 Mosquitos to Berlin and 3 each to Heilbronn and Oberhausen, 42 RCM sorties, 57 Mosquito patrols. 2 Mosquitos were lost - 1 from the Berlin raid and 1 Intruder.
Total effort for the night: 1,072 sorties, 2 aircraft (0.2 per cent) lost.

[Peter Clare]

1887 : Chiang Kai-Shek is born


On this day in 1887, in Chekiang province, China, Chiang Kai-Shek, leader of the Nationalist government of China from 1928 to 1949, is born. As a young man training in the Japanese military, Chiang was converted to the ideals of republicanism. Upon returning to China, Chiang fought against the dying Manchu imperial dynasty. He eventually joined forces with Sun Yat-sen's Nationalist Party, or Kuomintang. Both Sun and Chiang became enamored of Soviet communism and even reorganized the Nationalist Party based on a Soviet model.

Upon Sun's death, Chinese communists, who had been admitted into the party, came into conflict with strict republicans. It was at this point that Chiang's political shrewdness came to the fore, as he stemmed the influence of the communists in his party while keeping Moscow as an ally--that is, until Chiang led a coup that expelled the communists, feeling that they were too strong a challenge to his own control of the party. Chiang then lead the Nationalists in a march on Peking, eventually forming a new government under his control. Unifying the country and keeping it from communist control were now most important to Chiang, even more important than his supposedly treasured social reforms or the invasion of Manchuria by Japan, which he did little to resist. But when full-blown war with Japan broke out in 1937, he was compelled to join forces with his communist enemies in order to repel further Japanese encroachments. China fought alone against the Japanese for four years, until the Allies declared war in 1941.

Although the Allies hailed Chiang as the salvation of his nation, depicting him as a David against the Japanese Goliath, he was in fact a shortsighted tyrant who was more interested in maintaining his power base and privileges than fighting Imperial Japan. He resisted the attempts by U.S. Gen. Joseph Stilwell to create a modern Chinese army that would fight under joint Allied-Chinese control. He was more interested in getting hold of Lend-Lease money for his own purposes. Upon the Allied defeat of Japan, Chiang returned to his battle against Mao Tse-tung and the communists. In 1949, he lost his nation to communism. Chiang removed himself to Taiwan, where he set up a relatively benign dictatorship--an alternate China.

[Peter Clare]

31 October 1944

101 Lancasters of No 3 Group carried out a good G-H attack on the oil plant at Bottrop. 1 Lancaster lost.
1 Wellington carried out a signals patrol and 1 Hudson flew a Resistance operation.

Bottrop Synthetic Oil Plant

[Peter Clare]

31 October/1 November 1944

Cologne: 493 aircraft - 331 Lancasters, 144 Halifaxes, 18 Mosquitos - of Nos 1, 3, 4 and 8 Groups. 15 further Mosquitos carried out a feint attack just before the main raid. 2 Lancasters lost. This was another Oboe-marked attack through thick cloud. Most of the bombing fell in the southern districts, with Bayental and Zollstock, according to the local report, being the hardest hit, although damage was not as severe as in other recent raids.
49 Mosquitos to Hamburg, 4 to Saarbrücken and 2 to Schweinfurt, 36 RCM sorties, 59 Mosquito patrols. No aircraft lost.

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1944 Zeeuws and Flanders freed

1943 Dim-out ban lifted in San Francisco Bay area
1943 U.S. troops land on Bougainville Island in Solomons

1942 10th day of battle at El Alamein
1942 Vice-admiral Cunningham becomes British commander-in-chief

1941 Chetniks attacks Tito's partizans in Uzice Yugoslavia
1941 Japanese marine staff officiers Suzuki/Maejima arrive in Pearl Harbor

1940 1st U.S. air raid shelter, Fleetwood, Pa
1940 Dutch "Curfew" forms (12 AM - 4 AM)

1939 1st jet plane, Heinkel He 178, demonstrated to German Air Ministry

[Peter Clare]

1941 : FDR puts Coast Guard under control of the Navy


On this day in 1941, President Roosevelt announces that the U.S. Coast Guard will now be under the direction of the U.S. Navy, a transition of authority usually reserved only for wartime.
The Coast Guard was established as the Revenue Marine Service by Alexander Hamilton, secretary of the treasury, in 1790. In 1915, the U.S. Lifesaving Service, formed in 1878, and the RMS combined to become the Coast Guard. During peacetime, the Guard was under the direction of the Department of Treasury until 1967, when the Department of Transportation took control. But during war, it was under the control of the U.S. Navy. What made FDR's November 1 announcement significant was that the United States was not yet at war-but more and more American ships were nevertheless becoming casualties of the European war.
The Coast Guard's mission is to enforce all laws applicable to the waters within U.S. territory, including laws and regulations promoting personal safety and protection of property. It provides support and aid to all vessels within U.S. territorial waters. It is charged with inspecting sailing vessels and their equipment for violations of safety regulations, as well as lighthouses, buoys, navigation equipment, and radio beacons. The Guard operates and maintains a network of lifeboat and search-and-rescue stations, which also employs aircraft.
The Guard's wartime duties include escorting ships, providing port security, and inspecting ships for everything from illegal drugs to munitions. They also have powers of interdiction-the right to stop, board, and inspect any vessel suspected of threatening U.S. security. In fact, Coast Guard ranks are analogous to those of the U.S. Navy; even the uniforms are similar. The Guard is headed by an admiral appointed by the president. Women have served in the Guard since 1973.

[Peter Clare]

1942 : British launch Operation Supercharge


On this day in 1942, General Montgomery breaks through Rommel's defensive line at El Alamein, Egypt, forcing a retreat. It was the beginning of the end of the Axis occupation of North Africa.
In July 1942, having already taken Tobruk, Gen. Erwin Rommel and his mixed German-Italian forces attempted to push through the British defensive line at El Alamein, but failed. The Brits and the Axis had reached a standstill, and both sides took time to regroup before resuming the battle. Meanwhile, Lt. Gen. Bernard Montgomery took control of the British 8th Army, and on October 23 launched Operation Lightfoot, a broad offensive initiated by artillery fire. Rommel's forces had dug a five-mile-deep defensive area, replete with minefields and antitank guns. But this did not stop Montgomery, who had three armoured divisions and almost seven infantry divisions. The Axis forces were without their leader, as Rommel had taken ill and was convalescing in Austria. By the time the German general was recalled to Africa by Hitler, two days after the launching of Lightfoot, Monty and his forces had pushed passed his defensive line and were six miles beyond the original stalemate point.
Rommel gave as good as he got, using his antitank weaponry to destroy four times as many British tanks as he lost (but still leaving the Brits with 800 against Rommel's 90). Montgomery's drive northward was stopped-but only temporarily. On November 2, he launched Operation Supercharge, switched the direction of his attack westward, and punched through the German-Italian line. Rommel retreated to Fukah but Hitler insisted that Rommel hold his position at El Alamein. Rommel obeyed, which was a mistake. Instead of making a stand at Fukah, he was forced to waste more time and more of his forces as the British pushed harder, forcing Rommel to retreat even farther as he attempted to escape sweeping British offensives from the south. By mid-January 1943, Rommel had been pushed through Libya into Tunisia. As Churchill would sum up: "Up to Alamein we survived. After Alamein we conquered."

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November 2nd

1944 Auschwitz begins gassing inmates
1944 Canadian troops occupy Knokke
1944 U.S. 28th Infantry division opens assault on Schmidt Hurtgenwald

1943 Jewish ghetto of Riga Latvia is destroyed

1942 11th day of battle at El Alamein: British assault on Tel el Aqqaqir
1942 Montgomery (Br) defeats Rommel (G) in battle of Alamein Egypt (WW II)

1941 German troops occupy Rostov