Remembering History by day WW2

[Peter Clare]

HMS Edinburgh. (30 April 1942)

In the Barentz Sea the cruiser Edinburgh, part of a convoy escort and carrying gold bullion, was torpedoed by U 456 and her stern was blown off. On 3 May, under tow to the Kola Inlett about 200 miles away, the cruiser and her escort were attacked by three German destroyers. The cruiser was further damaged by a torpedo from the destroyer Z-24. The badly-damaged cruiser had to be sunk by the destroyer Foresight. 57 of Edinburgh's crew were killed.

[Peter Clare]

May 1, 1887
Alan G. Cunningham, British liberator of Ethiopia, is born

On this day, General Alan Gordon Cunningham, commander of the British forces that captured Ethiopia, liberating it from its Italian invaders, is born.
The younger brother of Admiral Andrew Cunningham, the man who effectively eliminated the Italian naval threat in the Mediterranean as early as 1940, General Alan Cunningham did virtually the same to the Italian threat in Ethiopia. Overcoming topographical and administrative obstacles, Cunningham's forces entered Italian Somaliland, occupied the ports of Chisimaio and Mogadiscio, and then pursued the Axis enemy into the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa. On May 20, 1941, along with General Sir William Platt, whose army was advancing on the Italian invaders from the north, Cunningham received the surrender of Amadeo di Savoia, commander of the Italian armies. The way was paved for the return of Ethiopia's emperor, Haile Selassie.
Cunningham was less successful in campaigns in Libya and was finally relieved of his command. He returned to England and in 1941 was knighted for the successes he had enjoyed. He went on to become British high commissioner in Palestine from 1945 until Israel's independence in 1948.

[Peter Clare]

SS ERINPURA (May 1, 1943)

British India SN Company troop transport in convoy with 23 merchantmen and escorted by eleven destroyers, was bound for Malta. When some 30 miles north of Benghazi, the convoy was attacked by German bombers and torpedo carrying aircraft. On board the Erinpura (Capt. P. V. Cotter) were 1,025 troops. One large bomb exploded in the hold sinking the ship in a matter of minutes. A total of 664 lives were lost including forty-four crewmembers and three gunners.

[Peter Clare]

May 2, 1945
German troops in Italy surrender to the Allies, while Berlin surrenders to Russia's Zhukov.

On this day in 1945, approximately 1 million German soldiers lay down their arms as the terms of the German unconditional surrender, signed at Caserta on April 29, come into effect. Many Germans surrender to Japanese soldiers-Japanese Americans. Among the American tank crews that entered the northern Italian town of Biella was an all-Nisei (second-generation) infantry battalion, composed of Japanese Americans from Hawaii.
Early that same day, Russian Marshal Georgi K. Zhukov accepts the surrender of the German capital. The Red Army takes 134,000 German soldiers prisoner.

[Peter Clare]

May 3, 1942
The Battle of the Coral Sea begins

On this, the first day of the first modern naval engagement in history, called the Battle of the Coral Sea, a Japanese invasion force succeeds in occupying Tulagi of the Solomon Islands in an expansion of Japan's defensive perimeter.
The United States, having broken Japan's secret war code and forewarned of an impending invasion of Tulagi and Port Moresby, attempted to intercept the Japanese armada. Four days of battles between Japanese and American aircraft carriers resulted in 70 Japanese and 66 Americans warplanes destroyed. This confrontation, called the Battle of the Coral Sea, marked the first air-naval battle in history, as none of the carriers fired at each other, allowing the planes taking off from their decks to do the battling. Among the casualties was the American carrier Lexington; "the Blue Ghost" (so-called because it was not camouflaged like other carriers) suffered such extensive aerial damage that it had to be sunk by its own crew. Two hundred sixteen Lexington crewmen died as a result of the Japanese aerial bombardment.
Although Japan would go on to occupy all of the Solomon Islands, its victory was a Pyrrhic one: The cost in experienced pilots and aircraft carriers was so great that Japan had to cancel its expedition to Port Moresby, Papua, as well as other South Pacific targets.

[Peter Clare]

CAP ARCONA and THIELBECK (May 3, 1945)

Four days after Hitler's suicide the German pre-war luxury liner Cap Arcona, 27,561 tons, anchored in Lubeck Bay along with two other ships the Thielbeck and Athen, were bombed by RAF planes of 83 Group, 2nd Tactical Air Force. On board the three ships were around 7,000 prisoners from the Nazi concentration camps at Neuengamme near Hamburg and Stutthof near Danzig, half of whom were Russian and Polish POW's who were being evacuated ahead of the advancing British troops. Arriving at the port of Lubeck they were forced on board the 1,936 ton Athen to be ferried out to the Cap Arcona whose captain, Kapitän Heinrich Bertram, refused to let them on board protesting that his ship could only accommodate 700. Threatened with arrest and execution, he relented and watched as thousands of prisoners were herded into the holds of his ship. Guarding them were some 400 SS troops. (These ships were to be sailed out to sea and then scuttled, drowning all on board according to Himmler's order to all concentration camp commanders that 'surrender was unacceptable, that camps were to be immediately evacuated and no prisoner was to fall alive into the hands of the enemy). When the Athen had finished its ferrying duties a group of prisoners were then transferred from the Cap Arcona (which was now seriously overcrowded) back to the Athen whose captain then ran his ship against the quay at Neustadt and hoisted a white flag, thus saving his 1,998 passengers.
A short distance away, the civilian liner Deutschland (21,046 tons) was anchored and about to be converted to a hospital ship. Firing their rockets, the Typhoons of 184 Squadron from Hustedt attacked first, hitting all three ships. The second attack was by 198 Squadron from Plantlünne led by Group Captain Johnny Baldwin. The third attack by 263 Squadron from Ahlhorn attacked the Deutschland as did the fourth attack by 197 Squadron, also from Ahlhorn. The Deutschland, burning furiously, keeled over and sank four hours later. Fortunately there were no prisoners on board and the crew had deserted the ship during the first attack. The 27,561 ton Cap Arcona, with nearly 4,500 prisoners trapped below and suffocating in the smoke and flames, turned over on her side and lay partly submerged and burning out. Some managed to break out and cling to the hull of the ship, others jumped into the freezing Baltic Sea. In all, 314 prisoners and 2 crewmembers were rescued. The Thielbeck (a 2,815 ton freighter) was left a smouldering wreck and sank forty-five minutes later. Of the Thielbeck's 2,800 prisoners, only around 50 were saved. Many survivors, trying to swim ashore, were mown down mercilessly in the water from machine guns of SS troops stationed on shore. They only rescued those in SS uniform, about 350 at the most. Altogether, over 6,500 people died in this tragedy.
The RAF pilots knew nothing about the prisoners on board and it was not until many years later, in fact 1975, that they learned that they had slaughtered their own allies! For weeks after the sinking, bodies of the victims were being washed ashore, to be collected and buried in a single mass grave at Neustadt, in Holstein. For nearly three decades, parts of skeletons were being washed ashore, the last find, by a twelve year old boy, was in 1971. The history of this tragedy is depicted in the 'Cap Arcona' Museum in Neustadt, opened in 1990. Max Pauly, the ex-Commandant of Neuengamma Concentration Camp and SS doctor Alfred Trzebinski, were later tried and convicted of war crimes. Both were hanged in Hamelin Goal.

[Peter Clare]

May 4, 1945
As the Nazi threat dies, the Red Army rises

On this day in 1945, Soviet Foreign Minister Molotov informs U.S. Secretary of State Stettinius that the Red Army has arrested 16 Polish peace negotiators who had met with a Soviet army colonel near Warsaw back in March. When British Prime Minister Winston Churchill learns of the Soviet double-cross, he reacts in alarm, stating, "There is no doubt that the publication in detail of this event...would produce a primary change in the entire structure of world forces."
Churchill, fearing that the Russian forces were already beginning to exact retribution for losses suffered during the war (the Polish negotiators had been charged with "causing the death of 200 Red Army officers"), sent a telegram to President Harry Truman to express his concern that Russian demands of reparations from Germany, and the possibility of ongoing Russian occupation of Central and Eastern Europe, "constitutes an event in the history of Europe to which there has been no parallel." Churchill clearly foresaw the "Iron Curtain" beginning to drop. Consequently, he sent a "holding force" to Denmark to cut off any farther westward advance by Soviet troops.

[Peter Clare]

USS MORRISON (May 4, 1945)

Sailing south-west of Okinawa, the Morrison was attacked by a force of twenty five Japanese planes. Three of the planes attempted suicide runs but failed. The fourth plane to attack crashed into the bridge knocking out all electric power and causing many casualties. As the destroyer began to list to starboard, the order to abandon ship was given. This was immediately followed by two internal explosions causing her bow to lift into the air before plunging into the depths. There was little time for the men below deck to escape, thus 152 of them died. Among the 179 officers and men who survived, 108 were wounded.

[Peter Clare]

May 5, 1941
Ethiopian Emperor Haile Selassie returns to his capital

On this day in 1941, Emperor Haile Selassie re-enters Addis Ababa, the Ethiopian capital, exactly five years to the day of when it was occupied by Italy.
Benito Mussolini had been eyeing Ethiopia (also known as Abyssinia) as an economic colony to be added to Italian Somaliland, in East Africa, since the 1920s. He hoped to resettle 10 million Italians in a unified East Africa. Despite Ethiopia's membership in the League of Nations, which provided it with recourse to other member nations in the event of invasion, Italy, also a League member, attacked on October 3, 1935. Selassie formally protested before the League Council, but the League responded with only mild sanctions, fearing that a more extensive embargo, or the closure of the Suez Canal, denying Italy needed supplies and reinforcements, would lead to war-and Italy simply getting its oil from the United States, which was not a party to League agreements.
Britain and France, both fearing that a general war would be harmful to their collective security, proposed secret negotiations with Italy, wherein Italy would be offered territory in Ethiopia's northeast; in exchange, Mussolini would end his aggression. Ethiopia would only be told of this negotiation after the fact; should Selassie reject the terms, France and Britain were off the hook, having made a "good faith" effort at peace. They could then oppose further sanctions against Italy, even propose that the ones in place be removed, thereby sparing themselves a confrontation with Mussolini. But the plans for the secret negotiation were leaked to the press, and both Britain and France were humiliated publicly for selling out a weaker League partner.

[Peter Clare]

May 6, 1942
All American forces in the Philippines surrender unconditionally

On this day in 1942, U.S. Lieutenant General Jonathan Wainwright surrenders all U.S. troops in the Philippines to the Japanese.
The island of Corregidor remained the last Allied stronghold in the Philippines after the Japanese victory at Bataan (from which General Wainwright had managed to flee, to Corregidor). Constant artillery shelling and aerial bombardment attacks ate away at the American and Filipino defenders. Although still managing to sink many Japanese barges as they approached the northern shores of the island, the Allied troops could hold the invader off no longer. General Wainwright, only recently promoted to the rank of lieutenant general and commander of the U.S. armed forces in the Philippines, offered to surrender Corregidor to Japanese General Homma, but Homma wanted the complete, unconditional capitulation of all American forces throughout the Philippines. Wainwright had little choice given the odds against him and the poor physical condition of his troops (he had already lost 800 men). He surrendered at midnight. All 11,500 surviving Allied troops were evacuated to a prison stocka!
de in Manila.
General Wainwright remained a POW until 1945. As a sort of consolation for the massive defeat he suffered, he was present on the USS Missouri for the formal Japanese surrender ceremony on September 2, 1945. He would also be awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor by President Harry Truman. Wainwright died in 1953-exactly eight years to the day of the Japanese surrender ceremony