Remembering History by day WW2

[Peter Clare]

May 7, 1945
Germany surrenders unconditionally to the Allies at Reims

On this day in 1945, the German High Command, in the person of General Alfred Jodl, signs the unconditional surrender of all German forces, East and West, at Reims, in northwestern France.
At first, General Jodl hoped to limit the terms of German surrender to only those forces still fighting the Western Allies. But General Dwight Eisenhower demanded complete surrender of all German forces, those fighting in the East as well as in the West. If this demand was not met, Eisenhower was prepared to seal off the Western front, preventing Germans from fleeing to the West in order to surrender, thereby leaving them in the hands of the enveloping Soviet forces. Jodl radioed Grand Admiral Karl Donitz, Hitler's successor, with the terms. Donitz ordered him to sign. So with Russian General Ivan Susloparov and French General Francois Sevez signing as witnesses, and General Walter Bedell Smith, Ike's chief of staff, signing for the Allied Expeditionary Force, Germany was-at least on paper-defeated. Fighting would still go on in the East for almost another day. But the war in the West was over.
Since General Susloparov did not have explicit permission from Soviet Premier Stalin to sign the surrender papers, even as a witness, he was quickly hustled back East-into the hands of the Soviet secret police, never to be heard from again. Alfred Jodl, who was wounded in the assassination attempt on Hitler on July 20, 1944, would be found guilty of war crimes (which included the shooting of hostages) at Nuremberg and hanged on October 16, 1946-then granted a pardon, posthumously, in 1953, after a German appeals court found Jodl not guilty of breaking international law.

[Peter Clare]

HMCS VALLEYFIELD (May 7, 1944)

Canadian 'RiverClass' frigate commissioned in December, 1943 in Quebec City. Accompanied by two other frigates and two corvettes they were escorting a convoy and had just handed the convoy over to another group of escorts. Now on their way back to their home port of St. John's, they were attacked by the U-548. A torpedo from the U-boat struck the Valleyfield on the port side causing a tremendous explosion which broke the ship in two before it sank. One of the other escorts, HMCS Giffard, searched for survivors in the near freezing waters about seventy kilometres south of Cape Race, Newfoundland. A total of 125 crewmen were lost from the Valleyfield, seventeen of them came from Manitoba.

[Peter Clare]

USS SIMS & USS NEOSHO (May 7, 1942)

American destroyers, part of Task Force 17 proceeding to the Coral Sea to try and prevent an enemy landing against Port Morseby and Tulagi. After a refuelling operation at sea, the Sims was detached from the group and ordered to remain with the tanker Neosho. Spotted by Japanese scout planes, the destroyer and tanker were attacked by fighters and bombers from the carriers Zuikaku and Shokaku. The slow tanker received seven direct bomb hits and set on fire. The Sims, her hull plates split open by three direct hits amidships, jack-knifed and sank while her depth charges exploded. Her 14 survivors were picked up by the still blazing Neosho.
After drifting for four days the Neosho was found by the destroyer USS Henley which saved the 14 crewmembers of the Sims and 109 from the Neosho, then sank the tanker with two torpedoes. Prior to her rescue, 68 officers and men had abandoned the tanker in life rafts and were found 10 days later by the destroyer USS Helm. Only four of the 68 souls were alive. All told, the casualties from the Sims and Neosho were 179 officers and men lost.

[Peter Clare]

May 8, 1945
Victory in Europe

On this day in 1945, both Great Britain and the United States celebrate Victory in Europe Day. Cities in both nations, as well as formerly occupied cities in Western Europe, put out flags and banners, rejoicing in the defeat of the Nazi war machine.

The eighth of May spelled the day when German troops throughout Europe finally laid down their arms: In Prague, Germans surrendered to their Soviet antagonists, after the latter had lost more than 8,000 soldiers, and the Germans considerably more; in Copenhagen and Oslo; at Karlshorst, near Berlin; in northern Latvia; on the Channel Island of Sark--the German surrender was realized in a final cease-fire. More surrender documents were signed in Berlin and in eastern Germany.

The main concern of many German soldiers was to elude the grasp of Soviet forces, to keep from being taken prisoner. About 1 million Germans attempted a mass exodus to the West when the fighting in Czechoslovakia ended, but were stopped by the Russians and taken captive. The Russians took approximately 2 million prisoners in the period just before and after the German surrender.

Meanwhile, more than 13,000 British POWs were released and sent back to Great Britain.

Pockets of German-Soviet confrontation would continue into the next day. On May 9, the Soviets would lose 600 more soldiers in Silesia before the Germans finally surrendered. Consequently, V-E Day was not celebrated until the ninth in Moscow, with a radio broadcast salute from Stalin himself: "The age-long struggle of the Slav nations…has ended in victory. Your courage has defeated the Nazis. The war is over."

[Peter Clare]

May 9, 1945
Herman Goering is captured by the U.S. Seventh Army

On this day in 1945, Herman Goering, commander in chief of the Luftwaffe, president of the Reichstag, head of the Gestapo, prime minister of Prussia, and Hitler's designated successor is taken prisoner by the U.S. Seventh Army in Bavaria.
Goering was an early member of the Nazi Party and was wounded in the failed Munich Beer Hall Putsch in 1923. That wound would have long-term effects; Goering became increasingly addicted to painkillers. Not long after Hitler's accession to power, Goering was instrumental in creating concentration camps for political enemies. Ostentatious and self-indulgent, he changed his uniform five times a day and was notorious for flaunting his decorations, jewelry, and stolen artwork. It was Goering who ordered the purging of German Jews from the economy following the Kristallnacht pogrom in 1938, initiating an "Aryanization" policy that confiscated Jewish property and businesses.
Goering's failure to win the Battle of Britain and prevent the Allied bombing of Germany led to his loss of stature within the Party, aggravated by the low esteem with which he was always held by fellow officers because of his egocentrism and position as Hitler's right-hand man. As the war progressed, he dropped into depressions and battled drug addiction.
When Goering fell into U.S. hands after Germany's surrender, he had in his possession a rich stash of pills. He was tried at Nuremberg and charged with various crimes against humanity. Despite a vigorous attempt at self acquittal, he was found guilty and sentenced to be hanged, but before he could be executed, he committed suicide by swallowing a cyanide tablet he had hidden from his guards.

[Peter Clare]

May 10, 1940
As Germany invades Holland and Belgium, Winston Churchill becomes prime minister of Great Britain

On this day in 1940, Hitler begins his Western offensive with the radio code word "Danzig," sending his forces into Holland and Belgium. On this same day, having lost the support of the Labour Party, British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain resigns; Winston Churchill accedes to the office, becoming defense minister as well.
As British and French Allied forces attempted to meet the 136 German divisions breaking into Holland and Belgium on the ground, 2,500 German aircraft proceeded to bomb airfields in Belgium, Holland, France, and Luxembourg, and 16,000 German airborne troops parachuted into Rotterdam, Leiden, and The Hague. A hundred more German troops, employing air gliders, landed and seized the Belgian bridges across the Albert Canal. The Dutch army was defeated in five days. One day after the invasion of Belgium, the garrison at Fort Eben-Emael surrendered, outmanned and outgunned by the Germans.
The Dutch and Belgian governments immediately appealed to Britain for help. Neville Chamberlain pleaded to Parliament that a coalition government, of Liberals and Labour, would be necessary to generate support for a war effort, especially given the lethargy that infected Britain, still reeling from World War I. Labour demonstrated no support for Chamberlain, preferring Churchill, who they thought better able to prosecute a war. As one member of Parliament put it: "Winston-our hope-he may yet save civilization." Great Britain had finally come to take the Nazi threat seriously.

Also on this day, in 1941, Rudolf Hess parachutes into Scotland in an attempt to negotiate a truce between Britain and Germany

On May 10, the day Hitler planned to invade Russia, and German bombs dropped on London in a spring "blitz," Hess parachuted into Scotland, hoping to negotiate peace with Britain, in the person of the Duke of Hamilton, whom Hess claimed to have met at the 1936 Berlin Olympics. Such a peace would have prevented Germany from fighting on two fronts and greatly increased Hess's own prestige within the Nazi regime.
He did, in fact, find peace-in the Tower of London, where the British imprisoned him, the last man ever to be held there under lock and key.

[Peter Clare]

10 May 1940 - Germany invades Holland, Belgium and Luxembourg as well as attacking French positions in Western France. The Luftwaffe flies more than 1,000 bombing sorties in support of the offensives. French and British fighters claim a total of 85 victories, but French indecision means that bombers of the Armee de l'Air (French Air Force) are not committed to action. Thirty-three RAF Blenheims attack German forces in Holland, losing 3 aircraft in the process. Later that day, 32 Battles attempt to attack enemy columns advancing through Luxembourg; 13 are lost to anti-aircraft fire and a further 10 shot down by fighters. During the night, Whitleys attack enemy communications in the RAF's first attack on mainland Germany. At home, Chamberlain resigns as Prime Minister. Mr Winston Churchill replaces him as head of a coalition government.

[Peter Clare]

RAMB IV (May 10, 1942)

Former Italian hospital ship captured by the British and now a Ministry of War transport, was carrying 360 staff and wounded patients when attacked by enemy aircraft while on its way to Alexandria from Tobruk. The ship had to be abandoned and later sunk by Royal Navy warships. During the attack, 155 wounded men were killed and ten of the crew lost their lives.

[Owen]

May 10th 1940.

Peter, you beat me to it.

[Peter Clare]

May 11, 1944
Allies attack the Gustav line in drive for Rome

On this day in 1944, Allied forces begin a major assault on the Gustav Line, a German defensive line drawn across central Italy just south of Rome.
The Gustav Line represented a stubborn German defense, built by Field Marshal Albert Kesselring, that had to be broken before the Italian capital could be taken; the attack on the line was also part of a larger plan to force the Germans to commit as many troops to Italy as possible in order to make way for an Allied cross-Channel assault-what would become D-Day. With the Eighth Army's 1,000 guns, the Fifth Army's 600, and more than 3,000 aircraft, the Allied forces, which included British, French, Indian, Moroccan, and Polish corps, opened fire in a barrage of artillery from Cassino to the Mediterranean Sea. Despite the fact that the Allies outnumbered the Germans by a ratio of 3 to 1, it took seven days before the Gustav Line could be broken, with the Polish Corps occupying the famed Benedictine abbey of Monte Cassino. The Germans withdrew, to the Hitler Line, but that too was penetrated. The Allies would be in Rome by June 4.