Remembering History by day WW2

[Peter Clare]

11 May 1940 - Seven out of eight Battles fail to return from an attack on enemy forces in Luxembourg. No. 114 Sqn's Blenheims are annihilated on the ground in a low-level German raid.

[Peter Clare]

May 12, 1941
Hitler backs Rashid Ali in his fight against Britain

On this day in 1941, Adolf Hitler sends two bombers to Iraq to support Rashid Ali al-Gailani in his revolt against Britain, which is trying to enforce a previously agreed upon Anglo-Iraqi alliance.
At the start of the war, Iraqi Prime Minister General Nuri as-Said severed ties with Germany and signed a cooperation pact with Great Britain. In April 1941, the Said government was overthrown by Ali, an anti-British general, who proceeded to cut off the British oil pipeline to the Mediterranean. Britain fought back by landing a brigade on the Persian Gulf, successfully fending off 9,000 Iraqi troops. Ali retaliated by sealing off the British airbase at Habbaniya. Hitler, elated at the grief the British enemy was enduring in the Middle East, began sending arms, via Syria, as well as military experts to aid Ali in his revolt.
On May 12, Hitler sent Major Axel von Blomberg, an air force officer who was to act as a liaison between Iraq and Germany to Iraq, along with the two bombers. Blomberg arrived in the middle of an air battle between Iraqi and British fighters and was shot dead by a stray British bullet. By the end of the month, Iraq had surrendered, and Britain re-established the terms of the original 1930 cooperation pact. A pro-British government formed, with a cabinet led by former Prime Minister Said. Iraq went on to become a valuable resource for British and American forces in the region and in January 1942 became the first independent Muslim state to declare war on the Axis powers.

[Peter Clare]

12 May 1940 - In an attack on the Maas bridges, four out of five Battles are shot down. Fg Off Garland and Sgt Gray are later posthumously awarded the first air VCs of the War.

[Peter Clare]

May 13, 1940
Churchill announces: "I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears, and sweat."

On this day in 1940, as Winston Churchill takes the helm as Great Britain's new prime minister, he assures Parliament that his new policy will consist of nothing less than "to wage war, by sea, land and air, with all our might and with all the strength that God can give us; to wage war against a monstrous tyranny, never surpassed in the dark, lamentable catalogue of human crime."
Emphasizing that Britain's aim was simply "victory, victory at all costs, victory in spite of terror, victory however long and hard the road may be." That very evening, Churchill was informed that Britain would need 60 fighter squadrons to defend British soil against German attack. It had 39.
Within a couple of weeks, the conservative, anti-Socialist Churchill, in an effort to make his rally cry of victory a reality, proceeded to place all "persons, their services, and their property at the disposal of the Crown," thereby granting the government the most
all-encompassing emergency powers in modern British history.

[Peter Clare]

13 May 1943.

The sinking of U-753
At 08.30 hours, the boat was spotted by a Canadian Sunderland aircraft (423 Sqdn RCAF/G, pilot F/L J. Musgrave) ten miles from convoy HX-237. AA fire from U-753 prevented an attack, so the Sunderland shadowed the boat for the next 20 minutes, only exchanging gunfire - they fired around 2000 rounds and were hit by one shell. HMCS Drumheller then forced the boat to dive by gunfire and the Sunderland immediately dropped two depth charges ahead of the swirl. A Swordfish aircraft from the British escort carrier HMS Biter arrived and marked the diving spot with smoke floats. The corvette was soon joined by HMS Lagan and together they sank U-753 with depth charges.

[Peter Clare]

May 14, 1943
United States and Britain plan Operation Pointblank

On this day in 1943, U.S. and Great Britain chiefs of staff, meeting in Washington, D.C., approve and plot out Operation Pointblank, a joint bombing offensive to be mounted from British airbases.
Operation Pointblank's aim was grandiose and comprehensive: "The progressive destruction and dislocation of the German military and economic system, and the undermining of the morale of the German people." It was also intended to set up "final combined operations on the continent." In other words, it was intended to set the stage for one fatal blow that would bring Germany to its knees.
The immediate targets of Operation Pointblank were to be submarine construction yards and bases, aircraft factories, ball bearing factories, rubber and tire factories, oil production and storage plants, and military transport-vehicle factories and stores. Ironically, the very day planning for Pointblank began in Washington, the Germans shot down 74 British four-engine bombers as the Brits struck a munitions factory near Pilsen. Joseph Goebbels, writing in his diary, recorded that the biggest setback about the British raid on the factory was that the drafting room was destroyed.

[Peter Clare]

14 May 1940 - German forces break through the French front at Sedan. All remaining RAF Battles and Blenheims are ordered to attack pontoon bridges and troops in the area. Out of 71 aircraft, 39 are shot down - the highest loss in an operation of this size ever sustained by the RAF. A Luftwaffe raid on Rotterdam city centre by 57 He111s results in 814 civilian casualties and causes a massive outcry from neutral countries. Whilst the bombers were en route a delegation from the Dutch government was preparing to discuss surrender terms, but the attempt to call off the bombing by German commanders was only partially successful.

[Peter Clare]

14 May 1943.

East of Brisbane, the hospital ship Centaur Sydney to Cairns then New Guinea, was sunk by the Japanese submarine I-177. The ship was fully illuminated with her Red Cross markings lit up; of the 333 crew, nursing staff, and military personnel on board, only one nurse and 63 men survived.

[Peter Clare]

May 15, 1942
Legislation creating the Women's Army Corps becomes law

On this day in 1942, a bill establishing a women's corps in the U.S. Army becomes law, creating the Women's Auxiliary Army Corps (WAACs) and granting women official military status.
In May 1941, Representative Edith Nourse Rogers of Massachusetts, the first congresswoman ever from New England, introduced legislation that would enable women to serve in the Army in noncombat positions. Rogers was well suited for such a task; during her husband John J. Rogers' term as congressman, Rogers was active as a volunteer for the Red Cross, the Women's Overseas League, and military hospitals. Because of her work inspecting field and base hospitals, President Warren G. Harding, in 1922, appointed her as his personal representative for inspections and visits to veterans' hospitals throughout the country. She was eventually appointed to the Committee on Veterans' Affairs, as chairwoman in the 80th and 83rd Congresses.
The bill to create a Women's Auxiliary Army Corps would not be passed into law for a year after it was introduced (the bombing of Pearl Harbor was a great incentive). But finally, the WAACs gained official status and salary-but still not all the benefits accorded to men. Thousands of women enlisted in light of this new legislation, and in July 1942, the "auxiliary" was dropped from the name, and the Women's Army Corps, or WACs, received full Army benefits in keeping with their male counterparts.
The WACs performed a wide variety of jobs, "releasing a man for combat," as the Army, sensitive to public misgivings about women in the military, touted. But those jobs ranged from clerk to radio operator, electrician to air-traffic controller. Women served in virtually every theater of engagement, from North Africa to Asia.
It would take until 1978 before the Army would become sexually integrated, and women participating as merely an "auxiliary arm" in the military would be history. And it would not be until 1980 that 16,000 women who had joined the earlier WAACs would receive veterans' benefits.

[Peter Clare]

15 May 1940 - After a week of heavy fighting, the Dutch Army finally capitulates at 11 am. By nightfall, the RAF in France had lost 205 aircraft, including 86 three-seat Fairey Battles. During the night, RAF Bomber Command's air offensive against Germany begins - 99 aircraft attack industrial targets in the Ruhr. No aircraft are lost through enemy action.