Remembering History by day WW2

[Peter Clare]

BENJAMIN CONTEE (August 16, 1943)

Only twenty-three minutes out of port, en route to Oran, the US freighter Benjamin Contee was hit by an aerial torpedo a few miles off Bone, Algeria. On board were 1,800 Italian prisoners and 26 British guards. The torpedo blew a hole fifty feet wide and twenty-one feet deep on her port side. The prisoners, filled with panic, broke out of the holds and rushed the lifeboats but didn't know how to launch them. When the shouting and screaming subsided the prisoners were assured that there was no immediate danger. The Benjamin Contee did not sink and she returned to Bone under her own power. Of the Italian prisoners on board, 264 were killed and 142 injured. None of the crew or British guards were lost. She later returned to service only to be sunk as a block ship at Normandy ten months later.

[Peter Clare]

August 16, 1945
Senior U.S. POW is released

On this day in 1945, Lt. Gen. Jonathan Wainwright, (captured by the Japanese on the island of Corregidor, in the Philippines), is freed by Russian forces from a POW camp in Manchuria, China.
When President Franklin Roosevelt transferred Gen. Douglas MacArthur from his command in the Philippines to Australia in March 1942, Maj. Gen. Wainwright, until then under MacArthur's command, was promoted to temporary lieutenant general and given command of all Philippine forces. His first major strategic decision was to move his troops to the fortified garrison at Corregidor. When Bataan was taken by the Japanese, and the infamous Bataan "Death March" of captured Allies was underway, Corredigor became the next battle ground. Wainwright and his 13,000 troops held out for a month despite heavy artillery fire. Finally, Wainwright and his troops, already exhausted, surrendered on May 6.
The irony of Wainwright's promotion was that as commander of all Allied forces in the Philippines, his surrender meant the surrender of troops still holding out against the Japanese in other parts of the Philippines. Wainwright was taken prisoner, spending the next three and a half years as a POW in Luzon, Philippines, Formosa (now Taiwan), and Manchuria, China. Upon Japan's surrender, Russian forces in Manchuria liberated the POW camp in which Wainwright was being held.
The years of captivity took its toll on the general. The man who had been nicknamed "Skinny" was now emaciated. His hair had turned white, and his skin was cracked and fragile. He was also depressed, believing he would be blamed for the loss of the Philippines to the Japanese.
When Wainwright arrived in Yokohama, Japan, to attend the formal surrender ceremony, Gen. MacArthur, his former commander, was stunned at his appearance-literally unable to eat and sleep for a day.
Wainwright was given a hero's welcome upon returning to America, promoted to full general, and awarded the Medal of Honor.

[Peter Clare]

August 17, 1942
Carlson's Raiders land on Makin Island

On this day in 1942, Lt. Col. Evans F. Carlson and a force of Marine raiders come ashore Makin Island, in the west Pacific Ocean, occupied by the Japanese. What began as a diversionary tactic almost ended in disaster for the Americans.
Two American submarines, the Argonaut and the Nautilus, approached Makin Island, an atoll in the Gilbert Islands, which had been seized by the Japanese on December 9, 1941. The subs unloaded 122 Marines, one of two new raider battalions. Their leader was Lt. Col. Evans Carlson, a former lecturer on postrevolutionary China. Their mission was to assault the Japanese-occupied Makin Island as a diversionary tactic, keeping the Japanese troops "busy" so they would not be able to reinforce troops currently under assault by Americans on Guadalcanal Island.
Carlson's "Raiders" landed quietly, unobserved, coming ashore on inflatable rafts powered by outboard motors. Suddenly, one of the Marines' rifles went off, alerting the Japanese, who unleashed enormous firepower: grenades, flamethrowers, and machine guns. The subs gave some cover by firing their deck guns, but by night the Marines had to begin withdrawing from the island. Some Marines drowned when their rafts overturned; about 100 made it back to the subs. Carlson and a handful of his men stayed behind to sabotage a Japanese gas dump and to seize documents. They then made for the submarines too. When all was said and done, seven Marines drowned, 14 were killed by Japanese gunfire, and nine were captured and beheaded.
Carlson went on to fight with the U.S. forces on Guadalcanal. He was a source of controversy; having been sent as a U.S. observer with Mao's Army in 1937, he developed a great respect for the "spiritual strength" of the communist forces and even advocated their guerrilla-style tactics. He remained an avid fan of the Chinese communists even after the war.

[Peter Clare]

17 Aug 1944 - In three days of continuous air attacks, armoured divisions of the German 5th and 7th Panzer Armies are decimated after being trapped between Mortain and Falaise in France. Of the 2,300 tanks about 120 survived, 10,000 soldiers were killed and 50,000 taken prisoner.

[Gage]

The Schweinfurt-Regensburg mission was a strategic bombing attack flown by B-17 Flying Fortresses of the U.S. Army Air Forces on August 17, 1943, it was conceived as an ambitious plan to cripple the German aircraft industry. The mission was also known as the "double-strike mission" because it entailed two large forces of bombers attacking separate targets in order to disperse fighter reaction by the Luftwaffe, and was the first "shuttle" mission, in which all or part of a mission landed at a different field and later bombed another target returning to its base.
After being postponed several times by unfavorable weather, the operation was flown on the anniversary of the first daylight raid by the Eighth Air Force. Mission No. 1 had only been a shallow penetration of France by 12 bombers of a single bombardment group well-protected by escort fighters to attack a railroad yard. Mission No. 84 marked the anniversary with a strike by 376 bombers of sixteen bomb groups against German heavy industry well beyond the range of escorting fighters.
The mission inflicted heavy damage on the Regensburg target, but at catastrophic loss to the force, with 60 bombers lost and many more damaged beyond economical repair. As a result, the Eighth Air Force was unable to follow up immediately with a second attack that might have seriously crippled German industry. When Schweinfurt was finally attacked again two months later, the lack of long range fighter escort had still not been addressed and losses were almost as high. As a consequence, deep penetration strategic bombing was curtailed for five months.

Schweinfurt-Regensburg mission - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[Peter Clare]

August 18, 1941
Hitler suspends euthanasia program

On this day in 1941, Adolf Hitler orders that the systematic murder of the mentally ill and handicapped be brought to an end because of protests within Germany.
In 1939, Dr. Viktor Brack, head of Hitler's Euthanasia Department, oversaw the creation of the T.4 program, which began as the systematic killing of children deemed "mentally defective." Children were transported from all over Germany to a Special Psychiatric Youth Department and killed. Later, certain criteria were established for non-Jewish children. They had to be "certified" mentally ill, schizophrenic, or incapable of working for one reason or another. Jewish children already in mental hospitals, whatever the reason or whatever the prognosis, were automatically to be subject to the program. The victims were either injected with lethal substances or were led to "showers" where the children sat as gas flooded the room through water pipes. The program was then expanded to adults.
It wasn't long before protests began mounting within Germany, especially by doctors and clergy. Some had the courage to write Hitler directly and describe the T.4 program as "barbaric"; others circulated their opinions more discreetly. Heinrich Himmler, head of the SS and the man who would direct the systematic extermination of European Jewry, had only one regret: that the SS had not been put in charge of the whole affair. "We know how to deal with it correctly, without causing useless uproar among the people."
Finally, in 1941, Bishop Count Clemens von Galen denounced the euthanasia program from his pulpit. Hitler did not need such publicity. He ordered the program suspended, at least in Germany. But 50,000 people had already fallen victim to it. It would be revived in occupied Poland

[Peter Clare]

17-18 Aug 1943 - Bomber Command dispatches 597 aircraft to attack the German rocket research centre at Peenemunde on the Baltic coast. Forty aircraft failed to return, but the V-2 rocket programme is delayed by approximately two months.

[Gage]

The Luftwaffe put up a total of about 970 sorties over England - 495 by bombers and 460 by fighters on this day.
The Luftwaffe lost 69 aircraft destroyed or damaged beyond repair as a result of ops over Britain. Of these 59 were lost to probable fighter action.
The Luftwaffe lost 94 aircrew killed and 40 taken prisoner.

Fighter Command put up 927 sorties.
Of the 31 British fighters destroyed or damaged beyond repair 25 fell to enemy fighter action, 2 to return fire from bombers.
During action on the 18th ten British fighter pilots were killed and one died of wounds later. Nineteen pilots were wounded.

This day was reputed to be the hardest day of the Battle of Britain, measured in material losses.
(info from Dr. Alfred Price)

[Peter Clare]

August 19, 1934
Adolf Hitler becomes president of Germany

On this day in 1934, Adolf Hitler, already chancellor, is also elected president of Germany in an unprecedented consolidation of power in the short history of the republic.
In 1932, German President Paul von Hindenburg, old, tired, and a bit senile, had won re-election as president, but had lost a considerable portion of his right/conservative support to the Nazi Party. Those close to the president wanted a cozier relationship to Hitler and the Nazis. Hindenburg had contempt for the Nazis' lawlessness, but ultimately agreed to oust his chancellor, Heinrich Bruning, for Franz von Papen, who was willing to appease the Nazis by lifting the ban on Hitler's Brown Shirts and unilaterally canceling Germany's reparation payments, imposed by the Treaty of Versailles at the close of World War I.
But Hitler was not appeased. He wanted the chancellorship for himself. Papen's policies failed on another front: His authoritarian rule alienated his supporters, and he too was forced to resign. He then made common cause with Hitler, persuading President Hindenburg to appoint Hitler chancellor and himself vice-chancellor. He promised the president that he would restrain Hitler's worst tendencies and that a majority of the Cabinet would go to non-Nazis. As Hindenburg's current chancellor could no longer gain a majority in the Reichstag, and Hitler could bring together a larger swath of the masses and a unified right/conservative/nationalist coalition, the president gave in. In January 1933, Hitler was named chancellor of Germany.
But that was not enough for Hitler either. In February 1933, Hitler blamed a devastating Reichstag fire on the communists (its true cause remains a mystery) and convinced President Hindenburg to sign a decree suspending individual and civil liberties, a decree Hitler used to silence his political enemies with false arrests. Upon the death of Hindenburg in 1934, Hitler proceeded to purge the Brown Shirts (his storm troopers), the head of which, Ernst Roem, had began voicing opposition to the Nazi Party's terror tactics. Hitler had Roem executed without trial, which encouraged the army and other reactionary forces within the country to urge Hitler to further consolidate his power by merging the presidency and the chancellorship. This would make Hitler commander of the army as well. A plebiscite vote was held on August 19. Intimidation, and fear of the communists, brought Hitler a 90 percent majority. He was now, for all intents and purposes, dictator.

[Peter Clare]

SS AGUILA (August 19, 1941)

Commodore ship of Convoy OG-71 en route to Gibraltar from Liverpool. The convoy, consisting of twenty three merchant ships and escorted by six corvettes and two destroyers, was attacked by German submarines while off the south western coast of Ireland. On board the Aguila were twenty-two W.R.N.S., (Women's Royal Navy Service) the first batch of girls who had volunteered for cipher and wireless duties on the 'Rock'. Also on board were many servicemen, all naval personnel, taking the Aguila's complement to 161. Soon after midnight, the U-204 fired two torpedoes at the convoy and hitting the destroyer HMS Bath, which was manned by the Royal Norwegian Navy. She sank within three minutes drowning 83 of her crew, 13 of whom were British. Another torpedo, this time from the U-201, hit the Aguila amidships sending her to the bottom in ninety seconds. There were only 16 badly injured survivors, leaving a death toll of 145.
The dreadful, unbelievable truth, was that not one of the twenty two Wrens had survived. Captain Arthur Firth and nine others were rescued by the destroyer HMS Wallflower. Six of the crew were rescued by the tug 'Empire Oak' but sadly lost three days later when the tug was torpedoed by the U-564. As a tribute to their memory, a lifeboat named 'Aguila Wren' was built and launched on June 28, 1952, for the Royal National Lifeboat Institution. (This lifeboat is now in the hands of a private owner, Tim Kirton of Northumberland and is being restored)
Before the Convoy OG-71 reached its destination, eight of its ships had been sunk plus two escort vessels with a loss of nearly 400 lives).