Remembering History by day WW2

[Peter Clare]

19 Aug 1942 - The Dieppe operation. Sixty squadrons of fighter aircraft fly in support of Operation Jubilee, a large-scale amphibious landing in France. The operation showed major deficiencies in RAF ground support techniques, and this led to the creation of a fully integrated Tactical Air Force to support major ground offensives.

[Gage]

Originally Posted by 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).

Hey Peter, well done on 1500 posts in this thread and most by you. Well done mate.

[Herakles]

20 August 1908 arrival of the Great White Fleet in Sydney.

The Prime Minister Alfred Deakin deliberately breached protocol by bypassing British authorities and despatching a timely invitation direct to Washington. It worked as intended, a direct challenge to Britain that there were alternatives to Australia in forming it's own navy, outside a British alliance.

[Peter Clare]

August 20, 1944
Brits launch Operation Wallace and aid French Resistance

On this day in 1944, 60 British soldiers, commanded by Major Roy Farran, fight their way east from Rennes toward Orleans, through German-occupied forest, forcing the Germans to retreat and aiding the French Resistance in its struggle for liberation. Code-named Operation Wallace, this push east was just another nail in the coffin of German supremacy in France.
The Germans had already lost their position in Normandy, and had retreated from southern France. Most of the German troops in the west were trapped-and were either being killed or taken prisoner--in what was called "the Falaise Pocket," a site around the eastern town of Falaise, which was encircled by the Allies. The Allies were also landing tens of thousands of men and vehicles in France, and the French Resistance was becoming more brazen every day. On the 19th, the French police force announced its loyalty to the Resistance cause by seizing the Prefecture de Police in Paris, raising the French national flag, and singing the Marseillaise, the French national anthem.
Major Roy Farran, a veteran of the fighting in Italy, employed his British Special Air Service force to boldly burst eastward from Rennes to the region just north of Orleans through the German lines of defense in order to attack the enemy from within its own strongholds. Along the way, French Resistance fighters joined the battle with him. Farran was taken aback by the strength of the French freedom fighters, and the anticipation of liberation in the air. Describing one Frenchwoman, Farran said, "Her smile ridiculed the bullets."

[Peter Clare]

SS RICHARD MONTGOMERY (August 20, 1944)

To date, no casualties have been reported from the sinking of the American liberty ship, Richard Montgomery (4,380 tons). But what of the future? In August, 1944, the vessel set sail from Hog Island, Philadelphia, in convoy HX-301 bound for the UK and ultimately Cherbourg in Normandy. Her cargo consisted of 6,127 tons of munitions. Arriving in the Thames estuary her captain was directed to anchor in the Great Nore anchorage off Sheerness. On August 20 the ship dragged her anchor when the wind turned northerly and ended up across the ridge of a sandbar. Cargo salvage operations were started immediately. This ended when the hull split open and flooding occurred causing the vessel to break in two and subsequently sink with 3,173 tons of explosives still within the holds. The British Admiralty decided to leave the wreck and its dangerous cargo undisturbed. But if this exploded it would generate a wave sixteen feet high and throw a column of debris and water 10,000 feet in the air. The likelihood of a major explosion is considered remote as with the passage of time the fuses on the explosive devices will become less stable. The condition of the wreck is monitored regularly and is under 24-hour radar surveillance. The next major survey will be in 2007. No sea traffic is allowed over or near the wreck, the masts of which are clearly seen at all times. A Government decision on the future of the wreck has still to be made.

[Peter Clare]

August 21, 1944
The seeds of the United Nations are planted

On this day in 1944, representatives from the United States, Great Britain, the Soviet Union, and China meet in the Dumbarton Oaks estate at Georgetown, Washington, D.C., to formulate the formal principles of an organization that will provide collective security on a worldwide basis-an organization that will become the United Nations.
Following up on a promise made at the Moscow Conferences of 1943 to create an international organization to succeed the League of Nations, the Dumbarton Oaks Conference began planning its creation. Step one was the outline for a Security Council, which would be composed of the member states (basically, the largest of the Allied nations)--the United States, the USSR, China, France, and Great Britain-with each member having veto power over any proposal brought before the Council.
Many political questions would remain to be hammered out, such as a specific voting system and the membership status of republics within the Soviet Union. A more detailed blueprint for the United Nations would be drawn up at both the Yalta Conference in February 1945, and the San Francisco Conference, which would produce the U.N. charter, also in 1945

[Peter Clare]

21 August 1940.

About 800 miles west of the Canary Islands, the steamer Anglo Saxon 5,596 tons Newport to Bahia Blanca with a cargo of coal was sunk by the German commerce raider Widder. After the war, the raiders captain, von Ruckteschell, was found guilty of failing to provide for the safety of the ships crew. The court was told that the Widder had fired on the ships lifeboats; 39 of her crew died, two survivors drifted 2,500 miles in 71 days, landing in the Bahamas.

Helmuth von Ruckteschell - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[Peter Clare]

August 22, 1944
Romania captured by the Soviet Union

On this day in 1944, Soviet forces break through to Jassy, in northeastern Romania, convincing Romania's king to sign an armistice with the Allies and concede control of his country to the USSR.
As early as 1937, Romania had come under control of a fascist government that bore great resemblance to that of Germany's, including similar anti-Jewish laws. Romania's king, Carol II, dissolved the government a year later, but was unable to suppress the fascist Iron Guard paramilitary organization. In June 1940, the Soviet Union co-opted two Romanian provinces, and the king searched for an ally to help protect it and appease the far right within its own borders. So on July 5, 1940, Romania allied itself with Nazi Germany. Later that year, it would be invaded by its "ally" as part of Hitler's strategy to create one huge eastern front against the Soviet Union.
King Carol would abdicate in September 1940, leaving the country in the control of fascist Prime Minister Ion Antonescu and the Iron Guard. While Romania would recapture the territory lost to the Soviet Union when the Germans invaded Russia, it would also have to endure the Germans' raping of its resources as part of the Nazi war effort.
As the war turned against Germany, and the Soviet Union began to run roughshod over Eastern Europe, Antonescu started looking west for allies to save it from Soviet occupation. At this stage, King Michael, son of the late King Carol, emerged from the shadows and had the pro-German Antonescu arrested, imploring Romanians, and loyal military men, to fight with, not against, the invading Soviets. The king would finally sign an armistice with the Allies and declare war against an already-dying Germany in 1944.
King Michael would, ironically, be forced to abdicate by the Soviets, who would maintain a puppet communist government in Romania until the end of the Cold War. The king had virtually destroyed his nation in order to save it.

[Peter Clare]

USS INGRAHAM (August 22, 1942 )

The American destroyer sank after a violent collision with the Navy oil tanker SS Chemung in pea-soup fog off the coast of Nova Scotia. The Ingraham was part of task Force 37 escorting Convoy AT-20 to the United Kingdom. An internal explosion caused the ship to blaze from stem to stern. It was all over in a flash, the burning wreck vanishing beneath the waves taking the lives of 218 of her crew. There were only 11 survivors, one officer and ten men, all rescued by the Chemung's boat crews.

[Peter Clare]

22 Aug 1942 - HRH The Duke of Kent is killed when the No. 228 Sqn Sunderland taking him to Iceland crashes in poor visibility near Scotland.