Remembering History by day WW2

[Bodston]

From 'Tank War' by Janusz Piekalkiewicz

On Sunday 15th December (1940), the British took (part) in a surprise raid (on) the Halfaya Pass on the Libyan-Egyptian border. British tanks now had a clear path to the interior of Cyrenaica. The remnants of the Italian Tenth Army withdrew to the fortress of Bardia. The Italians now reinforced the defences of Tobruk and the El Mekili-Derna line, where they stationed three divisions which they had summoned from the interior.

[Bodston]

From 'Tank War' by Janusz Piekalkiewicz

Monday 15 December 1941, Cairo
British Headquarters announced:
Despite unfavourable weather with low-hanging clouds and rain, the mass of the British troops have made further advances in the area southwest of Gazala. Aerial reconnaissance confirms that General Rommel has occupied strong fortified positions in the Jebel Akdar region. General Rommel has succeeded in organising an ordered retreat.

[Bodston]

From 'Tank War' by Janusz Piekalkiewicz

German OKW Dispatch dated Tuesday 15 December 1942:
The East: The Hoth Panzer Group has made no further advances. It has been joined by the 15th Luftwaffe Field Division, comprising only four battalions, which is still assembling far to the rear. The expected massive Soviet attack on the Italian Eighth Army has not yet materialized, and it looks as if the enemy is trying only to keep up persistant feints to pin down our reserves. The Führer has not yet arrived at a conclusion about this. Ten times as much grain this year as last year has been delivered to the grain depots of the Ukraine: namely 8.1 million tons. The Führer has now permanently abandoned his intention to withdraw for a prolonged period to his mountain retreat.

[Peter Clare]

December 16, 1944
Battle of the Bulge

On this day, the Germans launch the last major offensive of the war, Operation Mist, also known as the Ardennes Offensive and the Battle of the Bulge, an attempt to push the Allied front line west from northern France to northwestern Belgium. The Battle of the Bulge, so-called because the Germans created a "bulge" around the area of the Ardennes forest in pushing through the American defensive line, was the largest fought on the Western front.
The Germans threw 250,000 soldiers into the initial assault, 14 German infantry divisions guarded by five panzer divisions-against a mere 80,000 Americans. Their assault came in early morning at the weakest part of the Allied line, an 80-mile poorly protected stretch of hilly, woody forest (the Allies simply believed the Ardennes too difficult to traverse, and therefore an unlikely location for a German offensive). Between the vulnerability of the thin, isolated American units and the thick fog that prevented Allied air cover from discovering German movement, the Germans were able to push the Americans into retreat.
One particularly effective German trick was the use of English-speaking German commandos who infiltrated American lines and, using captured U.S. uniforms, trucks, and jeeps, impersonated U.S. military and sabotaged communications. The ploy caused widespread chaos and suspicion among the American troops as to the identity of fellow soldiers--even after the ruse was discovered. Even General Omar Bradley himself had to prove his identity three times--by answering questions about football and Betty Grable--before being allowed to pass a sentry point.
The battle raged for three weeks, resulting in a massive loss of American and civilian life. Nazi atrocities abounded, including the murder of 72 American soldiers by SS soldiers in the Ardennes town of Malmedy. Historian Stephen Ambrose estimated that by war's end, "Of the 600,000 GIs involved, almost 20,000 were killed, another 20,000 were captured, and 40,000 were wounded." The United States also suffered its second-largest surrender of troops of the war: More than 7,500 members of the 106th Infantry Division capitulated at one time at Schnee Eifel. The devastating ferocity of the conflict also made desertion an issue for the American troops; General Eisenhower was forced to make an example of Private Eddie Slovik, the first American executed for desertion since the Civil War.
The war would not end until better weather enabled American aircraft to bomb and strafe German positions.

[Peter Clare]

HMS FIREDRAKE (December 16, 1942)
Destroyer of 1,410 tons, launched in June 1934 at the Vickers-Armstrong Shipyard on the Tyne and sunk by torpedo from a German U-boat U-211 in the North Atlantic, about 400 nautical miles west of Mizen Head, Galway, Ireland. The Firedrake was escorting the forty-three ship Convoy ON-153 to Canada when the torpedo struck breaking the vessel in two. The bow section, including the bridge, sank immediately leaving thirty-five men stranded on the stern section. Another escort, HMS Sunflower ploughed through 60 foot waves to rescue the men who had jumped into the water. Twenty-seven crewmembers (6 officers and 20 ratings) were thus saved, one died later. In all, Commander Tilden and 167 of the Firedrake's crew were lost, plus three survivors who had been picked up earlier from another ship sunk that same night.

[Bodston]

From 'Tank War' by Janusz Piekalkiewicz

Monday 16th December 1940:
The Army of the Nile has rendered glorious service to the Empire and to our cause, and we are already reaping rewards in every quarter. We are deeply indebted to you, Wilson, and other commanders, whose fine professional skill and audacious leading have gained us the memorable victory of the Libyan desert. Your first objective now must be to maul the Italian army and rip them off the African shore to the utmost possible extent.

Beromünster Radio (Switzerland)
16th December 1940:
...The present military situation suggests that Germany will seek a decision by moving directly against Britain; wheras the British are deploying their entire military might to deliver a decisive blow against Italy in the Mediterranean. The battle in the desert along the border between Egypt and Italian Libya, has understandably brought encouragement and hope to the British people, just as it has led to grave reflections and exhortations in Italy.

[Bodston]

From 'Tank War' by Janusz Piekalkiewicz

Tuesday 16th December 1941
The German Wehrmacht High Command announced:
The enemy suffered heavy losses on Monday in local fighting in various sectors of the Eastern front. In North Africa, we again waged heavy defensive fighting west of Tobruk. In a counter-stroke, German and Italian troops smashed powerful enemy units.

On Tuesday 16 December 1941, Hitler in his order of the day called on his troops on the Eastern front to put up "fanatical resistance." The OKH was determined to hold the front line at all costs; but there was no choice except retreat, and even Hitler's harshest commands could do nothing to change that.

[Bodston]

From 'Tank War' by Janusz Piekalkiewicz

On Wednesday 16th December 1942, Golikov's Soviet Voronezh Front (Kuznetsov's First Guards Army, Lelyushenko's Third Guards Army and Kharitonov's Sixth Army) went on the offensive against Gariboldi's Italian Eighth Army. By that same evening the Italian units were being overrun and wiped out. After a 144-mile drive, Soviet forces were now threatening the rear of the entire southern wing of the German army at the Chir river. Within a few days they had defeated not only part of the Italian Eighth Army, but also the Hollidt Group and the Rumanian Third Army.

[Bodston]

From 'Tank War' by Janusz Piekalkiewicz

On Saturday 16th December 1944, the Germans launched a major offensive in the West, (their last attempt to regain the strategic initiative), along the front between the Ardennes and Luxembourg. The Germans called it Operation 'Watch-on-the-Rhine', or the Ardennes offensive or the Rundstedt offensive, (and the allies knew it as the Battle of the Bulge). The main German offensive force was Model's Army Group B including SS General Dietrich's Sixth SS Panzer Army, von Manteuffel's Fifth Panzer Army and Brandenburger's Seventh Army: a total of 12 infantry divisions, 2 parachute divisions, 7 panzer divisions plus reserve forces (4 infantry divisions, 2 panzer divisions and one panzer grenadier division) with 1,750 tanks and self-propelled guns in all. Air support was supplied by the approximately 1,800 planes of Schmid's Air Force West, The German objective was to (attack the thinly distributed American troops in the Ardennes while bad weather was keeping allied planes on the ground), drive a wedge through between the American and British forces, push through to take Antwerp and compel the allied invasion troops to retreat. Sixth SS Panzer Army met determined resistance from the start and was able to advance only about 6 miles, while Fifth Panzer Army drove about 20 miles through the American lines.

[Peter Clare]

December 17, 1941
Commander at Pearl Harbor canned

On this day, Rear Admiral Husband E. Kimmel was relieved of his command of the U.S. Pacific Fleet as part of a shake-up of officers in the wake of the Pearl Harbor disaster.
Admiral Kimmel had enjoyed a successful military career, beginning in 1915 as an aide to the Assistant Secretary of the Navy, Franklin Delano Roosevelt. He served admirably on battleships in World War I, winning command of several in the interwar period. At the outbreak of World War II, Kimmel had already attained the rank of rear admiral and was commanding the cruiser forces at Pearl Harbor. In January 1941, he was promoted to commander of the Pacific Fleet, replacing James Richardson, who FDR relieved of duty after Richardson objected to basing the fleet at Pearl Harbor.
If Kimmel had a weakness, it was that he was a creature of habit, of routine. He knew only what had been done before, and lacked imagination-and therefore insight-regarding the unprecedented. So, even as word was out that Japan was likely to make a first strike against the United States as the negotiations in Washington floundered, Kimmel took no extraordinary actions at Pearl Harbor. In fact, he believed that a sneak attack was more likely at Wake Island or Midway Island, and requested from Lieutenant General Walter Short, Commander of the Army at Pearl Harbor, extra antiaircraft artillery for support there (none could be spared).
Kimmel's predictability was extremely easy to read by Japanese military observers and made his fleet highly vulnerable. As a result, Kimmel was held accountable, to a certain degree, for the absolute devastation wrought on December 7. Although he had no more reason than anyone else to believe Pearl Harbor was a possible Japanese target, a scapegoat had to be found to appease public outrage. He avoided a probable court-martial when he requested early retirement. When Admiral Kimmel's Story, an "as told to" autobiography, was published in 1955, Kimmel made it plain that he believed FDR sacrificed him-and his career-to take suspicion off himself; Kimmel believed Roosevelt knew Pearl Harbor was going to be bombed, although no evidence has ever been adduced to support his allegation.