Remembering History by day WW2

[Peter Clare]

December 19, 1941
Hitler takes command of the German army

On this day, in a major shake-up of the military high command, Adolf Hitler assumes the position of commander in chief of the German army.
The German offensive against Moscow was proving to be a disaster. A perimeter had been established by the Soviets 200 miles from the city-and the Germans couldn't break through. The harsh winter weather-with temperatures often dropping to 31 degrees below zero-had virtually frozen German tanks in their tracks. Soviet General Georgi Zhukov had unleashed a ferocious counteroffensive of infantry, tanks, and planes that had forced the flailing Germans into retreat. In short, the Germans were being beaten for the first time in the war, and the toll to their collective psyche was great. "The myth of the invincibility of the German army was broken," German General Franz Halder would write later.
But Hitler refused to accept this notion. He began removing officers from their command. General Fedor von Bock, who had been suffering severe stomach pains and who on December 1 had complained to Halder that he was no longer able to "operate" with his debilitated troops, was replaced by General Hans von Kluge, whose own 4th Army had been pushed into permanent retreat from Moscow. General Karl von Runstedt was relieved of the southern armies because he had retreated from Rostov. Hitler clearly did not believe in giving back captured territory, so in the biggest shake-up of all, he declared himself commander in chief of the army. He would train it "in a National Socialist way"-that is, by personal fiat. He would compose the strategies and the officers would dance to his tune.

[Peter Clare]

HMS NEPTUNE (December 19, 1941)
British light cruiser, commissioned February 23, 1934. The Neptune was part of the Malta-based Force K of Admiral Cunningham and was trying to intercept an Italian convoy heading for North Africa. The Neptune capsized and sank about twenty miles off Tripoli after sailing into a newly-laid Italian minefield and hitting four mines. A total of 765 officers and men went down with the ship, Two officers and 148 ratings were New Zealand naval personnel. The survivors of the Neptune were found on a raft four days later by two Italian torpedo boats. Of the sixteen men aboard only one was alive. Leading Seaman John Norman Walton was the only survivor. He became a prisoner of war in Italy and was released in 1943. One of the escort destroyers, HMS Kandahar, also sank after striking a mine in the same minefield. She sank with the loss of 73 of her crew. Eight officers and 166 ratings were rescued by HMS Jaguar which had sailed from Malta to search for survivors.

[Christos]

Is it possible for one of the Mods to go back and re-organise this thread?....Some of these posts are just great, and there are 86 pages, one on top of the other in no particular chronological order....How can you organize this post so that we have a continual narrative?...or is this not possible?

[Peter Clare]

December 20, 1941
Hitler to Halder: No retreat!

On this day, in one of his first acts as the new commander in chief of the German army, Adolf Hitler informs General Franz Halder that there will be no retreating from the Russian front near Moscow. "The will to hold out must be brought home to every unit!"
Halder was also informed that he could stay on as chief of the general army staff if he so chose, but only with the understanding that Hitler alone was in charge of the army's movements and strategies.
Halder accepted the terms, but it was another blow to their already tense relationship. Halder had been at odds with the Fuhrer from the earliest days of the Nazi regime, when he spoke disparagingly of Hitler's leadership ability and feared that "this madman" would plunge Germany into war. Promoted to chief of staff in September 1938, Halder began concocting an assassination scheme shortly thereafter along with other military officers who feared another European war over the Sudetenland crisis, when Hitler demanded the German-speaking population of Czechoslovakia-and the territory in which they resided-be made part of a greater Germany. Only a "peaceful" resolution to the crisis-the forced diplomatic capitulation of Czechoslovakia-killed the conspiracy. With Hitler's popularity among the German people growing, and the timidity of the then-commander in chief of the army, General Walter von Brauchitsch, Halder learned to live with the "madman" in power.
But Halder would continue to butt heads with Hitler, urging that military strategy be left to the general staff when Hitler wanted to impose his imperious will on the army. But as the offensive against Moscow collapsed, an offensive which Halder had supported, and for which he began to agonize over, given the number of German dead, Halder could only concede to Hitler's seizing of power, if just to retain his position on the general staff. By staying on, Halder hoped to be able to protect the remaining German troops on the Eastern front from the consequences of Hitler's obsession over defeating the Soviets. Unfortunately, Hitler dismissed Halder during another disastrous Russian offensive, this one against Stalingrad in 1942.

[Christos]

Hmmm....good post on Halder....didn't realise he backed down from Adolf's assumption of Army High Command due to his own decisions about 'TYPHOON'....enlightening post...I thought Hitler had simply taken control due to his inate mistrust of most of the German Genral staff at the time...another myth exploded by this wonderful site!

[Bodston]

From 'Tank War' by Janusz Piekalkiewicz

Wednesday 29 December 1939:
The German Press must not publish reports about life within the Soviet Union, or print any reports from foreign sources.

[Bodston]

From 'Tank War' by Janusz Piekalkiewicz

Sunday 20 December 1942, Cairo
The British Reuters News Agency announced:
Most of Rommel's rearguard troops, including the panzer units, have succeeded in escaping encirclement by our troops, due to their preponderance of tanks.

[Bodston]

From 'Tank War' by Janusz Piekalkiewicz

Wednesday 20 December 1944
The American United Press News Agency reported from General Eisenhower's Headquarters:
Frontline correspondents report that the right wing of von Rundstedt's offensive group has bogged down south of Monschau. American infantry have beaten back six heavy German armoured assaults supported by powerful artillery forces.

[Peter Clare]

December 21, 1945
"Old Blood and Guts" dies

On this day, General George S. Patton, commander of the U.S. 3rd Army, dies from injuries suffered not in battle but in a freak car accident. He was 60 years old.
Descended from a long line of military men, Patton graduated from the West Point Military Academy in 1909. He represented the United States in the 1912 Olympics-as the first American participant in the pentathlon. He did not win a medal. He went on to serve in the Tank Corps during World War I, an experience that made Patton a dedicated proponent of tank warfare.
During World War II, as commander of the U.S. 7th Army, he captured Palermo, Sicily, in 1943 by just such means. Patton's audacity became evident in 1944, when, during the Battle of the Bulge, he employed an unorthodox strategy that involved a 90-degree pivoting move of his 3rd Army forces, enabling him to speedily relieve the besieged Allied defenders of Bastogne, Belgium.
Along the way, Patton's mouth proved as dangerous to his career as the Germans. When he berated and slapped a hospitalized soldier diagnosed with "shell shock," but whom Patton accused of "malingering," the press turned on him, and pressure was applied to cut him down to size. He might have found himself enjoying early retirement had not General Dwight Eisenhower and General George Marshall intervened on his behalf. After several months of inactivity, he was put back to work.
And work he did-at the Battle of the Bulge, during which Patton once again succeeded in employing a complex and quick-witted strategy, turning the German thrust into Bastogne into an Allied counterthrust, driving the Germans east across the Rhine. In March 1945, Patton's army swept through southern Germany into Czechoslovakia-which he was stopped from capturing by the Allies, out of respect for the Soviets' postwar political plans for Eastern Europe.
Patton had many gifts, but diplomacy was not one of them. After the war, while stationed in Germany, he criticized the process of denazification, the removal of former Nazi Party members from positions of political, administrative, and governmental power. His impolitic press statements questioning the policy caused Eisenhower to remove him as U.S. commander in Bavaria. He was transferred to the 15th Army Group, but in December of 1945 he suffered a broken neck in a car accident and died less than two weeks later

[Peter Clare]

HMS STANLEY (December 17/21, 1941)
Destroyer of 1,190 tons (ex-USS McCalla) transferred to Britain in 1940 under the Lend-Lease Agreement. She was escorting a convoy of around 30 merchant ships across the Atlantic when attacked by a U-boat pack and Focke-Wulf bombers during the five day period of December 17 to 21. The Stanley was sunk by torpedoes from the U-574(Oblt. Dietrich Gengelbach) with a loss of eleven officers and 125 ratings. The U-574 was sunk on December 19, 1941 by HMS Stork. Twenty eight dead, sixteen survivors