Remembering History by day WW2

[Peter Clare]

December 30, 1884
Tojo is born

On this day, Hideki Tojo, prime minister of Japan during the war, is born in Tokyo.
After graduating from the Imperial Military Academy and the Military Staff College, Tojo was sent to Berlin as Japan's military attache after World War I. Having already earned a reputation for sternness and discipline, Tojo was given command of the 1st Infantry Regiment upon return to Japan. In 1937, he was made chief of staff of the Kwantung Army in Manchuria, China. Returning again to his homeland, Tojo assumed the office of vice-minister of war and quickly took the lead in the military's increasing control of Japanese foreign policy, advocating the signing of the Tripartite Pact with Germany and Italy in 1940 that made Japan an "Axis" power. In July of 1940, he was made minister of war and soon clashed with the Prime Minister, Prince Fumimaro Konoye, who had been fighting to reform his government by demilitarizing its politics. In October, Konoye resigned because of increasing tension with Tojo, who succeeded as prime minister while holding on to his offices of army min!
ister and war minister, and assuming the offices of minister of commerce and of industry as well.
Tojo, now a virtual dictator, quickly promised a "New Order in Asia," and toward this end supported the bombing of Pearl Harbor despite the misgivings of several of his generals. Tojo's aggressive policies paid big dividends early on, with major territorial gains in Indochina and the South Pacific. But despite Tojo's increasing control over his own country, even assuming the position of the chief of the general staff, he could not control the determination of the United States, which began beating back the Japanese in the South Pacific. When Saipan fell to the U.S. Marines and Army, Tojo's government collapsed. Upon Japan's surrender, Tojo tried to commit suicide by shooting himself with an American .38 pistol but was saved by an American physician who gave him a transfusion of American blood. He lived only to be convicted of war crimes by an international tribunal--and was hanged on December 22, 1948.
Asao Uchida portrayed him in the 1970 film Tora! Tora! Tora!.

[Peter Clare]

December 31, 1944
Hungary declares war on Germany

On this day, the provisional government of Hungary officially declares war on Germany, bringing an end to Hungary's cooperation-sometimes free, sometimes coerced--with the Axis power.
Miklas Horthy, the anticommunist regent and virtual dictator of Hungary, who had once hoped to keep his country a nonbelligerent in the war, had reluctantly aligned Hungary with Hitler in November 1940. While ideologically not fascist, Hungary had many radical right-wing elements at play in its politics, as well as a history of anti-Semitism. Those radical forces saw many common "ideals" with Nazism and believed the future lay with Germany. So though Horthy little admired Hitler personally, he felt the need to placate influential parties within his own country and protect his nation from Soviet domination.
When the Germans invaded the Soviet Union, Hitler demanded that Hungary mobilize its military against the Soviets as well. So on June 29, 1941, Hungary declared war on the USSR. In March 1942, Horthy replaced Prime Minister Lazlo Bardossy, (a political manipulator too eager to piggyback on German territorial expansion and turn on former allies for the sake of personal gains), with Miklos Kallay, who shared the regent's goal of regaining the favor of the Western--non-Soviet--Allies. Kallay was able to communicate to the Allies that Hungary was open to switching sides again should they make it to Hungary's border and offer Hungary protection from German and/or Soviet occupation.
In January 1943, the Battle of Voronezh against the USSR saw Hungary's entire 2nd Army decimated by the Soviets, rendering Hungary militarily impotent. Hitler, who learned of Kallay's sly communiques with the West, gave Horthy an ultimatum: Either cooperate fully with the German regime or suffer German occupation. Horthy chose to collaborate, which meant the suppression of left-leaning political parties and an intense persecution of Hungary's Jews, including massive deportations to Auschwitz, something Kallay, to his credit, had fought to prevent. (More than 550,000 Hungarian Jews-out of 750,000-would die during the war.)
As Soviet troops began to occupy more Hungarian territory, a desperate Horthy signed an armistice with Moscow. When the regent announced this on radio, he was kidnapped by the Germans and forced to abdicate. Ferenc Szalasi, leader of the fascist Arrow Cross Party, was made head of the country on October 15, 1944, though he was little more than a puppet of the Germans. His rule of terror, especially against Hungary's Jews, would become infamous.
Soviet troops finally liberated the bulk of Hungary from German rule in December 1944. On December 31, a Provisional National Assembly, composed of Communists loyal to the USSR, officially declared war on Germany. The Assembly would go on to sign an armistice with all the Allies in January of 1945.

[Peter Clare]

31 December 1943.

The German destroyer Friedrich Eckoldt sunk by 6in gunfire of RN cruiser Sheffield (German cruiser Admiral Hipper damaged by gunfire of HMS Sheffield and Jamaica)

The minesweeper HMS Bramble sunk while detached to round up stragglers of a convoy by 11in gunfire of pocket battleship Lutzow; no survivors.

The destroyer HMS Achates (already damaged by gunfire) Severely damaged by gunfire of Lutzow; abandoned and sank; 81 survivors (The destroyer HMS Onslow severely damaged by 8in gunfire of Hipper but reached Kola Inlet under own steam)

[Owen]

MR CHURCHILL CONVALESCES IN SUNSHINE, C. 31 DECEMBER 1943
Winston Churchill sits in the sunshine in Marrakesh, Morocco, in December 1943 during a period of convalescence after falling ill with pneumonia.

[Bodston]

From 'Tank War' by Janusz Piekalkiewicz

Sunday 31 December 1944
The German Wehrmacht High Command reported:
In the winter battle going on at the Meuse and Moselle rivers, both sides have brought up such strong forces that they have stripped the other fronts bare. As a result, approximately one half of all the divisions in the Western theatre are now involved in this battle (of the Bulge). The battle is focussing around the areas of Rochefort and Bastogne. The enemy tried to block our attack southwest and southeast of Bastogne with strong counterattacks aimed at the southern flank of our offensive wedge. Their purpose was foiled in bitter fighting in which we destroyed 34 enemy tanks. The battle is continuing. Our guided rocket fire against the enemy supply bases of Liège and Antwerp is still going on.

[Peter Clare]

January 1, 1942
United Nations created

On this day, President Franklin D. Roosevelt and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill issue a declaration, signed by representatives of 26 countries, called the "United Nations." The signatories of the declaration vowed to create an international postwar peacekeeping organization.
On December 22, 1941, Churchill arrived in Washington, D.C., for the Arcadia Conference, a discussion with President Roosevelt about a unified Anglo-American war strategy and a future peace. The attack on Pearl Harbor meant that the U.S. was involved in the war, and it was important for Great Britain and America to create and project a unified front against Axis powers. Toward that end, Churchill and Roosevelt created a combined general staff to coordinate military strategy against both Germany and Japan and to draft a plan for a future joint invasion of the Continent.
Among the most far-reaching achievements of the Arcadia Conference was the United Nations agreement. Led by the United States, Great Britain, and the Soviet Union, the signatories agreed to use all available resources to defeat the Axis powers. It was agreed that no single country would sue for a separate peace with Germany, Italy, or Japan-they would act in concert. Perhaps most important, the signatories promised to pursue the creation of a future international peacekeeping organization dedicated to ensuring "life, liberty, independence, and religious freedom, and to preserve the rights of man and justice."

[Peter Clare]

HMS FIDELITY (January 1, 1943)
Formerly the French merchant ship Le Rhin (2,455 tons) requisitioned by the Admiralty, converted to a SSV ship (Special Service Vessel) and renamed HMS Fidelity.Armed with four inch guns, torpedoes and depth charges she also carried two sea-planes, a motor torpedo boat and two small landing craft. The vessel, believed by some of the crew to be totally unseaworthy, carried out operations of an extremely hazardous nature i.e. landing of secret agents on enemy territory. Due to the secret nature of the ship, the crew were volunteers, the non British members sailing under assumed names and the French and other crew members received anglicised names. Her captain was an ex-French spy Claude Peri, who assumed the name Jacques Langlais and to the amazement of the crew took his mistress, WRNS officer Madeleine Barclay, onboard with him.
After operations in the Mediterranean, the Fidelity was assigned to the Far East Fleet and sailed from Portsmouth to Colombo via the Cape, part of the way with convoy ONS-154. In an area of the Atlantic known as the Black Pit, an area beyond the protection of aircraft, the convoy, escorted by five Canadian corvettes, was attacked by U-boat wolf packs and over the next five days fourteen of the forty-five ships were sunk with 510 lives lost. The Fidelity, lagging behind with engine failure, was torpedoed by the U-435 (KptLt. S. Strelow) on the night of December 30/31, 1942. She went to the bottom with almost all her complement of 280 crew, fifty-one Royal Marine Commandos and the WRNS officer plus four civilians. About fifty survivors rescued earlier from the SS Empire Shackelton were also on board. Two LCVs (Landing Craft Vehicles) Nos. 752 and 754, being carried by the Fidelity were also sunk. There were only ten men who survived the sinking of the Fidelity. The largest convoy that ever sailed was Convoy HX-300. It consisted of 167 ships.

[Peter Clare]

SS ARTHUR MIDDLETON (January 1, 1943)
US Liberty Ship of 7,176 tons, built in 1942 in Mobile Alabama, was torpedoed by the U-73 while en route from New York to the North African port of Oran in Algeria. The vessel, part of the 44 ship convoy UGS-3, was carrying a cargo of munitions, explosives and 300 bags of mail. At Casablanca, the convoy split up and eleven ships, including the Arthur Middleton, proceeded towards Oran escorted by three US and four British destroyers. When only 12.9 kilometres from her destination and preparing to enter the harbour at Oran, she was struck by the torpedo at 2:11PM. The subsequent explosion sent steel plates, flame and smoke soaring 1,000 feet into the air and broke the ship in two. Her sinking took less than two minutes. Her complement consisted of 44 crewmembers, 27 Naval Armed Guards and 12 Army personnel. One LCI (Landing Craft Infantry) No. 21, being carried by the ship, was also lost. Three members of the Naval Armed Guards were the only survivors who were rescued by the British destroyerHMS Boreas.

[Peter Clare]

January 2, 1942
Navy opens a blimp base in New Jersey

On this day, the Navy Airship Patrol Group 1 and Air Ship Squadron 12 are established at Lakehurst, N.J. The U.S. Navy was the only military service in the world to use airships--also known as blimps--during the war.
The U.S. Navy was actually behind the times in the use of blimps; it didn't get around to ordering its first until 1915, at which time even the U.S. Army was using them. By the close of World War I, the Navy had recognized their value and was using several blimps for patrolling coastlines for enemy submarines. They proved extremely effective; in fact, no convoy supported by blimp surveillance ever lost a ship.
Between the wars, it was agreed that the Army would use nonrigid airships to patrol the coasts of the United States, while the Navy would use rigid airships (which were aluminum-hulled and kept their shape whether or not they were filled with gas) for long-range scouting and fleet support. The Navy ended its construction and employment of the rigid airships in the 1930s after two, the Akron and the Macon, crashed at sea. In 1937, the Army transferred all its remaining nonrigid blimps to the Navy.
Meanwhile, in the civilian world, the Hindenburg, a commercial dirigible, burst into flames over Lakehurst on May 6, 1937. Thirty-six of the 97 passengers aboard were killed. The explosion was caused by an electric discharge that ignited a hydrogen gas leak; the tragedy effectively ended the use of airships for commercial travel, but they were still used to great advantage in the U.S. military.
At the outbreak of World War II, the Navy had 10 blimps in service; that number expanded to 167 by the end of the war. The only U.S. blimp lost was the K-74, which, on July 18, 1943, spotted a German U-boat. The blimp opened fire on the submarine and damaged it, but only one of its two depth charges released. The submarine fired back and sent the blimp into the sea, but the crew was rescued. The only German blimp involved in the war was a passenger craft, Graf Zeppelin, which was used for electronic surveillance just before the outbreak of the war.

[Peter Clare]

SS LANGKOEAS (January 2, 1942)
Dutch vessel, formerly the German 'Stassfurt' sunk by torpedoes from the Japanese submarine I-158 north of Bawean Island. Survivors in one of the lifeboats were subjected to machine-gun fire, the other lifeboat was rammed by the submarine. There were only 3 survivors from the 94 persons on board, the 4th engineer, J de Mul, a Chinese seaman and an Indonesian boy. Of the 94 persons on board 24 were Dutch, 55 were Chinese and 12 were Indonesians.