Posted on 05/18/2013 5:42:01 AM PDT by Homer_J_Simpson
* Baldwin: “Bombing alone will never win this war.”
And that’s the name of that tune.
http://www.onwar.com/chrono/1943/may1943/f18may43.htm
Fighting in the Kuban continues
Tuesday, May 18, 1943 www.onwar.com
Soviet troops caught by artillery fire [photo at link].
On the Eastern Front... In the Caucasus, the German 17th Army continues to counterattack. Soviet forces continue to hold the offensive.
In the Aleutian Islands... On Attu, American forces advancing from the north and south link up. They reorganize for the drive on what is believe to be the final Japanese positions on the approach to Chicagof Harbor.
In the United States... A United Nations Food Conference begins in Hot Springs, Virginia. The conference continues until June 3rd.
In Washington... The Trident Conference continues.
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/andrew.etherington/frame.htm
May 18th, 1943 (TUESDAY)
UNITED KINGDOM: London: Montgomery gets more applause than the cast when he attends a performance of Arsenic and Old Lace.
The Combined Bomber Offensive (CBO) plan for the round-the-clock bombing of the enemy from the UK by the RAF and USAAF is approved by the Combined Chiefs of Staff (CCS). The U.S. Eighth Air Force now has authorization to proceed with daylight strategic bombing within the type of combined offensive it has long wished to initiate. The CBO plan lists the destruction of German fighters as the immediate priority objective. Primary objectives in order are German submarine yards and bases, the German aircraft industry, ball bearings, and oil (the last being contingent upon attacks from the Mediterranean against Ploesti, Romania). Secondary objectives in order of priority are synthetic rubber and tires, and military motor transport vehicles. (Jack McKillop)
Submarine HMS Storm launched.
Rescue tug HMS Athlete launched.
MAC ship SS Empire Macabe launched.
Escort carrier HMS Rajah launched.
Minesweeper HMS Strenuous commissioned. (Dave Shirlaw)
MEDITERRANEAN SEA: U-414 attacked Convoy KMS-14 (combined with UGS-8) northeast of Mostaganem, Algeria, damaging SS Fort Anne and sinking CAM ship SS Empire Eve. The master, 55 crewmembers, 12 gunners and 13 RAF personnel from the Empire Eve were picked up by boom defense ship HMS Barfoil and an LCT and landed at Algiers. Five crewmembers were lost. (Dave Shirlaw)
TERRITORY OF ALASKA: On Attu Island in the Aleutian Islands, the Japanese withdrawal yesterday permits the linkup of the Northern and Southern Landing Forces on the western slope of the Holtz Bay-Massacre Bay Pass in the morning. Six B-24 Liberators of the USAAF’s Eleventh Air Force bomb the Gertrude Cove area on Kiska Island after being weathered out of Attu; the attack results in large fires on the island. Meanwhile over Kiska, four P-40s reconnoitre and strafe barges while a B-25 Mitchell flies photo reconnaissance. (Jack McKillop)
CANADA: Frigate HMCS Ste Therese laid down Lauzon, Province of Quebec.
U.S.A.: A United Nations Food Conference meets in Hot Springs, Virginia and lasts through t the 3rd of June. The outcome is a resolution in regard to fairer food distribution for the postwar world.
The U.S. Marine Corps program to air assault Pacific islands with gliders is cancelled. (Jack McKillop)
Destroyer escort USS Martin launched.
Escort carrier USS Fanshaw Bay laid down.
Destroyer USS Charrette commissioned.
(Dave Shirlaw)
CHILE: Chile severed diplomatic relations with Bulgaria, France, Hungary, and Rumania. (Dave Shirlaw)
ATLANTIC OCEAN: U-103 rescued two shipwrecked survivors of the Fort Concord, which had been sunk by U-456 a week earlier. (Dave Shirlaw)
Back when we fought wars with the intention of winning and coming home. Today’s NY Slimes would be moaning about the deaths and wondering what the “Nazi Street” would think of our imperialist tactics.
Yep, and I always wondered if the gals back then really had pointy ones? !!!!!!shame on me. And yes, I do believe in miracles.
This story hasn’t lost a thing even after 70 years.
Had seen the movie long ago, but found a really good docu about it after wandering around from your link.
Here, if anyone's interested : The Dambusters Raid - Full Documentary (48min)
I think it was Bobalu who provided the initial youtube link, but thanks for posting it here.
Also:
http://www.thedambusters.org.uk/
I read a book about 617 Squadron, written decades ago. One of the folks involved (Guy Gibson?) wrote a letter to a friend of his, in which he said, among other things, “I have enclosed for your inspection the Mohne dam”.
He then had someone else (different handwriting) write on the envelope “Opened and contents removed by Wartime Censor”.
I wonder why FDR denied Cramm, the anti-Nazi who had previously been imprisoned by the Nazis for having a Jewish lover entrance to into the US in 1939?
May sound ridiculous but it's reality.
Actually, that prolly covers most of us .. LOL
Bobalu, please see my #8 above by way of thanks.
"British and American tank troops continued to score victories in Tunisia even though German troops, led by Field Marshal Erwin Rommel and General Jürgen von Arnim, fought fiercely.
News of the huge defeat at Stalingrad, Russia, demoralized some German soldiers, who began to realize that the war might be lost.
Here, a German prisoner, captured near Sejenane in northern Tunisia, holds his hands high as he is searched."
Well, there’s one kraut who had himself a good war - no Eastern Front for him...
According to this site on WWII US POW camps:
From the Normandy invasion in June 1944 through December 30,000 prisoners a month arrived; for the last few months of the war 60,000 were arriving each month.
When the war was over, there were 425,000 enemy prisoners in 511 main and branch camps throughout the United States."
This site lists many of the 511 US camps for German and other POWS during WWII.
Here is a link back to tomkat’s thread from yesterday dedicated to the dam-busters.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3020720/posts
Among the other stories was the sinking of the hospital ship....the Nippers weren’t much for ‘rules of war’.
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