BRITISH SWEEP AROUND MT. ETNA, THREATEN TO BLOCK FOE’S ESCAPE (8/9/43)

Microfilm-New York Times archives, Monterey Public Library | 8/9/43 | Milton Bracker, Herbert L. Matthews, A.C. Sedgwick, Frederick Graham, Hanson W. Baldwin, more

[Homer_J_Simpson]

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[Homer_J_Simpson]

Free Republic University, Department of History presents World War II Plus 70 Years: Seminar and Discussion Forum
First session: September 1, 2009. Last date to add: September 2, 2015.
Reading assignment: New York Times articles delivered daily to students on the 70th anniversary of original publication date. (Previously posted articles can be found by searching on keyword “realtime” Or view Homer’s posting history .)
To add this class to or drop it from your schedule notify Admissions and Records (Attn: Homer_J_Simpson) by freepmail. Those on the Realtime +/- 70 Years ping list are automatically enrolled. Course description, prerequisites and tuition information is available at the bottom of Homer’s profile. Also visit our general discussion thread.

[Homer_J_Simpson]

Selections from West Point Atlas for the Second World War
Soviet Summer and Fall Offensives: Operations, 17 July-1 December 1943
Sicily, 1943: Italo-German Counterattack, 11 July and Allied Advance, 12 July-17 August 1943
South Pacific Area Operations: Capture of New Georgia, 21 June-27 August 1943
New Guinea Force Operations: Capture of Salamaua and Lae, 29 June-16 September 1943
The Far East and the Pacific, 1941: Status of Forces and Allied Theater Boundaries, 2 July 1942
India-Burma, 1942: Allied Lines of Communication, 1942-1943
Cartwheel, the Seizure of the Gilberts and Marshalls, and Concurrent Air and Naval Operations, 30 June 1943-26 April 1944

[Homer_J_Simpson]

Michael Korda, Ike: An American Hero

[Homer_J_Simpson]

Continued from August 7.

Winston S. Churchill, Closing the Ring

[Homer_J_Simpson]

Foe Flees in Sicily (Bracker) – 2
Troina a Town of Horror, Americans Find on Entry (Matthews) – 3-4
Athens of Today is Shown in Film (Sedgwick) – 4
War News Summarized – 4
Milan, Turin, Genoa Raided; RAF Meets Weak Defenses (Graham) – 5
Soviet Unchecked – 6-7
Japan is Stopped, Says M’Arthur – 8
Japanese Murder of Wounded Told – 9
Allied Troops en Route to Nassau Bay and After a Successful Landing (photos) – 10-11
Trap Threatens Nazis (Baldwin) – 12
The Texts of the Day’s Communiques on the Fighting in Various War Zones – 13-14
Books of the Times (by Orville Prescott) – 15

[Homer_J_Simpson]

http://www.onwar.com/chrono/1943/aug1943/f09aug43.htm

Danes reject German courts for suspects
Monday, August 9, 1943 www.onwar.com

Commandeered billets for German soldiers destroyed by the Danish resistance [photo at link]

In Occupied Denmark... The Danish prime minister, Scavenius, rejects a demand that suspected saboteurs be tried in German courts.

[Homer_J_Simpson]

http://www.etherit.co.uk/month/thismonth/09.htm

August 9th, 1943 (MONDAY)

UNITED KINGDOM: New Zealand fighter pilot Johnny Checketts of 611 Sqn RAF, shoots down three Messerschmitt Bf109s in a single action. This will result in him being awarded the DSO.

In England, the USAAF VIII Air Support Command Missions 16A and 16B. 72 B-26B Marauders are dispatched to the Ft Rouge Airfield at St Omer, France; clouds prevent bombing and only 1 aircraft hits the target at 1904 hours.
Escort carrier HMS Empress commissioned.

GERMANY: Kreisau, Silesia: Count Helmut von Moltke convenes a group of German dissidents, who declare their desire to overthrow the Nazi regime.
Some 20 high-ranking individuals have banded together to form a group dedicated to the overthrow of National Socialism in Germany. Calling themselves the Kreisau Circle, after the Kreisau estate belonging to a leading member, Count Helmuth James von Moltke, they have now drawn up a list of principles for post-Nazi reform.
Among the points in this draft document are: “1. Justice, which has been trampled on, must be restored ... 2. Freedom of belief and freedom of conscience will be guaranteed ... 3. Destruction of totalitarian direction of conscience and acknowledgement of the inviolability of human dignity as the foundation for an order of peace and justice ...4. The basic unit for peaceful co-existence is the family... 5. work must be so designed that it arouses the desire for personal responsibility rather than stultifying it...”

DENMARK: Eric Scavenius, the Prime Minister, refuses to accept German demands that alleged saboteurs should be sent to Germany for trial.

MEDITERRANEAN SEA: Submarine HMS Simoom attacked Italian cruiser Giuseppe Garibaldi off La Spezia. The torpedoes missed the cruiser but hit and sank the destroyer Vincenzo Gioberti.

TURKEY: Ankara: Hungary and Britain reach a secret agreement; Hungary will not fire on Allied aircraft flying to Italy, and the Allies will not bomb Hungarian targets.

SOLOMON ISLANDS: The USAAF’s Thirteenth Air Force dispatches10 B-25 Mitchells, with fighter cover, to bomb Vila on Kolombangara Island. Shortly thereafter 22 B-24s strike the same target.

TERRITORY OF ALASKA: In the Aleutian Islands, 1 USAAF B-24 Liberator of the Eleventh Air Force flies photo reconnaissance over various Kiska Island sites.

CANADA: Minesweeper HMS Coquette ex HMCS Bowmanville laid down Toronto, Ontario.

U.S.A.: Destroyer USS De Haven laid down
Destroyer escort USS Gunason laid down
Destroyer escort USS Liddle launched
Destroyer escort USS Newman launched.

ATLANTIC OCEAN: The German submarine U-664 is sunk 570 miles (917 km) west of the Azores, in position 40.12N, 37.29W, by depth charges from 2 USN TBF Avengers of Composite Squadron One (VC-1) in the escort aircraft carrier USS Card (CVE-11). 44 of the 51 crewman on the U-boat survive.

[TADSLOS]

Interesting write up on Patton and the soldier slapping incident.

[henkster]

Japanese murder of the wounded was a pretty typical facet of the bitter fighting in the Pacific. Plenty of other examples abound. The Japanese captured an Australian soldier in New Guinea, tied him to a tree and used him for bayonet practice. They left him there with a note on his body that said “He took a long time to die.” American medics were a favorite target of the Japanese, so they learned quickly to go into combat without insignia, and armed. They more or less fought as infantry.

The stories of their fanatical and brutal resistance are becomming commonplace, and will eventually be accepted as a truism.

But revisionist left-wing historians would have us believe that two years from now they are “about to surrender.”

[colorado tanker]

IIRC, some Japanese soldier even broke into the Imperial Palace to try to stop the Emperor from surrendering.

[colorado tanker]

Ike really did Patton a favor. Cruelty or maltreatment of a soldier subject to orders is still a Court Martial offense.

[TADSLOS]

Agreed. Ike was big picture perceptive enough to understand Patton’s value as a combat commander and canny enough to turn Patton’s flagrant act into an indelible amount of leverage dealing with Patton from then on and Patton knew it. Patton’s fate was in Ike’s hands.

[joyce11111]

Thanks again, Homer....my folks thought a 9 year old reading war news was just horrid....at that time period in ‘43...

I was hospitalized for over three months, with burns...and had the daily news delivered to my room...so I was on my own there in my room doing what I pleased, much to their chagrin.

That is how I was able to read the whole newspaper, instead of just the funny papers.