Posted on 10/14/2011 5:00:10 AM PDT by Homer_J_Simpson
Gordon W. Prange, At Dawn We Slept
Winston S. Churchill, The Grand Alliance
good map on japanese war aims and strategy
http://www.onwar.com/chrono/1941/oct41/f14oct41.htm
Germans battling toward Moscow
Tuesday, October 14, 1941 www.onwar.com
On the Eastern Front... The German attack northwest of Moscow reaches Kalinin. Soviet resistance is very determined. Meanwhile, the battle of Vyazma is concluded.
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/andrew.etherington/month/thismonth/14.htm
October 14th, 1941
UNITED KINGDOM: Submarine HMS Syrtis is laid down.
Light cruiser HMS Trinidad is commissioned. (Dave Shirlaw)
GERMANY:
U-292, U-293, U-294, U-295, U-296, U-297, U-317, U-318, U-319, U-320, U-321, U-322, U-995, U-997, U-998, U-999, U-1000, U-1001, U-1002, U-1003, U-1004, U-1005, U-1006, U-1063, U-1064, U-1065, U-1103, U-1104, U-1105, U-1106, U-1163, U-1164, U-1165, U-1166, U-1199, U-1200, U-1201, U-1202, U-1203, U-1204, U-1227, U-1228, U-1229, U-1230, U-1231, U-1232, U-1233, U-1234, U-1235 ordered
U-526 laid down
U-410 and U-659 launched. (Dave Shirlaw)
U.S.S.R.: The German advance on Moscow reaches Kalinin and Tula on the Moscow front, with advance units just 60 miles from the capital. The Soviet defenses between Kalinin and Tula are very stubborn. Kramatorsk falls to the German forces in Russia.
German troops capture Rshev, 100 miles (160.9 km) west of Moscow. (Jack McKillop)
SPAIN: At 2230 hrs, U-564 reaches Cadiz and transfers an ill crewmember to the German tanker Thalia. (Dave Shirlaw)
COMMONWEALTH OF THE PHILIPPINES: Arnold writes MacArthur that the heavy bombers assigned to USAFFE were to be used to control not only the sea lanes but to bomb Japan itself. Date of receipt in the Philippines unknown. (Marc James Small)
CANADA: Trawler HMS Baffin is laid down in Collingwood, Ontario.
Corvette HMCS Regina is launched at Sorel, Province of Quebec.
Minesweeper HMCS Thunder is commissioned. (Dave Shirlaw)
ATLANTIC OCEAN: German submarine U-553 encounters convoy SC 48 and summons help. (Jack McKillop)
Whilst on A/S patrol in the Straits of Gibraltar, Flower class corvette HMS Fleur de Lys is torpedoed and sunk by U-208 at 36 00N 06 30W. There are 3 survivors, rescued by a Spanish steamer. (Alex Gordon)(108)
U-204 sinks SS Guardakoa. (Dave Shirlaw)
Wow, my low opinion of Walter Short, just got even lower. The one thing Hawaii was not short of in 1941 was infantry.
There were more than enough troops on Oahu to repel any possible invasion. Indeed Japan did not have close to the amount of sea lift (transports, oilers, etc.) to mount an unopposed invasion of Hawaii. An opposed invasion would have been a slaughter.
Hawaii was vulnerable to a raid and to submarine attacks on shipping. Not an all-out invasion. Those extra troops should have been trained for air-raid warning, or anti-aircraft duty, not ground fighting.
Wow. FDR set my BS meter off in today’s report. I don’t have time to go over it now, but maybe this evening after I’m done with this presentation I’m doing.
"German Jews are deported to the Lódz (Poland) Ghetto."
"Nazi authorities often forced the Jews to police themselves, especially in the ghettos.
This photograph shows a Jewish policeman at the entrance to the ghetto in Stanislawów, Ukraine.
The sign, in German, reads, "Entrance to the Jewish Quarter is Forbidden."
The Nazis hoped to completely cut off the ghettos from the outside world.
No one was to know what went on there."
What Short expected and trained for in Hawaii is just what happened in the Philippines: first the Japanese destroyed the US air forces, then launched an amphibious invasion.
And unlike Short in Hawaii, MacArthur in the Philippines had ample warning the Japanese were coming, but still they caught most of his airforce on the ground.
And yet Short is counted as one of history's great military doofuses, while MacArthur is a "genius".
What does this tell us?
Is it not that something structural within the US military of that age was simply not equipped, trained or ready to respond quickly to the threat of enemy air attack -- and this "structural defect" operated whether the commander in charge was a "doofus" like Short, or a "genius" like MacArthur?
When the time comes time I will post the article I wrote on MacArthur’s CMH citation. It is not a flattering one. I agree with the decision to relieve Short of command, but also think MacArthur should have been booted out as well. What he did was beyond incompetent.
Then he did it twice more in Korea.
Had it been up to me, he would have been done after the Bonus Army.
A brief review of the Bonus Army incident:
"One of MacArthur's most controversial acts came in 1932, when the "Bonus Army" of veterans converged on Washington.
He sent tents and camp equipment to the demonstrators, along with mobile kitchens, until an outburst in Congress caused the kitchens to be withdrawn.
MacArthur was concerned that the demonstration had been taken over by communists and pacifists but the General Staff's intelligence division reported that only three of the march's twenty-six key leaders were communists.
MacArthur went over contingency plans for civil disorder in the capital.
Mechanized equipment was brought to Fort Myer, where anti-riot training was conducted.
On 28 July 1932, a clash between the District police and demonstrators resulted in two men being shot.
President Hoover ordered MacArthur to "surround the affected area and clear it without delay."
MacArthur brought up troops and tanks and, against the advice of Major Dwight D. Eisenhower, decided to accompany the troops, although he was not in change of the operation.
The troops advanced with bayonets and sabers drawn under a shower of bricks and rocks, but no shots were fired.
In less than four hours, they cleared the Bonus Army's campground using tear gas.
The tear gas canisters started a number of fires, and caused the only death during the riots.
While not as violent as other anti-riot operations, it was nevertheless a public relations disaster.""In 1934 MacArthur sued journalists Drew Pearson and Robert S. Allen for defamation after they described his treatment of the Bonus marchers as "unwarranted, unnecessary, insubordinate, harsh and brutal."
In turn, they threatened to call Isobel Rosario Cooper as a witness.
MacArthur had met Isobel, a Eurasian woman, while in the Philippines, and she had become his mistress.
MacArthur was forced to settle out of court, secretly paying Pearson $15,000."
Except for obvious deteriorations in the quality of protestors, the Bonus Army is analagous to the 1970 Kent State shootings and today's "Occupy Wall Street" crowd -- no doubt deliberately so, with demonstrators hoping to achieve the same publicity effect as MacArthur's actions against the Bonus Army.
Of course, today the Army would never be called in such a situation, and Mayor Bloomberg's police (we trust) are highly trained to handle such situations.
1935 Bonus Army clash with police:
1970 Kent State, Ohio National Guard:
2011 Occupy Wall Street tents:
What other major example do we have of an attacking force catching defenders by surprise and destroying their airforces on the ground?
Is it not Hitler's invasion of the Soviet Union?
Of course, Stalin blamed his local commanders and had them shot.
But do we blame Stalin's local commanders, or do we blame Stalin himself?
And why should the US be different, especially since the pattern is established over both Hawaii and the Philippines?
Something prevented those commanders from doing their duty, and what was it?
How about written orders saying the following:
It’s not really a valid comparison trying to compare the attack on Pearl Harbor with the start of BARBAROSSA. The command structure of the Soviet military is just too different from that of the U.S.’s. Commanders in the U.S. military have more of a free hand to act independently than the Soviet commanders could. In the first engagements along the German-Soviet frontier, the local commanders were not allowed to even defend themselves where as the American commanders were expected to defend themselves as you can see in the message you quoted.
In fact, it was this structure of command coupled with their orders to defend themselves that led to America firing the first shots of the war with Japan. The USS Ward was simply following their own protocol that allows a individual commander to defend his ship. Had the command structure been the same as the Soviet system, the ship would not have been allowed to engage the submarine without FDR’s direct approval.
Getting back to FDR’s statement on the shipment of supplies from the United States to the Soviet Union. At this point in time, nothing has been sent to the Soviets from the U.S making this statement of his disingenuous. The U.S.’s contribution to the Soviet war effort since the signing of the First Moscow Protocol has been to “unfreeze” $40,000,000 in Soviet assets frozen in the U.S. since the Winter War. Also they elected not to apply the provisions of the 1939 Neutrality act to the Soviets which would have restricted them from receiving military aid at all.
It won’t be until 1942 before any significant aid from the United States will reach the Soviet Union. In the mean time, it will be the British that will bear the brunt of the aid to the Soviets starting with a gift of 200 Tomahawk P-40Cs given to the Soviets as a “gift”. (Which is probably how FDR justifies his claim of U.S. aid by proxy since these were Lend-Lease aircraft provided to the British).
The provisions of the First Moscow Protocol, which were never fully met by the way, were provided by the British. The best the U.S. will be able to provide during this period would be around 100 fighters a month towards the end of the First Protocol (ending in June 1942) compared to the British who where providing around 200 aircraft per month.
Additionally, armor was also predominantly British. The British provided the Soviets with Matilda and Valentine tanks. Though not as robust as the T-34 and KV-1, these tanks augmented the Soviet forces at just the time when they were needed the most. At this point with the movement of the industrial facilities away from the front lines there is a significant drop in Soviet tank production (however, their rapid movement and return to full production is one of the most amazing achievements in the war). By the end of December the British deliveries of tanks represented only 6.5 percent of the Soviet tank force, with the bulk of the remaining Soviet force being light tanks, it represented 25% of the Soviet medium and heavy tank force. A significant number at a critical time. American deliveries of armor was zero at this point.
Getting back to aircraft for a moment. I have already mentioned the first delivery of P-40s, but it is important to note that the bulk of the aircraft delivered to the Russians in the First Moscow Protocol were Hawker Hurricanes produced the Britain. Of the total numbers of aircraft available to the Soviets in 1942, 27.5% of them were Lend-Lease aircraft of which 74% of those aircraft were Hurricanes.
Even the delivery of other materials such as machine tools, field radio sets, vehicles, and even raw materials were mostly provided by the British in 1941 and the first part of 1942.
FDR can boast all he wants about U.S. aid to the Soviets, but the reality of the matter is that we haven’t really done much for them yet. It won’t be until the Soviets begin to push the Germans back that American Lend-Lease aid will play a significant roll, especially on the logistical front. This fact will be suppressed by the Soviets after the war of course.
Wrong! The sign, in German, reads, Leaving the Jewish Quarter is Forbidden. And I"m not sure about the translation of "Quarter." All I can really make out is the word "Wohn" (live) BUT Quarter in this context is correct.
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