RUSSIANS SEIZE BRIDGEHEADS IN BITTER VORONEZH BATTLE (7/21/42)

Microfilm-New York Times archives, Monterey Public Library | 7/21/42 | Ralph Parker, Keith Wheeler

[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]

[Homer_J_Simpson]

Foe Nearer Rostov (Parker) – 2-3
Nazis Say Big Push in Russia Quickens – 3
War News Summarized – 3
U.S.-British Fliers Pound Foe in Africa – 4
U.S. Bombs Killing Foe’s Alaska Hope (by Keith Wheeler, first-time contributor) – 4-5
The Texts of the Day’s Communiques on Fighting in Various Zones – 6-7
2,400 Ship Runs to Britain Cited – 7-8

[Homer_J_Simpson]

http://www.onwar.com/chrono/1942/jul42/f21jul42.htm

Failed British attack inspired by Ultra
Tuesday, July 21, 1942 www.onwar.com

British soldiers captured after the failed attack [photo at link]

In North Africa... Rommel sends a complete report to German Armed Forces High Command concerning his shortages. The British using Ultra intercept the information and decide to mount a major attack against him. Despite a 3 to 1 advantage in tanks, Auchinleck’s attack fails. There is mounting disillusionment from the soldiers at the way the armor is being utilized in these battles.

In New Guinea... General Horii’s 18th Army lands at Gona, forestalling planned Allied landings.

From Washington... President Roosevelt appointments Admiral Leahy as his personal Chief of Staff.

[Homer_J_Simpson]

http://homepage.ntlworld.com/andrew.etherington/frame.htm

July 21st, 1942

UNITED KINGDOM: Lieutenant General Dwight D Eisenhower, Commanding General European Theater of Operations, US Army (ETOUSA), assigns to the 8th Air Force the mission of carrying out, in collaboration with the RAF, the degree of air operations with the view of attaining air domination over western France by 1 April 1943. (Jack McKillop)

Destroyer HMS Zest laid down. (Dave Shirlaw)

GERMANY: U-846 is laid down. (Dave Shirlaw)

MEDITERRANEAN SEA: Mark Horan writes of the exploits of the Malta Beauforts: After an eighteen day layoff during which fuel limitations had curtailed the activities of all Maltas strike aircraft, particularly the combined Beaufort Squadron (39 and 217), activity began to pick up. Plans were well along for what would prove to be the climactic Malta convoy, due to begin in a fortnight. In preparation, their lordships had begun reinforcing the islands air power, including the first flight of another veteran Beaufort Squadron, 86, from the UK, led by one of Pat Gibbs old 1940 squadron mates, SL James Robert Hyde, DFC, RAF.

Although the details of exactly how desperate the situation was on Malta have never been fully revealed, clearly things were critical. Stocks of food, fuel, and ordnance were on there last legs. In fact, the situation was so bad, that the August convoy would, for all intents, be the final throw of the die for the British efforts to hold the island, as there was less than a months supply of food for the islands populace, civilian and military. Recognizing that the carefully hoarded fuel reserve for the strike planes could all be for naught, the new AOC Malta, Air Vice-Marshall Keith Park, RAF (hero of the Battle of Britain) intended to utilize his strike aircraft aggressively, retaining only the fuel needed to defend the convoy when it came.

Ultra reports indicated a new convoy had departed Brindisi enroute for Bengasi. So informed, a PR Spitfire from 69 Squadron was dispatched and soon located the target, the brand new 16-knot motor ship Rosolino Pilo (8,326 BRT) with a strong escort of four warships, DD Pigafetta, DD Premuda, TB Circe, and Clio.

Gibbs led off the striking force at 0955, consisting of nine Beauforts (two 39, four 86, three 217) from and five Beaufighter (one other aborted). They found the target just before noon off Cape Geroghambo, and executed a textbook attack from both bows. Sweeping in at low altitude they apparently caught the Italians by surprise, the light flak damaging only one Beaufort. Unfortunately, despite reports of three hits being obtained, Rosolino Pilo escaped with only light casualties from the Beauforts strafing as they swept past her, arriving in Bengasi on 23 July.

NORTH AFRICA: El Alamein: General Claude Auchinleck, launches 8th Army in Operation Splendour, a major attack against the Afrika Korps in the vicinity of Ruweisat Ridge south of El Alamein. They are aware of the logistics problems detailed by Rommel to the OKW, through their reading of ULTRA.

The operation is designed to deliver a knockout blow to the weakened German Panzer Army.

The main attack is south of the ridge while, to the north, the Australian 9th Infantry Division is to create a diversion. Eighth Army is unable to coordinate attacks in which infantry, mainly Commonwealth units and armoured and tank units mainly British take part. It is held on Ruweisat Ridge. (Jay Stone)(139)
NEW GUINEA: Papua: The Japanese commence OPERATION “RI,” the landing of 2,000 troops at Gona west of Buna, New Guinea. The ultimate intent of this operation is to take Port Moresby. (Jack McKillop)
These are units of the 18th Army. They left Rabaul on 19th July under command of Col. Yosuke Yokoyama (engineer). It consists of 15th Independent Engr Regt (-), I/144 Inf Bn, Det 55 Mtn Arty Bn, Det 47 Fd Anti-Aircraft Arty, coy 5th Sasebo SNLF (Special Naval Landing Forces), Det 15th Naval Pnr Unit, 1200 native labourers and 52 horses.

The Japanese invaders belong to Major-General Tomitaro Horii’s “South Seas Force” which is pushing hard along the Kokoda Trail. The Japanese are now endeavouring to take Port Moresby by advancing along the tortuous trail which crosses the Owen Stanley mountains and descends on the other side to the town itself. Young militiamen and the Papuan infantry battalion have been forced to retreat by the well-equipped Japanese troops whose steel helmets are garnished with leaves.

SOLOMON ISLANDS: Admiral Mikawa, CO of the IJN 8th Fleet at Rabaul, requests additional destroyers from Tokyo. He will again make this request on the 23rd adding a prediction that the Americans will land on Guadalcanal before the airfield becomes operational.

ALEUTIAN ISLANDS: Four 11th Air Force B-24 Liberators fly search and bomb missions over Kiska Island but make no contact because of weather. Task Force 8, (2 heavy and 3 light cruisers plus destroyers) enroute to bombard Kiska, refuels from the oiler USS Guadalupe (AO-32) while being cover by PBY Catalinas. (Jack McKillop)

CANADA: Corvette HMCS Matapedia completed refit Pictou, Nova Scotia. (Dave Shirlaw)

U.S.A.: President Franklin D Roosevelt calls on Admiral William D Leahy, Ambassador to France and former Chief of Naval Operations, to serve as Chief of Staff to the Commanders-in-Chief of the US Army and Navy.

The Vega Division of Lockheed Aircraft has prepared a report calling for the creation of a heavily-armed and armoured version of the B-17 to give formations additional protection. (Jack McKillop)

Submarine USS Cod laid down. (Dave Shirlaw)

CARIBBEAN SEA: At 1029, the unescorted Donovania was torpedoed and sunk by U-160 off Grand Matelot Point, Trinidad. Three crewmembers and two gunners were lost. The master, 42 crewmembers and two gunners were picked up by British MTBs and destroyer USS Livermore and landed at Port of Spain, Trinidad. (Dave Shirlaw)

CUBA: The government prohibits the shipment of all foodstuffs to Spain. (Dave Shirlaw)

ATLANTIC OCEAN: US Liberty ship William Cullen Bryant damaged by U-84 in Convoy TAW-4J. (Dave Shirlaw)

[PzLdr]

The Brits NEVER learned how to handle combined arms armor operations, from 1940 on.

[iowamark]

Ultra intelligence is beginning to play a key role in the war. Hitler demands constant updates from his field commanders and they must use the radio.

[BroJoeK]

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July 20, 1942:

• "Germans murder 1000 Jews at Kleck, Belorussia; 400 flee into forests.
  Two from the latter group, Moshe Fish and Leva Gilchik (from nearby Kopyl), will form a partisan group; See January 1943."

Jewish Responses

"Jews reacted to the Holocaust in a variety of ways.
Some, fearing for their lives and the safety of their families, collaborated under duress with the Germans, serving in the ghettos' Jewish councils or as Jewish police.
Some American Jews, in the face of critical levels of antisemitism in the U.S., were too afraid to put political pressure on their government.
Other Jews refused to face the devastating realities of the "Final Solution."

"European Jews, however, fell into a spectrum that ran from adherence to their Judaism at all costs to guerrilla warfare against the murderers.
Disgusted with God's apparent silence, some Jews rejected their religious beliefs.
Rabbi Irving Greenberg argued after the war that debate about the nature of God is ridiculous in the presence of a burning child; the only appropriate behavior is to jump in and pull the child out of the fire.
Rabbi Emil Fackenheim discovered a new commandment: to survive as a Jew.
Rabbi Yitzhak Nissenbaum in the Warsaw Ghetto admonished Jews to do their utmost to save their own lives.

"In the ghettos, before the machine guns of the SS and Einsatzgruppen, and before and in the gas chambers themselves, Jews made personal decisions.
Some went to their deaths stoically, others defiantly, still others confident in the unalterable tenets of their faith."

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July 21, 1942:

• "Jews are deported from Kowale Panskie, Poland, to the Chelmno death camp.

• Six hundred Jews remaining in Niéswiez, Poland, battle their Nazi attackers.
  Many Jews and a few Nazis are killed, and some of the Jews who survive manage to flee into nearby forests. "

"The rear door to this gas chamber at Birkenau was labeled: "Harmful gas! Entering endangers your life!"
The words were for those who ran the gas chambers, not its victims.
The prisoners' entrance labeled the chambers as a shower and was inscribed with a message about the virtues of cleanliness."

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[BroJoeK]

Headline: "90% PROFITS TAX IS VOTED BY HOUSE;
SURTAX RATE KEPT
BILL PASSED 392 - 2
Committee Request for Normal-Surtax Cut to 40% Loses 180-160"

Headline: "CONFEREES SPEED OPA's [Office of Price Administration's] $120,000,000;
END DELAY ON BILL"

Does anyone ever wonder where today's Democrats get their inspirations?