Posted on 12/19/2012 5:08:01 AM PST by Homer_J_Simpson
Winston S. Churchill, The Hinge of Fate
#1 - “White Christmas” - Bing Crosby
#2 - “Mister Five by Five” – Harry James, with Helen Forrest
#3 - “Praise the Lord and Pass the Ammunition” - Kay Kyser, with Glee Club
#4 – “When the Lights Go On Again All Over the World” - Vaughn Monroe
#5 - “I Had the Craziest Dream” - Harry James, with Helen Forrest
#6 – “Dearly Beloved,” Glenn Miller, with Skip Nelson
#7 - “Serenade in Blue” - Glenn Miller, with Ray Eberly and the Modernaires
#8 – “Juke Box Saturday Night” - Glenn Miller, with Ray Eberly and the Modernaires
#9 - “There Are Such Things” - Tommy Dorsey, with Frank Sinatra and the Pied Pipers
#10 - “Moonlight Becomes You” - Glenn Miller, with Skip Nelson and the Modernaires
http://www.onwar.com/chrono/1942/dec42/f19dec42.htm
Italian army destroyed by Soviets
Saturday, December 19, 1942 www.onwar.com
On the Eastern Front... The Soviets take Kontemirovka. The Italian 8th Army is almost completely decimated. Manstein orders General Paulus to attempt to breakout of the encirclement. General Schmidt, his chief of staff, an ardent Nazi convinces General Paulus, not to disobey Hitler’s orders. General Hoth’s attack towards Stalingrad slows near the Myshkova River.
In the Solomon Islands... On Guadalcanal, US forces on Mount Austen meet heavy resistance.
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/andrew.etherington/frame.htm
December 19th, 1942
UNITED KINGDOM: Submarine HMS Vox laid down. (Dave Shirlaw)
GERMANY: Berlin: With his armies in Russia crippled by heavy snow and sub-zero temperatures, Hitler today abruptly sacked his commander-in-chief and took over the job himself, “following his own intuitions”, as the official announcement put it.
Field Marshal von Brauchitsch, appointed C-in-C in 1938, is reported to be deeply dismayed by the army’s desperate plight in Russia, caused by the Führer’s order that there must be no retreats in any circumstances. Field Marshal von Rundstedt has already been sacked for quitting Rostov-on-Don.
Hitler - failed artist and ex-corporal, Führer and chancellor of the German Reich, supreme commander of the armed forces and C-in-C - says that von Brauchitsch is a nincompoop.
U-248, U-999 laid down.
U-389, U-425 launched.
U-235 commissioned. (Dave Shirlaw)
U.S.S.R.: Kantemirovka, between the Donets and Don rivers, is retaken by the Russian Army on the Eastern Front.
Hoth’s relief column has been making smaller gains and is now at the Myshkova River. His 6th Army Chief of Staff, General Schmidt, a committed Nazi Party member is an important figure in the decision.
Black Sea Fleet and Azov Flotilla: Submarine “Sch-212” - sunk by aviation, North to cape Sinop (Sergey Anisimov)(69)
MEDITERRANEAN SEA: Whilst escorting a convoy to Benghazi, Flower class corvette HMS Snapdragon is bombed by German aircraft and sinks within 3 minutes of an amidship hit. Location: off Benghazi at 32 18N 19 54E. There are 59 survivors. (Alex Gordon)(108)
BURMA: Maungdaw: The 14th Indian Division, having advanced 150 miles cross-country from India to the Maungdaw/Buthidaung line between the Burmese coast and the Arakan mountains, is pushing on. Its goal is the Japanese air base on the offshore island of Akyab, 60 miles south.
The campaign is a limited one, to secure an airfield in striking range of Rangoon. Originally General Wavell, the C-in-C in India, had hoped to make a seaborne assault, but there were no landing craft. A land attack was his second choice.
So far there has been little fighting and Japanese forward posts have been withdrawn. Akyab is defended by only one regiment, the 213th, but two divisions, the 55th and the 33rd, are near.
SOLOMON ISLANDS: The 3rd Btn, backed up by 1st Btn, of the 132nd Infantry has spent two days moving into contact with Japanese forces in the area that will become known as “The Gifu” on Mt. Austen on Guadalcanal. After artillery and aerial bombardment, Col Wright, Btn CO, is mortally wounded. The action is stalemated for the rest of the day, until the Btn XO can move forward. The next few days will show small gains as the US forces aggressively patrol in their attempts to locate the Japanese forces. The Japanese will continue to sent forward infiltration parties, making the front lines of the US forces jittery and harassing the rear supply forces.
AUSTRALIA: Minesweeper HMAS Benalla launched. (Dave Shirlaw)
CANADA:
Minesweeper HMCS Kapuskasing laid down Port Arthur, Ontario.
Frigate HMCS Swansea launched Esquimalt, British Columbia.
Minesweeper HMCS Transcona arrived Halifax from builder Sorel, Province of Quebec. (Dave Shirlaw)
U.S.A.:
Destroyer USS Hoel launched.
Destroyer USS Stockham laid down.
Destroyer escort USS Wileman launched.
Destroyer USS McLanahan commissioned. (Dave Shirlaw)
"Agents from the Gestapo and Sicherheitsdienst (Security Police) interrogate a Jewish girl found with banknotes hidden in the heels of her shoes.
Jews, deprived of their property and possessions, sought to tuck away whatever valuables they could as they prepared for deportation.
Parents, fearful that they might be separated from their children, tried to give them money or gems so that they might better fend for themselves."
By late December, Gen. Paulus had no chance of breaking out of the Stalingrad pocket. He was far to low on fuels and supplies, his troops were freezing and starving to death by now, the weather too miserable for most supplies to get through to the pocket in the airlift. Paulus could have broken through the Soviet trap around Stalingrad in the first or maybe even second week of the encirclement. By late December it was far too late as the brutal Russian winter set in and supplies were so low, men freezing and starving to death. This was all Hitler’s doing of course as Paulus wanted to break out of the trap immediately as did FM von Manstein-—the most brilliant military mind of the war——but Hitler thought he knew better.
The battle was over now and twenty-three Japanese ships were sinking. All about the floating survivors of Commander Parker’s destroyer - sixty-three of them wounded - there were flaming vessels. The twenty-minute battle had been, Commander Parker recalled, “just like a barroom brawl with the lights out.”
Hitler’s insistence on personal command of the army shortened the war by years. At the end of the day he didn’t amount to much more than a Bavarian corporal.
Thanks for leaving advertising in these pages. It’s really interesting to see those glimpses into the home front.
Yep... I remember gas rationing AND food rationing. We lived on a farm and my dad worked for the owner so we had some priority and got extra gas stamps plus Sugar was scarce and I remember Mom hoarding 20 pounds under my bed for canning season.
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