Posted on 01/24/2013 4:56:59 AM PST by Homer_J_Simpson
John Toland, The Rising Sun: The Decline and Fall of the Japanese Empire, 1936-1945
William L. Shirer, The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich
Winston S. Churchill, The Hinge of Fate
The News of the Week in Review
Twenty News Questions – 11
Russia’s Armies Drive Back the Axis (map) – 12
Soviet’s Mettle Proved at Leningrad (Parker) – 13
Tunisia: Battle Focus of North Africa (map) – 14
Hitler ‘Fortress’ Feels Impact of Allied Blows (Baldwin) – 15
Arabs Swing Toward Allies (Brock) – 16
Anti-U-Boat Campaign Resurveyed (Hurd) – 17
Answers to Twenty News Questions – 18
The New York Times Book Review
Guadalcanal Diary, by Richard Tregaskis (Duffus) – 19-20
The News of the Week in Review
Twenty News Questions – 11
Russia’s Armies Drive Back the Axis (map) – 12
Soviet’s Mettle Proved at Leningrad (Parker) – 13
Tunisia: Battle Focus of North Africa (map) – 14
Hitler ‘Fortress’ Feels Impact of Allied Blows (Baldwin) – 15
Arabs Swing Toward Allies (Brock) – 16
Anti-U-Boat Campaign Resurveyed (Hurd) – 17
Answers to Twenty News Questions – 18
The New York Times Book Review
Guadalcanal Diary, by Richard Tregaskis (Duffus) – 19-20
http://www.onwar.com/chrono/1943/jan1943/f24jan43.htm
Germans Escaping from the Caucasus
Sunday, January 24, 1943 www.onwar.com
Germans retreating from the Caucasus [photo at link]
On the Eastern Front... Vatutin’s Southwest Front captures Starobelsk. The survival of German Army Group A is no longer threatened, as its retreat out of the Caucasus continues.
From Berlin... Hitler refuses a request by Field Marshal Manstein to order Paulus, commanding the trapped 6th Army at Stalingrad, to surrender.
In the Solomon Islands... A US naval task force attacks Kolombangara Island in the New Georgia group of islands. On Guadalcanal, American forces push west of Kokumbona.
In Morocco... The Casablanca Conference. The conference concludes. The Allied differences have been resolved by the Chiefs of Staff. The war against the U-boats and supplies for the USSR are to have priority. Preparations for a landing in western Europe are to proceed. Offensive operations in the Pacific are also to continue as is the campaign in Tunisia and North Africa. The forces in North Africa will proceed to Sicily and Italy following the completion of the North African campaign. At a press conference, Roosevelt states that the Allies are seeking the “unconditional surrender” of Germany, Italy and Japan. Churchill endorses this position.
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/andrew.etherington/frame.htm
January 24th, 1943
UNITED KINGDOM: Minesweeper HMS Gorgon and Grecian launched. (Dave Shirlaw)
ARCTIC SEA: U-625 fired four torpedoes at convoy escorts HMS Kent and Bermuda, but all missed. (Dave Shirlaw)
SOLOMON ISLANDS: Admiral Ainsworth leads a US naval taskforce into the Kula Gulf to bombard a Japanese airfield site on Kolombangara north of Guadalcanal. Cruisers Honolulu, St. Louis, Nashville, Helena and destroyers Nicholas, DeHaven, Radford and O’Bannon are involved.
Later in the day, aircraft of Carrier Air Group Six (CVG-6) in the aircraft carrier USS Saratoga (CV-3), Douglas SBD Dauntlesses of Bombing Squadron Six (VB-6), Grumman F4F Wildcats of Fighting Squadron Six (VF-6) and Grumman TBF Avengers of Torpedo Squadron Six (VT-6), bomb the same objectives. (Jack McKillop)
U.S.A.: Wyoming: A local lecture is given on how to render fat from a skunk without the smell. (Pat Holscher)
Submarines USS Raton and Pargo launched.
Destroyer escorts USS Douglas L Howard and Frederick C Davis launched. (Dave Shirlaw)
CARIBBEAN SEA: Drifting wreck of tanker British Vigilance sunk by U-105. (Dave Shirlaw)
Interesting article on the Iraqis triangulating the outcomes of warring sides. Some things never change...
Well, not quite.
110,000 German soldiers surrendered at Stalingrad.
Only about 6,000 ever returned to Germany twelve years later in 1955.
75,000 died within 3 months of capture. They may have been the lucky ones.
They were extremely low on supplies—most notably food, ammo, fuel, and medical supplies. This was one of Hitler’s biggest blunders of the entire war. All of his generals advised him to order Paulus to break out of the Stalingrad pocket once the Soviet trap was sprung. But Hitler would have none it. Pumped up on drugs supplied to him by Dr. Morell, and egged on by morphine addicted Reichmarshall Goering who persuaded Hitler that he could keep the 6th Army supplied by a Luftwaffe airlift, never mind the fact that the brutal Russian winter was setting in making flying conditions next to impossible. After this insane and mindless debacle, many German officers became involved in the plot to assassinate Hitler, while many Allied strategists were coming to the conclusion that Hitler—with all of his strategic blundering—was more valuable alive than dead, and gave up on their own plots to assassinate him.
Incidentally, the British would later also eject pro-Vichy and pro-Axis governments in Syria and Lebanon.
Here, students at the Bakers and Cooks School are apparently learning how to butcher quarters of beef.
After the war the Army declared it surplus, but the Air Force picked it up and made it Arnold Air Force Base. Today it is a major Air Force test facility.
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