Posted on 03/14/2013 4:29:35 AM PDT by Homer_J_Simpson
The News of the Week in Review
Twenty News Questions – 10
Where Allied Offensives Impend (map) – 11
Rommel is Preparing One More Big Attack (Middleton) – 12
The Lend-Lease Flow to Vital Areas (Map) – 13
Lend-Lease in Favor on Its Second Birthday (Lawrence) – 14
168 More Are Held in the Philippines (from news section) – 14
Answers to Twenty News Questions – 15
The Best Selling Books, Here and Elsewhere (from Book Review) – 15
http://www.onwar.com/chrono/1943/mar1943/f14mar43.htm
U-boats attack Allied convoys
Sunday, March 14, 1943 www.onwar.com
German submarine on the surface [photo at link]
In the Atlantic... In a series of convoy battles over the next week (March 14-20), 21 ships of 140,800 tons are sunk from convoys SC-122 and HX-229. About 20 of 40 U-boats will make attacks and the convoy escorts will fail to sink a single German U-boat. The German intelligence service, B Dienst, has provided solid information on the routes of these two convoys.
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/andrew.etherington/frame.htm
March 14th, 1943 (SUNDAY)
MEDITERRANEAN SEA: The British submarine HMS THUNDERBOLT the salvaged HMS Thetis of June 1939 fame) is located and depth charged by the Italian destroyer Cicogna off Cap San Vito, Sicily. There are 62 casualties, none of the crew surviving this sinking. Thunderbolt was discovered again 9 November 1995 covered in fishing nets and wires, with a large hole on the port side forward of the conning tower. Her identification was confirmed by a bronze tally on the 4 inch gun which read “Thetis No. 1027” (1027 being Cammell Laird’s yard number for Thetis). (Alex Gordon)(108)
Submarine HMS Turbulent is lost with all hands (62 casualties). She may have been mined or the victim of a depth charge attack by a Ju.88 and the Italian destroyer Ardito in the Bay of Naples on 6 March, or mined somewhere along the East coast of Sardinia. (Alex Gordon)(108)
NEW GUINEA: Australian and US troops attack Japanese positions, forcing a slow retreat.
U.S.A.: The motion picture “The Moon is Down” premieres in New York City. Directed by Irving Pichel and starring Cedric Hardwicke and Lee J. Cobb and based on the John Steinbeck novel, the film is about the relationship between the mayor of a Norwegian town and the commander of the German forces occupying the town. (Jack McKillop)
Minesweeper USS Threat commissioned.
Destroyer escort USS Fiske launched. (Dave Shirlaw)
ATLANTIC OCEAN: A 6 day series of battles begins. Convoy HX-229 and SC-122 are attacked by a large wolfpack of 20 German U-Boats. Through B Dienst, the Germans have enough intelligence to find the convoys and sink 21 ships.
A total of 40 U-Boats were assembled for an attack on the convoy presumed to be SC 122. First contact was made in the morning of 16 March by the “Raubgraf” group, and during that day and the following night, 8 U-Boats made contact and claimed 14 ships sunk, and 6 damaged.
On the night of 16 March, a second convoy was reported 120 miles ahead of the first, this second being identified as an SC ( in fact, SC122) and it was at this point it was realised that the first convoy already under attack was actually an HX (HX229).
Almost half of the U-Boats participating in this: “The Biggest Convoy Operation of the War- Against HX 229 and SC 122” as it is titled in the German Naval History, scored results, and only one U-Boat was lost. The German claim was for 32 ships sunk totalling 136 000 tons, comparing with the British record of only 21 ships but aggregating 141 000 tons, plus the A/S trawler “Campo Bello”.
The British Admiralty Monthly A/S report: “The Germans never came so near to disrupting communication between the New World and the Old as in the first twenty days of March 1943.”
(Alex Gordon)
Canadian-owned, British-registered CPR passenger liner SS Duchess of York heavily damaged off Cape Finisterre when she was bombed by Luftwaffe aircraft. She was sunk later in 1943 in another air attack in the same general area. (Dave Shirlaw)
We've already seen on Homer's threads where the Nazis said obesity was treasonous, hoarding carried the death penalty and in the case of Nazi occupied Greece, even private fishing was a capital offense.
In the Soviet Union, hoarding carried the death penalty. The assorted Cheka, GPU/OGPU, NKVD forces knew all the hiding places. They knew all the tricks and they were absolutely ruthless.
Preppers on FR chattering about preparations for their version of SHTF for the most part don't comprehend what conditions are like when it really does hit the fan.
The Nazis said obesity was treasonous?
Did they make an exception for RM Goering?
Yes they did. Homer_J_Simpson posted it here: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2295460/posts
From a Singapore Newspaper:
http://newspapers.nl.sg/Digitised/Article/singfreepressb19390719-1.2.4.aspx
Here's a cartoon about it:
Did they make an exception for RM Goering?
Yep. As is the case with socialists and other assorted elitists, rules only apply to the little people.
Yes, and AH, Goebbels, and Himmler weren’t exactly prime speciments of the tall, blonde, blue eyed archetype idealized in Aryan propaganda.
Perhaps tall, blond, blue eyed men reflected their, ahem, preferences. Rules certainly didn't apply to Nazi hierarchy in this respect either.
On the bestseller list is “Queen of the Flattops,” about the sinking of USS Lexington at Coral Sea. I actually have this book in my library. It’s OK, considering it was written under war time censorship.
I really don’t believe those rumors about AH. There has never been any reliable evidence produced that AH ever engaged in homosexual behavior, his known interests were all female. Goebbels though married was a notorius womanizer. Himmler too had a mistress outside his marriage.
The homosexual stuff I think all comes from the Ernst Roehm faction of the Nazi Party which was purged by Hitler in 1934 the infamous Night of the Long Knives purge. Roehm was a notorious homosexual and quite open about it, very unusual for that time period.
The Germans had broken the British naval codes and knew exactly the route these convoys would be taking. They were sitting ducks.
Some closeted bisexual/homosexuals use womanizing to camouflage their true preference. Hollywood has many such examples. As for known examples of Hitler being in a physical relationship with women, there are few and he was reportedly "peculiar" to masochistic in his desires.
The homosexual stuff I think all comes from the Ernst Roehm faction of the Nazi Party which was purged by Hitler in 1934 the infamous Night of the Long Knives purge. Roehm was a notorious homosexual and quite open about it, very unusual for that time period.
The left has obsessively buried and obfuscated much about the Nazis. Sexuality is but one such area. Wartime psychological profiles of Hitler address the possibility of his homosexuality. Be careful about online versions of his psychological profiles, the original scans such as the widely linked to version at Cornell University has been deleted and other online versions revised so, you can't really trust what you are reading. Best to obtain an original copy via interlibrary loan at your local public library.
I would highly recommend you obtain a copy of the book The Hidden Hitler by Lothar Machtan ISBN 0-465-04308-9. The Hidden Hitler documents in a very well researched and referenced manner the homosexual milieu that Hitler lived in and flourished from his early years in Vienna to the Fuhrer.
I actually read that book a few years ago. As I recall, the evidence was rather circumstantial. There were some movies made a number of years ago, one with Richard Basehart, with a Freudian twist suggesting Hitler may have had Oedipus Complex. As Hitler was beaten frequently by his drunken father, it is natural that he became very close to his mother who offered love and protection. Stalin too, came from a very similar type of background, brutally beaten as a child by a drunken father. No wonder both men became such callous brutes as adults.
It isn't the easiest read due to all the citations. Not a book one can expect to get through on a rainy weekend.
As I recall, the evidence was rather circumstantial.
Yes indeed and the author makes plain that his case is circumstantial.
It's worth noting that reviews of the book by leftist publications don't question the accuracy of the author's research. They instead generally try to be dismissive and toned down... as if not wishing their review to draw attention to the book or subject.
However, when you look at the preponderance of evidence including, Hitler's occultism, his hatred of Judeo-Christianity, curious behavior during the Anschluss consistent with that of a man trying to hide something from his past, his artsy background, his artsy associates, that early nazi meeting halls were also known "gay bars", his life within a fraternity of men and the number of bisexual/homosexual men near him, what other plausible explanations are there?
Munich has many beer halls and beer gardens. I didn’t know that there was a thriving gay bar scene in that city during 1920s and 30s. I always thought Hitler hung out with disgruntled WWI veterans and anti-Semitic conspiracy theorists and anti-Communist street fighters during this period. The one homosexual associate Hitler had who was also a close friend was Ernst Roehm. And yes Roehm’s inner circle was full of homosexuals....this is where I think all of this comes from. There is no proof that Hitler had a sexual relationship with Roehm or any other man that I am aware of. This reminds me of the stories that Hitler had Jewish ancestry. Once again, some circumstantial evidence exists, but no proof and highly doubtful.
The Schwabing district of Munich would have been a likely bohemian (artsy avant-garde) hangout.
I always thought Hitler hung out with disgruntled WWI veterans and anti-Semitic conspiracy theorists and anti-Communist street fighters during this period.
Yes that would describe the occult Thule Society and paramilitary Freikorps. From both groups, Hitler tended to associate with those men who were also artists, writers, publishers, composers, musicians, etc. Some members from both groups would go on to become top nazis.
The Thule Society was largely composed of Munich's uppercrust and may have been the Munich branch of the occultic Germanenorden. Some Thule Society members were veterans whereas the paramilitary Freikorps was for the most part made up of veterans.
Rudolph Hess, a likely homosexual was a member of both the Thule Society and Munich Freikorps. Some historians have linked Heinrich Himmler and Hermann Göring, the fashion diva with a penchant for wearing womens makeup with the Thule Society. There may have been other top nazis with dual membership but their names don't come to me at the moment.
Depending on which historian you read, the list varies but known members and associates of the Thule Society that would become top nazis were Rudolph Hess, Alfred Rosenberg, Karl Harrer, Anton Drexler, Gottfried Feder, Hans Frank and Dietrich Ekart... Hitler's mentor.
From the Munich Freikorps came Ernst Röhm, Hermann Göring, Heinrich Himmler, Rudolph Hess as well as the founder of Munich based Freikorps Epp -- Franz Ritter von Epp.
Additional top nazis came from other Freikorps units. A Freikorps group in the Berlin area led by the sadistic homosexual Gerhard Rossbach contributed Martin Bormann to the nazi pary and Rudolf Höss, commandant of Auschwitz.
While the Freikorps and similar paramilitary groups existed across Germany, the Munich Freikorps led by von Epp is of greatest interest to our discussion.
Freikorps Epp was to my understanding the largest Freikorps group in Bavaria and is the group Röhm belonged to where he served as Epp's chief of staff.
Viennese historian Brigitte Hamann in her book on Winifred Wagner states that Epp and Röhm had a homosexual relationship... several times in Wagner's home.
Röhm is also reported to have had a homosexual relationship with Berlin Freikorps leader Gerhard Rossbach.
The Thule Society financially supported Freikorps Epp and may have provided material support as well. I'm now speculating but given the other political groups known to have been formed by the Thule Society, might Freikorps Epp have originally been started by the Thule Society? Enough with the speculation and back to what is known.
One political party known to have been formed by the Thule Society was the Deutsche Arbeiterpartei (English: German Workers Party, abbreviated DAP) in January 1919. By Feb 1920, the DAP had changed it's name to Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei (NSDAP), commonly known in English as the Nazi party.
So, we have the Thule Society supporting both the Freikorps and establishing what would become the Nazi party.
As for Hitler, his record in 1919 is murky. He seems to have remained in the army through the end of 1918 and early 1919 doing whatever he could to avoid demobilization. By January 1919, he was reportedly assigned to a unit in Munich where he was elected representative of a lower unit of his battalion. He also managed to become a member of a soldier's council. He also reportedly wore a red armband signifying him as a red/socialist. This is all significant given the Socialist government of Bavaria during that time.
In February 1919, Hitler reportedly attended the funeral of Kurt Eisner, Jewish leader of the Bavarian Socialist Revolution and leader of Bavaria.
Hitler during a 1931 speech says he first met Ernst Röhm in a beer cellar on March 7, 1919. At the time of the meeting, Röhm was chief of staff to Epp, the Freikorps commander. Was Hitler being recruited in that meeting by Röhm to spy on Socialist groups, or was he already working for Röhm?
A few months later in Sept 1919, Hitler attended his first meeting of the Deutsche Arbeiterpartei (DAP) reportedly as a spy. Hitler subsequently joined the DAP and Röhm joined shortly after Hitler.
So, Hitler and Röhm seem to go back to 1919 when Hitler may have been in a reporting relationship to Röhm.
The one homosexual associate Hitler had who was also a close friend was Ernst Roehm.
One must also remember that by 1948, most of Hitler's close associates were dead. Also, go back to my previous paragraph where in 1919, Hitler may have been in a reporting relationship with Röhm. Given what is known about Röhm, what might he have expected from Hitler? I agree, there is no proof but one can go on and on with this sort of conjecture.
And yes Roehm’s inner circle was full of homosexuals....this is where I think all of this comes from. There is no proof that Hitler had a sexual relationship with Roehm or any other man that I am aware of.
Perhaps but Hitler certainly knew of Röhm's sexuality and tolerated it for a long, long time. Odd for a man portrayed by the left as a rabid homophobe. But then there's the curious entry made by Goebbels in his diary on May 15, 1928 where he wrote of seeing Hitler and Röhm "in cozy comfort". What did Goebbels mean by that? As I've said, the case is circumstantial but when you consider the total body of evidence not only of Röhm and Hitler but of the other nazis, what other explanations are there? We haven't even gotten into discussing lower level nazis such as Baldur von Schirach.
There is no smoking gun but a considerable body of circumstantial evidence exists that Hitler may have been a homosexual and I'm using homosexual as a catch-all for all forms of same sex attraction.
If anything, I suspect Hitler was asexual, and too consumed with megalomania to worry about sexual relations. Eva Braun, in her diaries complained that Hitler barely ever payed attention to her. I suspect Hitler may have been using her as a beard, to cover up his asexuality.
That is essentially what Machtan states, that from early 1930's until 1945, Hitler was sexually inactive.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.