Posted on 05/21/2013 4:15:50 AM PDT by Homer_J_Simpson
John Toland, The Rising Sun: The Decline and Fall of the Japanese Empire, 1936-1945
I should be prepared to go further as follows:
“Statements will be made in public (possibly by the President and the Prime Minister) making it perfectly clear that the Italian people would have a free and independent life as one of the historic nations of Europe. We wish to see Italy freed from its Fascist tyranny, to resume its place, under a democratic system, as a member of the European family. In these months Italy has a last chance of avoiding the further tribulations which will otherwise fall upon her.”
The Army propaganda should work in harmony with this theme.
Winston S. Churchill, The Hinge of Fate
http://www.onwar.com/chrono/1943/may1943/f21may43.htm
Red Army contain Germans in the Kuban
Friday, May 21, 1943 www.onwar.com
Soviet artillery breaks up German assault [photo at link].
On the Eastern Front... In the Caucasus, the German 17th Army continues to counterattack. Soviet forces continue to hold the offensive.
In Alexandria... Admiral Godefroy, commanding the French squadron interned in Alexandria, chooses to join the Allies.
In the United States... The Mississippi river floods. In total, 150,000 people become homeless.
In the Aleutian Islands... On Attu American forces make some progress along the Clevesy Pass.
In Washington... The Trident Conference continues.
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/andrew.etherington/frame.htm
May 21st, 1943 (FRIDAY)
UNITED KINGDOM: The USAAF’s VIII Bomber Command in England flies Mission Number 60: 98 B-17 Flying Fortresses are dispatched against the U-boat yards at Wilhelmshaven, Germany; 77 hit the target at 1244-1245 hours local and claim 47-5-17 Luftwaffe aircraft; seven B-17s are lost. A second, smaller strike of 63 B-17s is dispatched against the U-boat yards at Emden, Germany; 46 bomb the target at 1244-1246 hours local and claim 31-6-6 Luftwaffe aircraft; five B-17s are lost. At Wilhelmshaven German fighters are reported firing rockets.
The VIII Fighter Command dispatches 105 P-47 Thunderbolts on a fighter sweep in the Ostend/Ghent area; they claim 0-0-1 Luftwaffe aircraft; three P-47s are lost. (Jack McKillop)
Submarine HMS Utsira laid down.
Rescue tug HMS Hesperia commissioned.
Minesweeper HMS Ready commissioned.
(Dave Shirlaw)
GERMANY:
U-851 commissioned.
U-347 launched. (Dave Shirlaw)
MEDITERRANEAN SEA: The French naval Squadron at Alexandria, Egypt under Rear Admiral Rene Emile Godfroy decides to join the Allies.
Submarine HMS Sickle attacked U-755 but missed. Sickle then torpedoed and sank U-303 south of Toulon. (Dave Shirlaw)
JAPAN: Tokyo: The Japanese announce the death of Admiral Yamamoto, shot down last month over Bougainville; the US has remained silent until to avoid revealing that it intercepted a Japanese coded message giving details of his itinerary.
TERRITORY OF ALASKA: The USAAF’s Eleventh Air Force dispatches ten B-24 Liberators, 12 B-25 Mitchells, and 24 P-38 Lightnings to Attu but only three missions, totalling six P-38s and a B-24, are able to bomb and strafe troops and installations. Four other missions, after vainly waiting for a break in the overcast over Attu, bomb the Kiska Island submarine base through the overcast.
The Japanese Navy issues Directive No. 246 ordering that “at the last possible moment, every effort will be made to evacuate the Attu Island defence Force, or even part of it, by submarines.” Eight submarines are detailed to make supply and evacuation runs.
CANADA: Fairmile B Type ordered - HMC ML 122, 123, 124, 125, 126, 127, 128, 129. (Dave Shirlaw)
U.S.A.: Washington: The Allies agree to stage a cross-channel landing by 1 May 1944.
The U.S. 32d Infantry Regiment takes Point Able, a high point on Prenoesgast Ridge.
The motion picture “The Ox-Bow Incident” is released in the U.S. Based on Walter Van Tilburg Clark’s novel, this western drama is directed by William A. Wellman and stars Henry Fonda, Dana Andrews, Anthony Quinn, Harry Morgan and Jane Darwell. The plot concerns a lynch mob taking the law in their own hands despite protests from level-headed citizens. The film is nominated for the Best Picture Academy Award but loses out to “Casablanca.” (Jack McKillop)
Frigate USS Stoddert laid down.
Minesweeper USS Impeccable launched.
Destroyer USS Black commissioned.
Destroyer escort USS Hopping commissioned.
Escort carrier HMS Puncher (ex-USS Willapa) laid down Tacoma, Washington.
(Dave Shirlaw)
ATLANTIC OCEAN: During support/assistance by U-459 the boat lost one man overboard from U-129 briefly from the rubber dinghy, but he was soon rescued. (Other sources say that the man was missing).
U-381 listed as missing south of Greenland. There is no explanation for its loss. 47 dead (all hands lost). (Dave Shirlaw)
And still....the Japanese fought on.
On 26 January 1941, Yamamoto wrote a letter in which he stated (Prange 1981):
Should hostilities break out between Japan and the United States, it would not be enough that we take Guam and the Philippines, nor even Hawaii and San Francisco. To make victory certain, we would have to march into Washington and dictate the terms of peace in the White House. I wonder if our politicians, among whom armchair arguments about war are being glibly bandied about in the name of state politics, have confidence as to the final outcome and are prepared to make the necessary sacrifices.
Yamamoto had a sarcastic streak and no illusions that Japan was capable of fighting its way across the United States. However, a distorted version of his statement was published by Japanese nationalists who deleted the last sentence, creating the impression that Yamamoto actually advocated a complete conquest and occupation of the United States. This distorted version was then quoted in Allied propaganda, cementing the reputation among the Allied publics of Yamamoto, the perpetrator of Pearl Harbor, as a villain.
http://pwencycl.kgbudge.com/Y/a/Yamamoto_Isoroku.htm
Reverend Shea did not have a baseball stadium named after him. That was for a different guy.
Shae Stadium was named after Bill Shea: “In 1958, one year after the Brooklyn Dodgers and New York Giants left for Los Angeles and San Francisco, respectively, New York mayor Robert Wagner asked him to chair a committee to return the National League to New York. Shea first tried to bring an existing franchise to New York, but the Cincinnati Reds, Philadelphia Phillies, and Pittsburgh Pirates all refused his overtures. When requests for expansion were declined, Shea, along with Branch Rickey, announced the formation of the Continental League in 1959. The Continental League would have been a third major league and would have begun play in 1961.
The threat of a third major league forced Major League Baseball to discuss expansion. Two teams would be added to the American League in 1961 (the Los Angeles Angels and the replacement Washington Senators), and two more to the National League in 1962 (the New York Mets and the Houston Colt .45s). With New York virtually assured of one of the new teams, Shea abandoned the idea of the Continental League. The New York Mets played their first game on April 11, 1962. In 1964, the Mets played their first game in their new stadium in Queens, named Shea Stadium after the man most responsible for the existence of the franchise.”
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