LAMPEDUSA FALLS SWIFTLY TO AIR-SEA ATTACK; 10,000 PRISONERS CAPTURED ON PANTELLERIA (6/13/43)

Microfilm-New York Times archives, Monterey Public Library | 6/13/43 | Drew Middleton, Bertram D. Hulen, Lawrence E. Davies, Hanson W. Baldwin, C.L. Sulzberger

[Homer_J_Simpson]

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THE NEWS OF THE WEEK IN REVIEW

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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]

Winston S. Churchill, Closing the Ring

[Homer_J_Simpson]

One-Day Triumph (Middleton) – 2-3
Last Mediterranean Barrier Becomes Newest Allied Base – 3-4
War News Summarized – 4
Axis Soldiers, From the Battlefields of Africa and the Pacific, In American Prison Camps (photos) – 5-6
2,000-Ton Attack – 7-8
Russian Raids Sap Nazi Air Strength – 8
Nazi Gas Killings of Refugees Cited – 8
Two New U.S. Submarines Lost; Both Had Bagged Japanese Ships (Hulen) – 9
Red Cross Lists Terminology and Numbers Covering German and Italian Prison Camps – 9
Allied Parachutists Reported in France – 9
The Texts of the Day’s Communiques on the Fighting in Various War Zones – 10-11
Los Angeles Group Insists Riots Halt (Davies) – 12

The News of the Week in Review
Three Stepping-Stones to Italy and the Continent (map) – 13
Toward Italy – 14-15
Abroad – 15-17
Twenty News Questions – 18
Beyond the Mediterranean Isles Lies Italy (Baldwin) – 19-20
Red Army, In Peak Form, Eager for Battle Test (Sulzberger) – 21
Answers to Twenty News Questions – 22
Zoot Suits Become Issue on Coast (Davies) – 23

[Homer_J_Simpson]

http://www.onwar.com/chrono/1943/jun1943/f13jun43.htm

Linosa garrison surrenders to Allies
Sunday, June 13, 1943 www.onwar.com

Allied troops happy after the surrender [photo at link].

In the Mediterranean... The Italian-held island of Linosa surrenders to the Allies.

[Homer_J_Simpson]

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

June 13th, 1943 (SUNDAY)

UNITED KINGDOM: German raiders drop “butterfly” anti-personnel bombs for the first time, killing 74 people and injuring 130.

The USAAF’s VIII Bomber Command in England flies Mission Number 63 attacking two targets in Germany. The heaviest fighter attacks to date against the Eighth Air Force accounts for 26 B-17s, most in the force attacking Kiel.

151 B-17s are dispatched against the U-boat yards at Bremen; 122 hit the target claiming 2-2-1 Luftwaffe aircraft; four B-17s are lost. 76 B-17s are dispatched against the U-boat yards at Kiel; 60 hit the target and claim 39-5-14 Luftwaffe aircraft; 22 B-17s are lost. (Jack McKillop)

Patrol vessel HMS Kilchernan launched. , Province of Quebec.
GERMANY: The Third Gathering (German Resistance group) begins meeting at Kreisau yesterday. It will break up tomorrow. (Glenn Steinberg)

There is a stiff air battle over Kiel today. (Glenn Steinberg) Luftwaffe defenders shoot down 22 out of 60 US bombers attempting to bomb Kiel.

MEDITERRANEAN SEA: The Italian island of Linosa surrenders to the British.

TERRITORY OF ALASKA: In the Aleutians, the destroyer USS Frazier (DD-607) sinks the IJN submarine HIJMS I-9 engaged in the KE GO Operation, the evacuation of personnel from Kiska Island. (Jack McKillop)

CANADA: Corvette HMCS Dundas arrived Montreal, Province of Quebec. for refit.
LCdr Edgar George Skinner RCNR awarded DSC.

Capt Ernest Reginald Brock RCNVR awarded Volunteer Reserve Decoration.

, Province of Quebec.

U.S.A.: Destroyer USS Preston laid down. , Province of Quebec.

[Chad N. Freud]

I was curious as to what became of the despicable Dr. Robert Ley, quoted at the bottom of page 8 at the end of the article on the Holocaust.

Here’s what I found:

“As the Third Reich collapsed in early 1945, Ley was among the government figures who remained fanatically loyal to Hitler. He last saw Hitler on 20 April 1945, the Führer’s birthday, in the bunker in central Berlin. The next day he left for southern Bavaria, in the expectation that Hitler would make his last stand in the “National Redoubt” in the alpine areas. When Hitler refused to leave Berlin, this idea was abandoned, and Ley was then effectively unemployed. On 16 May he was captured by American paratroopers of the 101st Airborne Division in a shoemaker’s house in the village of Schleching, Germany. He told them he was “Dr. Ernst Distelmeyer,” but he was identified by Franz Xaver Schwarz, the treasurer of the Nazi Party and a long-time enemy. When he was identified he tried to commit suicide, but was prevented by his captors.

“At the Nuremberg War Trials, Ley was indicted under Count One (”The Common Plan or Conspiracy to wage an aggressive war in violation of international law or treaties”), Count Three (War Crimes, including among other things “mistreatment of prisoners of war or civilian populations”) and Count Four (”Crimes Against Humanity - murder, extermination, enslavement of civilian populations; persecution on the basis of racial, religions or political grounds”). Ley was indignant at being treated as a war criminal. He said to the American prison psychiatrist Gustave Gilbert: “Stand us against a wall and shoot us, well and good, you are victors. But why should I be brought before a Tribunal like a c-c-c- ... I can’t even get the word [criminal] out!” On 25 October, four days after receiving the indictment, Ley hanged himself in his cell, using a noose made by tearing up a towel into strips, fastened to a pipe in the toilet.”

— http://www.universe-galaxies-stars.com/Robert_Ley.html

[BroJoeK]

Headline: "Nazi Gas Killings of Refugees Cited – 8"

This is the first public mention of "gas killings" I've seen.

"More than 10,000 Jews have been killed since last October in the B rest-Litovak district alone by special German units selected for this gruesome task, according to the Swedish-language Jewish Chronicle published in Stockholm.

"Thousands were gassed to death in hermetically sealed barns and others have been shot in groups of sixty in adjoining woods, the paper says..."

Obvious that outsiders still don't know the full extent of Nazis "Final Solution".

[jjotto]

Obvious that outsiders still don't know the full extent of Nazis "Final Solution".

Except for the eyewitness accounts, warnings from Herbert Hoover and William Randolph Hearst, newspaper ads, a touring story called 'We Will Never Die' with Hollywood stars...

[Seizethecarp]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Butterfly_Bomb

Butterfly bombs were first used against Ipswich in 1940, but were also dropped on Grimsby and Cleethorpes in June 1943, amongst various other targets in the United Kingdom. They were subsequently used against Allied forces in the Middle East. The British Government deliberately suppressed news of the damage and disruption caused by butterfly bombs in order not to encourage the Germans to keep using them.

On October 28, 1940 some butterfly bombs that had incompletely armed themselves were discovered in Ipswich by British ordnance technicians Sergeant Cann and 2nd Lieutenant Taylor. By screwing the arming rods back into the fuzes (i.e. the unarmed position) the two men were able to recover safe examples to reverse engineer.

The SD2 saw use in the opening stages of Operation Barbarossa, the German invasion of the Soviet Union, which began on 22 June 1941. Twenty to thirty aircrews had been picked to drop SD2s and SD10s (10 kg submunitions) on key Soviet airfields, a flight of three aircraft being assigned to each field. The purpose of these early attacks was to cause disruption and confusion as well as to preclude dispersion of Soviet planes until the main attack was launched.[2] It was reported that Kampfgeschwader 51 had lost 15 aircraft due to accidents with the SD2s, nearly half of the total Luftwaffe losses that day.[3]

The last recorded death from a German butterfly bomb in England occurred on November 27, 1956, over 11 years after the Second World War ended: Flight Lieutenant Herbert Denning of the RAF was examining an SD2 at the “Upminster bomb cemetery” (some remote sandpits situated East of RAF Hornchurch, where EOD experimental and research work took place) when it detonated. He died of shrapnel and blast injuries at Oldchurch Hospital the same day.[4]

[colorado tanker]

Mein Fuehrer! The Allies have taken Pantelleria! Do you know what this means? Their next target is Sicily!

Dumkopf! We have already decided Sardinia is the next target and my intuition is never wrong about these matters!

[colorado tanker]

"Thousands were gassed to death in hermetically sealed barns

I agree that the average joe was not aware what was happening in the camps. The fact is the G.I.'s who stumbled into the camps were shocked - they had not imagined the horror they would encounter.

[PAR35]

Sounds like the navy is covering up some of the submarine losses.

[Homer_J_Simpson]

Sounds like the navy is covering up some of the submarine losses.

According to the list I found here -

http://www.valoratsea.com/losses1.htm

Amberjack and Grampus were #10 and #11 of the 52 submarines lost in the war. So, allowing for the uncertainty inherent with submarine warfare the 7 mentioned in the article plus S-26 is not too far off. I wouldn't call coverup, all things considered.

[BroJoeK]

jjotto: "Except for the eyewitness accounts, warnings from Herbert Hoover and William Randolph Hearst, newspaper ads, a touring story called 'We Will Never Die' with Hollywood stars... "

I should have posted: "it's obvious that as of today, June 13, 1943 only those directly involved, at the highest levels in Nazi Germany knew the full extent of the "Final Solution".

This particular news report, on page 8 above, came from the Swedish-language Jewish Chronicle published in Stockholm.
It talks of "thousands" being "gassed to death in hermetically sealed barns" -- words which sound odd to our ears, since the actual numbers were already approaching not thousands or even tens of thousands, but hundreds of thousands, even millions gassed, and not in "hermetically sealed barns", but in purpose-built gas chambers.

So it's obvious that even in June of 1943, even some of those best informed did not yet realize the full scale and extent of the Holocaust.

[PAR35]

Check the dates - Number 16 was lost yesterday. So they are understating by half.

Here’s the official list. They may not have known about number 15 yet. http://www.history.navy.mil/library/online/sublosses/sublosses_intro.htm#chron