Posted on 12/20/2013 4:10:04 AM PST by Homer_J_Simpson
The West Point Military History Series, Thomas E. Griess, Editor, The Second World War: Europe and the Mediterranean
Winston S. Churchill, Closing the Ring
http://www.onwar.com/chrono/1943/dec1943/f20dec43.htm
Allied bombers strike German targets
Monday, December 20, 1943 www.onwar.com
V-1 ramps in France after Allied bombing [photo at link]
Over Germany... Allied aircraft drop about 2000 tons of bombs on Frankfurt, Mannheim and other cities in southern Germany. There are also raids on the V-1 ramps in France.
http://www.etherit.co.uk/month/thismonth/20.htm
December 20th, 1943
UNITED KINGDOM: Convoy JW.55B departs Loch Ewe with 19 ships intent on making for the Kola Inlet. The convoy escort is comprised of the destroyers HMS Onslow, HMS Onslaught, HMS Orwell, HMS Scourge, HMS Impulsive, HMCS Haida, HMCS Iroquois, HMCS Huron, HMS Whitehall, and HMS Wrestler, minesweeper HMS Gleaner, and corvettes HMS Honeysuckle and HMS Oxlip. (Mark Horan)
Minesweeper HMS Melita commissioned.
Frigate HMS Cosby commissioned.
FRANCE: The USAAF Eighth Air Force’s VIII Bomber Command flies Mission 158: five B-17 Flying Fortresses drop one million leaflets on Paris, Amiens and Chartres at 2059-2135 hours.
GERMANY: Tonight RAF bombers raid Frankfurt, dropping 2,000 tons of bombs; the USAAF raids Bremen.
Forty USAAF Fifteenth Air Force B-24 Liberators bomb the Messerschmidt aircraft factory at Augsburg; one aircraft is lost.
During the night of 19/20 December, six RAF Bomber Command Wellingtons drop leaflets over several towns.
U-1232 launched.
AUSTRIA: USAAF Fifteenth Air Force B-17 Flying Fortresses bomb two targets: 73 hit the Main marshalling yard at Innsbruck with the loss of two aircraft and 17 attack Kattenberg with the loss of three aircraft.
U.S.S.R.: Three German Gestapo officers and a Soviet accomplice, are hanged in the market square of Kharkov. Captain Wilhelm Langheld, Hans Ritz, Reinhardt Retelav and their driver Mikhail Bulanov are found guilty of war crimes by a Soviet Military Court. A crowd of around 40,000 watches as lorries (trucks) on which they stand are driven away, leaving them hanging from the scaffold. The Nazis themselves often used this method for executions in the Soviet Union as in the case of Kieper and Kogan, two members of the Soviet Regional Court who were hanged on 17 August 1941, at Zhitomir. Forced to watch the hangings, 400 Jews were rounded up in the city. After the executions, the Jews were taken outside the town and shot into a pit 10 to 15 meters (33 to 49 feet) wide and 4 meters (13 feet) deep.
ITALY: In U.S. Fifth Army’s II Corps area, the 36th Infantry Division’s 143d and 141st Infantry Regiments attempt to clear the southern and western slopes of Mt. Sammucro from which the Germans are barring access to Highway 6 and the Mignano Gap, but make little headway.
USAAF Twelfth Air Force B-25 Mitchells bomb the Terni marshalling yard and the Orte marshalling yard and airfield; A-20 Havocs attack road, bridge, and the town of Orte and hit Cassino; P-40s bomb Orsogna, Sant’ Elia Fiumerapido, and a dump near Arce. A-36 Apaches hit the railroad and harbor area at Civitavecchia.
USAAF Fifteenth Air Force P-47 Thunderbolt, dispatched for escort duty, miss the rendezvous with the heavy bombers and instead strafe Ancona Airfield, truck convoys at Porto Civitsnova, a train near Senigallia, and a vessel at Roseto degli Abruzzi. B-26 Marauders bomb the Perugia railroad installations and marshalling yards at Castiglione della Valle and Foligno.
YUGOSLAVIA: USAAF Twelfth Air Force P-40s hit shipping at Split, Trogir, and Solin.
ARCTIC OCEAN:
Destroyer HMCS Athabaskan arrived Kola Inlet with convoy JW-55A.
CHINA: Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek rejects the proposal by British Admiral Louis Mountbatten, Supreme Allied Commander South East Asia Command, for a major attack.
About 35 Japanese bombers and fighters attack Hengyang Airfield; 26 USAAF Fourteenth Air Force P-40s are sent up against the attacking force and shoot down nine; two P-40s are lost. Twelve B-25 Mitchells and eight P-40s attack Nanhsien and Ansiang.
THAILAND: Twenty USAAF Tenth Air Force B-24 Liberators fly a night strike against a newly expanded dock area at Bangkok causing considerable destruction.
NEW GUINEA: In Northeast New Guinea, about 30 USAAF Fifth Air Force B-25 Mitchells, A-20 Havocs, and P-39 Airacobras hit barges, bivouac areas, and gun positions north and west of Finschhafen. Thirty 30 B-25s and B-26 Marauders bomb Madang and P-47 Thunderbolts sweep the coastline.
MARSHALL ISLANDS: Twenty nine USAAF Seventh Air Force B-24 Liberators from the Ellice Islands and Baker Island bomb barracks, hangars, and wharf areas on Mili and Maloelap Atolls; they claim seven fighters shot down. P-39 Airacobras from Makin Island in the Gilbert Islands strafe Mili Atoll, destroying three airplanes and firing an oil dump; two P-39 Airacobras are lost.
NEW BRITAIN: Japanese moving against the Arawe beach-head reach the Pulie river, east of Arawe.
SOLOMON ISLANDS: On Bougainville, 24 USAAF Thirteenth Air Force B-25 Mitchells bomb the Moisuru bivouac and supply dump; other planes on armed reconnaissance hit targets of opportunity at Buka, Bonis, Ratsua, Poporang, Kara, Kahili, Koiaris, and on Nissan Island.
BISMARCK ARCHIPELAGO: The Japanese airfield on Arawe is captured by U.S. forces. The Japanese counterattacks are defeated.
On New Britain Island, Cape Gloucester is bombed by more than 140 USAAF Fifth Air Force B-24 Liberators, B-25 Mitchells, and B-26 Marauders as pre-invasion operations increase. Thirty seven P-40s hit Gasmata on the south coast of New Britain and 20 A-20 Havocs attack forces northeast of Arawe.
Sixteen USAAF Thirteenth Air Force B-24 Liberators, escorted by 48 P-38 Lightnings and New Zealand (P-40) Kittyhawks, bomb the town of Rabaul and Simpson Harbor on New Britain Island.
PACIFIC OCEAN: USN submarine USS Grayback (SS-208) sinks Japanese destroyer HIJMS Numakaze about 45 nautical miles (83 kilometers) east-northeast of Naha, Okinawa, in position 26.30N, 128.26E.
CANADA: Frigates HMCS Saint John and Valleyfield arrived Halifax from builders Montreal and Quebec City respectively.
Corvette HMCS Guelph launched.
U.S.A.: Light cruiser USS Houston commissioned.
Large cruiser USS Hawaii laid down.
Destroyer escorts USS Jobb, Lawrence C Taylor and Le Ray Wilson laid down.
Destroyers USS McGowan and Benham commissioned.
Frigates USS Stoddert and Albuquerque commissioned.
USCGC Bodega grounded off Canal Zone. No lives lost.
ATLANTIC OCEAN: U-515 sank SS Phemius.
U-850 sunk in the mid-Atlantic west of Madeira, Portugal, in position 32.54N, 37.01W, by depth charges and Fido homing torpedoes from 5 Avenger and Wildcat aircraft (VC-19) of the American escort carrier USS Bogue. 66 dead (all hands lost).
The picture of the little girl praying for her dad who was a Japanese POW led me to search his name. He didn’t survive. But it is an amzing story summarized below. God bless him, his family and all our troops.
Stage one of FDR selling out the Poles to his buddy, Uncle Joe.
Now’s a good time to watch John Huston’s “The Battle of San Pietro” (it’s on YouTube), if you haven’t seen it already. It really shows what our soldiers were going through at this point in Italy.
Amen. And thanks for looking up the story. I thought about doing a search on the name but figured it was too much of a long shot. I should know better by now.
They hang atrocity killers, so leave poor atrocity alone!
Churchill's plan was to move Germany back to the Oder-Neisse line to compensate Poland.
Morgan was the model for the character Lt. Jesse Bishop in the novel Twelve O'Clock High, also a character in the movie, which I highly recommend.
Here is his MOH citation:
"For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity above and beyond the call of duty, while participating on a bombing mission over enemy-occupied continental Europe, 28 (sic) July 1943. Prior to reaching the German coast on the way to the target, the B17 aircraft in which 2d Lt. (sic) Morgan was serving as co-pilot was attacked by a large force of enemy fighters, during which the oxygen system to the tail, waist, and radio gun positions was knocked out. A frontal attack placed a cannon shell through the windshield, totally shattering it, and the pilot's skull was split open by a .303 caliber shell, leaving him in a crazed condition. The pilot fell over the steering wheel, tightly clamping his arms around it. 2d Lt. Morgan at once grasped the controls from his side and, by sheer strength, pulled the aircraft back into formation despite the frantic struggles of the semiconscious pilot. The interphone had been destroyed, rendering it impossible to call for help. At this time the top turret gunner fell to the floor and down through the hatch with his arm shot off at the shoulder and a gaping wound in his side. The waist, tail, and radio gunners had lost consciousness from lack of oxygen and, hearing no fire from their guns, the copilot believed they had bailed out. The wounded pilot still offered desperate resistance in his crazed attempts to fly the aircraft. There remained the prospect of flying to and over the target and back to a friendly base wholly unassisted. In the face of this desperate situation, 2d Lt. Officer Morgan made his decision to continue the flight and protect any members of the crew who might still be in the ship and for 2 hours he flew in formation with one hand at the controls and the other holding off the struggling pilot before the navigator entered the steering compartment and relieved the situation. The miraculous and heroic performance of 2d Lt. Morgan on this occasion resulted in the successful completion of a vital bombing mission and the safe return of his aircraft and crew."
Having seen “Twelve O’Clock High” several times I recognize the description of the situation on Morgan’s plane from an early scene in the movie. The details from the citation were transferred right into the script, right down to the gunner having his arm shot off. I always thought it was dreamed up by a writer with a vivid imagination but now I realize it is one of those “you can’t make this stuff up” things.
Quite a guy. He definitely passes the foxhole test - the kind of guy you want watching your back.
wow
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