Posted on 01/09/2014 4:41:10 AM PST by Homer_J_Simpson
January 9. Field Order No. 2 readjusted defense of the area.
Inland patrols reported no contacts.
The Saidor beachhead at this time included about fourteen miles of coastline.
The 3d Battalion patrol reoccupied Bilau Village.
Major General H.W. Blakeley, USA, Ret., The 32d Infantry Division in World War II
Winston S. Churchill, Closing the Ring
The News of the Week in Review
Six Focal Areas in an Eventful Week of War (map) – 14
Red Victory – 15-16
Other Fronts – 16-18
Fifteen News Questions – 19
The Red Army’s Attacks Force One of History’s Great Retreats (map) – 20
Berlin Disquiet Gains under Red Army Blows (Axelsson) – 21
Answers to Fifteen News Questions – 22
http://www.onwar.com/chrono/1944/jan44/f09jan44.htm
Allies capture Maungdaw
Sunday, January 9, 1944 www.onwar.com
In Burma... Allied forces overrun Maungdaw on the Arakan front.
In the Solomon Islands... On Bougainville, American engineers complete a second airfield at Piva.
In Italy... Two divisions of the US 2nd Corps (part of 5th Army) attack Cervaro and Monte Trochio, to the east of Cassino.
On the Eastern Front... The Soviet 1st Ukrainian Front (Vatutin) captures Polonnoye, halfway between Berdichev and Rovno. To the south, the 2nd Ukrainian Front (Konev) captures Aleksandrovka.
http://www.etherit.co.uk/month/thismonth/09.htm
January 9th, 1944 (SUNDAY)
UNITED KINGDOM: American and British bombers seconded from their attacks on German cities, today begin the first full week of Operation Carpetbagger, and extensive campaign to arm the resistance movements of Europe in preparation for the forthcoming invasion. The bombers, their bomb-bays filled with canisters containing Sten guns, ammunition, explosives, mortars and wireless sets, have been parachuting their loads into dropping zones in France, Belgium, the Netherlands and Italy. It is estimated that enough weapons have been dropped to arm 20,000 fighters. Special orders are sometimes supplied by fast Mosquito bombers a few hours after the request has been placed by radio.
FRANCE: Lyons: The shooting of two German soldiers is swiftly avenged by the execution of 22 Frenchmen.
ITALY: US troops launch a final assault on the German winter line, striking at Cervaro and Monte Trocchio.
In the U.S. Fifth Army area, the U.S. II Corps orders an attack tomorrow, the 34th Infantry Division making the main effort, to secure Cervaro and Mt. Trocchio, the final Winter Line objectives. Last elements of U.S. 45th Infantry Division are relieved by the 3d Algerian Division, French Expeditionary Corps.
USAAF Twelfth Air Force B-25 Mitchells attack the marshalling yard and docks at Ancona; P-40s hit tanks and trucks at Palena and south of Sulmona, and positions and vehicles near Cervaro while A-36 Apaches hit positions in the same area.
German submarine U-81 is sunk at 1130 hours at the U-boat base at Pola, when 107 USAAF Fifteenth Air Force bombers bomb the town of Pola. The sub is raised on 22 April 1944 and scrapped. Two crewmen are lost.
YUGOSLAVIA: U-81 sunk at 1130 at Pola in position 44.52N, 13.51E (will recheck this position as it places the sub on dry land!) by US bombs. Raised on 22 April 1944 and broken up. 2 dead, unknown number of survivors. U-boat pens there were hit and 4 men from U-407 killed and 1 wounded. The boat sailed for the next time on 29 Jan. [Oberleutnant (Ing) Heinz Weser, Leutnant zur See Eberhard Baumgart, Maschinenobergfreiter Rudolf Güttge, and Maschinenobergefreiter Heinz Bönisch].
USAAF Fifteenth Air Force B-17 Flying Fortresses hit the docks and shipping at Pola.
MOROCCO: Prime Minister Churchill and General de Gaulle met at Marrakesh, for discussions on the cooperation of a French expeditionary force in the invasion of Europe, and the degree of authority of the French committee in the control of civil affairs inside France after the invasion.
CHINA: Nine USAAF Fourteenth Air Force fighters strafe six steamboats and many smaller craft on the Yangtze River at Puchi; two B-25 Mitchells on a sea sweep bomb a 200 foot (61 meter) vessel south of Swatow, reporting the ship destroyed.
THAILAND: During the night of 9/10 January, seven B-24 Liberators lay mines in the Menam River estuary near Bangkok, Thailand and in the Rangoon River estuary.
BURMA: In the Hukawng Valley of northern Burma, the 112th and 113th Regiments of the Chinese 38th Division are converging on Taihpa Ga, and the 114th Regiment is active in the jungle south of the Tanai River. The 3d Battalion, 114th Regiment, begins a lively action with Japanese infiltrators who have surrounded its supporting battery.
Twenty one USAAF Tenth Air Force P-51 Mustangs and A-36 Apaches attack the Loilaw area, severely damaging a bridge, hitting an ammunition storage building, and scoring direct hits on large barracks.
NEW GUINEA: In Northeast New Guinea, USAAF Fifth Air Force fighters and bombers attack Alexishafen, Madang, Bogadjim, Uligan Harbor, and the area east of Saidor; and Cape Beechey is strafed by P-40s.
SOLOMON ISLANDS: A second airfield is completed on Bougainville at Piva.
On Bougainville, the Americal Division continues their relief of the 3d Marine Division: the 132d Infantry Regiment enters the line.
USAAF Thirteenth Air Force B-25 Mitchells hit Buka seaplane base on Buka Island and the Kahili supply area on Bougainville; fighters strafe the Cape Dunganon area and along the Ramusian River west of Teop.
A second airfield, Piva North (Piva Yoke), is completed on Bougainville. The strip is plagued with problems for heavy bomber operations, as the soil is too soft from the constant rain. Although Marston matting is laid, it was not an ideal forward base.
Bougainville Island was invaded by the US Marines on 1 November 1943 and the U.S. Naval Advance Base (NAB) Torokina was established. This base also consisted of two airfields, Torokina and Piva. The first airfield completed was Torokina and this fighter base was completed on 10 December 1943. The second airfield, Piva Field, was intended for use by bombers and was ready for use by 30 December 1943. As the war progressed, these two bases become superfluous and NAB Torokina was formally disestablished in March 1945 although some Seabee maintenance personnel remained there until June 1945.
BISMARCK ARCHIPELAGO: On New Britain Island, the ADC Group (7th Marine Regiment reinforced by a battalion of the 5th Marine Regiment and supporting units) secures a foothold on Aogiri Ridge, west of Hill 150, which the Japanese have been told to hold at all costs since it covers a good supply route that they have constructed.
On New Britain Island, RAAF, USMC and USN aircraft attack Tobera Airfield at Rabaul; 16 TBF Avengers and 23 SBD Dauntlesses bomb the airfield which is closed due to the damage. About 40 Japanese fighters are engaged by Marine F4U Corsairs and Navy F6F Hellcats over Rabaul; 18 “Zeke” fighters (Mitsubishi A6M, Navy Type 0 Carrier Fighters) and “Tony†fighters (Kawasaki Ki-61, Army Type 3 Fighter Hien) are shot down over Tobera Airfield between 1200 and 1345 hours. A USN F6F Hellcat and two RAAF (P-40) Kittyhawks are lost. USAAF Thirteenth Air Force B-24 Liberators bomb Vunakanau Airfield. On New Ireland Island, six USAAF B-25 Mitchells bomb Taharai Airfield and afterwards some hit targets of opportunity on the island.
NEW BRITAIN: Australian troops secure the Aogiri Ridge in the face of a stubborn Japanese defence.
CANADA:
Minesweeper HMCS Lockeport, enroute Baltimore, Maryland for refit, broke down and travelled 190 miles under improvised sail before being towed.
Frigate HMCS Port Colborne arrived Halifax from builder Esquimalt, British Columbia.
U.S.A.: Destroyer escorts USS Rinehart and Roche launched.
Destroyer USS De Haven launched.
Submarine USS Hawkbill launched.
ATLANTIC OCEAN: Corvette HMS Abelia lost her rudder after being hit by a U-boat torpedo. It is not known which U-boat fired the torpedo. The convoy, OS-64, had been shadowed by U-757 that was lost on 8 January and by U-731, which was attacked by an escort vessel on 10 January and was lucky to escape.
You see the seeds of one of the left’s great post-war revisionist theories in the Times today, as well as some misconceptions that have arisen on the right. It’s in that very nice piece on the Soviet role in post war Europe. It appears that the USSR is going dominate Europe, and it’s a domination she is earning with the blood and sacrifice of her people. Don’t think for a minute that the average Russian isn’t already aware of this. They now know that they are winning, and they have the impression that they are beating Germany by themselves. This collective opinion is only going to become more entrenched in the minds of the Russians as their victories pile up.
You can sense that attitude in the piece written by Zaslavsky in Pravda, where he told Wilkie to “butt out” in regards to post war Soviet “arrangements” in the Baltic, Finland, and especially Poland. The general tone is pretty clear; the Russians intend to dominate and occupy any country where the Red Army stands when the war ends. And the average Russian believes it is only right that they do so; they’ve earned it.
The misconception that has arisen on the right is that we somehow “gave away” Poland to Stalin at Teheran and Yalta. A look at the map today shows that we never “owned” Poland, and were never going to “own” Poland before the Red Army got there. The Soviet Union won Poland by force of arms. Once the Red Army had boots on the ground in Poland, there was no diplomatic way to remove them. The only way to get them out was by force of arms, and that was simply not going to happen. And as long as the Red Army is in Poland, Poland is going to be a communist satellite to the USSR. It is unfortunate, but it was also an unavoidable outcome of World War 2.
The other item in the article is not yet apparent, but will require a bit more explanation. That is the communist “party line” in history books that the United States dropped the atomic bombs on an already defeated Japan only to intimidate Russia in the post war world. The greatest weight of historical evidence is that the decision to drop the bombs on Japan was motivated by the desire to get the Japanese to quit without having to invade their homeland. Any considerations of the effect on Russia were barely discussed by Truman and Byrnes. But this theory continues to creep into our history books, and it upsets me greatly.
Where did this theory come from? Well of course, from the Russians themselves. As you can read in the Times today, the Russians are feeling mighty full of themselves. They believe they are going to be the dominant power in Europe, and therefore the dominant power in the world when the war is won. They think they’ve earned it. In May, 1945, the Russians will think they are there. Now the world will have to listen to “Father Stalin” and do respect him because of the might of the Red Army. In August, that will change. They will hear of the atomic bombs, and immediately realize that there is a “new thing” in the world. Worse, that new thing renders the Red Army, the instrument they sacrificed so much to build and in which they had so much pride, totally obsolete.
The Russians will somehow feel we “cheated” them of the fruits of their victory. And from that, came the argument that we dropped the bombs to intimidate Russia. Because they were, in fact, intimidated. Also, from this, came an almost pathological fear of Western, particularly American, technology. This fear bordered on the superstition held by South Pacific natives in their post-war Cargo Cults. Ronald Reagan will use this fear as part of his “Star Wars” and “Competitive Strategies” programs to win the Cold War, but that’s yet another story.
P-61 mentioned on front page.
Front page, P-61 Black Widow. Built the model when I was a kid and at the time thought it one of the coolest of the WWII planes.
“Ronald Reagan will use this fear as part of his “Star Wars” and “Competitive Strategies” programs to win the Cold War, but that’s yet another story.”
That fear was compounded at the same time by the near complete loss of the Soviet intelligence apparatus in the US and allied countries brought on by the FAREWELL dossier.
Not much of a sail!
I’m finding that modern history classes do not spend much time on the true effect that Reagan had on the end of the Cold War. Of course you and I know why that is.
In short though, Reagan forced the Soviets to spend themselves out of existence. SDI and other programs like that didn’t need to be successful as much as they needed to put the bug in the Soviet’s ear that they were irretrievably behind in technology.
Case FAREWELL was just another conduit used by the intelligence community to pass on misinformation as to just how far behind they were.
The reaction to this put the Soviet Union on a path to destruction. The Soviet economy and then government collapsed under its own weight as a result.
And circling that back to the aftermath of World War II, it was Secretary of State George Marshall’s policy of Containment that made Reagan’s victory possible. The idea was to keep communism contained until such time as it collapsed from its own inherent internal flaws. The policy was always intended to be a generational conflict. And despite the efforts of Jimmy Carter and LBJ to undermine that policy, it essentially worked. The Soviets fell farther and farther behind, and their society rotted out from the inside.
Reagan could not have won his victory without the basis Marshall gave him, Marshall’s policy would not have been effective without a Reagan to finally deliver the coup de grace when the time was right.
From what I’ve read, after the Soviets lost their espionage capability they had no way of telling how far along we were in the development of new weapons systems.
Gorbachev at the Reykjavik Summit was like Lee the first couple of days at Gettysburg when JEB Stuart was AWOL.
The other shibboleth of the left on the A-Bombs is Japan would have surrendered without our resorting to nuclear weapons. There was no evidence supporting that and every indication from the Cabinet and IJA high command that they intended to fight it out. And if you extrapolate the military and civilian casualty numbers from the Okinawa campaign to a campaign to take the Home Islands the casualties would have been truly horrific. Truman made the right call - and it was to save American and Japanese lives, not shock the Russians.
They didn’t lose it all. The KGB was too big and too good for that to happen. They were severely hampered towards the end of the Cold War though.
I agree that even without Reagan this would have eventually happened anyway. But I would say Reagan sped the process along by at least 10 years.
Don’t understand why we let the Chicom’s get away with the same thing.
Ever wonder why Hillary is so fond of Mao style pantsuits?
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