Posted on 01/24/2014 4:41:33 AM PST by Homer_J_Simpson
24 January. The I&R Platoon, 126th Infantry, 1 officer and 8 men of Company I, moved into Sindaman guided there by natives. Our patrol surrounded a hut where natives had reported enemy to be living. Hearing no sound from within the hut, a sergeant from the I&R Platoon stood up. At this same time a native came out of the hut and saw the sergeant, but gave no sign of recognition. Instead he started talking to the Japanese to show our men where they were. When fire was placed on the hut one Japanese was killed immediately. Then a second Japanese jumped up screaming, snatched a stick from the ground, and charged at Lieutenant Kittrel. The Lieutenant shot him through the neck but then discovered that his clip had fallen from his gun when he fired. Platoon Sergeant Young now tried to fire but his clip, too, had dropped from his carbine. Now a sergeant from Company L opened up with his tommy gun but the Japanese kept going by sheer force of his charge. It finally took the butt of his tommy gun to stop him. A third Jap was found dead from fever.
A patrol found two Japanese asleep in foxholes four hundred yards west of the Mot River and killed them.
Major General H.W. Blakeley, USA, Ret., The 32d Infantry Division in World War II
Winston S. Churchill, Closing the Ring
http://www.onwar.com/chrono/1944/jan44/f24jan44.htm
Soviets strike at Korsun salient
Monday, January 24, 1944 www.onwar.com
On the Eastern Front... Near Leningrad, Soviet forces capture Pushkin and Pashovsk and cut the Narva-Krasnogvardeisk rail line. In the south, the Soviet 1st and 2nd Ukrainian Front launch a pincer attack to encircle and destroy the Korsun-Sevchenovsky salient held by forces of German 1st Panzer Army (part of Army Group South). The pincers are intended to converge at Zvenigorodka.
In Italy... The Anzio beachhead continues to expand, albeit, slowly. To the south, along the German defenses of the Gustav Line, the Free French Corps (part of US 5th Army) attacks Monte Santa Croce. The US 2nd Corps (also part of 5th Army) continues attacking over the Rapido River, toward Caira.
http://www.etherit.co.uk/month/thismonth/24.htm
January 24th, 1944 (MONDAY)
UNITED KINGDOM: MAC carrier Empire Macdermott launched.
U.S.S.R.: 1st and 2nd Ukraine Fronts begin a major offensive. Capturing Pushkin and Pashovsk in the Ukraine.
ARCTIC OCEAN: German submarines attack Murmansk-bound convoy JW 56A. U.S. freighter SS Penelope Barker is torpedoed and sunk by U-278 about 115 miles (185 kilometres) from North Cape, Norway; 15 crewmen are killed.
ITALY: Anzio: Luftwaffe aircraft attack and sink the British hospital ship ST. DAVID; they also damage destroyer USS PLUNKETT (DD-431) and minesweeper USS PREVAIL (AM-107); an aerial torpedo damages destroyer USS MAYO (DD-422); Allied troops pause, giving Germany time to bring up reinforcements.
Anzio: Capt. Jenkin Robert Oswald Thompson (b.1911), RAMC, after four years of gallant service on hospital ships, went down with the ST. DAVID while trying to save a trapped patient. (George Cross)
During a Luftwaffe air raid on Allied shipping at Naples, U.S. freighter SS F.A.C. Muhlenberg is damaged by bomb and by near-miss of bomb; the ship’s crew and port firefighting crews extinguish the fires. Seven crewmen are killed.
The Battle of Cassino begins. The US 100th Infantry Battalion fights in the first two assaults. (Gene Hanson)
NEW BRITAIN: Over 200 US aircraft, including USMC TBF Avengers, supported by a large concentration of RNZAF, USAAF, USMC and USN fighters, raid Japanese shipping at Rabaul, in the Bismark Archipelago, destroying 83 Japanese planes - one of many such raids which are now being launched by the four carrier groups now at the disposal of the US Admiral Spruance.
They sink the water tanker Koan Maru, aircraft transport Lyon Maru (previously rendered un-navigable on 17 January) and army cargo ships Taisho Maru and Yamayuri Maru, in position 04.13S, 152.22E.
NEW GUINEA: Japanese planes bomb U.S. shipping in Dreger Bay, damaging freighter SS John Muir with one direct hit and at least four near-misses that injure 16 men.
CANADA:
Tug HMCS Auburnville assigned to Halifax, Nova Scotia.
Patrol vessel HMCS Sans Peur departed Esquimalt, British Columbia for Halifax, Nova Scotia.
U.S.A.:
Submarine USS Bream commissioned.
Destroyer escorts USS Coates, Daniel, Garfield Thomas and Hollis commissioned.
Destroyer escort USS Lloyd E Acree laid down.
Aircraft carrier USS Hancock launched.
US Troops land at Anzio... what could possibly go wrong! (/hindsight)
Wonder how the NY Times will spin it when Mark Clark decides he wants to be a modern day Sulla and march on Rome letting the Nazis escape.
Noticed the launch of the Mighty Mo.
Only 7 of the Martin Mars sea planes will be built. I saw on Smithsonian channel about a Martin Mars being used as a fire fighter plane.
The NY Subway fares won’t be raised from 5 cents until 1948. The fares will be kept too low, not enough to cover costs, leading to deterioration of the system.
I see these initial reports about no opposition and just shake my head. If only Patton had been there to kick that commander’s butt and get him moving.
So, the situation is the opposite of that painted by our old friend.
From a Guns and Ammo article about the original M1 carbine:
The magazine was released by a button in front of a similar-style safety forward of the triggerguard. It was found that in the heat of battle, soldiers would often hit the mag release instead of the safety, thus accidentally dropping and unloading their weapons. The button safety was later changed to a lever-style to eliminate this embarrassing and potentially lethal problem.
Read more: http://www.gunsandammo.com/2013/06/06/m1-carbine-americas-unlikely-warrior/#ixzz2rM9VFysC
Thanks for explaining that for me. Many of the men in the 32nd, replacements since the Buna campaign had yet to see combat including, I'll bet, the members of this platoon. Once they have survived a fire fight or two they will probably have this problem figured out.
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