Posted on 01/26/2014 4:47:29 AM PST by Homer_J_Simpson
26 January. A patrol on the coastal track toward Teteri on the west side of the Mot River met a force of 20 Japanese supported by a light machine gun and a heavy machine gun. In the exchange of fire four enemy were killed and two wounded. Both patrols withdrew. Artillery then placed a concentration on this area.
Major General H.W. Blakeley, USA, Ret., The 32d Infantry Division in World War II
U.S. Patrol Enters (Bracker) – 2-3
3 Hospital Ships Bombed off Italy – 3
Americans Battle All Night Long to Keep Mussolini Canal Bridges (Whitehead) – 3
Rapido Crossing Made at High Cost (Sulzberger) – 4
AMG Aides Landed on Day of Invasion (Packard) – 4
Short Cut to Rome by Sea and Air (photo) – 5
War News Summarized – 5
Russians Storm Rail Key; Sever Foe’s Escape Routes (Lawrence) – 6-7
Hope for Support of Russia on Gold (Crider) – 7
Aide to Governor Answers Question – 7
Cognac and Noisemakers on New Year’s Eve (photo) – 8
Pre-Convention Decisions (by Arthur Krock) – 10
Crisis Due Near Rome (by Hanson W. Baldwin) – 10
The Texts of the Day’s Communiques on the Fighting in Various War Zones – 11-12
Experts Predict Victory This Year – 12
http://www.onwar.com/chrono/1944/jan44/f26jan44.htm
Allies capture Belvedere, cross Rapido
Wednesday, January 26, 1944 www.onwar.com
Free French artillery supporting advance in Italy [photo at link]
In Italy... The forces of US 5th Army continue their offensive. The Free French Corps captures Colle Belvedere and advance toward Monte Abate. The US 2nd Corps establishes a bridgehead over the Rapido River.
On the Eastern Front... Near Leningrad, Soviet forces capture the town of Krasnogvardeisk during the early morning.
In the Bismark Archipelago... On New Britain, there is a heavy bombing raid on the Japanese base at Rabaul, by US aircraft. Many Japanese planes are claimed to be shot down.
http://www.etherit.co.uk/month/thismonth/26.htm
January 26th, 1944 (WEDNESDAY)
UNITED KINGDOM: London: An Old Bailey jury today found 58-year-old Oswald Job guilty of espionage and he was sentenced to death. Job was born in Stepney of German parents and moved to Paris in 1911. In 1940, as a British passport holder, he was interned by the Nazis. The German secret service recruited him from prison, and he returned to England posing as an escapee. From his room in Bayswater he wrote letters to PoWs with invasion plans in invisible ink between the lines. The British authorities became aware of his activities thanks to the work of a double agent codenamed “Dragonfly”.
Corvette HMCS Bowmanville (ex-HMS Nunney Castle) launched Sunderland.
Corvette HMCS Kincardine (ex-HMS Tamworth Castle) launched South Bank-on-Tees.
Corvette HMCS Orangeville (ex-HMS Hedingham Castle) launched Leith, Scotland.
Corvette HMS Arbutus launched.
GERMANY: U-869, U-1230 commissioned.
ITALY: Martial law is proclaimed in Rome.
U.S.S.R.: Moscow: Russia today replied to German accusations that it was responsible for the murder of thousands of Polish officers in Katyn forest by charging the Germans with the massacre of the Poles. According to the findings of a special atrocity commission, the Poles were still alive when the Germans took over the area in July 1941. The German accusations led to the breakdown in relations between the Polish government based in London and the Soviet government, a situation which has become even more sensitive as the Red Army advances deeper into Poland.
NEW GUINEA: In heavy fighting, veteran Australian troops have cleared the Japanese from strategic “Shaggy Ridge”, in New Guinea’s rugged Finisterre range. After the fall of Lae, the Australians - part of 18 Infantry Brigade of 7th Division - set out to clear the enemy from the Huon Gulf area as part of the campaign to crush Japanese resistance in the South-west Pacific.
The “diggers”, patrolling in the foothills of the Finisterres encountered Japanese entrenched in strong defensive positions. In late December the Australians assaulted the southern slopes of “Shaggy Ridge” and took the “Pimple”. From 17 January, backed by heavy RAAF raids, the Australians advanced along the razor backs. Today the enemy finally broke.
AUSTRALIA: Minesweeper HMAS Kiama commissioned.
CANADA: HMC MTB 459 commissioned.
U.S.A.: The motion picture “The Song of Bernadette” opens at the Rivoli Theater in New York City. Directed by Henry King, this religious drama stars Jennifer Jones, Charles Bickford, Vincent Price, Lee J. Cobb and Gladys Cooper.
Frigate USS Moberly launched.
Destroyer escort USS Peiffer launched.
Destroyers USS Heywood L Edwards and Allen M Sumner commissioned.
Escort carrier USS Marcus Island commissioned.
Submarine USS Guitarro commissioned.
ARGENTINA: The news that Argentina has severed relations with Germany and Japan brought cheering crowds out on to the streets of Buenos Aires today. President Ramirez signed the decree just after 8am, making his country the 21st American republic to turn against the Axis. This follows the uncovering of a vast enemy spy network in Argentina involving high-society figures. Many arrests have already been made. But diplomatic sources in neighbouring Chile see the move as no more than a practical expedient to avoid a break with the United States.
ATLANTIC OCEAN: Off ICELAND: Ten U-boats attack convoy JW-56A, sinking three merchant ships.
SS Samouri sunk by U-188 at 13.13N, 55.56E - Grid MQ 4658.
SS Surada sunk by U-188 at 13.00N, 55.15E - Grid MQ 4565.
SS Walter Camp sunk by U-532 at 10.00N, 71.49E - Grid MS 79.
At 0020, U-716 fired a spread of three FAT torpedoes on the convoy JW-56A, heard two hits and reported one ship with 7000 tons sunk and another of 7000 tons damaged. In fact, only the Andrew G. Curtin in station #61 was hit by one torpedo on the starboard side between the #2 and #3 holds. The watch below secured the engines as the ship settled by the head and listed to starboard. The deck cracked forward of the #3 hold and extended across the vessel. As the Liberty ship sank, the crack widened and the bow soon hogged about 25°. The complement of eight officers, 35 men and 28 armed guards (the ship was armed with one 5in, one 3in and eight 20mm guns) abandoned ship in some confusion in one raft and four lifeboats aft of the crack. Two crewmembers drowned and one armed guard died in the explosion. The survivors observed the Andrew G. Curtin breaking in two before sinking. In less than 30 minutes, HMS Inconstant picked up the survivors and landed them later in Murmansk. The USS PTC-39 was on transfer from the USA to North Russia aboard the Andrew G. Curtin and was lost.
U-545 I WO was washed overboard in the North Atlantic. [Oberleutnant zur See Hans Wilkening].
During operations against convoy JW 56A in the Arctic Sea, U-360 and U-601 collided, resulting in slight damage to both boats.
"The fact that Miss Simmons happens to be one of my staff or that she is the daughter of one of my tenants does not affect me in the least," said Sir Cuthbert. "I have always been proud that I am a true Tory democrat ..."
Will "The Baronet and the Typist" appear in the movie reviews in a few months? Just goes to show that no world situation is sufficiently dire to divert our interest in other people's romantic hijinks.
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I suspect the fact that she was 19 had a much bigger impact. At any rate, the 13th Baronet did marry her, they had two children (one died in infancy), and their son is currently the 15th Baronet. Sir Cuthbert served in World War I in the Coldstream Guards and the Royal Naval Air Service and died in 1958. Philommena died in 2009 and remarried after her first husband's death.
Still have my grandfather’s handwritten notes of the Hell at Rapido, where he served as a Medic.
Have you copied them and sent them to his unit’s archivist or reunion committee?
Thank you! I’m glad it worked out for them.
I’ve been looking at the maps for some time and expected a big fight at Cassino. I’m a little surprised at the headline announcing the Germans are abandoning it. If true, I think they will reconsider.
No, the Germans are not about to quit Cassino. I’ve been reading the over-optimistic reports from Anzio and Cassino with sadness, knowing what is ahead for those troops.
Vatutin and Konev are closing the Korsun pocket. The result will be very bad for the Germans.
The Korsun Pocket is one of those battles about which there was a lot of controversy. The Soviets claimed they pocketed and destroyed two full German army corps. In Werth’s “Russia at War,” he referred to it as “Little Stalingrad on the Dnieper.” Von Manstein claimed in “Lost Victories” that the units were extracted in good shape. The truth apparently lies somewhere in between, as stated in “Korsun Pocket: The Encirclement and Breakout of a German Army in the East, 1944” by Niklas Zetterling and Anders Frankson. The Soviets will encircle the two corps, and the Germans will attempt to relieve them with III Panzer Corps. An early thaw and mud will slow the German efforts. In the end, most of the German troops will be evacuated by air or fight their way out. However, they will leave behind all of their equipment and artillery, and the survivors will be physically exhausted and incapable of combat. They will eventually return to combat, but for all practical purposes XI and XLII Corps are going to disappear from the German order of battle. The loss of those two formations will leave a hole in the German line, and it will be exploited by Konev in his “Mud Offensive” in March as the Soviets drive to the Rumanian border.
The Korsun bulge was an obviously vulnerable target, and von Manstein repeatedly asked Hitler for permission to withdraw to the base of the salient. While the German generals tended to blame Hitler for everything that went wrong, it’s hard to argue with them on this one. Exposing those units was against all military logic.
In the AFC championship game Peyton Manning got the Pats to jump offside something like five times with the same hard count. The Russians must be experiencing a similar feeling as they repeatedly encircle German formations and the Germans wait too long to clear out.
That has got to be something puzzles the Soviets no end; that the Germans could be so good tactically but so stupid at the operational level.
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