Posted on 01/29/2014 4:09:02 AM PST by Homer_J_Simpson
Winston S. Churchill, Closing the Ring
#1 - “My Heart Tells Me” - Glen Gray, with Eugenie Baird
#2 – “Shoo Shoo Baby” - Andrews Sisters
#3 – “Paper Doll” - Mills Brothers
#4 - “Star Eyes” - Jimmy Dorsey, with Bob Eberly and Kitty Kallen
#5 - “Besame Mucho” – Jimmy Dorsey, with Bob Eberly and Kitty Kallen
#6 – “Shoo Shoo Baby” - Ella Mae Morse, with orchestra
#7 - “They’re Either Too Young or Too Old” - Jimmy Dorsey, with Kitty Kallen
#8 - “Speak Low” – Guy Lombardo, with Billy Leach
#9 - “My Shining Hour” - Glen Gray, with Eugenie Baird
#10 – “Cherry” – Harry James
http://www.onwar.com/chrono/1944/jan44/f29jan44.htm
Model replaces Kuchler
Saturday, January 29, 1944 www.onwar.com
Field Marshal Kuchler (center) [photo at link]
From Berlin... Hitler appoints Model to command German Army Group North in place of Kuchler (who formally is retired).
In Italy... At Anzio the Allied forces now number 69,000 troops with 508 guns and 237 tanks. General Lucas makes preparations for an offensive to break out of the beachhead. Meanwhile, the German cordon now consists of 8 divisions under 14th Army. There are German air strikes which result in 1 cruiser and 1 transport sunk. To the south, along the German-held Gustav Line, forces of the US 5th Army continue attacking. The 34th Division makes some progress in expanding the bridgehead over the Rapido River.
In the Marshall Islands... US Task Force 58 (Admiral Mitscher) bombs and shells Japanese targets on Roi, Namur, Maloelap and Wotje. American land-based aircraft bomb Jaluit and Mille.
On the Eastern Front... Soviet offensives pressure on German Army Group North continues. Forces of the Volkhov Front (Meretskov) capture Chudovo; forces of 2nd Baltic Front (Popov) take Novosokolniki.
http://www.etherit.co.uk/month/thismonth/29.htm
January 29th, 1944 (SATURDAY)
UNITED KINGDOM: Corvette HMCS Morden completed forecastle extension refit Londonderry, NI.
Corvette HMCS Forest Hill departed Londonderry to escort Convoy ONS-28.
Minesweeping trawler HMS Harris launched.
Sloops HMS Modeste and Nereide launched.
FRANCE: U-364 reported for the last time on 29 Jan, 1944 announcing its arrival at St. Nazaire on 31 Jan. (Alex Gordon)
GERMANY: Frankfurt: 763 US bombers kill over 700 civilians; 20 planes are lost.
ITALY: Cruiser HMS Spartan is anchored in Anzio Bay at 41 26N 12 41E, to provide air defence for the amphibious landings. As night falls at 1750, approximately 35 minutes after sunset, the invasion force is subjected to a German glider bomb attack. Four enemy aircraft, flying at about 5,000 feet and a few miles inland make at attack. Spartan is one of those targeted and engages the aircraft when an Hs.293 glider bomb strike hits close to her aft funnel at 17.56 and starts fires which can not be controlled. The bomb was engaged at close range by anti-aircraft fire and it was at first thought that the bomb would miss astern. However, the weapon altered course during the final stage of its approach and struck the ship at the after end of B funnel. A large fire broke out at the point of impact. The projectile passed through the ship and exploded on the port side, immediately flooding B boiler room. A secondary fire broke out by the port torpedo tubes. By 1900 the ship was listing 30 degrees and, shortly afterwards, the order was given to abandon ship. The list increased to 35 degrees and Spartan sank at 1915, in six fathoms of water. For an hour the crew fights to save her before the order is given to abandon ship. Ten minutes later she settles on her beam in just over 30 feet of water, taking 5 officers and 41 ratings with her. There are 18 other casualties, and 523 survivors. (Alex Gordon and Navynews and Dave Shirlaw)(108)
U.S.S.R.: Soviet forces clear the important railway line between Moscow and Leningrad.
General Model replaces Field Marshal von Kuchler as commander of Germany’s Army Group North.
Marshall Islands: The US TF 58 conducts air raids.
Task Force 58 consisted of the following:
Task Group 58.1
USS Enterprise (CV-6) with Carrier Air Group Ten (CVG-10)
USS Yorktown (CV-10) with CVG-5)
USS Belleau Wood (CVL-24) with Light Carrier Air Group Twenty Four (CVLG-24)
Task Group 58.2
USS Essex (CV-9) with CVG-9
USS Intrepid (CV-11) with CVG-11
USS Cabot (CVL-28) with CVLG-31
Task Group 58.3
USS Bunker Hill (CV-17) with CVG-17
USS Cowpens (CVL-25) with CVLG-22
USS Monterey (CVL-26) with CVLG-30
Task Group 58.4
USS Saratoga (CV-3) with CVG-12
USS Langley (CVL27) with CVLG-32)
USS Princeton (CVL-23) with CVLG-23
The attack begins with a fighter sweep against the airfield on Roi Island in Kwajalein Atoll.USNcarrier aircraft fly almost 700 sorties against airfields and other targets in Kwajaelein Atoll plus Maloelap and Wotje. B-24s of the USAAF’s VII Bomber Command, attacking from bases in the Gilbert Islands, maintain day and night attacks (both multi and single-aircraft attacks) against Maloelap, Jaluit, Aur Atoll, Wotje and Mille. Nine B-25s from Tarawa also carry out a strike against shipping and short installations at Wotje. Eighteen Douglas A-24 Dauntlesses (USN SBD), supported by 12 P-40s, hit Jaluit. Finally, 12 P-39s, operating in flights of four aircraft, patrol and strafe Mille all day to deny use of the airfield to the Japanese.
Navy fighter pilots flying F6F Hellcats score a number of victories;
(1) Fighting Squadron Nine (VF-9 in USS Essex), VF-31 in USS Cabot and VF-6 in USS Intrepid shoot down 13 Mitsubishi A6M, Navy Type 0 Carrier Fighter, Allied Code Name “Zeke,” between 0700 and 0720 hours;
(2) VF-10 in USS Enterprise destroy four “Zekes” over Taroa Airfield on Maloelap between 0715 and 0800;
(3) VF-6 and VF-9 pilots down six Mitsubishi G4M, Navy Type 1 Attack Bombers, Allied Code Name “Betty,” one “Zeke” and one Mitsubishi Ki-57, Army Type 100 Transport, Allied Code Name “Topsy,” over or near Burlesque Island about 0840; a VF-5 in USS Yorktown downs a Nakajima B5N, Navy Type 97 Carrier Attack Bomber, Allied Code Name “Kate,” over Wotje Island at 1445; and a VF-9 pilot shoots down a “Kate” near Roi Island at 1550.
(4) Night Fighting Squadron One Hundred One [VF(N)-101] with F4U-2s perform the first combat operation with this type.
Glen Boren makes the following entry in his diary:
January 29 1944
We left Funifuta and moved into battle position on the 28th. They kicked us out of bed at 0310 and we launched a pre-dawn incendiary attack on the airfield on Kwajalein Island. No air opposition was encountered and very little anti-aircraft fire, but what there was, was very accurate. Several attacks were made during the day. We lost one fighter and the air group lost two TBFs and one SB2C. The airfield was rendered useless.
All I have on the following is the entry in my diary but here it is; Just at dusk, the DD Burns was sent in to rescue the crew of one of the TBFs that went down. They picked up the crew and started back, after dark, On the way out, they ran into a small jap convoy consisting of ; 2 DEs, 1 AK and 1 merchant ship. They took them all on and sank the lot of them During the night we move to Engebi.
More tomorrow.
Glen
CANADA: Frigate HMCS Poundmaker laid down Montreal, Province of Quebec.
Frigate HMCS Ettrick commissioned Halifax, Nova Scotia.
Corvette HMCS Buctouche completed forecastle extension refit Saint John, New Brunswick.
Corvette HMCS Dawson completed forecastle extension refit Vancouver, British Columbia.
Tug HMCS Otterville assigned to Saint John, New Brunswick.
Minesweeper HMCS Mahone damaged in collision with SS Fort Townshend off Louisbourg, Nova Scotia. Mahone out of service until August of 1944.
U.S.A.: “No Love, No Nothin’” sung by Ella Mae Morse from the movie “The Gang’s All Here” is released.
Battleship USS Missouri is launched.
Submarine USS Spikefish laid down.
Frigate USS Corpus Christi commissioned.
Destroyers USS Wren and Mansfield launched.
Destroyer escorts USS Tinsman, Lawrence C Taylor and Jesse Rutherford launched.
Minesweeper USS Reform launched.
ATLANTIC OCEAN: At 2207, SS Olga E. Embiricos was torpedoed and sunk by U-188, which misidentified the ship as Giorgios M. Embiricos.
It will make the Billboard Top 10 next week.
“Eaker’s Men Down 50 German Planes”
Good job!
“Gains in Italy Held.”
That is, the Anzio front is at a standstill. Unnngh.
Btw, I noticed the price of the NYT is three cents!
It is interesting to contrast the politicians’ comments in the “Ruin Japan!” article with the attitudes toward the military shown by today’s group of self-absorbed looters and thieves. Perhaps even more interesting to contrast them with Democrats in the Vietnam era, only 25 years later. The poisonous soils of Roosevelt’s 30’s bore spectacularly rotten fruit in less than a generation.
‘The Hun is always either at your throat or at your feet’.
Winston Churchill, May 19, 1943.
"Religious conviction led many Jehovah's Witnesses to shun obedience to the Nazi government.
In the dark days of the war in 1943, office worker Mary Smigiel, seen here, became a Jehovah's Witness in Gdynia, Poland.
Believing that only Jehovah was to be praised and honored, Smigiel refused her German boss's demand that she type "Heil Hitler" on all correspondence.
Her disobedience was reported, and she was sent to the Stutthof, Poland, labor camp.
She survived the war, married, and eventually settled in the United States."
Good story.
Excellent picture!
Wow....thanks for posting!
BTW, is he buried at Arlington?
Riiiiiiiiiigt!
And if you'll believe that, then let me tell you about an affordable health care plan, where if you like your doctor, you can keep your doctor...
First World War Canadian election poster:
And where, oh where, could this infamous defamation of good German character have originated?
Well, there was this Kaiser, named Wilhelm II, in 1900:
"On July 27, 1900, during the Boxer Rebellion in China, Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany gave the order to act ruthlessly towards the rebels: 'Mercy will not be shown, prisoners will not be taken.
Just as a thousand years ago, the Huns under Attila won a reputation of might that lives on in legends, so may the name of Germany in China, such that no Chinese will even again dare so much as to look askance at a German.'[67]"
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