RUSSIANS TRAP 10 DIVISIONS IN UKRAINE; MARINES WIN NAMUR; OUR DEAD UNDER 150 (2/4/44)

Free Republic University, Department of History presents World War II Plus 70 Years: Seminar and Discussion Forum
First session: September 1, 2009. Last date to add: September 2, 2015.
Reading assignment: New York Times articles and the occasional radio broadcast delivered daily to students on the 70th anniversary of original publication date. (Previously posted articles can be found by searching on keyword “realtime” Or view Homer’s posting history .)
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Selections from West Point Atlas for the Second World War
The Marshall Islands: Kwajalein Atoll
Southern Kwajalein Atoll; Kwajalein Island, 1944 – 7th Infantry Division Operations, 31 January-4 February 1944
Eastern Europe, 1941: Russian Leningrad and Ukraine Offensives – Operations, 2 December 1943-30 April 1944
Allied Advance to Volturno River, Reorganization, and Attack on Gustav Line (17 January-11 May 1944)
Anzio-Cassino Area, 1943: Attempts to Cross Rapido and Garigliano Rivers, 17-20 January 1944. Anzio Landing, 22 January 1944. German Counterattack at Anzio, 16-19 February 1944
New Guinea and Alamo Force Operations: Clearing the Huon Peninsula and Securing the Straits, 19 September 1943-26 April 1944
Cartwheel, the Seizure of the Gilberts and Marshalls, and Concurrent Air and Naval Operations, 30 June 1943-26 April 1944
The Far East and the Pacific, 1941: Original Allied Strategic Concept, May 1943; Situation in Pacific, 1 November 1943

[Continued from yesterday.]

4 February. Enemy holds west bank of Mot River with detachments at Gabumi covering the Sindaman track.

Major General H.W. Blakeley, USA, Ret., The 32d Infantry Division in World War II

Two Armies Join (Lawrence) – 2-3
War News Summarized – 3
Many Japanese Die (Horne) – 4-5
Warship Fire Tore to Pieces Big Namur-Roi Blockhouses (by Alva Dopking and Paul Beam, first-time contributors) – 5-6
U-Boat Base Target (Graham) – 6
2,000 Big Bombers Now Raid Germany – 6-7
Foe’s Field Warns RAF Wreck Away – 7
January Plane Output Exceeded Schedule; Combat Craft Emphasized in 8,789 Total – 7
12 Unit Citations are Given Attu Victors by President for Valor against Japanese – 7
Stab into Cassino Repulsed by Nazis (Sulzberger) – 8
Fifth Army Drives to Cut Off Cassino (by Milton Bracker) – 9
A Fighting General Celebrates Birthday at the Front (photo) – 9
Spain will Remain ‘Strictly Neutral’ – 10
Heavy Gunfire Battering the Japanese on New Britain (photo) – 10
Atrocities Opened March of Bataan (by the late Lieut. Col. W.E. Dyess, as told to Charles Leavelle) – 11
Oust Italian King, French Ask Allies (by Harold Callender) – 11
Air Power and the War (by Alexander P. de Seversky) – 12
Red Army Biting Hard (by Hanson W. Baldwin) – 13
War’s Casualties Set at 25,000,000 – 13
The Texts of the Day’s Communiques on the Fighting in Various War Zones – 14-15
Five New Yorkers on Invasion Plane – 15

http://www.onwar.com/chrono/1944/feb44/f04feb44.htm

Germans attempt relief of Korsun pocket
Friday, February 4, 1944 www.onwar.com

German Tiger tanks operating on the Eastern Front [photo at link]

On the Eastern Front... In the north, Soviet forces reach the mouth of the Narva River. East of Lake Peipus, Soviet forces occupy Gdov. In the south, forces of Army Group South (Manstein) begin a relieving attack on Soviet forces encircling the Korsun pocket. The relief is spearheaded by the Tigers and Panthers of Heavy Panzer Regiment “Bake”.

In Berlin... Hitler orders the 24th Panzer Division (part of the relieving force assembled by Army Group South) to move to Nikopol to assist the defenders of the salient against the Soviet forces attempting to break through there.

In the Marshall Islands... Organized Japanese resistance in the Kwajalein Atoll ends. Most of the 8700 Japanese garrison commanded by Admiral Akiyama Monzo have been killed. Only 265 are captured, many are Korean laborers or wounded. The Americans have deployed 41,000 troops of whom 370 have been killed in action and 1500 wounded.

In Italy... At the Anzio beachhead, German attacks force the British 1st Division to fall back. Meanwhile, to the south, the forces of US 5th Army continue offensive operations. The US 34th Division gains ground near Point 593 and Point 445 as well as attacking Colle Sant’Angelo.

In Burma... Japanese forces launch a major offensive in the Arakan (Operation Ha-Go).

http://www.etherit.co.uk/month/thismonth/04.htm

February 4th, 1944 (FRIDAY)

BALTIC SEA: U-854 mined and sunk in the Baltic Sea north of Swinemünde, in position 54.44N, 14.16E. 51 dead and 7 survivors.

BURMA: Arakan: The British XV Corps’ offensive in the Arakan has ground to a halt, with the veteran Japanese 55th Division making an attack on Taung Bazaar in the British rear. This evening the Japanese counter-attack (Operation Ha-Go) made its first contact with the British 7th Indian Division, led by Major-General Frank Messervy, in the Ngakyedauk Pass.

Since early December the British have been advancing down the Arakan towards Akyab, a vital airfield for any attack on Rangoon, but at the Maungdaw to Buthidaung road they were confronted by defences consisting of impenetrable tunnel systems. Now, with their rear threatened, the British risk a repeat of last year’s defeat in the Arakan peninsula.

MARSHALL ISLANDS: Glen Borens’ diary reads:
At about 0615 hrs, land was sighted. We kept coming in til you could almost count the branches on the coconut trees. We dropped anchor at 1035 hrs in Majuro Lagoon.

We were told that we were approximately 18 days ahead of schedule in the Marshalls campaign. Practically all of the Marshall Islands are in our hands. Just before dark, I was on the flight deck and looked out over the lagoon and it was solid ships everywhere I looked. Every kind of ship you could think of was anchored there in the lagoon. What a sight and “what a target” !!!!! Anyway, all went well.

Kwajalein: After four days of fierce fighting against Japanese troops prepared to fight to the death rather than surrender, US forces have captured all the main atolls in the Marshall Islands, securing a strategic staging post for future Allied offensives in the central Pacific.

The Japanese-mandated islands, an important defensive link in Japan’s Pacific perimeter are the first territory in the Japanese empire to fall to the Allies. Their loss was reported to the Japanese imperial Diet by the premier, General Tojo. He said: “The war situation is increasing in gravity day by day. For the first time, the enemy has really attacked Japanese soil.”

The landings four days ago by 40,000 US infantry and marines on the three main islands of Kwajalein atoll - Kwajalein, Roi and Namur - were the largest operation yet staged by the Allies in the Pacific. Namur and Roi fell within two days. But mopping-up operations are still going on against a Japanese garrison holding out in a 400-yard stretch in the north-east of Kwajalein, where US troops of Major-General Charle Corlett’s 7th Division now control 80 islands in the 60-mile-long atoll.

Although outnumbered, the Japanese have fought to the death. On Namur and Roi 3,742 were killed and only 91 taken prisoner, US casualties were 737, including 190 dead. On Kwajalein, 7,870 of the 8,000-strong garrison died; US losses were 372. Roi puts the Allies within bomber range of the Japanese naval base at Truk.

U.S.A.:
Destroyer escorts USS Eugene E Elmore and Hilbert commissioned.

Escort carrier USS Shamrock Bay launched.

Escort carrier USS Salamaua laid down.

ARGENTINA severs diplomatic relations with Bulgaria, Vichy France, Hungary, and Romania.

ATLANTIC OCEAN:
U-453 show down SAAF 17 Sqn Ventura.

U-519 shot down RAF 172 Sqn Wellington. The U-boat was possibly lost in this attack.

U-763 shot down two Liberators from RAF 53 Sqn. One at 0821, the second at 2211.

Interesting remark by Gen. Marshall on p. 8 about “vehement protests” against the use of flame throwers. I wasn’t aware of anything going on during those years that is like modern post-Vietnam antiwar attitudes.

Letters to home from Ernie Pyle, dated 2/4/1944 and 3/30/1944:

I've Had It

IU Archives

Former IU President Herman B Wells, Ernie Pyle’s Aunt Mary and General Omar N. Bradley unveil a plaque dedicated to Pyle.

Multimedia

Listen to this column read by School of Journalism Professor Owen V. Johnson (6.20MB)

Feb. 4, 1944

Dear Lee -

Stars & Stripes this morning carried a two-column piece about Ray Clapper being killed. I’m just floored by it. Somehow it had never occurred to me that anything would ever happen to him. What a waste of intelligence and character – as the whole war is. It gives me the creeps.

The whole thing is getting pretty badly under my skin, Lee. I’ve got so I brood about it, about the whole thing, I mean, and I have a personal reluctance to die that is always in my mind, like a weight. Instead of growing stronger and hard as good veterans do, I’ve become weaker and more frightened. I’m allright when I’m actually at the front, but it’s when I pull back and start thinking and visualizing that it almost overwhelms me. I’ve even got so I don’t sleep well, and have half-awake hideous dreams about the war.

I’ve really been sick with this cold, but I think I might have kept the columns going anyhow except I was just so low in spirit, I didn’t have the will to struggle against them when my deadline was so close and I felt so lousy. I’m writing again now, with much difficulty, and will start sending them again in a day or two.

I’ve almost reached the point where "I’ve had it," as soldiers and fliers say when they can’t take it any longer. I’d quit it and come home for good except I don’t suppose I could live with myself if I did, and would gradually go nuts. If I can just see the European war out I think I might feel justified in quitting the war. It was only by a miracle that some correspondents on the beachhead landing weren’t killed.

That front-page play The News gave the Capt. Waskow piece was the damndest thing I ever saw. I’m enclosing an original copy of the piece, in case you should ever be reprinting it, as there were a few words garbled in transmission.

It looks now as though I might not leave for England up to as late as March 10. I’d counted on more or less wasting two weeks getting there, but it looks now as if I could probably get through in four or five days, which will allow me to stay here that much longer. Figure I might as well stay here as long as I can, for the weather should soon turn nice here, and there’ll be more action here until the invasion actually starts. I’m more or less committed to do a couple of weeks with the heavy bombers here, although I find the Air Corps colorless and anti-climactic after the infantry.

….Guess that’s all there is just now. Probably I’ll be feeling more chipper in a few days.

Italy – March 30

Dear Papa & Auntie -

I’m afraid I’ve let quite a bit of time slip by this time without writing. But I had thought I’d be in England before now, and kept putting off writing until after the trip. But I can’t ever seem to get finished with certain pieces of writing I’ve planned, so have just delayed going from day to day. The way it looks now, I’ll probably leave in four or five days, as I still have about that much work to do here.

I’m back from the beachhead now. As you’ve doubtless read, I had some pretty narrow escapes up there, and I hope it didn’t worry you too much when you saw it in the paper. Our worst one was when they bombed our house. We got two 500-pounders right alongside the house. I was sleeping in a room alone, and it blew two of my walls in. I had just jumped up to look out the window, and had been out of bed about two seconds when the whole wall blew in and covered my bed with about a thousand pounds of brick and stone. I was very lucky.

A couple of other times I had "88" artillery shells hit within a few feet of me, but fortunately the ground was muddy and the mud absorbed the fragments. When I went to the beachhead I had only planned to stay about five days, but I found it so interesting (despite the danger) that I wound up by staying three and a half weeks.

My anemia is much better. The Army continued giving me shots while I was at the beachhead, and they ran a blood count up there, and found it almost back up to normal. And I’ve been feeling much better too.

I haven’t heard from you for quite a while, since I expect you are sending the letters to England now….

Had a long letter today from Lester Cowan, who is making the movie of my book. He says they have already started shooting on the outdoor scenes. They won’t have the script completely written till about May 15. Then he wants Lee Miller and Lowell Mellett to come out to Hollywood and go over it with him. Also he will fly a copy to me in England, so I can approve or change it. I don’t expect the picture will be ready for release until fall. I understand Jimmy Gleason is to play my part.

Lee writes that they have already sold 225,000 copies of the book, and the column is running in about 270 papers now. I get quite a lot of mail from readers – it has been running about 100 letters a week, I guess. Of course I can’t take the time to answer them, but it’s nice to get them anyway.

Guess that’s about all there is to write. Are you still using your walker, Papa? I’m glad that spring will soon be with you. I’ll write again just as soon as I get to England….

Looks like de Seversky is on the sauce again. Convoy fighters with multiple crew and gun turrets? Sounds like a mini-Fortress. That would sure be maneuverable against the German fighters.

I think we'd better leave the matter of tactics to Gen. Doolittle.

De Seversky is not only hitting the sauce, he apparently hasn’t talked to anyone who has actually flown in combat in the past five years. The plane he’s talking about sounds a lot like the concept that was tried out with the Me 110. They were supposed to be bomber escorts, but in the Battle of Britain, they were so vulnerable even to the Hurricanes that they required Me 109 escorts themselves. The 110s wound up on the eastern front in the Me 110e version ground attack plane, where it was at least more survivable than the Ju 87 Stuka.

But the airmen around the world must be laughing at this one.

Me 110:

Wow, that monster would be a sitting duck for a Spitfire or Hurricane.

Goering was a proponent. I should have known.

The 8th Air Force tried the multi-engined gunship idea with the YB-40, a modified B-17. That was last year. It didn’t work. The B-17 crews are happy enough with the P-47s and P-51s escorting them.

Wiki:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/YB-40_Flying_Fortress

8th Air Force diary, 1943 (see 5/29-6/29).

http://www.8thafhs.org/combat1943.htm

Thanks for posting the photo of Indiana University President Hermann Wells When I was a student at IU from 1977-1981, he was “Chancellor Wells,” having retired some years earlier. But he was an institution on the IU Campus.

The reason I point this out is that as President of IU, he was able to secure the immigration of a number of Jewish people and their families from Germany in the years before World War 2. He brought them as visa exemptions by making them faculty at the University. Of course, IU benefited greatly in their departments of science, medicine and music.

One of the people he “saved” was Henri H. Remak, one of my favorite German professors. Herr Remak would host a dinner at his modest home each year for the seniors studying German, which his lovely wife prepared for us. After dinner we all retired to his family room for a nice evening together. I was amazed by Herr Remak; I wondered at how many of his friends, neighbors and family did NOT have his good fortune. He could have turned his back on all things German, and had much reason to. But he still loved the language and culture enough to teach it to a midwestern rube like me.

He taught me a lot about what it meant to be a man of grace and dignity. I am grateful to have known him, and grateful that President Wells gave me that chance.

Looks like de Seversky is on the sauce again. Convoy fighters with multiple crew and gun turrets? Sounds like a mini-Fortress.

Or a P-60.

Just looked it up. Wow, that was a real turkey.

Thanks. I’d never heard of that B-17 variant. It was so heavy from the extra armament it couldn’t keep up with the bombers.

Just looked it up. Wow, that was a real turkey.

Yeah but it seems that I hit the sauce a bit early this evening. I meant P-61; multi-engine, turrent mounted guns, just what de Seversky seems to be wanting.

The P-61 Black Widow was a purpose-built nightfighter. It was very good at its mission and I don't believe any were lost to enemy fire. But it wasn't fast or maneuverable enough to be an effective day fighter.

That said, with a crew of three and a turret it looks something like what de Seversky had in mind, but it also illustrates why what he had in mind wouldn't work.

This is a test.

Japanese Cemetery on Kwajalein, Photo taken in 1978: