Posted on 02/26/2014 4:28:10 AM PST by Homer_J_Simpson
#1 - “My Heart Tells Me” - Glen Gray, with Eugenie Baird
#2 - “Besame Mucho” – Jimmy Dorsey, with Bob Eberly and Kitty Kallen
#3 – “Shoo Shoo Baby” - Andrews Sisters
#4 - “Star Eyes” - Jimmy Dorsey, with Bob Eberly and Kitty Kallen
#5 – “Shoo Shoo Baby” - Ella Mae Morse, with orchestra
#6 – “I Couldn’t Sleep a Wink Last Night” – Frank Sinatra
#7 - “Mairzy Doats” – Merry Macs
#8 – “Paper Doll” - Mills Brothers
#9 - “Holiday for Strings” – David Rose
#10 - “My Ideal” – Jimmy Dorsey, with Bob Eberly
* Extra credit for identifying the unidentified officer.
http://www.onwar.com/chrono/1944/feb44/f26feb44.htm
Soviets bomb Helsinki
Saturday, February 26, 1944 www.onwar.com
Over Finland... Some 600 Soviet bombers attack Helsinki between 1800 and 0600 the following morning. Fires begun by the raid are visible for 400 km. Only three bombers are lost.
On the Eastern Front... In the north, Soviet forces capture Porkhov, east of Dno.
In the Bismark Archipelago... Allied aircraft raid Rabaul, on New Britain, destroying Japanese munitions dumps.
In British Guiana... The source of the Orinoco River is discovered by the crew of a USAAF plane in a mountainous gorge near the Brazilian-Venezuelan border.
In Occupied France... French resistance members attack the SOMUA armor plate works at Lyons. Over 30 of the plastic explosive charges planted fail to detonate.
http://www.etherit.co.uk/month/thismonth/26.htm
February 26th, 1944 (SATURDAY)
UNITED KINGDOM: London: US heavy bombers escorted into the heart of Germany by long-range Mustang fighters, have won a great victory over the Luftwaffe in which has become known to the crews as “Big Week”.
In six days, 1,000 bombers and 900 fighters have carried out 13 major attacks against the German aircraft industry in the campaign to destroy the Germans’ strength in the air. In all, over 3,800 heavy bombers sorties were made. American losses were 226 aircraft, an acceptable rate of 6%.
The bombers did not only inflict severe damage on the factories; they and the Mustangs shot down some 517 German fighters, killing 225 air crews and wounding 141, almost 10% of the skilled airmen in Germany. The Luftwaffe cannot sustain this rate of attrition.
The Mustang, with its American airframe and Rolls-Royce engine, has completely changed the pattern if air warfare over Europe. Now the bombers can be escorted all the way to their targets by a fighter superior in almost every respect to the Me109 and FW190.
The US bombers, who previously sought to evade the German fighters, are seeking them out, and the Germans, no longer able to wait until the escorting fighters turn back, are being forced to attack as soon as they cross the coast thus allowing shorter range aircraft like the Spitfire to enter the battle. RAF Bomber Command has also taken part in “Big Week”, with heavy raids on Leipzig and Stuttgart. It lost 78 bombers over Leipzig, but only 10 over Stuttgart.
Lieutenant-Commander Peter Williams sails at dusk from Dartmouth. He heads towards Weymouth; then, once out of sight, he turns south. On reaching the Brittany coast he cuts his speed to reduce noise, wash and phospherescence, and creeps through rocks and swirling tides to anchor within a few hundred yards of the beach. A sailor is placed on stand-by to cut the grass rope in an emergency.
Williams then sent his surfboat inshore with muffled oars, on a rising tide to avoid footprints, in order to land a party which included Francois Mitterrand, the future President of France. As the boat returned, laden with five agents and a downed Allied pilot, it was able to find the MGB in the dark with a device, invented by Williams, which homed in on its Asdic [sonar] transmissions. By breakfast time, Williams was back in Dartmouth. (William L. Howard)
Submarine HMS Trenchant commissioned.
FRANCE: Paris: Gallimard, the publisher, awards the first Prix de la Pléiade to Mouloudji, Jean Paul Sartre is one of the judges.
FINLAND: 600 Soviet bombers raid Helsinki from 6pm to 6am.
This night the Soviet bombers attack Helsinki for the third time in three weeks. From 6.45 pm until 5.10 am next morning over 500 Soviet planes try to penetrate the Finnish air-defences. Several bombers make more that one sortie, the Finns estimate that there’s more than 1000 sorties. Since the two previous attempts ten and twenty days ago, the defences had been strengthened further, and there’s 15 heavy AA-battalions defending the city. Majority of bombers are unable to reach their targets, and only 18 people are killed at Helsinki.
MTB Hurja 5 and Patrol Boat VMV 8 are destroyed in Helsinki bombing while in dock.
GILBERT ISLANDS: 27th Bombardment Squadron (Heavy) with B-24’s based on Nanumea begins operating from Abemama and the 38th Bombardment Squadron (Heavy) with B-24’s based on Nanumea begin operating from Makin until 22 Mar 44.
PACIFIC OCEAN: The US submarine Grayback (SS-208), commanded by John A. Moore, is sunk by aircraft South of Okinawa. All hands are lost. (Joe Sauder)
U.S.A.: Susan Dauser became the first female US Navy captain. She was in the Nurse Corps. (Michael Ballard)
Destroyer escorts USS Robert I Paine and Richard S Bull commissioned.
Escort carrier USS Steamer Bay launched.
Escort carriers USS Admiralty Islands and Bouganville laid down.
ATLANTIC OCEAN: MS Silvermaple sunk by U-66 at 04.44N, 03.20W .
The unidentified officer in the picture seems to be missing his right arm, unless it’s one of the negative-reversed things and it’s his left arm. It reminds me of someone in the Italy book, but I can’t remember offhand.
At the bottom of Page 4 is a short blurb titled “Secret Ack-Ack Guns Reported in England”. I’d say this is the first article about the Proximity Fuse as the article states that the Brits are shooting down 8 Germans with the same number of shots they use to have to use to shoot down one.
Soon we’ll start seeing articles from the Pacific where the toll on Japanese planes shot down by ship’s guns in the double digits.
A clearer version of that photo was posted on facebook. It shows the missing arm is an illusion created by the man standing behind our subject. That man is a 1st or 2nd Lieutenant, which could make him awfully hard to ID.
The proximity, or “VT” fuze, will also be applied to artillery ammunition, but will be delayed in use in Europe. The fear is that the Germans will capture a “dud” and figure out how to make their own. The same thinking kept the BAR squad automatic weapon home during the last war. However, necessity will trump security, and the VT fuze will be used at Elsenborn Ridge to repel 12th SS Hitler Jugend Division in the Battle of the Bulge.
It’s effects on infantry in the open will be devastating.
Oh, I see.
Montgomery looks very frail there.
Got some good news yesterday. A local community college has hired me as an adjunct professor. It is only one class at the moment so I won’t be able to quick my night job, but it is a foot in the door and will allow me to finally get some teaching time that I’ve been working towards.
Good news indeed. Is this a general history class?
Congratulations! Some school just made a lucky find.
Thank you. The class I will be teaching is U.S. History since 1877. Basically I will be covering reconstruction to modern day.
Ike looks cold!
Yes, he does! He needed gloves and something to cover his ears!
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