Posted on 03/05/2014 4:37:00 AM PST by Homer_J_Simpson
http://www.onwar.com/chrono/1944/mar44/f05mar44.htm
Chindits land on “Broadway”
Sunday, March 5, 1944 www.onwar.com
In Burma... The 77th Long Range Penetration Brigade (LRP) is flown to a landing area named “Broadway”, 50 miles southwest of Myitkyina. A second Chindit brigade, 16th LRP, is marching south toward the “Aberdeen” area from Ledo.
On the Eastern Front... The attacks by 1st Ukrainian Front (Zhukov) make rapid progress, fracturing the German defenses of Army Group South (Manstein). Izyaslav, Yampol and Ostropol are captured in the area of Shepetovka.
In New Guinea... Two battalions of the US 126th Infantry Regiment land at Yalau Plantation, 30 miles west of Saidor. There is almost no Japanese opposition.
In the Admiralty Islands... On Los Negros the forces of the US 5th Cavalry Regiment move into the northern half of the island. Destroyers escorting a further 1400 American reinforcements provide fire support for the advance.
The 2d Battalion, 126th Infantry, was selected as the principal combat team for the mission. The battalion commander, Lieutenant Colonel Oliver O. Dixon, was in command of the Force. The other units were: Battery B, 120th FA Battalion; Antitank Company, 126th Infantry; 2d Platoon, 32d Reconnaissance Troop.
The combat team landed at 0735 on 5 March 1944. It was unopposed. Patrols sent to the east from Yalau Plantation did meet some resistance. The numerous small engagements that resulted slowed the progress down. On 14 April the force made contact with Australian units near Bogadjim, about thirty miles west of Yalau Plantation. Now the whole area was firmly in Allied control.
The Saidor and Yalau Plantation operations were a great improvement over the Buna campaign. This time supplies, particularly rations, had been relatively ample. Naval gunfire support had been available and tactical air support had become somewhat better. In the 32d Division units, the troops’ combat experience and their long period of training had produced more competent leadership, better combat efficiency, and higher morale.
Major General H.W. Blakeley, USA, Ret., The 32d Infantry Division in World War II
I am informed that American aircraft are now being produced without paint, and that, apart from economies in time and material, as much as twenty miles an hour may thus be added to the speed of certain types. Pray let me know whether it is intended to adopt a similar policy with regard to British aircraft.
Winston S. Churchill, Closing the Ring
The News of the Week in Review
New Blows Impend – 13
The Fronts – 13-15
Fifteen News Questions – 16
The Pace and Pattern of Pacific Fighting (map) – 17
Japan, Now in Danger, May Fight the Harder (by Hanson W. Baldwin) – 18
Arab Oil in World Politics (by J.H. Carmical, first-time contributor) – 19-20
The Oil Reservoir of the Near East (map) – 19
Answers to Fifteen News Questions - 20
Fear of Public Hostility Holds Japanese in Camps (by Lawrence E. Davies) – 21
http://www.etherit.co.uk/month/thismonth/05.htm
March 5th, 1944 (SUNDAY)
GERMANY: The first American bombers and fighters appear over Berlin. The raid had been cancelled because of weather. One group proceeded to the target with fighter escort. Göring later said, “When I saw the American fighters over Berlin I knew the jig was up.” (Hal Turrell)
219 B-24’s are dispatched to hit French airfields; 62 hit Bergerac Airfield, 60 hit the Chateau-Bernard Airfield at Cognac; 41 hit Landes de Bussac Airfield and 1 hits La Roche Airfield. The group participating were the 44th, 93d, 389th, 392d, 445th, 446th 448th, 453d and 458th Bombardment Groups (Heavy). Fighter support consisted of 34 P-38’s, 185 P-47’s and 88 P-51’s.
ARCTIC OCEAN: U-366 sunk NW of Hammerfest, in position 72.10N, 14.44E, by rockets from an RN 816 Sqn Swordfish off escort carrier HMS Chaser. 50 dead (all hands lost).
U.S.S.R.: In a new Ukrainian offensive Soviet troops advance 31 miles and retake Izyaslav, Ostropol and Yampol.
BURMA: Chinese forces capture Maingkwan as three Chindit brigades land behind enemy lines at Indaw.
Air Commando Combat Mission N0.18 3:05 Flight Time Hailakandi to Okkyi, Burma. Photo mission of landing strip. This field not covered with logs. Our gliders went in during the night and established a fairly good runway for the transports that followed. The landing area was called “Broadway”
Note: Not from my journal but USAF sources. Colonel John Alison and his assault force landed successfully around 2200 hours and set up a lighting landing system to assist the main force. There was no enemy opposition. The glider landings were not exactly a piece of cake as the field was covered in dense elephant grass that hid logs, ruts and crevices from the camera. The gliders were heavily loaded and came in very fast. Some missed the field and crashed into the jungle, some hit obstructions and others landed and piled into the ones ahead. twenty four men were killed in the jungle crashes and four killed in Broadway crashes. Some 500 soldiers, 18 tons of supplies plus 3 mules and a smuggled horse were all brought in by the gliders. Only 3 of the 37 CG-4 gliders were flyable after the landings. These “faraway places with the strange sounding names” can be easily found on the maps in my book. (Chuck Baisden)
PACIFIC OCEAN: While submarine USS Tullibee was attacking a merchantman in the Palaus area, one of her own torpedoes circled back and hit the boat, sinking it. There was one survivor who became a POW and was freed after the Japanese surrender to tell the story.
U.S.A.: Destroyer USS Willard Keith laid down.
Destroyer minelayer USS Lindsey launched.
Minesweeper USS Instill launched.
Destroyer USS Collett launched.
ATLANTIC OCEAN: The unescorted SS John Holt was torpedoed and sunk by U-66 60 miles south of the Opobo River in the Gulf of Guinea. The master and one passenger were taken prisoner and were later lost with the U-boat. 41 crewmembers, nine gunners, three passengers and 40 Krooboys were picked up by the British tanker Empire Ruby and landed at Port Harcourt.
Note the poll for Vice President. No mention of a Harry Truman.
Amazing! The Brits were successfully using a bi-plane to sink U-boats...with rockets!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fairey_Swordfish
“After more modern torpedo attack aircraft were developed, the Swordfish was soon redeployed successfully in an anti-submarine role, armed with depth charges or eight “60 lb” (27 kg) RP-3 rockets and flying from the smaller escort carriers, or even Merchant Aircraft Carriers (MAC) when equipped for rocket-assisted takeoff (RATO). Its low stall speed and inherently tough design made it ideal for operation from the MAC carriers in the often severe mid Atlantic weather. Indeed, its takeoff and landing speeds were so low that it did not require the carrier to be steaming into the wind, unlike most carrier-based aircraft. On occasion, when the wind was right, Swordfish were flown from a carrier at anchor.[9]
“Swordfish-equipped units accounted for 14 U-boats destroyed. The Swordfish was to be replaced by the Albacore, also a biplane, but outlived its intended successor and was succeeded by the Fairey Barracuda monoplane torpedo bomber.
“The last of 2,392 Swordfish aircraft was delivered in August 1944.”
Lepke Buchalter, besides running his own rackets on the Lower East Side, set up an organization that would later be known as "Murder Inc." The idea was that Lepke's hit men could not rat out the Mafia bosses who ordered a hit because they were not part of the organization and didn't know.
In the mid-thirties Dutch Schultz proposed to the new national syndicate that they knock off then New York DA Thomas Dewey. The mobsters hated Dewey, but knew that would be very bad for business. Schultz said he would do it himself anyway. Lepke took the assignment to rub out Schultz.
When it came to the poll for Vice President, only one respondent counted. :-))
Say that at the office these days and you’ll get a lawsuit, or at least a personnel department investigation. :-))
While there’s a business reason to have someone pretty in a sales post, I don’t see how a smoother complexion affects a lady’s typing and filing skills.
“The title of Hero of the Soviet Union has been awarded to a 20-year-old Kasakh girl machine-gunner for valor in battle.”
Her complexion must have been incredibly smooth.
She probably used lard on her skin!
Talks with Ukrainian villagers in the hinterland of this front have left this correspondent with the deep impression that the German policy toward the Jews in the occupied Ukraine has been less terrible than has been reported previously by official sources.
I wonder if this correspondent talked to any survivors of the Terror-Famine. There was massive death among the Kazakhs at that time, too. The girl machine-gunner was a lucky survivor.
I wondered about that statement too, because the text of the article did not seem to support it. What I got from the article is the only Jews in that region who survived were the few sheltered by local Christians.
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