Posted on 03/07/2014 4:35:34 AM PST by Homer_J_Simpson
Winston S. Churchill, Closing the Ring
http://www.onwar.com/chrono/1944/mar44/f07mar44.htm
Nazis seeking women for work
Tuesday, March 7, 1944 www.onwar.com
In Germany... Members of the Nazi organization for women are making house-to-house calls to recruit females between the ages of 17 and 45 to work “in the service of the community.” This effort is an attempt to bolster the depleted German labor force.
In the Solomon Islands... On Bougainville the Japanese are preparing to assault the American beachhead. On the Green Islands Allied forces have completed construction of an airfield.
In the Admiralty Islands... US Task Force 74 (Admiral Crutchley) bombards Japanese batteries on Hauwei and Ndrilo. There are 3 cruisers and 4 destroyers involved.
http://www.etherit.co.uk/month/thismonth/07.htm
March 7th, 1944 (TUESDAY)
UNITED KINGDOM: Westminster: Female crooners on the BBC were attacked today in the House of Commons when Lord Winterton (Con) claimed: “They remind one of the caterwauling of an inebriated cockatoo. I cannot believe that all this wailing about lost babies can possibly have a good effect on troops who are about to endanger their lives.” The parliamentary secretary to the minister of information, Mr Thurtle, said that the government would not interfere with the BBC. “I do not think a certain amount of crooning is likely to have a serious effect on the British Army,” he said.
HMCS Georgian arrived Devonport and joined 14th Minesweeping Flotilla.
HMCS Bayfield arrived Devonport and joined 31st Minesweeping Flotilla.
HMCS Thunder arrived Devonport and joined 32nd Minesweeping Flotilla.
Escort carrier HMS Campania commissioned.
GERMANY: A major propaganda campaign aimed primarily at women has been launched in an attempt to bolster Germany’s depleted labour force. Though some three million women between the ages of 17 and 45 were registered for war work last year on the orders of Fritz Sauckel, the Reich plenipotentiary for the allocation of labour, more than two million have used family responsibilities and health grounds to avoid their allocated jobs. Members of the Nazi organization for women are going from house to house appealing to the women to work “in the service of the community.”
U-682, U-683 launched.
POLAND: Auschwitz-Birkenau: In a routine gassing, 3,823 Czech Jews from the ghetto at Theresienstadt are killed.
FINLAND: Finnish government informs the Soviet government (via Kollontay in Sweden) that it is interested in continuing the peace probes. On the 10th of March Soviet answer is received. The Finnish proposition is deemed inadequate. The Soviet terms set out earlier to Paasikivi are the minimum, and there’s no way to alter that. The Soviet government expects the Finns to accept these minimum terms by 18 March if they want to negotiate.
BURMA: Tonight Lt-Gen Renya Mutaguchi launches Operation U-Go to capture the Imphal Plain.
Air Commando Combat Mission N0. 20 3:40 Flight Time Hailakandi, Assam to Bhamo, Burma. Twelve B-25s dropped one hundred and five hundred pound bombs on the Bhamo Air Field. We used six to 12 hour chemical delay fusing in some of the bombs. The runways and taxi strips were thoroughly plastered and the field was definitely of no use to the Japanese to attack “BROADWAY,” the code name for the landing site in Burma.
Notes: Source for the following: Air Force History and Museum Program 1944 Operation Thursday was code name for the operation. The task orders: (for the Chindits and Air Commandos)
(1) Assist advance of General Stillwell’s forces to take Myitkyina by cutting communication of the Japanese 18th Division, harassing its rear and preventing reinforcement.
(2) Create a favorable situation for the Chinese forces crossing the Salween River into Burma.
(3) Inflict damage and confusion on the enemy in northern Burma.
(Chuck Baisden)
CANADA: Corvette HMCS Petrolia (ex-HMS Sherborne Castle) commissioned.
U.S.A.: Destroyer escort USS Jack W Wilke commissioned.
Escort carrier USS Vella Gulf laid down.
Destroyer escort USS Woodson laid down.
Destroyer escorts USS William Seiverling, Ulvert M Moore and Kenneth M Willett launched.
ATLANTIC OCEAN:
MS Tarifa sunk by U-510 at 12.48N, 58.44E.
Steam tanker Valera sunk by U-518 at 11.30N, 76.27W.
“Roosevelt Calls on AFL to Give CIO a Voice in ILO.”
But what do the WPA, RGB, and NFL think?
Thanks for today’s article. What’s interesting was once the P-51B/C Mustang became widely available at the beginning of 1944, the USAAF had a fighter plane that could out-fly the Bf 109G-6 and Fw 190A-4, the most commonly used variants of the Luftwaffe fighters at the time. And the P-51 in the first half of 1944 effectively wiped out the Luftwaffe as a potent fighting force in western Europe.
The more I read, the more I tend to agree with this theory. Post war studies revealed the near failure of bombing raids...I believe that less than 5% of bombs dropped actually landed on target. These poor results were known during the war, though not to such an extent. But it's hard to see senior officers willing to sustain such losses for such poor results absent another motive. The were basically hoping to destroy more fighters than the Germans could continue to produce..It's frightening to think what would have happened had the Nazis been able to produce their jet fighter in any quantity..
Even if Hitler had wisely ordered the Me 262 into production in 1943, the plane was still in many ways no match for the fastest Allied fighters like the P-51B/C/D/K, Hawker Tempest V and Supermarine Spitfire Mk. XIV, because of the Me 262’s slow acceleration and limited maneuverability. The Allies would have figured out how to draw the Me 262 into a dogfight where the Allied fighters had the advantage.
I recall reading recently a history of the AAF in WW-II “Winged Victory” of the Allies strategy for dealing with the jets.
As the ME-262 and AR-234 required long concrete runways once a jet was sighted the call went out on the radio “JETS”. Available units would then start patrolling those airfields. The flight time of the early jets was rather short and once the jets were in the pattern they were easy pickings for any Allied fighters.
This strategy played upon the early jets weakness in the slow acceleration of the engines of the times.
Regards
alfa6 ;>}
FDR pandering to Stalin by supporting the Communist controlled CIO.
A footnote to your observation. On their early escort missions, P-51 pilots were told to stay close to their assigned bomber formations. Losses of B-17s and B-24s decreased, but the Mustang drivers didn’t many opportunities to go after Luftwaffe fighters.
Jimmy Doolittle, who had replaced Ira Eaker as Commander of 8th Air Force, quickly realized the error in these tactics. Within a few weeks, P-51s were being sent on fighter sweeps ahead of the bomber formations, engaging German fighters that were rising to meet the B-17s and B-24s.
The results were immediate and impressive. Germany’s twin-engine fighters (which were most effective against heavy bombers) were decimated by the Mustangs and withdrawn from service by the spring. That left ME-109s and FW-190s to bear the brunt of the battle, and Germany couldn’t produce enough replacement aircraft (and pilots) to withstand the onslaught.
There’s a famous sequence in “The Longest Day” where two German fighter pilots are ordered into the air to contest the Normandy invasion. After the “Big Week” attacks of late February and the Berlin raid in early March, allied airpower became focused on France and preparations for D-Day. By the time of the invasion, the Luftwaffe in France was finished as a fighting force. Those pilots made one pass over the beach and (amazed that they survived), headed for home.
We used a similar tactic in the Pacific. P-51s operating from Iwo Jima flew sweeps over Japan, decimating Japanese fighter formations. The Mustangs were particularly effective against Japan’s “George” fighter which appeared late in the war and was more than a match for the F6F Hellcat.
Ah, is that it?
How so? They seem to have the 'Corporate State, with its lust for imperialsim - shackling of free American enterprise' pretty well pegged.
It seems like some folks were beginning to see Roosevelt as the fascist President for Life that he was.
It didn’t help the Germans that the mainline piston-engined fighters of the first half of 1944—the Bf 109G-6 and the Fw 190A-4—were performance-wise inferior to the P-51B/C models. As such, the Luftwaffe suffered heavy losses as their fighters took a major beating from USAAF fighters. By the time Messerschmitt and Focke-Wulf started to produce Bf 109 and Fw 190 variants that could fight on equal terms against the P-51 (and by summer 1944 Tempest V and Spitfire Mk. XIV) models, it was already too late—the Luftwaffe lost too many experienced pilots.
While the Germans had prototypes of the Me262 ready for production in 1943, much has been made of the production delay that came from Hitler’s order that they be redesigned as bombers. To some extent, that’s a red herring. Jet technology was very much in its infancy during World War 2. The two biggest problems that faced the Germans was the very short operating life of the earliest jet engines, and the scarcity of raw materials required for the turbo fan blades. In 1943, those problems were acute, but some technological progress had been made to aleviate some of the issues by 1944. As a practical matter, because of the engine issues, Germany could not have had an effective jet fighter force until the later part of 1944 regardless of Hitler’s order.
And even after they began production, the Germans could prodcuce the airframes for the Me262 but engines were always going to be a limiting factor. So while some Me262 squadrons did operate successfully, there were too few of them in operation, and too few well-trained and experienced pilots, for them to have had an effect on the war.
I know Adolph Galland claimed that with 250 flying Me262s, he could have broken up the big bomber formations and finished them off with the 109s and 190s. The problem was that he was never going to get that many 262s airborne and assembled for a concerted attack on any given day. It’s like saying the Germans would have won at Kursk if only they had another 200 Tiger tanks. You might as well argue that if Napoleon had a B52 at Waterloo, we’d all speak French.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.
