Posted on 03/11/2014 4:19:58 AM PDT by Homer_J_Simpson
Winston S. Churchill, Closing the Ring
#1 - “Besame Mucho” – Jimmy Dorsey, with Bob Eberly and Kitty Kallen
#2 - “Mairzy Doats” – Merry Macs
#3 – “Shoo Shoo Baby” - Andrews Sisters
#4 - “My Heart Tells Me” - Glen Gray, with Eugenie Baird
#5 - “Holiday for Strings” – David Rose
#6 – “Shoo Shoo Baby” - Ella Mae Morse, with orchestra
#7 - “Star Eyes” - Jimmy Dorsey, with Bob Eberly and Kitty Kallen
#8 - “Speak Low” – Guy Lombardo, with Billy Leach
#9 – “Do Nothin’ Till You Hear from Me” – Woody Herman
#10 – “Poinciana” – Bing Crosby
http://www.onwar.com/chrono/1944/mar44/f11mar44.htm
British advance in Arakan
Saturday, March 11, 1944 www.onwar.com
In Burma... The Japanese 33rd Division continues attacking the British 17th Indian Division and is also infiltrating to the rear of 20th Indian Division where its advance is held near Witok. In central Burma, Chindit forces are disrupting Japanese communications with their forces facing American General Stilwell’s Sino-American forces. Meanwhile, British forces capture Buthidaung in the Arakan.
On the Eastern Front... Forces of the Soviet 3rd Ukrainian Front (Malinovski) capture Berislav, to the north of the Dniepr River and east of Kherson.
In the Admiralty Islands... Reconnaissance forces land on Manus Island and Butjo Luo, where the Japanese garrison resists.
http://www.etherit.co.uk/month/thismonth/11.htm
March 11th, 1944 (SATURDAY)
UNITED KINGDOM:
Destroyer HMS Zodiac launched.
Salvage vessel HMS Salvictor launched.
Rescue tug HMS Enticer launched.
Destroyer KNM Svenner (ex-HMS Shark) commissioned.
FRANCE: U-380 destroyed during an air raid on Toulon. One man from its crew was killed. [Maschinenmaat Jonny Christoph].
U.S.S.R.: The Red Army captures Berislav, in the southern Ukraine.
ALGERIA: Algiers: The Free French government sentences Pierre Pucheu, the former Vichy minister of the interior to death for treason.
BURMA: As the 7th Indian Division takes Buthidaung, the Japanese advance to Witok.
Naik Nand Singh (1914-47), 11th Sikh Regt., led his men up a steep ridge under fire to take one trench, advancing alone to take two more. (Victoria Cross)
Both sides in the battle for Burma are now trying to seize the initiative. In addition to two Allied offensives, Japan returned to the attack this week.
Last month saw the Japanese call off Operation Ha-Go, an attack on British positions in the Arakan peninsula. The Japanese 55th Division has slipped behind the Allied lines at Taung Bazaar in an attempt to cut off supply lines both from the north and from the Ngakyedauk Pass, in the east. The Indian 5th and 7th Divisions were cut off in the “admin box” of Sinzweya. Supplied by air, they fended off repeated Japanese attacks until 25 February, when they were relieved from the east. The Allied capture of Buthidaung today removes the last major obstacle to an advance on Akyab.
Operation U-Go, launched by General Renya Mutaguchi’s 15th Army on the night of 7-8 March, is a pre-emptive strike to prevent an Allied offensive in northern Burma. Its main objective is the capture of the key communications and supply centre at Imphal, across the Indian border in Assam; today Japanese troops crossed the Manipur river, east of the Chindwin. Mataguchi has ambitions to advance to Delhi and “liberate” the whole of India on behalf of the nationalist leader Subhas Chandra Bose.
U-Go took General Slim by surprise. He was expecting an attack next week, and is now rushing troops north from Buthidaung to Imphal.
From Chuck Baisden’s diary:
Combat Mission N0. 23 of B-25H BARBIE III 1st Air Commando Group 10th Air Force. 3:00 Hrs. Flight Time Hailikandi to Katha, Burma Bombed dumps and supply areas with good results. 5:00 Hrs. Flight Time (night) Hailikandi to Heho Airdrome, Burma. Mission flown at night which proved unsuccessful. We had a lot of difficulty locating the target and would not have found it if the Japs hadn’t turned on their search lights. Only one bomber released bombs and they exploded a mile from the field. We almost had a midair collision when search lights bracketed our lead formation, blinding the pilots momentarily. (Being hit with search lights at night while flying formation is not exactly habit forming).
Air Commando Combat Missions 22 and 23 3:00 and 5:00 Hours Flight Times Hailakandi, Assam to Katha, Burma. Bombed dumps and supply areas with good results. Hailakandi, Assam to Heho airdrome, Burma. Mission flown at night which proved unsuccessful. We had a lot of difficulty locating the target and would not have found it if the Japs had turned on their search lights. Only one bomber released bombs, and they exploded about a mile from the field. We almost had a mid air collision when the search lights bracketed our lead 3 ship formation, blinding the pilots momentarily. Being lit up by search lights at night while flying formation is not exactly habit forming.
(Chuck Baisden)
CANADA:
Corvette HMCS Chambly completed forecastle extension refit Liverpool, Nova Scotia.
Corvette HMCS Hespeler commissioned.
U.S.A.: A production order for 100 Bell P-59 Airacomet jets is placed.
Submarine USS Queenfish commissioned.
ATLANTIC OCEAN: UIT-22 is sunk south of the Cape of Good Hope, in position 41.28S, 17.40E, by a South African aircraft. 43 dead (all hands lost).
[Launched as the Italian submarine Alpino Bagnolini on 28 October 1939. Taken over by the Germans, following the Italian capitulation, at her Bordeaux, France base on 9 September, 1943.
* Commissioned into German service.
These boats were roughly 1166tons on the surface, in many ways they were similar in measurements to the German type IXC, they had 8 torpedo tubes and carried 14 torpedoes and had a complement of roughly 57 in Italian service.
UIT-22 (ex Alpino Bagnolini) and UIT-23 (ex Reginaldo Giuliani) were identical boats.]
(Alex Gordon)
U-255 was attacked by aircraft and 2 men were wounded.
RCAF 407 Sqn Wellington crashed preparing to attack U-256.
“During occupation a crashed BETTY crew of 12 committed suicide.”
I read biographies of movie stars. Leslie Caron and Audrey Hepburn were children during World War II - Franch and Holland - and both mentioned extreme hunger. Audrey Hepburn was not able to pursue a career as a ballerina because her health was permanently damaged.
Marlene Dietrich lived through World War I in Europe. She had to give up her dream of being a concert pianist because of weakened bones in her hands and wrists, due to wartime malnutrition.
Homer, do you know where Del was in New Guinea at this time?
France is a fat land, rich in food and agriculture, which is one reason it has such a delightful cuisine. The Germans are stealing the food of the occupied states to feed their war machine.
If the Germans were trying to base an espionage operation in Dublin, they weren’t very good at it. The deception program worked and they never found out the location or timing of Overlord.
Imagine being hungry enough to cook with axle grease!
“The United States was careful to say it did not question the good faith of the Irish Government in its efforts to suppress Axis espionage but intimated that the success of these efforts was open to question.”
That’s some seriously passive-aggressive verbiage there, bless their hearts.
I believe he was in the Saidor area. His battalion (2nd batt., 128th Regimental Combat Team) did not take part in the initial landings there but followed later on.
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