Posted on 03/15/2014 5:28:38 AM PDT by Homer_J_Simpson
Winston S. Churchill, Closing the Ring
http://www.onwar.com/chrono/1944/mar44/f15mar44.htm
Allies bombard Cassino
Wednesday, March 15, 1944 www.onwar.com
In Italy... Forces of the US 5th Army launches new attacks on Cassino. A preliminary bombardment consisting of 14,000 tons of bombs and 190,000 shells is directed on the town. The New Zealand 2nd Division then attacks with the 4th Indian Division to follow up against the monastery. Armored support is hampered by the rubble created during the bombardment. The German 1st Paratroop Division offers strong resistance. Allied forces make some gains at Castle Hill and Hangman’s Hill.
On the Eastern Front... Soviet forces of the 2nd Ukrainian Front (Konev) cross the Bug River and capture Vapnyarka, thereby cutting the Odessa-Zhmerinka rail line. To their north, troops of the 1st Urkainian Front (Vatutin) capture Kalinkova, near Vinnitsa.
In the Solomon Islands... On Bougainville, there are renewed attacks by Japanese forces against the American beachhead. US forces hold the effort.
In the Admiralty Islands... On Manus Island, elements of the US 7th and 8th Cavalry Divisions land on the north coast, near Lugos Mission. The Americans advance toward Lorengau along two routes.
In Burma... The Japanese 15th and 31st Divisions begin crossing the Chindwin River, north and south of Homalin.
http://www.etherit.co.uk/month/thismonth/15.htm
March 15th, 1944 (WEDNESDAY)
UNITED KINGDOM: The first production Supermarine Spitfire F. 21 (LA 187) makes its first flight today. Unlike earlier marks, the F. 21 has lost the characteristic elliptical wing, the change in plan-form accompanying major structural alterations including higher tensile spar booms. The wing area is slightly increased and the tail unit re-designed. The undercarriage is strengthened and the range extended by fitting 18-gallon fuel tanks in the wings. (22)
GERMANY: Tonight Stuttgart is raided by 863 RAF bombers.
U-1104 commissioned.
ITALY: Another Allied attack on Cassino. Preliminary bombardment used 1400 tons of bombs and 190,000 shells. The New Zealand Division moves in with the 4th Indian Division ready to follow up. They meet a regiment of the German 1st Paratroop Division. Some slight gains are made. 140 civilians and 96 Allied soldiers are killed.
In four hours, 775 Allied bombers have flattened this pleasant valley town. The attack represented more than two aircraft for every one of the German defenders - five tons of bombs for each soldier - such is the Allied determination to break the deadlock.
The Allies reckoned that no one could have survived the bombing - let alone the 195,969 shells that followed. Yet the New Zealand 6th Infantry Brigade came under intense defensive fire when it clambered over the debris into the town.
A new assault is also being made on the Cassino monastery. Gurkhas have climbed to Point 435 on the army maps, known as “Hangman’s Hill”, 440 yards from the monastery.
EUROPE: German forces mass on the Hungarian border.
BURMA: Air Commando Combat Mission N0. 29 2:35 Flight time Hailakandi, Assam to Kawlin, Burma. Bombed supply dumps. No results noted. (Chuck Baisden)
ADMIRALTY ISLANDS: Manus Island: US troops of the 7th and 8th Cavalry Regiments of 2nd Brigade, 1st Cavalry Division, have landed at Lorengau on Manus Island, off the north coast of New Guinea. The force under Gen. MacArthur’s South-West Pacific Area Command landed after a heavy preliminary air and sea barrage. The first wave of attackers has so far managed to destroy landmines, machine-gun nests and booby traps before advancing on Lorengau airfield, where the Japanese defenders are holding out.
Securing the Admiralties will safeguard the Allied rearguard, vital to MacArthur’s plan to advance along New Guinea’s north coast to the Vogelkop peninsula, the likely springboard for an eventual attack on the Philippines.
CANADA:
Minesweeper HMS Lioness launched Toronto, Ontario.
Tug HMCS Glenwood laid down Weymouth , Nova Scotia.
Frigate HMCS Cheboque departed Esquimalt BC for Halifax , Nova Scotia.
Tug HMCS Roseville assigned to Liverpool , Nova Scotia.
Escort carrier HMS Puncher arrived Lapointe Pier Vancouver for RN modifications.
U.S.A.:
Escort carrier USS Shamrock Bay commissioned.
Frigate USS Racine launched.
Destroyer escorts USS Fowler and Spangenberg commissioned.
Submarine USS Piper laid down.
ATLANTIC OCEAN: U-653 (type VIIC) is sunk in position 53.46N, 24.35W, by depth charges from a Swordfish aircraft of the British escort carrier HMS Vindex, and by depth charges from the British sloops HMS Starling and Wild Goose. 51 dead (all hands lost). (Alex Gordon)
>RUSSIANS SHUT A TRAP IN UKRAINE, REPORT 10,000 SLAIN, 4,000 SEIZED (3/15/44)
Ooops. Thought for a minute it was a current headline.
History repeating itself? Vote is today, no?
"About 60,000 of Greece's 75,000 Jews were deported to their deaths.
These Jews from northern Greece were rounded up in March 1944.
For a time, Jews in sections of Greece under Italian occupation were protected by the Italian Army.
However, the Germans ultimately occupied those areas, too.
Most Jews were deported to their deaths in Poland."
"The devastation of Greek Jewry is one of the bleakest chapters of the Holocaust.
Of the more than 58,000 Jews who were deported from Greece from March 1943 to July 1944, fewer than 2,000 returned.
"The murder of Greek Jews went through three stages.
In March 1943 the Jews of Thrace (pictured) and Macedonia, two Greek regions annexed by Bulgaria, were deported to Treblinka.
About 4200 Jews were gassed when they arrived.
"In the second stage, Jews living in the German-occupied zones of Greece were isolated in ghettos located in Salonika, and later transported to Auschwitz.
Approximately 45,000 Jews were deported during the months of March through August 1943.
About 34,000 were gassed immediately and more than 12,000 were selected for forced labor.
"The final stage of the murderous campaigns against Greek Jewry took place after the September 1943 surrender of Italy.
Deportations from Athens and many smaller mainland towns carried more than 9,000 Jews to their deaths at Auschwitz.
"Some Greek Jews resisted the Nazi oppressors.
Greek prisoners helped blow up crematorium III at Auschwitz, and one man, Albert Errera, escaped after wounding his guards."
The articles apeear to say that Russia was taking down the Nazis...Are you trying to make a correlation to recent events??
Reading the p4 article about the Germans bombing London has me wondering why they wasted their Heinkel He-177s over London in symbolic raids rather than using them as strategic bombers in the East?
That’s really bleak.
Never Again.
The Allied bomber offensive is devastating Germany’s cities and exposing the Luftwaffe’s inability to stop it. The Nazi leadership is deeply concerned about the effects of their inability to protect German civilians. Hitler is directing any measures to retaliate against London. Soon we’ll see the V-1, which terrified Londoners, but actually did little damage.
AGAIN??
Lolz
Awesome timing
The Russian Mud Offensive is crashing down on the Germans, who obviously don't fight as well in the stuff. Eighth Army is nearly surrounded near Nikopol. Kliest will order it to break out, for which Kliest will be relieved.
USS Corvina was lost on it's maiden voyage. It had the very dangerous assignment of attacking Japanese vessels near the Truk base, back when it still had teeth.
De Seversky actually gets one right today, pointing out the terrible losses Eight Air Force is suffering while waging its war of attrition against the Luftwaffe. I saw Twelve O'Clock High (an excellent movie) again this weekend, which among other things told about the terrible toll the campaign took from the airmen, physically and psychologically.
More like: converging on history repeating exactly 100 years later.
Funny how that headline could make sense today.
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