Posted on 03/23/2014 6:14:26 AM PDT by Homer_J_Simpson
Stephen E. Ambrose, Band of Brothers
* Prime Minister Churchill will broadcast to Britain on Sunday at 9 P.M. [4 P.M. Eastern War Time], it was announced tonight. Mr. Churchill’s talk will also be beamed to America, the British Broadcasting Corporation said.
4 P.M Eastern War Time Sunday in 1944 is also 4 P.M. Eastern Daylight Time Wednesday in 2014. Stay close to your radio for this important broadcast.
http://www.onwar.com/chrono/1944/mar44/f23mar44.htm
Soviet breakthrough in Ukraine
Thursday, March 23, 1944 www.onwar.com
On the Eastern Front... The Soviet 1st Ukrainian Front (Zhukov) strikes south between Proskurov and Tarnopol, threatening to drive a wedge between the German 1st and 4th Panzer Armies (both part of Army Group South). Soviet forces capture Kapychintsy.
In the Solomon Islands... On Bougainville, Japanese forces attack American positions without making any progress. Heavy Japanese losses are reported.
In the St. Matthias Islands... US destroyers shell the Japanese seaplane base on Elouae.
http://www.etherit.co.uk/month/thismonth/23.htm
March 23rd, 1944 (SUNDAY)
EASTERN FRONT: The 1st Ukranian Front drives between Proskurov and Tarnapol threatening to split the 1st and 4th Panzer Armies, and surrounding the Red Army headquarters at Tarnopol.
GREECE: The Germans begin deporting Greek Jews to Auschwitz-Birkenau.
ITALY: Monte Cassino: The unsuccessful Allied assault, spearheaded by the New Zealand Corps, is called off.
Italian partisans kill 28 SS-Polizei men with a bomb on Via Rasella in Rome. Subsequently an order is received from Hitler to kill 10 Italians for each German soldier. Chief of the Rome SIPO, SS-Obstbf., Herbert Kappler, together with Pietro Caruso, the chief of the Italian police, is responsible for selecting the victims. People arrested on the spot, political prisoners and Jews are sent to the Ardeatine Caves near Rome, shot in the neck in small groups, and buried under the sand; the entrances are then sealed by exploding charges. Altogether 335 Italians are murdered, among them 78 Jews. (Russell Folsom)
ROMANIA: Bucharest: In the wake of their occupation if Hungary, the Germans today strengthened their position in Romania, which was occupied in October 1940. The dictator, Marshal Ion Antonescu, a longtime admirer of Hitler, was told that 500,000 German troops were being sent in to safeguard communications and protect the oil-wells for Germany.
With the Red Army on his borders, Antonescu was less than enthusiastic. Hitler was unmoved. Four Panzer and several infantry divisions have already moved in. Romania’s foreign policy has been largely determined by resentment at the territorial depredations of her neighbours. In June 1940 Romania was forced to hand over Bessarabia and Northern Bukovina to Stalin. Romanian troops retook them a year later, after they had joined Hitler in the German attack on the USSR.
In August 1940 the “Vienna Award” gave North Transylvania to Hungary. This week, when Germany occupied Hungary, two Romanian divisions joined in. As Sovet troops advance into Bessarabia, the BBC today broadcast a warning to Romanians: abandon the Nazis or face retribution from the Allies.
GERMANY: Every minute for 24 hours to noon today more than four tons of explosive were dropped by Allied airmen on Germany and occupied Europe. This new intensive onslaught dropped 3,000 tons of bombs on Frankfurt, in the most concentrated attack of the war, after diverting from Schweinfurt. Mines were laid off Kiel, leaflets were dropped over France and minor diversionary raids made all over Germany. The variety of targets reflects a change of tactics, dispersing attacks to make defence more difficult. In daytime raids today the USAAF hit Brunswick and targets in France.
BURMA: Over 100 A-31s, B-24s, B-25s, P-38s, P-40s and P-51s at Japanese positions in Burma.
Air Commando Combat Mission N0.36 3:15 Flight Time Hailakandi, Assam to Indaw, Burma. Bombed Japanese supply dumps. Bad weather forced us to land at Broadway. Had to roll 55 gallon gasoline drums through dens elephant grass and refuel using a hand pump. Spent the night on the plane.
Note: As our missions were low level we had not been carrying any oxygen (none of my crew even had oxygen masks) and could not get over the weather front between Burma and Assam. It was a bit spooky as us fly boys were down and parked some 150 miles behind enemy lines and the night (noises )?. I think the Chindit grunts got a big kick out of our concerns. (Chuck Baisden)
EUROPE: Almost 1,000 USAAF bombers based in England bomb targets in Germany and France. Airfields in Germany are bombed by 767 B-17s and B-24s of the Eighth Air Force while over 200 B-26s of the Ninth Air Force bomb marshalling yards and airfields in France in morning and afternoon missions.
NEW GUINEA: Nearly 100 A-20s, B-24s, B-25s and P-47s hit numerous targets in the Aitape, Wewak, Alexishafen and Hansa Bay areas.
WAKE ISLAND: Seventh Air Force B-24s operating from Kwajalein Island in the Marshall Islands, bomb Wake Island.
PACIFIC: Japanese submarine I-42 is sunk by USS Tunny (282) east of the Philippines. (Mike Yared)(144 and 145)
U.S.A.: US Navy Motor Torpedo Squadron 2 is re-commissioned and assigned to the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) landing personnel and supplied in occupied Europe.
I wonder if once we get close enough to launch air raids against Japan if incendiary bombs bomb can be used to any effect?
About that p4 photo of a German POW eating American corned beef. I’ve read that German rations by this time in the war were less than appealing.
Now there’s a possibility; we should look into that.
What a difference six months made.
In October 1943 20% of the attacking force of B-17s (60 of 291)was lost to fighters and anti-aircraft fire.
I wonder what factors influenced the Luftwaffe's decision to not come up and play? Did they not even send up units to pick off stragglers?
In 1968 another USS Scorpion submarine was also lost...
I’ve got no idea.
And less than three months later they only managed to send two fw-190s over the D-Day landing sites.
Curtis LeMay is taking notes.
True.
Wouldn’t have mattered how many they sent.
The American fighter pilots had their orders - “Stop the Hun or don’t come back”.
And the day is coming we’ll need that level of resolve again.
How many of us will have it?
From Adm. James Bond Stockdale, inspired by his time in the Hanoi Hilton:
“This is a very important lesson. You must never confuse faith that you will prevail in the end—which you can never afford to lose—with the discipline to confront the most brutal facts of your current reality, whatever they might be.”
Some air reconnaissance might have convinced Hitler a little earlier that the invasion really was taking place at Normandy, not Calais... not that it would have mattered in the end.
There was a fake invasion force parked off Calais (wood/canvas tanks, etc); I’m not sure air reconnaissance would have detected the difference.
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