Posted on 04/01/2014 4:21:47 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 - “Holiday for Strings” – David Rose
#5 – “I Couldn’t Sleep a Wink Last Night” – Frank Sinatra
#6 - “Speak Low” – Guy Lombardo, with Billy Leach
#7 - “Star Eyes” - Jimmy Dorsey, with Bob Eberly and Kitty Kallen
#8 – “When They Ask about You” - Jimmy Dorsey, with Kitty Kallen
#9 - “My Heart Tells Me” - Glen Gray, with Eugenie Baird
#10 – “Do Nothin’ Till You Hear from Me” – Stan Kenton, with Red Dorris
Nimitz Rips Truk (Trumbull) – 2-3
Navy Graduates 47 at Columbia – 3
Our Pacific Drive May By-Pass Truk; MacArthur Fliers Can Neutralize Base (Kluckhohn) – 3
Nazi Railroad Cut (Parker) – 4-5
2,240 Tons Batter Nuremberg Plants (Middleton) – 5
Sofia Blows Tied to Russian Drive – 6
Germans Extend Lines in Cassino (Bracker) – 6
Enemy Capitals Feel the Effects of Allied Air Might (photos) – 7-8
War News Summarized – 8
British Fall back to New India Line – 9
‘Raider’ Wingate is Killed in Crash; He Trained Units for Burma Attack (Currivan, Charles J. Rolo, first-time contributor) – 10
Chinese Sees End of Long Blockade (by Brooks Atkinson) – 11
Latest Casualties in Army and Navy – 13-14
Polish Guerrillas Defeat Nazi Force – 14
Transport Plane Downed in Error – 14
The Texts of the Day’s Communiques on the War – 15-17
http://www.onwar.com/chrono/1944/apr44/01apr44.htm#
Americans strike Woleai
Saturday, April 1, 1944 www.onwar.com
Japanese aircraft explodes under fire [photo at link]
In the Caroline Islands... US aircraft from Task Force 58 (Admiral Spruance) attack Woleai Island. In three days of attacks about 130,000 tons of Japanese shipping has been sunk as well as 7 small warships. American forces have lost 26 planes and claim 150 Japanese airplanes shot down.
On the Eastern Front... Considerable German forces are surrounded near Skala between the advancing Soviet 1st and 2nd Ukrainian Fronts. The 1st Ukrainian Front reaches the Jablonica Pass.
In the Admiralty Islands... US forces occupy Ndrilo and Koniniat.
http://www.etherit.co.uk/month/thismonth/01.htm
April 1st, 1944 (SATURDAY)
UNITED KINGDOM: A ten-mile deep coastal belt from Land’s End to the Wash is closed to the public.
GERMANY: The Eighth Air Force flies Mission 287 consisting of 440 bombers and 475 fighters; the target is the chemical industry at Ludwigshafen (the largest in Europe). The 245 B-17s dispatched of the lead force abandon the mission over the French coast due to heavy clouds. The 195 B-24s in the second force became widely dispersed and bomb targets of opportunity; 101 hit Pforzheim; 38 hit Schaffhausen, Switzerland; 17 hit Strasbourg, France; and 9 hit Grafenhausen; Schaffhausen and Strasbourg were mistaken as German towns; they claim 1-1-0 Luftwaffe aircraft; 12 B-24s are lost. Escort is provided by 280 P-47 Thunderbolts and 195 Eighth and Ninth Air Force P-51 Mustangs: P-47s claim 13-1-19 Luftwaffe aircraft on the ground 2 P-47s are lost; P-51s claim 5-2-4 aircraft, 2 P-51s are lost. (Jack McKillop)
SWITZERLAND: 26 USAAF bombers kill 50 Swiss civilians as they mistakenly bomb Schaffhausen.
FINLAND: Paasikivi and Enckell return from Moscow. As Paasikivi notes in his diary, during the negotiations the Russians, Molotov included, were scrupulously polite and considerate personally, but absolutely unyielding in negotiations. Finland has to accept the Soviet demands or the war goes on. (Mikko Härmeinen)
U.S.S.R.: The 40,000 strong German Force near Skala is caught between the 1st and 2nd Ukrainian Fronts.
ITALY: Twelfth Air Force B-25s attack Leghorn harbour, bridges at Orvieto, and railway track south of Poggibonsi; B-26 Marauders hit Arno River railroad bridges at Signa, Riva-Trigoso, and Valdarno, while A-20s hit ammunition dumps; P-40s hit targets in the vicinity of Gaeta, Formia tunnel, several fuel dumps, bridges, and guns in the battle areas; P-47s bomb Poggibonsi bridge and strafe a train; and fighters patrol the Anzio battle area without incident. (Jack McKillop)
INDIA: Headquarters of CBI Theatre are moved to New Delhi, with a Forward Echelon at Chungking, China. (Gordon Rottman)
BURMA: The Tenth Air Force dispatches 14 P-38s to hit a freight train and damage a factory in the vicinity of Mandalay; near Rangoon, 16 B-24s hit a railroad station and bomb Akyab while 6 B-25s damage a railroad bridge near Nattalin; 40 RAF A-31 Vengeances attack the Homalin, Paungbyin and Thaungdut areas; and 10 RAF A-31s attack Japanese positions near Buthidaung in the Arakan coastal region. (Jack McKillop)
NETHERLANDS EAST INDIES: Fifth Air Force B-24s bomb Boela on Ceram Island in Moluccas /Islands, and B-25s attack Penfoei on Timor Island in the Lesser Sunda Islands. (Jack McKillop)
NEW GUINEA: Fifth Air Force B-25s and A-20s hit the Tadji and Hansa Bay areas. (Jack McKillop)
CAROLINE ISLANDS: Aircraft of Task Force 58 commence an all-out attack against Woleai Atoll and a minor raid on Ulithi Atoll. This concludes three days of attacks against targets in the western Carolines including the Palau Islands. During these three days, the USN estimates that the Japanese lost 150 aircraft in the air and on the ground; and two destroyers, four escort ships and several auxiliary and merchant vessels totalling 104,000 tons. Aerial mines are also dropped in the main fleet anchorage in the Palau Islands which will block it for six weeks. US losses are 58 aircraft and 18 airmen. (Jack McKillop)
Three aircraft carrier groups of the US Navy were involved in the attacks.
The carriers despatched their planes at dawn on 30 March and again yesterday, losing 20 aircraft. The Japanese combined fleet had been forced out of Truk, and the concentration of its forward elements on the Palaus was seen as a potential threat to General MacArthur’s advance along the north New Guinea coast. The Palau Islands are beyond the range of Allied heavy bombers based at Darwin, Australia, so the US Navy was asked to send Task Force 58 - practically the whole of the US Fifth Fleet - to take out the base as it had at Truk.
A Japanese reconnaissance aircraft detected the approaching ships, and as a result the strike date was moved forward to 30 March while the Japanese flew in all the fighters they had from Peleliu and Yap to defend the new base. US aircraft mined passages to the main harbour, trapping many ships which then became prime targets.
Admiral Mineichi Koga, the Japanese navy chief, decided to move his headquarters from the battleship MUSASHI to Davao. He left the Palaus on 31 March for Davao, but his plane never arrived.
BISMARCK ARCHIPELAGO: 24 Thirteenth Air Force B-25s bomb supply areas at Wunapope and Ratawul on New Britain Island; 28 P-39Airacobras and P-40s hit the Toboi wharf area at Simpson Harbour; 3 P-40s follow with a strike on oil and coal storage in same general area; fighters maintain sweeps over Rabaul and New Ireland Island throughout the day and B-25s harass Rabaul during the night of 1/2 April. (Jack McKillop)
SOLOMON ISLANDS: The Thirteenth Air Force dispatches 12 P-38s to bomb the mission at Monoitu and 12 P-40s hit Numa Numa supply dumps on Bougainville Island. (Jack McKillop)
U.S.A.: Stan Kenton And His Orchestra’s record of “Do Nothin’ ‘Till You Hear From Me” with vocal by Red Dorris makes it to the Billboard Pop Singles chart. This is their first single to make the charts and it stays there for 1 week reaching Number 10. (Jack McKillop)
Cherry Point: The 9th Marine Air Wing is commissioned. It succeeds the 3rd MAW to train, equip, and prepare Marine aviation units for combat. It was strictly a training wing and did not see any combat. (Mel Shettle)
"The Ardeatine Caves just outside of Rome were the site of the murder of 335 Italian hostages, 78 of whom were Jews.
The slaughter was in retaliation for a partisan attack that had resulted in the deaths of 33 German troops on Via Rasella in Rome.
Lieutenant Colonel Herbert Kappler ordered the massacre on March 24, 1944.
"Five months earlier, on October 16, 1943 ("Black Saturday"), Kappler had ordered the roundup of Roman Jews. More than 1000 were deported to Auschwitz, where over 800 were murdered.
After the war, Kappler was tried by an Italian military court and sentenced to life imprisonment.
He escaped in the trunk of his wife's car in 1977 but died shortly thereafter in Germany.
"SS Captain Erik Priebke, who led the Caves massacres, was extradited from Argentina to Italy in 1996.
An Italian court martial tried but refused to convict him of war crimes, arguing that he was only following orders and that the statute of limitations had run out.
Retried by another Italian court martial in 1996, Priebke was sentenced to five years but served only six months."
He wasn't supposed to fly that day ... but he was nuts. He's remembered, by those who pay attention, as one of the great British supporters of what would become the State of Israel.
I wonder what “Cobra” perfume smelled like. (Listed prices before 20% Federal tax!)
Interesting too about the strikes in the UK, which have been off and on both there and here for awhile now. I don't know if there was much contemporaneous coverage of what is now depicted as a US domestic war boom. But unions' willingness to act so aggressively both here and in the UK certainly suggests one.
Oops, 1944.
I had no idea that the Japanese made so much progress in China and Burma in 1944! This, despite losing so much shipping tonnage for resupply and reinforcements.
Three small ENEMY ships were sunk at sea...(”enemy” added by hand).
It is important to be precise!
“SWITZERLAND: 26 USAAF bombers kill 50 Swiss civilians as they mistakenly bomb Schaffhausen.”
Hmmmm...26 US bombers vs. an undefended Swiss town (no flak and no enemy fighters) and “ONLY 50” hapless likely un-bunkered, unsuspecting Swiss are killed???
The aircrews could certainly be forgiven for being a bit unsteady after the horrific bomber losses by the US and UK of the past week.
Cairo had a thriving Jewish community until the young officers’ revolution that put Nasser in power. They then were cleared out in pretty short order to Europe, Israel and eventually the U.S.
The Japanese actually had relatively light forces in Burma, but the Brits were defending on a shoestring because they were so concentrated on Europe. This region of Burma is so densely forested it is ideal for defense, which has favored the Japanese. Now that the Japanese are on the offensive, it favors the Brits.
He finally died a few months ago.
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