Posted on 05/05/2014 5:02:15 AM PDT by Homer_J_Simpson
IBTP
http://www.onwar.com/chrono/1944/may44/05may44.htm#
British attacking near Imphal
Friday, May 5, 1944 www.onwar.com
In Burma... The British 14th Army (Slim) counterattacks near Imphal.
Over Italy... The Torre Dam is breached by British RAF Mustangs and Australian and South African Warhawks.
http://www.etherit.co.uk/month/thismonth/05.htm
May 5th, 1944 (FRIDAY)
GERMANY: Intelligence services intercept a telephone conversation between Roosevelt and Churchill, but hear no secrets.
ITALY: RAF Mustangs and RAAF and SAAF Warhawks attack the Torre Dam.
General Alexander orders Allied units to break through the Gustav Line on 11 May.
YUGOSLAVIA: Marshal Tito’s partisan army, now numbering nearly 300,000 well-armed men and women has fought its way into the Croatian capital of Zagreb, it was learned today. A huge cache of German weapons was captured with lorryloads of prisoners, before the partisans “melted away” in typical fashion.
Tito’s National Liberation Front now controls almost every town in mountainous Montenegro. It also took four German divisions to drive them from Slovenia; even so few main roads of railways there are safe for troop transport. Twelve divisions of General Rendulic’s Second Panzerarmee are being kept fully occupied by Tito’s fiercely determined irregulars.
Although the Germans have retaken most of the Adriatic Islands between Fiume and Split - captured by partisans when the Italian army collapsed last year - their garrisons are under constant harassment.
The head of the British military mission, Brigadier Fitzroy Maclean, has selected the outer island of Vis as a base for organizing British commando operations in Nazi-held Yugoslavia.
U.S.S.R.: The Soviet launch an attack on the German defenders of Sevastopol. (Gene Hanson)
MEDITERRANEAN SEA: At 0354, U-967 fired a Gnat at Convoy GUS-38 about 120 miles NW of Oran, Algeria and reported a hit on a medium-sized ship after 11 minutes 58 seconds, but this was probably an end-of-run detonation. Destroyer escort USS Laning located the U-boat after the unsuccessful attack and started an attack run, but U-967 fired a Gnat at the escort ships at 0441, hitting the USS Fechteler amidships. The explosion lifted the ship out of the water and broke her in two. Most crewmembers abandoned ship before both parts sank. 29 crewmembers died and 26 were injured. USS Laning then picked up the survivors together with other escort ships.
BURMA: Having taken the strategically vital Point 551, the Fourteenth Army counter-attacks at Imphal.
Air Commando Combat Mission N0. 53 3:00 Flight Time. Went back and did it again. [3:05 Flight Time Hailakandi, Assam to Hopin, Burma. Bombed Japanese supply dumps.] (Chuck Baisden)
U.S.A.:
Destroyer escorts USS Snyder and Cronin commissioned.
Minesweeper USS Measure commissioned.
Destroyer minelayer USS Aaron Ward launched.
Destroyer USS Bristol laid down.
Frigate USS Long Beach launched.
USS Comfort is commissioned in San Pedro, CA; first ship to be manned jointly by Army and Navy personnel.
ICELAND: Three Allied forces agents, named Miller, Hoan and Frick are having dinner in their hotel in Seydisfjordur this evening when they get wind of a German plan to send three spies to Iceland to monitor troop movements in a bid foil Allied attempts to liberate France.
A seal hunter had spotted three strangers behaving suspiciously near Borgarfjordur.
The agents try to alert an Allied ship anchored off the coast but are told it could take hours before it got up enough steam to sail, by which time the men could be deep inside the Icelandic wilderness. (More) (Scott Peterson)
Page 1 “Allies to Spare Treasures”, the monuments men are on the move.
The articles over the past few days convey the impression that all of the warring nations around the world are building up their forces for the grand, decisive showdown. That includes the Pacific, where sooner or later the IJN is going to have to come out and fight. Just reading the NYT gives me a sense of “calm before the storm” and it’s being felt all around the world.
I sure feel sorry for those British MP's who can't find servants and when their wives are away even have to make their own meals. Poor dears.
I watched the British documentary The World at War and in one of the later episodes as the Russians were approaching Berlin, a German lady being interviewed said Goebbels came on the radio and essentially announced the Germans had the Russians right where they wanted them and victory was at hand.
The lady said her mother breathed a sigh of relief and when she told her it was all lies, her mother said something to the effect that how could she in the nations hour of great need believe their leaders would lie to them?
“Baghdad Bob.”
There’s a “servant gap”! A parliamentary inquiry is needed immediately. Perhaps a domestics-lottery should be run, so that the available supply of household help is allocated “fairly.”
Heh, if you think this is bad, wait until after the War, guys.
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