Posted on 05/21/2014 4:16:03 AM PDT by Homer_J_Simpson
Winston S. Churchill, Closing the Ring
The News of the Week in Review
After a Six Months’ Stalemate the Allies Drive Ahead in Italy (map) – 15
First Onslaught – 16
The Fronts – 16-18
Fifteen News Questions – 19
North Burma: Where Allied Pincers Tighten (map) – 20
Burma Gains Spur Hope of Getting Aid to China (Shalett) – 21
Report from the Nation (by Lawrence Dame, Virginius Dabney, James E. Crown, Louther S. Horne, Roland M. Jones, and Lawrence E. Davies) – 22-23
Answers to Fifteen News Questions – 23
http://www.onwar.com/chrono/1944/may44/21may44.htm#
Germans resisting advances in Italy
Sunday, May 21, 1944 www.onwar.com
In Italy... A small American force lands at Sperlonga, having embarked at Gaeta. Meanwhile, forces of the US 5th Army continue attacking. The US 2nd Corps captures Fondi while the French Expeditionary Corps takes Campodimele. German resistance in the Liri Valley and around Pico prevents significant gains in these areas.
In New Guinea... The American beachhead at Arare is reinforces and the airfield at Wadke is repaired.
In the United States... An explosion on a landing craft in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, kills 127 and injures 380 people.
http://www.etherit.co.uk/month/thismonth/21.htm
May 21st, 1944 (SUNDAY)
UNITED KINGDOM: Submarine KNM Utsira (ex-HMS Variance) laid down.
EUROPE: Allied air forces launch Operation Chattanooga, the systematic destruction by bombardment of enemy rail targets.
The USAAF’s Eighth Air Force in England flies Mission 360: 150 bombers and 48 fighters hit V-weapon sites in France without loss; 25 of 40 B-17s hit Marquise/Mimoyecques; and 99 of 110 B-24s hit Siracourt. Escort is provided by 48 P-47 s without loss.
617 fighters are dispatched on strafing missions to attack rail stock in Germany; 27 fighters are lost; 91 of 225 locomotives attacked are destroyed; P-47s also dive bomb rail bridges in W Germany; and 1 P-51 pilot claims 25 cows killed; participating are:
- 145 P-38s claim 2-0-0 Luftwaffe aircraft in the air and 6-0-3 on the ground; eight P-38s are lost,.
- 139 P-47s claim 1-0-0 Luftwaffe aircraft in the air; four P-47s are lost.
- 333 P-51 Mustangs claim 17-0-2 Luftwaffe aircraft in the air and 77-0-64 on the ground; 15 P-51s are lost.
The USAAF’s Ninth Air Force in England dispatches 50 B-26 Marauders to bomb airfields at Abbeville/Drucat. 600+ P-47s and P-51s attack railroad rolling stock.
MEDITERRANEAN SEA: U-453 sunk in the Ionian Sea NE of Cape Spartivento, in position 38.13N, 16.30E, by depth charges from destroyers HMS Termagant, Tenacious and Liddesdale.
NEW GUINEA: The Airfield at Arare is reopened by US engineers.
TERRITORY OF HAWAII: The accidental explosion of mortar ammunition being loaded in the tank landing ship USS LST-353 at West Loch, Pearl Harbor, destroys this ship and five other LSTs; three tank landing craft (LCTs); 17 tracked landing vehicles (LVTs); and eight 155 mm guns. Two other LSTs are damaged.
U.S.A.:
Submarine USS Boarfish launched.
Minesweepers USS Hazard, Device and Diploma launched.
Destroyers USS Hank and John W Weeks launched.
Destroyer escort USS Vammen launched.
Coast Guard-manned Army vessel FS-176 was commissioned. She was assigned to and operated in the Southwest Pacific area including Tacloban, Hollandia, etc.
ATLANTIC OCEAN: U-995 attacked by an RCAF 4 OTU Sqn Sunderland wounding 5 men.
Amusing note about the utterly irrelevant Duke of Windsor!
"The Nazis began the deportation of Hungary's 725,000 Jews, most of them to Auschwitz, in the spring of 1944.
In this image of Orthodox men at Auschwitz-Birkenau, the man on the left is Rabbi Naftali Zvi Weiss from the town of Bilke."
(apologies for the duplicate post) :-(
"Clothes and blankets quickly mildewed if stored too long between airings.
Small arms required frequent attention; a short period of neglect meant the beginnings of rust and corrosion.
Division engineers suffered more because of the downpours than any single unit. Charged with maintaining Dreger Road, engineer companies were forced to spend their days wading through mud in an effort to keep traffic moving.
"As time went on, however, New Guinea rains became accepted as a matter of course.
Daily routine progressed without interruption because of them, leaving the "rainy day" schedule a strictly Stateside innovation; the "clear day" schedule was the unusual.
Division entry into the shooting war appeared imminent at this point.
To offset the hindrance of weather much had to be done to keep the Division at a peak of combat efficiency.
Training in basic subjects began at the end of May.
In order to give artillery units more suitable areas in which to conduct firing exercises, all Division Artillery, under General Paxton, was dispatched to a new campsite at Fortification Point, forty miles up the coast from Finschhafen.
Here, the terrain was comparatively open, allowing the artillery wider latitude in conducting training exercises**."
**Since my Dad remembered those artillery training exercises, I put him at Fortification Point, 40 miles west of Finschafen. (!)
I’m seeing a lot of vertical lines all over the newspaper images. It’s not easy to read the text.
Great work you’re doing here, though!
Having changed the channel on the pResident during his presser this AM knowing that whatever he said would cause me to doubt whether Divine Providence still favored the nation I chose instead to take being reminded by Doolittle’s picture today to look up his Wiki bio again.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jimmy_Doolittle
What a splendid patriot! Divine Providence certainly was working overtime to keep him alive repeatedly during his life (when so many other early aviators died)for example:
“In April 1926, Doolittle was given a leave of absence to go to South America to perform demonstration flights. In Chile, he broke both ankles, but put his P-1 Hawk through aerial maneuvers with his ankles in casts. He returned to the United States, and was confined to Walter Reed Army Hospital for his injuries until April 1927. Doolittle was then assigned to McCook Field for experimental work, with additional duty as an instructor pilot to the 385th Bomb Squadron of the Air Corps Reserve. During this time, in 1927 he was the first to perform an outside loop previously thought to be a fatal maneuver. Carried out in a Curtiss fighter at Wright Field in Ohio, Doolittle executed the dive from 10,000 feet, reached 280 miles per hour, bottomed out upside down, then climbed and completed the loop.”
It is not your computer's fault. I have never figured out what caused those lines, which have recurred since the beginning. They are on the microfilm itself so there is no way to get rid of them. They will be with us for a couple more days this time, beginning to clear up on the 24th and gone on the 25th and through the end of May. They return in June, but not as severe as we are seeing now.
Permalift bra on last page looks dangerous.
Communist party disbands but supports FDR bid for 4th term.
Why am I not surprised?
Page 13 deserves a post all by itself.
The lines came from the orginal film canisters as the film was run through the camera it would slide against the plates and catch dirt that would remove film emululsion. This happened with all microfilm I have ever seen of old newspapers. They would have to find and rescan every publication to clean this up.
Thanks for clearing up something that has been puzzling me for years.
Things in the Times today that have not changed:
The CPUSA supports the progresive democrat president.
Corrupt democrat politician indicted.
The GOP is trying to be relevant searching for a public alternative to the democrats’ socialist policies.
Things in the Times that have changed:
Not a trace of liberal hand-wringing or regret over the cops shooting the rapist who “attempted escape.”
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