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ALLIES CUT GERMAN LINKS TO CHERBOURG; ROUT NAVAL ATTACK, HIT 4 DESTROYERS (6/10/44)
Microfilm-New York Times archives, Monterey Public Library | 6/10/44 | Drew Middleton, Gene Currivan, Sidney Shalett, David Anderson, Herbert L. Matthews, George Gallup

Posted on 06/10/2014 5:05:04 AM PDT by Homer_J_Simpson

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TOPICS: Extended News; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: history; milhist; realtime; worldwarii
Free Republic University, Department of History presents World War II Plus 70 Years: Seminar and Discussion Forum
First session: September 1, 2009. Last date to add: September 2, 2015.
Reading assignment: New York Times articles and the occasional radio broadcast delivered daily to students on the 70th anniversary of original publication date. (Previously posted articles can be found by searching on keyword “realtime” Or view Homer’s posting history .)
To add this class to or drop it from your schedule notify Admissions and Records (Attn: Homer_J_Simpson) by freepmail. Those on the Realtime +/- 70 Years ping list are automatically enrolled. Course description, prerequisites and tuition information is available at the bottom of Homer’s profile. Also visit our general discussion thread.
1 posted on 06/10/2014 5:05:04 AM PDT by Homer_J_Simpson
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To: Homer_J_Simpson
Selections from West Point Atlas for the Second World War
Normandy, 1944: The Invasion and Operations, 6-12 June 1944
The Western Pacific, New Guinea and the Philippine Islands: Allied Advances to the Marianas, Biak and Noemfoor, 22 April-24 July 1944, and Japanese Kon and “A” Go Operations 30 May-19 June 1944
Northern Italy 1944: Allied Advance to Gothic Line, 5 June-25 August and Gains 29 August-31 December
China, 1941: Operation Ichigo, April-December 1944 and Situation 31 December
China-Burma, 1941: Third Burma Campaign – Slim’s Offensive, June 1944-March 1945
2 posted on 06/10/2014 5:05:29 AM PDT by Homer_J_Simpson ("Every nation has the government that it deserves." - Joseph de Maistre (1753-1821))
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To: Homer_J_Simpson
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The Nimitz Graybook

3 posted on 06/10/2014 5:05:59 AM PDT by Homer_J_Simpson ("Every nation has the government that it deserves." - Joseph de Maistre (1753-1821))
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To: Homer_J_Simpson
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Winston S. Churchill, Triumph and Tragedy

4 posted on 06/10/2014 5:06:39 AM PDT by Homer_J_Simpson ("Every nation has the government that it deserves." - Joseph de Maistre (1753-1821))
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To: Homer_J_Simpson
Billboard Top Ten for the Week of June 10, 1944

#1 – “I’ll Get By” - Harry James, with Dick Haymes (reissue of 1941 recording)
#2 – “Long Ago (and Far Away” – Dick Haymes, with Helen Forrest
#3 - “I’ll Be Seeing You” – Bing Crosby
#4 – “I Love You” – Bing Crosby
#5 - “Holiday for Strings” – David Rose
#6 – “San Fernando Valley” - Bing Crosby
#7 - “I’ll Be Seeing You” - Tommy Dorsey, with Frank Sinatra
#8 - “Long Ago (and Far Away” – Perry Como
#9 - “G.I. Jive” – Louis Jordan
#10 - “It’s Love Love Love” - Guy Lombardo, with the Skip Nelson Trio

5 posted on 06/10/2014 5:07:12 AM PDT by Homer_J_Simpson ("Every nation has the government that it deserves." - Joseph de Maistre (1753-1821))
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To: r9etb; PzLdr; dfwgator; Paisan; From many - one.; rockinqsranch; 2banana; henkster; meandog; ...
Take Key to Road (Middleton) – 2-3
Marshall, Arnold and King in London – 3-4
American Paratroopers Moving on Enemy (photos) – 4
2 Enemy Warships Wrecked, British Craft Hit off Ushant (Currivan) – 5
War News Summarized – 5
Allied Parachutists Far Excelled Germans’ Feat in Attack on Crete – 6
Colossal Error by Germans Seen (Shalett) – 6-7
May Ship Losses Strike New Low – 7
Calling Atlantic Wall a Bluff Held Less Than Just to Allies – 7
Germans Predict Blow at Belgium (Anderson) – 8
General Demoted During Battle Making a Quick Comeback Here – 8
Swift Allied Gains Continuing in Italy – 9-10
Italian Premier Selects Cabinet (Matthews) – 10
U.S. Pacific Fliers Sink 4 Destroyers – 11
Japanese Force Arc Closer to Changsha; Chinese Expect Drives in Shensi and Honan – 11
Nazis Seen Hoping for Another War (Gallup) – 12
Latest Casualties of Army and Navy – 12
The Texts of the Day’s Communiques on the Fighting in Various War Zones – 13-14
6 posted on 06/10/2014 5:08:23 AM PDT by Homer_J_Simpson ("Every nation has the government that it deserves." - Joseph de Maistre (1753-1821))
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To: Homer_J_Simpson

http://www.onwar.com/chrono/1944/jun44/10jun44.htm#

Oradour-sur-Glane Massacre
Saturday, June 10, 1944 www.onwar.com

In Occupied France... A detachment of the German 2nd SS Panzer Division Das Reich kills 642 inhabitants of the village Oradour-sur-Glane, near Limoges. The dead include about 200 women and children burned to death in the church.

On the Western Front... Field Marshal Montgomery establishes 21st Army Group headquarters in Normandy, France. The Utah and Omaha beaches are linked up by an advance of the US 2nd Armored Division (part of 5th Corps). The US 101st Airborne Division continues to be engaged around Carentan. On the left, elements of British 30th Corps are heavily engaged. The 7th Armored Division battles the German Panzerlehr Division near Tilly-sur-Seulles.

In Italy... British 8th Army forces advance along the Adriatic coast. Elements of 5th Corps (Keightley) capture Pescara and Chieti. Inland, the New Zealand 2nd Division penetrates into Avezzano where fighting continues.

In the Dutch East Indies... In a diversionary action, British aircraft from Illustrious and Atheling raid Japanese positions on Sabang. The intent is to distract Japanese attention from American forces approaching the Mariana Islands.

On the Eastern Front... To the north of Leningrad, the Soviet 23rd Army (Cherepanov), part of the Leningrad Front, launches attacks against Finnish positions on the Karelian Isthmus. Terijoki and Yalkena are captured.


7 posted on 06/10/2014 5:09:19 AM PDT by Homer_J_Simpson ("Every nation has the government that it deserves." - Joseph de Maistre (1753-1821))
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To: Homer_J_Simpson

http://www.etherit.co.uk/month/thismonth/10.htm

June 10th, 1944 (SATURDAY)

UNITED KINGDOM: Captain David Niven features on the cover of “Picturegoer” magazine, publicizing the new film “The Way Ahead.”

The USAAF’s Eighth Air Force in England flies two missions.

Mission 403: Bad weather restricts operations to northwestern France; 883 bombers and 1,491 fighter sorties are flown but 200+ bombers abort due to cloud conditions; one bomber and 24 fighters are lost.

1. 507 B-17 Flying Fortresses are dispatched to Equihen (24 bomb), Hardelot (23 bomb), St Gabriel (26 bomb), Gael Airfield (36 bomb), Nantes/Bouguenais Airfield (55 bomb), Vannes Airfield (59 bomb), Berck (26 bomb), Merlimont Plage (39 bomb), and Toucquet-Paris-Plage (10 bomb).

2. 257 B-24s are dispatched to Wimereau (23 bomb), Boulogne (34 bomb), Dreux Airfield (26 bomb), Evreux/Fauville Airfield (65 bomb) and Boulogne (13 bomb); 39 others hit Conches Airfield; one B-24 is lost.

3. 119 B-24s are dispatched to Chateaudun Airfield (45 bomb) and Orleans/Bricy Airfield (66 bomb) .

VIII Fighter Command missions during the day are:

1. 405 P-38s fly sweep and escort; they claim 5-2-1 Luftwaffe aircraft.

2. 3 P-47 Thunderbolts and 364 P-51 Mustangs provide escort for the bombers above; they claim 0-0-1 Luftwaffe aircraft on the ground; seven fighters are lost.

3. 506 P-47s and 213 P-51s fly fighter-bomber missions against communications targets in the beachhead area; they claim 8-0-2 Luftwaffe aircraft in the air and 1-0-1 on the ground; 15 P-47s and two P-51 are lost

Mission 404: During the evening, eleven B-17s drop leaflets on Norway and France without loss.

The USAAF’s Ninth Air Force in England dispatches 500+ B-26 Marauders and A-20 Havocs to bomb targets in the assault area including military concentrations, road and rail bridges and junctions, artillery batteries, marshalling yards and town areas; aircraft of 15+ fighter groups fly escort to bombers and transports, and bomb numerous targets in support of the ground assault, including rail facilities, roads, troop concentrations, artillery, and town areas.
FRANCE: The population of French village Oradour-sur-Glane, near Limoges, is murdered by a detachment of 2nd SS Panzer Division “Das Reich” commanded by SS Sturmbannführer Otto Dickmann. In all 642 civilians perish. The men are driven into barns and shot, the women and children are herded into the church, which is set on fire. One German officer is killed by masonry falling from the burning church where the women and children are incinerated alive. Those who escape the fire and smoke are machine-gunned. Only seven or eight of the villagers escape alive. A boy of eight ran away into the woods. A woman, Madame Rouffanche hid behind the high altar of the church, where she found a ladder, and jumped from a ten-foot-high window. The Limoges region is largely under Resistance control, but there are no Resistance fighters in Oradour. Dickmann is killed some weeks later fighting in Normandy.

The Franc-Tireur resistants in the Vercors region of southern France declare the plateau to be the “Free Republic of the Vercors”. (216)

Normandy:

The Utah and Omaha beachheads are linked by a US armoured advance. Allied forces cut road and rail links between Carentan and Cherbourg.

Jay Stone writes: According to Rappaport and Northwood in Rendezvous with Destiny: A history of the 101st Airborne Division, Company A, 3rd Battalion [yes, Company A], 327 Glider Infantry was sent to investigate a report of a large body of troops in Auville-sur-le Vey, on the banks of the Vire river, three miles southeast of Brevands. The company met soldiers of the 29th Infantry Division in front of a store in Auville-sur-le-Vey. This was the first known contact between troops of V Corps and VII Corps, thus linking Omaha and Utah Beaches. The battalion commander, Lieutenant Colonel Allen and the division asst G-2 Major Danahy drove to V Corps headquarters where they briefed the corps commander, Major General Gerow on the situation of the 101st Airborne. Late in the afternoon the two officers returned to Auville, picked up Company A and returned to Brevands 1.5 miles to the west.
0145-0700. The 327th Glider Infantry Regiment, 101st Airborne Division crosses the Douvre River in Normandy in preparation for its attack on Carentan. Its direct support field artillery battalion, the 321st Glider Field Artillery Battalion crosses later in the day and fires its first rounds in support of the attack.

Over 326,000 Allied soldiers and 54,000 vehicles have now been landed on the beaches.

The huge concrete and steel “Mulberry” harbours are now being assembled on the Normandy beaches.

Every US soldier need 30 pounds of supplies every day to support him in the field; the British make do with 20 pounds.

The Gold and Omaha Beaches joined up two days ago after 900 tons of beach obstacles had been removed from Gold. Omaha and Utah are also linked, though it will be two or three days before the whole 50 miles from Sword to Utah are secure.

The Canadians are grappling with the 12 SS Hitler Jugend Panzer division on the approaches to Caen. This group of fanatical Hitler supporters is led by the 33-year-old SS Colonel Kurt “Panzer” Meyer, who is directing the operations of his tank force from the tower of Ardenne Abbey, outside Caen. He has sworn not to halt his men until they have driven the Allies into the sea. At one point during a night attack, the Canadian command post was surrounded; but then Meyer lost six Panzers and called off the action. The Canadians have been badly shaken, but they have defied Meyer’s boasts.

Montgomery has come ashore to set up his tactical HQ in a chateau at Creully. He found the British troops grown weary after continuous contact with the enemy since D-Day. In part this is the reason for his refusal to make a frontal attack on Caen, despite its importance to the Germans as a communications centre. He has ordered the second army to advance on Villers-Bocage and then Falaise, with the intention of enveloping Caen. A plan to drop the 1st Airborne Division behind Caen has been vetoed by Leigh-Mallory, who has little faith in parachute operations. After British Intelligence identified the HQ of Panzer Group West at La Caine, a bombing raid killed 17 German staff officers and wiped out all signalling equipment.

On the American beaches, enemy opposition has been patchy. Some supposedly German formations have turned out to be nothing of the kind. An American unit on the road linking Omaha with Gold was surrounded by armed men who proved to be Poles, Serbs and Russians, whose German officers and NCO’s had taken off. The men claimed that a squadron of White Russians, also drafted into the Wehrmacht, was waiting to surrender. The toughest resistance to the Americans is coming from the Germans defending the approaches to Cherbourg. Thick hedgerows are hampering operations. The Americans still have not captured the Contentin Peninsula. An impatient Bradley had ordered Maj-Gen J. Lawton Collins of VII Corps to throw all he has at Carentan. “Take the city apart,” Bradley ordered. “Then rush it and you’ll get in.”

The British 7th Armoured and the German Panzer Lehr Division are engaged near Tilly-sur-Suelles.

Paris: Huis Clos, Sartre’s best known play (which includes the line, “Hell is other people”) is presented for the first time in the Théâtre du Vieux-Colombier, the opening was delayed due to electricity shortages. Two women and a man locked into each other’s company without means of escape.

FINLAND: The Red Army has launched an offensive in massive strength against the Finns entrenched on the Karelian Isthmus, north of Leningrad. After forceful probing attacks yesterday, with artillery and air support in strength previously unknown in the Finnish front, the main offensive today strikes already weakened Finnish forces and achieves breakthrough at Valkeasaari, very southernmost part of the front.The Finns have been hit with a hurricane of shells and bombs. Even their long-established fortifications have proved no protection against the weight of the Soviet attack.

A murderous hail of steel mowed down barbed-wire entanglements, filled in trenches and dug-outs and shattered armoured bunkers. Nevertheless the Finns are still fighting with their customary stubborn courage, but as one Finn told his captors “You have such superiority that resistance is simply futile.” The Finnish people have been shocked by the news. A Swedish correspondent in Helsinki reports: “Finnish arms have suffered a painful defeat at the very outset of operations.”

There seems little doubt that the new offensive is designed to force the Finns to make peace rather than as a campaign of occupation. The Finnish government, dominated by the pro-German finance minister, Vaino Tanner, has procrastinated for too long; Stalin now intends to force its hand. The Fenno-Soviet front had been relatively quiet since the end of 1941 (at least when compared to the rest of the eastern front), the Finns being content in guarding the line while the Red Army was busy elsewhere. Soviets had initiated local offensives in 1942 and -43, but they had always been beaten back. Finns adopted a ‘wait and see’ -policy, hoping to find a way out of the war while preserving the territories lost in the Winter War of 1939-40. But as the war progressed, it became clear that the Soviet Union was going to emerge victorious, and concessions to Finns were out of question. There had been serious peace feelers in 1943 and in spring 1944, Finnish envoys travelling to Moscow on the latter occasion, but the Soviet terms were considered too harsh to be acceptable. The only consequence of these probes was that Germany ceased providing supplies and Soviets began planning a military operation to knock Finland out of war.

The aims of the Soviets were flexible. The minimum aim being to expel the Finns from the Karelian Isthmus, take Viipuri (Vyborg) and force Finland to accept peace.

The Finnish Army had settled down to fight a positional war, and was unprepared to fight a Soviet invasion in the scale that the Germans had time and time again faced south of the Gulf of Finland. The Finnish military leadership expected an invasion to come, but not apparently just now. Reserves had been recalled to service, and troops have been transferred from eastern Karelia (north of Lake Ladoga) to the Isthmus. But the signs of an imminent Soviet offensive have been ignored by the highest leadership. Exactly why is the greatest unanswered question in the Finnish military history.

The military leadership was certainly aware a Soviet offensive would come. It was inevitable once the peace terms were rejected in spring. Chief Quartermaster General Lt. Gen. Aksel Airo later commented that they knew the offensive was coming, but they had no way of knowing when and exactly where it would come. Although I have great respect for Gen. Airo (IMO he was one of the most important and able men in the Finnish military leadership), I think his explanations weak. There were general staff officers who pointed out the obvious signs of an imminent Soviet offensive, but were brushed away by Airo, who ‘didn’t want to worry the old Marshal’.

‘The old Marshal’. These words point to the single biggest problem in the Finnish military decision-making. The 77-year-old Marshal Mannerheim, Commander-in-Chief of the Finnish Defence Forces, wasn’t at the top of his powers, but refused to share his responsibilities. In practice Mannerheim acted as his own Chief of the General Staff, because he didn’t want to be ‘one man’s prisoner’. Mannerheim personally received the reports from all the section chiefs at the General Staff and drew the conclusions himself, overburdening himself with the minutiae of warfare and leaving precious little to do to General of Infantry Erik Heinrichs, Chief of the General Staff. It has been suggested, even by Mannerheim’s closest confidants, that one of the reasons the coming of the Soviet offensive went undetected by the highest military leadership, was because Mannerheim was buried in the flood of information, unable to see the forest for the trees. And there was no-one who could do that for him.

It also seems that the resilience of the Finnish defences was overestimated. The defences on the Karelian Isthmus consisted in theory of three lines. The front-line, running at the eastern end of the Isthmus, was the main defence line. Roughly at the center ran the VT-line, which was about half-complete, and at the western end of the Isthmus ran the VKT-line, which was hardly more than a line on map. It had been urged on Mannerheim to designate the VT-line the main defence line. In retrospect it can be said to have been a very wise proposition. If the VT-line would have been finished and manned by the main body of the Finnish troops, it would have given the Finnish Army room for maneuvre and time to better react to the Soviet offensive. But Mannerheim rejected the proposition, after the commanders of the front-line corps reassured him that they could repel any Soviet offensive where they were. They should have known better.

The Finnish Army forces at the Isthmus were deployed in two corps directly under the GHQ. Until March 1944 Lt. Gen. Harald Öhquist had held the command of the Isthmus Group, situated between the divisions and the GHQ, but Mannerheim had disbanded the Isthmus Group HQ and formed the divisions into two corps. He apparently did this to better control the forces at the Isthmus, but in practice this only caused that there was nobody at place to coordinate things once the going got rough (Mannerheim recognized this after the Soviet offensive began, and appointed Lt. Gen. Karl Lennart Oesch commander of the Isthmus Troops on 14 June).

The Finnish corps were, from south to north IV Corps (Lt. Gen. Taavetti Laatikainen) and III Corps (Lt. Gen. Hjalmar Siilasvuo). The IV Corps consisted of the 10th Division (Maj. Gen. Jussi Sihvo) and the 2nd Division (Maj. Gen. Armas-Eino Martola). The corps reserve consisted of the I battalion of the Infantry Regiment 200 (manned by Estonian volunteers) and the Jaeger Battalion 1. The IV Corps had in all some 14 500 men in the front line (counting out the rear-echelon troops), and it bore the main brunt of the Soviet offensive, especially the 10th Division at the southern part of the front. The III Corps consisted of the 15th Division (Maj. Gen. Niilo Hersalo) and the 19th Brigade. It had 14 960 men at the front-line. The GHQ reserves at the Isthmus were the 3rd Division (Maj. Gen. Aaro Pajari), 18th Division (Maj. Gen. Paavo Paalu), the Armored Division (Maj. Gen. Ruben Lagus) and the Cavalry Brigade (Maj. Gen. Lars Melander). In all the Finns had some 102 000 men at the Karelian Isthmus.

They were opposed by 21 divisions of the 21st (Gen. Gusev; 15 divisions) and 23rd (Gen. Cherepanov; 6 divisions) armies of the Leningrad Front (Army General L. Govorov). The 23rd Army had held the front for years now, but the 21st Army at the southern part of the front was a crack formation transferred to the Isthmus to act as the spearhead of the offensive. They had some 260 000 men and 628 tanks (and received more after the offensive started; Finns had 22 battleworthy tanks - StuG IIIg’s of the Armored Division - at the Isthmus), supported by some 3000 artillery pieces and 1220 planes (against 117 Finnish planes).

The Soviet attacks yesterday had already penetrated the 10th Division positions and tied the division’s reserves in battle. Today the Soviet offensive breaks through the division, and it manages to withdraw only with great difficulty. Thanks to the courage of small groups of men fighting back against tremendous odds, catastrophe is avoided, but the situation is extremely critical. Some units run back in panic, and are contained only with difficulty. Desertion becomes a serious problem.

The Red Army has broken through the main defence line, and is advancing towards the rear. It advances some 15 kilometres (10 miles) today. The Finnish GHQ orders 4th Division (Maj. Gen. Aleksanteri Autti) and 3rd Brigade to move to the Isthmus from other parts of the Fenno-Soviet front, and plans of a counter-attack are being formed. But the coming days will reveal the full strength of the Soviet assault, and the large-scale counter-attack is forgotten - the plans are now about fighting delaying actions and keeping the retreat orderly until a coherent line of defence can be established.

Today afternoon Mannerheim accepts Gen. Laatikainen’s proposal that the Finnish troops retreat to the VT-line. Yesterday and today Finns claim 60 Soviet planes shot down. Elsewhere Stalin informs the US Ambassador that Finns are a particularly stubborn and slow-witted people and one has to use a sledgehammer to pound some sense into their heads.

Correlation of forces in the Karelian Isthmus on the eve of the Soviet offensive. Against the Finnish forces (two corps with three divisions and one brigade in front-line, three divisions and one brigade in reserve), Army General Leonid Govorov’s Leningrad Front had Lt. Gen. D. Gusev’s 21st Army and Lt. Gen. A. Cherepanov’s 23rd Army in the front.

Gen. Gusev’s 21st Army, which in western Isthmus conducted the main offensive, had five corps with 15 divisions, 4 tank brigades, 5 tank regiments, 5 assault gun regiments and 110 artillery battalions:

- 109th Corps with the 109th and 72nd divisions, later reinforced with the 286th Division

- 97th Corps with the 381st, 358th and 178th divisions

- 30th Guards Corps with the 45th, 63rd and 64th guards divisions

- 108th Corps with the 46th, 90th and 314th divisions

- 110th Corps with the 168th, 265th and 268th divisions.

The last two corps were initially in reserve. Maj. Gen. N. Simonyak’s 30th Guards Corps was an elite formation who acted as the spearhead of the 21st Army offensive.

In eastern Isthmus Gen. A. Cherepanov’s 23rd Army had two corps with 6 divisions, 3 tank regiments, 3 assault gun regiments and 36 artillery battalions:

- 115th Corps with the 92nd, 10th and 142nd divisions

- 98th Corps with the 177th, 281st and 372nd divisions

Leningrad Front had also at least four divisions in reserve. It was supported by Lt. Gen. S. Rybalchenko’s 13th Air Army and certain other air units which together had some 1550 aircraft [According to John Erickson’s article about Air Chief Marshal Alexander Novikov (in Stalin’s Generals, ed. by Harold Shukman), when Novikov in May 1944 was about to depart to organize air operations against Finland, he was under the impression that the US Ambassador Averell Harriman had promised the Soviet Union a squadron of B 29 Superfortresses. Novikov actually hoped to use these bombers against Finland in the coming operation! As is well known, the only Superfortresses the Soviets ever received were US aircraft that made emergency landings on the Soviet soil.]. In all the Red Army had in Karelian Isthmus 260 000 to 280 000 men, 440 to 460 tanks, 170 assault guns and 1660 field guns.

Opposing the Soviet forces in the Isthmus Finnish Army had, in the six divisions and two brigades, some 70 000 men (the number 102 000 I gave in the earlier mail counts _all_ the Finnish military forces in the Isthmus), 100 tanks (all obsolete), 22 assault guns and 289 field guns. They were supported by Lt. Col. Gustaf Magnusson’s Aviation Regiment 3 with three fighter squadrons (30 Me 109 G’s and 18 Brewster Buffalos).

At the time, a full-strength Finnish (infantry) division had 14 500 men. It had two infantry regiments and one separate infantry battalion. It had also 12 AT-guns, 48 field guns, 24 medium mortars (81 or 82 mm) and 12 heavy mortars (120 mm). When the Continuation War started in 1941, a Finnish division had three infantry regiments, but in early 1942 Finnish Army underwent partial demobilization, and the third regiment was reduced into a separate battalion. The Finnish divisions in the front in the Isthmus in June 1944 were forced, because of the length of the front allotted to them, to have both the regiments in the front-line. Thus they had only one battalion as a local reserve.

A full-strength Finnish (infantry) brigade had 7900 men. It had four infantry battalions, 6 heavy mortars, 12 light and 12 heavy field guns.

All the Finnish units were more or less understrength. On the average, a division had some 10 000 men, and a brigade less than 5000 men. (112 and 113)

GREECE: Germans of the 4.SS-Pol.Pz.Gren.Div. “Polizei”, raze the village of Distomo and murder its inhabitants. (Russell Folsom)(210)

ITALY: The New Zealand Division enters Avezzano.

The USAAF’s Fifteenth Air Force in Italy dispatches 550+ B-17s and B-24s to attack targets in Italy; B-17s hit a marshalling yard at Mestre and oil storage and marshalling yard at Porto Marghera; B-24s hit oil refinery at Trieste, an air depot at Ferrara and the town of Ancona.

P-51s and P-38s fly escort, and in Romania, strafe targets of opportunity between Bucharest and the Danube River and south of Craiova, and dive-bomb an oil refinery at Ploesti. During these raids the Romanian Air Force has its best day when the IAR-81Cs of Grup 6 Vanatori and the Me109Gs of Grup 9 Vanatori combine to claim 18 P-38s during a low-level raid, one of the targets of which was Grup 6 Vanatori’s own airfield. There were 46 bomb-carrying P-38s escorted by another 48 flying fighter cover involved in the attack. Grup 6 Vanatori was already airborne when the raid struck their home field. They benefitted from ideal conditions, catching a group of P-38s at almost ground level during a strafing run on the airfield, and diving in from above and behind. The Romanians lost only one fighter from both groups combined in this extended fight. The USAAF reported 22 P-38s lost over Romania to all causes this day, so the Romanian claim to have shot fown 18 Lightnings may not be too far off the mark. (Jack McKillop and Mike Yaklich)

BURMA: British carriers Illustrious and Atheling raid Sabong.

CHINA: Five Japanese divisions mass to attack Changsha.

KURILE ISLANDS: A Lockheed PV-1 Ventura of Bombing Squadron One Hundred Thirty Five (VB-135) based at Casco Field, NAS Attu, makes a photographic run over Miyoshino Airfield on central Shimushu Island. The photographs reveal that there are 29 Japanese twin-engined bombers parked on the field. Since US Navy cruisers are enroute to bombard the Kurile Islands, USAAF andUSNbombers attack the airfield to destroy the Japanese aircraft.

PACIFIC OCEAN: As Task Force 58 approaches the Mariana Islands prior to the invasion of Saipan on 15 June, PB4Y-1 Liberators of Bombing Squadron One Hundred Eight (VB-108) and VB-109 based at NAB Eniwetok Atoll, Marshall Islands, fly ahead of the task force to intercept and destroy any patrolling Japanese aircraft. These sweeps continue tomorrow and an aircraft from each squadron shoots down a Japanese patrol plane some distance from the fleet. These four-engine planes are used because they are a common sighting and will not arouse Japanese suspicions.

U.S.A.: “I’ll Get By (As Long As I Have You)” by Harry James and his Orchestra with vocal by Dick Haymes reaches Number 1 on the Billboard Pop Singles chart in the U.S. This song, which debuted on the charts on 15 April 1944, was charted for 28 weeks, was Number 1 for 6 weeks and was ranked Number 5 for the year 1944.

Captain Glenn Millar and his big band are used to attract recruits to the USAAF through the “I Sustain the Wings” weekly radio broadcast. The broadcasts open the week with Captain Miller saying “It’s been a big week for our side. Over on the beaches of Normandy our boys have fired the opening guns of the long awaited drive to liberate the world.”

CINCPAC PRESS RELEASE NO. 439, Truk Atoll was bombed by Seventh Army Air Force Liberators on June 8 (West Longitude Date). No opposition was encountered.

Ventura search planes of Fleet Air Wing Two bombed Nauru Island on June 7 and 8 and Ocean Island on June 7. Barracks and gun emplacements were hit. Antiaircraft fire ranged from moderate to intense. Seventh Army Air Force Mitchells bombed Nauru Island on June 8, hitting coastal defence guns and antiaircraft emplacements.

Antiaircraft fire was intense.

A single search plane of Fleet Air Wing Two bombed gun positions at Puluwat Island on June 9.

Mitchell bombers of the Seventh Army Air Force attacked Ponape Island on June 7. Hangars near the seaplane base and shops were hit. Meagre antiaircraft fire was encountered. On June 8 a single Seventh Army Air Force Liberator bombed Ponape.

Dauntless dive bombers and Corsair fighters of the Fourth Marine Aircraft Wing, Ventura search planes of Fleet Air Wing Two, and Navy Hellcat fighters bombed and strafed remaining enemy positions in the Marshalls on June 7 and 8. Piers and antiaircraft batteries were bombed. At one objective a large explosion was caused near an antiaircraft emplacement. On June 8 two Corsair fighters were downed by antiaircraft fire near Maloelap. One of the pilots was rescued by a destroyer. A Dauntless dive bomber was shot down near Mille the same day and its pilot rescued by a destroyer. (Denis Peck)

CANADA: HMCS Teme is damaged by escort carrier HMS Tracker, four killed. Teme is towed 200 miles to Cardiff, Wales by HMCS Outremont. AB J. Thompson, who was in the radar cabin at the time of the collision, found himself imprisoned with the door of the cabin jammed. As Tracker under the influence of the swell, chewed into Teme the door of the radar cabin burst open and Thompson landed involuntary on the bridge. L/Sto J. Larusson who was on watch in the diesel generator room was startled to hear the small escape hatch being closed (this is normal procedure when action station is sounded). Larusson felt he would be more comfortable with the hatch opened until he was finished with oiling. He had just opened the hatch when the collision took place and he was literally blown through the opening. OS Ernest Taillon jumped from the bridge at the time of the collision and all he remembers is landing on something soft that felt like sawdust and then being dragged aboard the ship aft. Taillon although wearing heavy sea-boots was equipped with an RCN life jacket and was still practically dry above the waist when rescued. At approximately 0600 on the 10 Jun when we had just commenced the tow, L/Sto A. Rainey RCNVR was taking photographs of the damage from the forecastle. He slipped on the oily deck and went over the side and was eventually fished out from between the two damaged bulkheads of number one boiler room. The supply parties from the forward and aft magazines also had a fairly exciting times. On action stations being sounded all hatches are being closed automatically. Instruction to ratings in magazines being that their means of escape was up the ammunition hoists. To escape in this way some assistance from the ammunition party at the top of the hoist is necessary. This was not forthcoming and the ratings were eventually recovered through the water tight hatches, after it had been ascertained that bulkheads were intact There is also the Petty Officer who could not at normal times, negotiate small escape hatches while wearing an RCN life jacket. Immediately following the collision he made the grade.

Tug HMCS Glencove is launched at Owen Sound Ontario; Frigate HMCS Lauzon is launched at Lauzon Province of Quebec; Fairmile HMCS ML 123 is commissioned.

RAdm Leonard Warren Murray awarded OBE and CBE Awarded OBE: A/Capt Geoffrey Bateman Hope RCN, A/Capt James William Keohane RCN, A/Cdr(E) Charles Murtough O’Leary RCNR, A/LCdr Antony Fenwick Pichard RCNR, Paym/LCdr George Cringle RCNVR, Cdr Frederick Avery Price RCNVR, A/LCdr Angus Hetherington Rankin RCNVR, Surg/Cdr Henry Robertson Ruttan RCNVR, LCdr Laurence James Dover RN, LCdr Isabel Janet MacNeill WRCNS Awarded OBE (Civil): Capt Thomas Campbell Bannermand,CN ‘SS Cavalier’, Ch(E) Robert Davidson Knox Imperial Oil Co, Capt Anaclet Leblanc CN ‘SS Cathcart’, Capt Edward Alfred Leblanc CN ‘SS Lady Rodney’, Capt George Vincent Thomas Imperial Oil “SS Trontolite’, Capt Herbert Lawson THOMAS War Emergency Tanker Awarded MBE: Bosn Lawrence Chaney RCN, Cd/Std Leslie Charles Karagianis RCN, Cd/Bosn Charles McDONALD RCN, Lt Gordon Allam RCNR, Mate William James Arsenault RCNR, A/Skr/Lt Herman Baker RCNR, Ch/Skr Claude Kenneth Darrah RCNR, Cd(E) Richard Leslie Richards RCNR, S/Lt Leonard Idiens RCNVR, Cd/Shipt Wilfred Roy Marryat RCNVR.

Awarded MBE (Civil): Ch/Officer Alexander Hendry CN ‘SS Colborne’,Capt Alphonse Ernest Lavallee Halifax Lighthouse No.15, 2nd(E) Michael Joseph Moyle CN ‘SS Lady Nelson, Awarded George Medal: Cdr Owen Connor Robertson RCNR Awarded BEM: CPO Frank Edward EVES RCN, CPO/Sto William Burpee Dodsworth RCN, CPO/ERA John David Pratt RCN, AB Albert Bruce Campbell RCNVR, CPO William Clifton Pickering RCNR, CPO/ERA Peter Christie Allan RCNVR, SBPO Roger Philippe Arsenault RCNVR, COPR Henry Biddle RCNVR, ROP Robert Blaekely RCNVR, LS Allan Boon RCNVR, Sto 1 William Spencer Carson RCNVR, OS Diver 2 Albert Joseph Hanley RCNVR, CPO/Wtr Bruce Sterling Joudrey RCNVR, Ck(S) Allen John Rorberts RCNVR, CPO/Tele Irene Francis Carter WRCNS Awarded BEM (Civil): AB Thomas Mathew De Wolf, Bosn Harold Gates and Carpenter John James Murray both CN ‘SS Cornwallis’, Carpenter L. Pierce CN ‘SS Colborne, Bosn Alexander C. Watson Imperial Oil Co Awarded Mention in Dispatches: PO Robert Marshall RCN, A/LCdr Philip Cabell Evans RCNR, A/ERA 4 Albert Gordon Dryden RCNR, Lt John Alexander Ferguson RCNVR, SPO Gerald Ludvig Haugen RCNVR, Wt(E) Sandon Alexander Karr RCNR, Lt John Glover McQuarrie RCNR, Lt Fred Francis Osborne RCNR, AB Allan Porter RCNR, A/PO Morrill Henry Rodgerson RCNR, AB Henry Snow RCNR, A/LCdr William Roland Stacey RCNR, CPO Douglas Robert Strachan RCNR, SPO Walter Valentine Sweet RCNR, PO John George Alerie RCNVR, A/LCdr Frederick Bancroft Brooks-Hill RCNVR, A/LCdr Victor Browne RCNVR, Lt Freeman Elikins Burrows RCNVR, Lt Sydney William Buxton RCNVR, Lt Gordon Duncan Campbell RCNVR, Lt Donald Davis RCNVR, A/ERA 4 Joseph Keith Fleming RCNVR, Lt(E) William Simpson Gibson RCNVR, Sto 1 Virgil Green RCNVR, Lt Richard Wallace Hart RCNVR, Lt Henry Knox Hill RCNVR, A/LCdr Rendell James Godschal Johnson RCNVR, Lt Archibald Miller Kirkpatrick RCNVR, CPO/Sto(FF) Oliver Philip Munt RCNVR, A/LCdr Frederick Robb Knyvet Naftel RCNVR, A/LS Lloyd Victor North RCNVR, A/LCdr John Barry O’Brein RCNVR, Lt James Leslie Percy RCNVR, ERA 4 John Polischuck RCNVR, Lt James Charles Pratt RCNVR, LS Bruce Simon Scott RCNVR, A/PO/Tel Thomas Shute RCNVR, Lt(SB) Charles Wallace Spinney RCNVR, A/LS Carmen Ernest Stephenson RCNVR, A/LS Reginald Taylor RCNVR Ch/Skr Jean Leon Cloutier RCNR Awarded LS&GC Medal


8 posted on 06/10/2014 5:11:26 AM PDT by Homer_J_Simpson ("Every nation has the government that it deserves." - Joseph de Maistre (1753-1821))
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To: Homer_J_Simpson
My father was Army Air Force. He said bombers returning to airfields in Britain still with ordinance on board or who had bombs stuck in the bomb bay would pass over Cherbourg. They'd drop what ever they had or else try to dislodge stuck bombs, so they wouldn't have to land with that stuff still on the plane.
9 posted on 06/10/2014 5:18:30 AM PDT by SMARTY ("When you blame others, you give up your power to change." Robert Anthony)
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To: SMARTY

I wonder what the German “mystery weapon”, from the story on page five,that sunk the U.S. ship was.


10 posted on 06/10/2014 6:42:28 AM PDT by freefdny
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To: freefdny

HS293 Radio Guided Glide Bomb

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henschel_Hs_293


11 posted on 06/10/2014 8:39:21 AM PDT by RitchieAprile
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To: Homer_J_Simpson

The murder of Mountbatten by the Commie/Muzzie-backed IRA was one of the most vile acts of treachery in my lifetime...that and trying to off Maggie Thatcher in the same timeframe!

Lots of folks complain about how “worthless” certain royals are or may have been at times, but Mountbatten certainly made up for lots of them in my book as evidenced by the jointly signed letter in this comment on this date 70 years ago.

Looking at his Wiki page I see that he was solidly of German nobility in ancestry and curiously fell in love with a doomed Romanov as a young man carrying that love to his grave!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis_Mountbatten,_1st_Earl_Mountbatten_of_Burma

“In childhood he visited the Imperial Court of Russia at St Petersburg and became intimate with the doomed Russian Imperial Family, harbouring romantic feelings towards Grand Duchess Maria Nikolaevna, whose photograph he kept at his bedside for the rest of his life.”


12 posted on 06/10/2014 9:56:24 AM PDT by Seizethecarp (Defend aircraft from "runway kill zone" mini-drone helicopter swarm attacks: www.runwaykillzone.com)
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To: Homer_J_Simpson
Down this road, on a summer day in 1944 . . . The soldiers came. Nobody lives here now. They stayed only a few hours. When they had gone, the community which had lived for a thousand years . . . was dead.

This is Oradour-sur-Glane, in France. The day the soldiers came, the people were gathered together. The men were taken to garages and barns, the women and children were led down this road . . . and they were driven . . . into this church. Here, they heard the firing as their men were shot. Then . . . they were killed too. A few weeks later, many of those who had done the killing were themselves dead, in battle.

They never rebuilt Oradour. Its ruins are a memorial. Its martyrdom stands for thousands upon thousands of other martyrdoms in Poland, in Russia, in Burma, in China, in a World at War . . .

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B5wXx5zn4P8

13 posted on 06/10/2014 12:09:17 PM PDT by fso301
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To: Seizethecarp

Good thing he didn’t marry Maria. They were already blood relatives several different ways. They might have had a dolt like Prince Charles as offspring.


14 posted on 06/10/2014 12:20:28 PM PDT by henkster (Do I really need a sarcasm tag?)
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To: Seizethecarp; Homer_J_Simpson; Tax-chick

You can’t sneak anything past the German high command, can you? They’ve smoked out that the main effort is still to come when Patton leads FUSAG to the Calais coast. Drats.


15 posted on 06/10/2014 2:27:13 PM PDT by colorado tanker
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To: Seizethecarp; henkster

Also, Edwina had scads and oodles of money.

There’s what’s supposed to be a very good biography of Mountbatten that came out in the last 15 years or so, but the copy I got from the library reeked of smoke and cat pee, so I couldn’t read it.


16 posted on 06/10/2014 2:36:04 PM PDT by Tax-chick (When the truth finally dawns, it dawns in fire!)
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