MANILA FALLS, 1,350 FREED FROM SECOND PRISON; PATTON CLEARS WESTWALL; COLMAR TRAP SET (2/6/45)

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.

Selections from West Point Atlas for the Second World War
Luzon, P.I., 1941: Final Operations on Luzon, 3 February-20 July 1945
The Ardennes Area, 1944: Operations, 17 January-7 February 1945
Eastern France and the Low Countries, 1944: Territorial Changes along the Front, 16 December 1944-7 February 1945 and Allied Plan for Rhineland Campaign
Southeastern France 1944: German Offensive, 1-30 January 1945 and Allied Reduction of Colmar Pocket, 20 January-9 February 1945
Poland, 1945: Russian Offensive to the Oder – Operations 12 January-30 March 1945
China, 1941: Operation Ichigo, 1945 and Final Operations in the War
China-Burma, 1941: Third Burma Campaign – Slim’s Offensive, June 1944-March 1945

The Nimitz Graybook

The first of the following two excerpts is continued from yesterday.

1

2

Winston S. Churchill, Triumph and Tragedy

Japanese Cut Off (Parrott) – 2-3
Internees in Tears as Old Glory Rises (Wilkins) – 3-4
Foe Making Stand in South of Manila (Jones) – 4
66 Japanese Freed to Save Hostages (Hewlett) – 4-5
Santo Tomas Diet Slow Starvation (by Robert Crabb, first-time contributor) – 5
‘Angels of Bataan’ All Accounted For – 5-6
Our Return to Manila Has Brought Them Liberty (page 1 photo) – 6
Freedom in Philippines: American Forces Bring Liberty to Our Internees and the Natives (photos) – 7-9
British Carrier Blow at Sumatra Costs Japan 75% of Aviation Fuel – 9-10
Australians Leap Nearer to Rabaul – 10
War News Summarized – 10
Red Army Lined Up – 11-12
Ley Labels Berlin ‘Front-Line City’ – 12
3d Army Wins Key Junction; Big Push in West Seen Near (Currivan, Clifton Daniel, Richard J.H. Johnston) – 13
Bradley Control of 1st Confirmed – 14-15
Regensburg, Bonn Ripped by ‘Heavies’ – 15
Latest War Casualties in the Army and Navy – 16-17
MacArthur’s Slogan Now is ‘On to Tokyo’ – 17
The Texts of the Day’s Communiques on the Fighting in Various War Zones – 18-20
Tanks and Weapons-II (by Hanson W. Baldwin) – 20

February 6th, 1945 (TUESDAY)

UNITED KINGDOM: Corvette HMCS Owen Sound departed Londonderry as escort for Convoy ON-283 to Halifax.

Submarine HMS Alderney laid down.

FRANCE: William Herbert Eaton, Brig. Gen USAAF, is killed in the crash of a B-25 near Vichy. He is survived by his wife, Louise, and daughter Patricia, my mother, (Drew Halevy)

GERMANY: Himmler’s attempt, under the influence of his masseur Felix Kersten, to transfer some Jews from German camps to Switzerland is foiled when Hitler bans all evacuations.

U-2536 commissioned.

NORWAY: U-1302 sails on her first and final patrol.

POLAND: The Soviets cross the Oder near Breslau.

HUNGARY: The Soviets have pushed back the Germans from Budapest and surrounded the town of Sashegy.

Conditions for the defending German troops were catastrophic - at this point they were existing on one slice of bread and some horsemeat per day, with most supplementing their diet with food taken from the local civilian population. Distribution of supplies was wellnigh impossible, fuel was scarce, the streets were only passable at night and only on foot, as rubble and shell craters had made roads impassable to vehicles.

The Germans’ situation was deteriorating fast. The hungry population attempted to plunder the supply canisters dropped by German aircraft, an act for which summary execution was quickly imposed. Hungarian and German soldiers frequently fought amongst themselves for access to supply canisters - although only those containing food. In field hospitals soiled bandages were reused on the newly wounded.

COMMONWEALTH OF THE PHILIPPINES: Manila: General Douglas MacArthur tonight claimed that the recapture of Manila was imminent, as house-to-house fighting continued in the Philippine capital and US troops fought fire started deliberately by the retreating Japanese. MacArthur accused them of “general sabotage and destruction”, saying that they had “wantonly set fire to the downtown business district.”

Since the US 1st Cavalry took Manila’s Santo Tomas prison camp three days ago, freeing 3,700 PoWs, US XIV Corps troops have fought for every street in their downtown advance. The Japanese commander, Admiral Iwabuchi, defying General Yamashita’s orders to evacuate, believes that his 16,000 men can hold out for weeks from inside the walls of the old city.

INDIAN OCEAN: At 1640, the unescorted US Liberty Ship Peter Silvester was hit by two torpedoes from U-862 SW of Australia. Both torpedoes struck on the starboard side at the #3 hold, but it was reported that one went straight through the ship while the other detonated in the hold, rupturing the deck forward of the bridge, blew off the hatch cover and caused the flooding of the hold and the engine room. As the ship settled by the bow, she was hit at 17.10 hours by two more torpedoes on the starboard side at the traverse bulkhead between holds #2 and #3. The eight officers, 34 crewmen, 26 armed guards (the ship was armed with one 4in, one 3in and eight 20mm guns) and 107 US Army troops abandoned ship in four lifeboats and six rafts. Shortly thereafter, the vessel was hit by a coup de grâce at the #1 hold, causing her to break in two just forward of the superstructure. The forward section sank immediately, while the after section stayed afloat and was last seen deep in the water in the evening of 8 February.

CANADA: HMC ML 094 of the 77th Flotilla paid off.

U.S.A.:: Submarine USS Runner commissioned.

Minesweeper USS Roselle commissioned.

ATLANTIC OCEAN: U-1017 attacked Convoy TBC-60 SE of Durlston Head and claimed hits on two 6000 tons freighters. However, the only ship hit was Everleigh. Six crewmembers were lost. The master, 42 crewmembers and seven gunners were picked up by landing craft HMS LCI-33 and landed at Portland.

Back in 1965, I took a job working for the US Navy in Manila. Word got around that i was going and my wife and I began getting invitations from people that had lived there (but we didn’t really know)

One old gentleman (we were 22) insisted we come to dinner and see his slides. He was an engineer and had been interned with his wife in Santo Thomas. After release he returned to his former house and literally dug up stuff he had buried for safe keeping. Included in his treasures were all the slides.

He liked sunsets over Manila Bay and had many many slides

Here's the Red Army Lined Up on the Oder, per the Times headline. Or least, this is what it looks like at Hitler's briefing today. The map isn't that easy to read, you can identify 1st & 2nd Guards Tank Armies north of Kustrin, 5th Shock Army assaulting Kustrin, and 8th Guards Army between Kustrin and Frankfort. Just off this crop is the HQ of 69th Army. The Germans are trying to defend with 9th Army.

Appended to the map is the Order of Battle of Army Group Vistula, and I have cropped that part which represents 9th Army. Notes below:

As you can see, 9th Army is the debris of what escaped from Poland, and a few odds and ends of whatever could be scraped up. The far right column "AK Oder" is not part of 9th Army, it's part of 11th Army in Pomerania. But it's in this crop because I wanted to include the sentence at the bottom of the appendix: Uber Panzer, Stu. Gesch.- u. Pak-Lage seit 16.1.45 Keine Meldung!. This translates as "Regarding tank, assault gun and anti-tank gun situations, since January 16, 1945 there have been no reports!"

The German army is clearly disintegrating in the field and up the chain of command and communications.

Headline: "Tanks and Weapons-II (by Hanson W. Baldwin) – 20"

Absolutely required reading for anybody who hopes to ever graduate from Free Republic University.
Much of it sounds like it could have been written yesterday.

Sun Tzu says: "If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles.
If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat.
If you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will succumb in every battle. "

Baldwin has us nailed...

Headline: "British Carrier Blow at Sumatra Costs Japan 75% of Aviation Fuel – 9-10"

HMS Indefatigable:

The celebrations have started quite prematurely. The battle for Manila is just getting started.

Ernie Pyle has not written a column for four months. Today, shortly before shipping out to the Pacific, he is back.

Back Again

IU Archives

Pyle receiving his honorary degree from Herman B Wells

http://mediaschool.indiana.edu/erniepyle/wp-content/uploads/sites/19/2015/01/backagain.mp3

SAN FRANCISCO – Well, here we go again.

It has been four months since I wrote my last column, from France. In four months of non-production a writer gets out of the habit. He forgets the rhythm of words; falls into the easy habit of not making himself think or feel in self-expression.

This first column is a man-killer. Your mind automatically resents the task of focusing itself again. Your thoughts are scattered and you can’t get them together to put onto paper. Words come hard. You have to think again. You curse the day you ever took up writing to make a living.

So until I’m once more immersed in the routine of daily writing, and transported once more into the one-track world of war, I’m afraid you’ll have to be tolerant with me.

*

There’s nothing nice about the prospect of going back to war again. Anybody who has been in war and wants to go back is a plain damn fool in my book.

I’m certainly not going because I’ve got itchy feet again, or because I can’t stand America, or because there’s any mystic fascination about war that is drawing me back.

I’m going simply because there’s a war on and I’m part of it and I’ve known all the time I was going back. I’m going simply because I’ve got to – and I hate it.

This time it will be the Pacific. When I left France last fall, we thought the war in Europe was about over. I say "we" because I mean almost everybody over there thought so. I felt it was so near the end I could come home and before the time came to go again, that side of the war would be finished, and only the Pacific would be left.

*

But it didn’t turn out that way. Now nobody knows how long the European war will last. Naturally, all my friends and associations and sentiments are on that side. I suppose down in my heart I would rather go back to that side. For over in Europe I know the tempo of the battle; I feel at home with it, in a way.

And yet I think it’s best to stick with the original plan and go on to the Pacific. There are a lot of guys in that war, too. They are the same guys who are fighting on the other side, only with different names, that’s all. It is not belittling my friends in Europe to desert them and go to the Pacific for a while.

I’m going with the navy this time, since the navy is so dominant in the Pacific, and since I’ve done very little in the past on that part of the service. I won’t stay with the navy for the duration – probably two or three months, and then back ashore again with my noble souls, the doughfoots.

Security forbids telling you just what the plans are. But can say that I’ll fly across the Pacific, and join ship on the other side. Aboard ship, I’ll be out of touch with the world on long cruises. It may be there will be lapses in the daily column, simply because it’s impossible to transmit these pieces. But we’ll do our best to keep them going steadily.

*

I haven’t figured out yet what I’m going to do about seasickness. I’m one of those unfortunates with a terrific stomach on land, but one that turns to whey and jelly when I get aboard ship. I know of nothing that submerges the muse in a man as much as the constant compulsion to throw up. Perhaps I should take along my own oil to spread on the troubled waters.

Friends warn me about all kinds of horrible diseases in the Pacific. About dysentery, and malaria, and fungus that gets in your ears and your intestines, and that horrible swelling disease known as elephantiasis.

Well, all I can say is that I’m God’s gift to germs. Those fungi will shout and leap for joy when I show up. Maybe I can play the Pied Piper role – maybe the germs will all follow me when I get there, and leave the rest of the boys free to fight.

*

So what with disease, Japs, seasickness and shot and shell – you see I’m not too overwhelmed with relief at starting out again.

But there’s one thing in my favor where I’m going; one thing that will make life bearable when all else is darkness and gloom. And that one thing is that, out in the Pacific, I’ll be damned good and stinking hot. Oh, boy!

Source: Rocky Mountain News, February 6, 1945: from a scrapbook given to Indiana University by Mrs. Henry Schoon. Pictures courtesy of The Lilly Library, Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana

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Winston S. Churchill’s Triumph and Tragedy excerpt today had some very interesting observations. Roosevelt declared that the US would not remain in Europe with a “large army” for more than 2 years. Although not defined, I would say our army, etc. in Europe remained quite large for some time.

Stalin noted that “in ten years or less the three leaders would disappear and a new generation would come into power which had not experienced the war and would forget what we had gone through.” Roosevelt would be dead in a couple of months and Churchill will have been voted out in July. (Although he again served as prime minister from Oct. 1951 to April 1955). Stalin would lead the Soviet Union until his death on March 5, 1953.

From looking at the German map, if they can’t hold the Oder line at Kustrin, that high ground around Seelow might make a good fall back position.

The celebrations have started quite prematurely. The battle for Manila is just getting started.

Thanks for that. I was beginning to wonder if my recollection about the Manila was wrong.

Ken Burns “The War” had interviews with Sascha Weinzheimer, whose family was interned at Santo Tomas. She was the daughter of a California and Philippines grower. A very articulate and classy lady, she matter of factly told how the Japanese treated the Americans there. I guess the best you could say is they weren’t as bad to the civilians as they were to our POW’s.

This translates as "Regarding tank, assault gun and anti-tank gun situations, since January 16, 1945 there have been no reports!"

If you haven't received reports on the tanks and guns in three weeks, it's a pretty good indication they are lost or are fighting for their lives and out of communication.

Seelow should hold them. Things couldn’t get so bad we’d have to call on Steiner, could they?

Untenured, thanks again for the Ernie Pyle columns, and today for the photo of Chancellor Wells conferring his degree. As an IU alum, having been a student while Chancellor Wells was still alive and visible on campus, today’s post was a connection to the past.

Looking at 9th Army’s OOB, I would say Steiner represents about half of it’s current combat strength. At least Steiner knew exactly how many tanks, assault guns and anti-tank guns he didn’t have.