Posted on 05/20/2015 4:41:53 AM PDT by Homer_J_Simpson
Stephen E. Ambrose, Band of Brothers
Winston S. Churchill, Triumph and Tragedy
The News of the Week in Review
As the Fighting on “Bloody Okinawa” Enters Its Eighth Week (photo, map) – 15-16
‘Kamikaze’ – 16-17
Big Three Issues – 17-20
Charter for Peace – 20-21
Quotations – 21
Fifteen News Questions – 21
The Net Around Japan and Her Empire Draws Tighter (map) – 22
Blows to Crush Japan Are Now Foreshadowed (by Hanson W. Baldwin) – 23-24
“Giving It His Undivided Attention” (cartoon) – 24
“The Last Bastion” (cartoon) – 24
600,000 Japanese By-Passed (Moscow) – 25
Answers to Fifteen News Questions – 25
http://www.etherit.co.uk/month/4/20.htm
May 20th, 1945 (SUNDAY)
GERMANY: Berlin: The Soviet occupiers appoint Dr Arthur Werner as the city’s Oberburgmeister.
JAPAN: The USAAF’s Twentieth Air Force flies Mission 179: During the night of 20/21 May, 30 B-29 Superfortresses mine Shimonoseki Strait, Maizuru harbor, and He-Saki anchorage; one B-29 is lost.
Japanese kamikazes are active off Okinawa:
- The destroyer USS Thatcher (DD-514) is struck by a kamikaze which passed down her port side, climbed steeply, did a wingover and dived in the ship striking aft of the bridge. The ship had a 6x9 foot (1.8x2.7 m) hole between the keel and the bilge. With 14 killed or missing and 53 wounded, the stricken ship limped into Kerama Retto.
- The destroyer escort USS John C. Butler (DE-339) is attacked by six kamikazes just before sunset; five are shot down and the sixth strikes the mast damaging the mast and the antennas.
- The high-speed transport USS Chase (APD-54, ex DE-158) shots down a kamikaze but the aircraft splashes 10 yards (9.1 m) from the ship and the explosion of the two bombs carried by the aircraft rip the ship’s hull open, flooding the engine and fire rooms. With her steering gear jammed at hard left rudder, Chase drove off another suicide plane. Listing so badly as to be in danger of capsizing, Chase was kept afloat by her crew and towed into Kerama Retto for repairs.
- The high-speed transport USS Register (APD-92, ex DE-233) is attacked by four kamikazes at 1925 hours; two are shot down but one attacking from ahead, began a low, gliding run in an attempt to crash the bridge. Passing down the port side, the kamikaze was deflected overboard by the kingpost, which buckled and crashed over No. 3 40mm. gun mount, wounding 12 of the crew, including the gun captain, and causing considerable damage to the hull. The fourth plane though damaged, escaped. - The tank landing ship USS LST-808 is also damaged by a kamikaze.
DAMAGED PLANES; CORPSES AT DACHAU; BERCHTESGADEN
Place: Berchtesgaden, Germany | Dachau, Germany
May 20, 1945
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FqbGAHz-LHc
The #1 Song In The US On May 20, 1945
Sentimental Journey - Les Brown and the Ames Brothers
http://www.birthdayjams.com/us/1945-05-20
http://marshallfoundation.org/library/digital-archive/memorandum-for-general-weible1/
General George C. Marshall Memorandum for General Weible, May 20, 1945
Publisher: The Johns Hopkins University Press
Date: May 20, 1945
Subject: World War II
Collection: Papers of George Catlett Marshall, Volume 5: The Finest Soldier
Summary
Memorandum for General Weible1
May 20, 1945 [Washington, D.C.]
Confidential
Reference the attached memorandum from Bishop O’Hara to the Special Planning Division for consideration.2
Bishop O’Hara has represented his views in this matter since the initial mobilization. There exists a difference of view between the Bishop and the War Department as to the practical measures to control this menace to armies.3 The inference that the War Department has, in effect, deceived the public by its representations of statistics, etc., is without foundation and I know would be deeply resented by the Secretary of War, as it is by me.
While some measures might be conceived that will smooth the way in regard to this particular issue, yet at the same time it must be borne in mind that in effect Bishop O’Hara is opposed to a measure which we hope will secure the peace of the world because of his disapproval of a single measure which has the approval of the Secretary of War after long consideration and considerable experience.
Document Copy Text Source: George C. Marshall Papers, Pentagon Office Collection, Selected Materials, George C. Marshall Research Library, Lexington, Virginia.
Document Format: Typed memorandum.
1. Walter L. Weible, who began his service as a private in 1917 and rose to major general by 1944, was director of training for Army Service Forces.
2. On March 18, Weible had met with Archbishop Francis J. Spellman, military vicar for the United States, and John F. O’Hara, auxiliary bishop of the Army and Navy Diocese, “in an attempt to determine the position of the Catholic church on the question of Universal Military Training.” He found Spellman open-minded on the subject but O’Hara “quite frank and out-spoken in his objections.” Weible asked O’Hara “to enumerate for me in a memorandum the reasons why he objected to Universal Military Training.” (Weible Memorandum for General Marshall, May 17, 1945, NA/RG 165 [OCS, 353 Training 1944-46, Sec. IV].)
3. O’Hara, who had been promoted to Bishop of Buffalo on May 8, particularly objected to the army’s policy of distributing condoms to its troops in order to hold down the venereal disease rate. Most recently, he had written to protest the arrival in Hollandia, New Guinea, of “three hundred tons of rubber contraceptives, consigned to the Army there.” (O’Hara to Marshall, March 7, 1945, GCMRL/G. C. Marshall Papers [Pentagon Office, Selected].) In his May 17 memorandum, Weible had recommended that O’Hara’s letter be sent to the Special Planning Division with a directive from Marshall to recommend action that would meet O’Hara’s objections.
Recommended Citation: ThePapers of George Catlett Marshall, ed.Larry I. Bland and Sharon Ritenour Stevens(Lexington, Va.: The George C. Marshall Foundation, 1981- ). Electronic version based on The Papers of George Catlett Marshall, vol. 5, “The Finest Soldier,” January 1, 1945-January 7, 1947 (Baltimore and London: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2003), pp. 195-196.
http://www.todayinbaseball.com/cms/0520194513-gray
One-armed man
ST. LOUIS, MISSOURI | MAY 20, 1945 - Pete Gray may have had his best day on this date in 1945. He helped the St. Louis Browns sweep a doubleheader from the New York Yankees 10-1 and 5-2. Gray had three hits and two RBI in the opener. He scored the winning run in the second game, and hauled in three great catches in the outfield, nothing astonishing, except Pete Gray only had one arm.
He was born Peter J. Wyshner in Nanticoke, Pennsylvania in 1915. He lost his right arm in a farm accident at age six. He played two solid seasons for the Class A Memphis Chicks in 1943 and ‘44. The St. Louis Browns purchased his contract and brought him up to the big leagues in 1945. Gray’s major league career was just 77 games. He hit just .218 but had a .959 fielding percentage playing mostly left or center.
If not for World War II, which was still going on when the season started, and when many regular players were in the military, it’s quite certain Gray would never have stepped between the lines during a major league baseball game. Still, Peter Gray made it to “The Show,” something millions can only dream about.
CONTRIBUTING SOURCES:
One-Armed Wonder: Pete Gray, Wartime Baseball, and the American Dream, by William C. Kashatus, McFarland & Company, 2001
The Jack Benny Program: From San Francisco - May 20, 1945
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GUD7kC_xfpI
Sentimental Journey - Les Brown and the Ames Brothers
The Ames Brothers didn't hit the charts until 1948 and recorded "Sentimental Journey" in 1951. The current version, also with the Les Brown Orchestra, was sung by Doris Day.
“Sentimental Journey” – Les Brown, with Doris Day
(Also posted May 19.)
This is what the USS Thatcher looked like in happier times
We were patrolling station A35 with the destroyers USS Thatcher and USS Boyd, when we came under kamikaze attack.
The Thatcher was hit by a kamikaze. We went alongside Thatcher to help fight fires and pick up casualties. Boyd was on her other side doing the same. We both had to break away because of more planes threatening in the area. We took three casualties aboard, one dead. We took the two wounded to the hospital ship USS Relief in Hagushi anchorage and then returned to station. We transferred the body of Mason, RM3c (initials and service number unknown) to the USS Crescent City (APA 21) the next day.
Thatcher had been hit by a low-flying “Oscar” aft of the bridge. The kamikaze also carried a bomb which blasted a 6-foot by 9-foot hole between the bilge and the keel (14 killed, 53 wounded). Thatcher limped to Kerama Retto for repairs and ultimately, under her own power, returned to the States, where she was scrapped.
Ah. Sorry for the error.
Some songs simply define an era. Sentimental Journey is certainly one of those songs.
Berliners cautiously exchange seemingly polite words with a Russian officer. The Germans were often surprised to discover that many Russian officers spoke passable German, the result of extensive contact between the German military and the Red Army in the interwar years. (May 20, 1945)
Nice to see the 101st get a plum assignment in the Obersalzburg after the hell they went through at Bastogne.
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