Posted on 06/10/2015 4:24:21 AM PDT by Homer_J_Simpson
Major General H.W. Blakeley, USA, Ret., 32d Infantry Division World War II
The News of the Week in Review
Fifteen News Questions – 13
Churchill ‘Bogey’ Speech Causes British Tempest (Daniel) – 14
First-Year Record of the B-29 Raids (Hailey) – 14-15
Where – and How Often – Our Superforts Have Struck (map) – 15
Log of the First Year of B-29 Raids – 16-17
Answers to Fifteen News Questions – 18
http://www.etherit.co.uk/month/5/10.htm
June 10th, 1945 (SUNDAY)
GERMANY: Hamburg: In a message broadcast by Hamburg radio this evening, Field Marshal Montgomery says that the German people must learn their lesson “once and for all”, not only that they have been defeated, but that they were guilty of beginning the war, as they had been guilty in 1914. “If that is not made clear to you and your children,” he says, “you may again allow yourselves to be deceived by your rulers and led into another war.” Montgomery says that parents should read the message to their children and ensure that they understand it.
Frankfurt: Marshal Zhukov confers the Order of Victory - made of platinum encrusted with rubies and diamonds - on Eisenhower and Montgomery.
CZECHOSLOVAKIA: Prague: The Czechs, so recently freed from Nazi rule, are becoming increasingly restive over what they see as Russian determination to impose “voluntary Sovietization” on them. The Russians have a stranglehold on the Czech economy and are using it to apply political pressure on the new Czech government. This is backed by the presence of three Russian divisions in the outskirts of the capital. “They are treating us”, grumbled one Czech “as if we were bad children in need of political education.”
KURILE ISLANDS: Four US Navy Lockheed PV-2 Harpoons attack a Japanese “Sugar Dog” (a 70-150 ton ship with smokestack aft) off Masugawa, Paramushiru Island leaving the ship in flames with the crew abandoning it while two USAAF B-24s join USN bombers and sink the cargo ship Nichiei Maru Number 5 off southwestern Paramushiru. Beginning at 2352 hours, US Navy Task Force 92, consisting of the light cruisers USS Concord (CL-10), USS Richmond (CL-9) and USS Trenton (CL-11) and escorting destroyers, bombard Matsuwa Island.
The submarine USS Dace (SS-247) sinks a a 1500-ton frigate and the 1391-ton cargo ship Hakuyo Maru at 47-25N, 149-09 E.
JAPAN: A Kamikaze sinks the destroyer USS William D. Porter (DD-579) off Okinawa. At 0815 hours local, an Aichi D3A Navy Type 99 Carrier Bomber, Allied Code Name “Val,” dropped unheralded out of the clouds and made straight for the ship but the destroyer managed to evade the suicide plane, and it splashed down close aboard her. Somehow, the explosive-laden plane ended up directly beneath the destroyer before its bomb exploded; the explosion lifted the ship out of the water and then dropped her back again. The ship lost power, suffered broken steam lines and a number of fires broke out. The crew spent three hours attempting to extinguish the fires, repair the damage and keep the ship afloat but finally, the “Abandon Ship” order was given and 12-minutes later, the destroyer heeled over to starboard and sank by the stern. Fortunately, there were no fatalities among the crew.
Japanese submarine I-122 is sunk by the USS Skate off Japan. (Mike Yared)(144 and 145)
The USAAF’s Twentieth Air Force in the Mariana Islands flies six missions to Japan with the loss of one B-29 Superfortress.
1. Mission 195: 23 B-29s attack the seaplane base at Kasumigaura; two others hit alternate targets.
2. Mission 196: 32 B-29s bomb the Japan Aircraft Company plant at Tomioka; one other hits an alternate target.
3. Mission 197: 118 B-29s are dispatched to hit the Nakajima Aircraft plant at Musashi; clouds cover the target and they hit the Hitachi engineering works at Kaigan; two others hit alternate targets.
4. Mission 198: 26 B-29s attack the Hitachi plant at Chiba.
5. Mission 199: 52 B-29s hit the Nakajima plants at Ogikubu and Omiya; four others hit alternate targets; one B-29 is lost.
6. Mission 200: 29 B-29s attack the Tachikawa Army Air Arsenal and three others hit alternate targets.
OKINAWA: Heavy fighting continues on the Oruku Peninsula. The Japanese are reduced to an area of only 2,000 square yards.
BORNEO: The 9th Australian Division lands at Brunei Bay and other nearby islands.
CANADA: Destroyer HMCS Haida arrives at Halifax for a tropicalization refit; Frigates HMCS Capilano and Sea Cliff arrive at Shelburne and Liverpool Nova Scotia, respectively for a tropicalization refit; Trawler HMCS Cailiff is paid off and returned to RN; Fairmiles HMCS ML 053, ML 055, ML 069 are paid off.
An interesting coincidence in the #9 question of the week: Spaatz, Bradley, and Patton were ranked 1, 2, and 3 by Eisenhower as his best generals. I’m guessing that in the LA parade Bradley came after Patton because he was Patton’s superior, but I find it interesting that the NYT chose to publish Patton’s picture in the parade and not Bradley’s.
I meant Doolittle :-( though I just realized that Doolittle got his fourth star after Patton, so that would actually make Patton his superior. As a SNL participant used to say, “Never mind” :-)
The captions say they were in different parades. Patton in LA and Bradley in Moberly Missouri.
I corrected myself in #9; like everyone else here, I wish we could go back and edit :-)
I have tried to pay attention to this, and June 10 may be the first day since Pearl Harbor without the Times’ trademark multi-column, all-caps headline used for bigger news .
I noticed that, too. By the way, I’ll take that snappy new Nash.
Hap Arnold was looking for a way to provide heavy maintenance close to the fight in the very mobile Pacific war. They hit on the idea of a floating factory. Six Liberty Ships were fitted out (the "Generals") with all manner of shops, from machine shops, to oxygen refills, to carburetors, etc. Each ship had two or three helicopters and two DUKW's to ferry people and parts. The Generals could handle B-29's and P-51's, while the smaller ships (the "Colonels") handled fighters. They were also heavily armed with AA weapons.
The crews were a curious mix of Air Force mechanics and Army sailors, drawn from the Merchant Marine.
I found a very interesting unit history of the MG Dargue (2nd Aircraft Repair Unit - Floating).
http://www.cbi-history.com/documents/2nd_aru_history.pdf
I was thinking about that after the Belmont Stakes. American Pharoah can now look forward to a life of lush grass and a luxury barn and stall. And all he has to do is service the lassies.
I thought the plane repair ships were an interesting concept. Another example of the astounding accomplishments that were the epitome of the American Way of War. An accomplishmennt that was a footnote in a gargantuan war effort that could not be duplicated by any other nation on earth. They simply did not have the technical or human resources available, much less the spare ships and weapons for them.
“Let’s take a run of the mill merchant ship, of which we have hundreds, and turn it into a high tech state of the air art floating aircraft maintenance shop, and we’ll arm it to the teeth, too. How many of them? Oh what the hell, let’s start with six and we’ll go from there. Why? Because we can, of course.”
Again, it’s the American Way of War. Bruce Catton documented how it began with the Civil War, when before the Battle of Chancellorsville, the Commandant of the US Military railroads Hermann Haupt figured the line to Richmond would likely be damaged by the fighting. Just to cover for eventualities, he ordered up 10 miles of railway iron to repair the track as needed. There was not 10 miles of replacement railway iron to be had in the entire Confederacy. For the Union, it was the spare change of a military operation.
Answer #10 of 15: The first word should be “Milder,” not “Iceland.” And then “warmed,” not “washed.”
And “THE 1946 NASH CAR” box should have included the word “ADVERTISEMENT.”
I just fancy pointing out NYT BS before I was born up to the current day.
Thanks for the comments. Again, I go back to the Band of Brothers scene where marching German prisoners are watching mile after mile after mile of American motorized vehicles and Webster shouts at them, “what were you effing thinking”?
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