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Good morning my friends.....GP

Morning Folks!

World War II Today: November 3

1940
U99 sinks armed merchant-cruiser Laurentic off Iceland.

Greek troops trap the Italian 3rd Alpine Division taking 5,000 prisoners. British troops arrive in Greece.

1941
Germans troops capture Kursk.

Off Greece, HMS Proteus makes first radar attack by a sub, damaging Italian tanker Tampico.

General Auchinleck is forced to postpone ‘Operation Crusader‘ for 1 week so as to enable the 1st South African Division, which had recently arrived from Abyssinia to under go more training.

Admiral Yamamoto’s plan to attack Pearl Harbor is approved.

1942
A British merchant seaman is hanged at Wandsworth for supplying the Germans with shipping information.

In an interview with American journalists, Stalin describes US military aid as of little effect.

Rejecting out of hand Field Marshal Rommel’s proposal to withdraw the Afrika Korps, now down to about 40 tanks, to the Fuka line, Hitler orders him to stand and fight.

On Guadalcanal, US Marines take Point Cruz and land at Koli Point.

1943
The USAAF launch a 400-bomber daylight raid on Wilhelmshaven with 600-fighter escort. At night the RAF drop over 2,000 tons of bombs on Dusseldorf in 27 minutes.

A massive Russian offensive from Dnieper bridgehead North of Kiev erupts.

Nazis carry out Operation Harvest Festival in occupied Poland, killing 42,000 Jews.

Heavy USAAF air attacks begin on Rabaul.

The Second Battle of Kiev began on the Eastern Front.

More than 18,000 Jewish prisoners were shot to death in a single day at the Majdanek concentration camp in Poland, in the Aktion Erntefest. The Erntefest was the traditional German “Harvest Festival”, and dance music was played over loudspeakers “to drown out the sounds of the killing and the dying”. The extermination of the estimated 18,400 members of the camp was carried out by order of the new camp commandant, German Lt. Colonel Martin Weiss, as part of Operation Reinhard.

Adolf Hitler issued Führer Directive Number 51, anticipating an invasion of Nazi-occupied France by the United States, the United Kingdom and Canada, in what Hitler described as “an Anglo-Saxon landing”. Troops and reinforcements were transferred to Western Europe, and the Anglo-Saxon landing would take place on D-Day, June 6, 1944.

The Raid on Choiseul ended indecisively.

1944
The 20th Gebirgsjaeger Army evacuates the mineral rich Petsamo region of northern Finland.

Hi all,

Good day!


Leo "Apollo11"

Zovs wrote: Sun Nov 03, 2024 11:01 am Morning Folks!

World War II Today: November 3

1942

In an interview with American journalists, Stalin describes US military aid as of little effect.

The reason for that description was deception. The Soviets appreciated the military aid, also the civilian aid. A lot of us make fun of Spam but the Soviets enjoyed it and Margaret Thatcher thought of it as a delicacy. If I remember correctly, they even changed the recipe slightly to make a Soviet Spam.

As a consequence of World War II rationing and the Lend-Lease Act, Spam was sold in the United Kingdom. British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher later referred to it as a "wartime delicacy".[17][18] In addition to increasing production for the U.K., Hormel expanded Spam output as part of Allied aid to the Soviet Union.[19] In his memoir Khrushchev Remembers, Nikita Khrushchev declared: "Without Spam, we wouldn't have been able to feed our army."[9][20]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spam_(food)

As the former Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev wrote in his memoir Khrushchev Remembers: “There were many jokes going around in the army, some of them off-color, about American Spam; it tasted good, nonetheless. Without Spam, we wouldn’t have been able to feed our army. We had lost our most fertile lands.”

Also, a Soviet tanker who was in a T-34 and a M4 Sherman preferred the Sherman. He said that it was built better and more comfortable.

Fried spam, mayonaise, and bread at the firing ranges . . .

Hi all,

Good morning!


Leo "Apollo11"

Good morning peeps....GP

Good morning folks!

World War II Today: November 4

1939
The United States modified its neutrality stance in World War II to allow ”cash and carry” purchases of arms by belligerents, a policy favoring Britain and France.

Rear-Admiral Hugh Sinclair, head of British Secret Intelligence Service (MI6), died of cancer. Succeeded by his deputy, Colonel Stewart Menzies.

Warsaw, Nazi-occupied Poland, newly appointed Governor-Gen­er­al Hans Frank estab­lished the War­saw ghetto and began forcing the city’s Jews into a single area.

1941
Finnish forces capture the Baltic naval base of Hang that Finland was compelled to lease to the Soviets in 1940.

Units of 11th Army capture Fedosia in the Crimea.

1942
The Italian 20th Motorized Corps is destroyed. Rommel re-issues his orders for retreat with only 12 tanks left. 10,724 Axis prisoners are taken by the British, including nine generals.

Carlson’s Raiders (US Marines) land at Aola Point, Guadalcanal to harass Japanese behind lines.

1943
Quote from Nazi newspaper, Der Stürmer, published by Julius Streicher – “It is actually true that the Jews have, so to speak, disappeared from Europe and that the Jewish ‘Reservoir of the East’ from which the Jewish pestilence has for centuries beset the peoples of Europe has ceased to exist. But the Fuhrer of the German people at the beginning of the war prophesied what has now come to pass.”

The U.S. Fifth Army captures Isernia, 50 miles North of Naples and links up with Eighth Army moving North West from Foggia. US casualties in Mediterranean since the landings in North Africa is given as 31,126.

A Russian breakout to the North of Kiev is achieved with their tank army’s driving throughout the night.

1944
Australian forces made the Landing at Jacquinot Bay in New Britain.

RAF Bomber Command sent 749 aircraft to conduct the last major raid on Bochum. Over 4,000 buildings were destroyed and nearly 1,000 people were killed.

The liberation of Greece is complete as final German troops evacuate.

Good reading Zovs....GP

Hi all,

Good morning!


Leo "Apollo11"

Good morning Folks!

Thanks GP.

World War II Today: November 5

1939
Swedish government protests about the extension of German minefields off the Swedish coast.

1940
Roosevelt is elected as President of USA for an unprecedented third term with 54 percent of the popular vote. He defeats Republican Wendell L. Willke.

Armed merchant-cruiser Jervis Bay sunk by pocket-battleship Admiral Scheer in attack on Atlantic convoy.

U.S. Government gives North American permission to export the Mustang to the United Kingdom.

1941
Tokyo, Japan, Hirohito sanctions war with the U.S.
At an Imperial Conference of Japa­nese offi­cials (Gozen Kaigi) attended by Emperor Hiro­hito, Gen. Hideki Tōjō—war minis­ter, home min­is­ter, and, since the resig­na­tion of Fumi­maro Konoe, Japan’s prime min­is­ter as well—said the coun­try must be pre­pared to go to war with the West, with the time for mili­tary action ten­ta­tively reset for Decem­ber 1 if diplo­macy with the U.S. and Euro­pean colo­nial powers failed to im­prove rela­tions and reverse trade sanc­tions. The Japa­nese foreign min­is­ter didn’t see that hap­pening, telling the August assem­bly that the pros­pects for diplo­matic success were, “we most deeply regret, dim.” Even the emperor was aware 20 days earlier, when he appointed the war­hawk Tōjō to the top cabinet posi­tion, that he just might have gambled away peace if this final attempt at negotiations in Washington failed.

The US ambassador to Tokyo, Joseph C Grew, warns that war might come very suddenly.

1942
Allied troops break through Rommel's halt-line at Fuka.

The British attack Rommel’s rearguard, which is now almost 100 miles to west of El Alamein. A peace treaty is signed in Madagascar with the Vichy French.

1943
US Navy carrier planes aircraft damage five Japanese cruisers and two destroyers at Rabaul, forcing six cruisers to withdraw North to Truk for repairs and reducing the Japanese naval threat to the landings on Bougainville.

The US Fifth Army reaches the Sangro river in southern Italy.

China’s Wang Chingwei, Thailand’s Wan Waithayakon, Manchukuo’s Chang Chinghui, Burma’s Adipadi Ba Maw, India’s Subhas Chandra Bose, and the Philippines Jose Laurel attend the “Greater East Asia Family Conference” of November 5-6, 1943 in Tokyo. The Filipino delegate urges the Asian quislings to “extend all possible material and spiritual support to Japan.”

Eighth Air Force Heavy Bomber Mission No. 121: 374 aircraft sent to attack marshalling yard and oil plants at Gelsenkirchen, 118 to attack the marshalling yard at Munster, supported by 11 pathfinders. 10 aircraft lost.

German submarine U-408 sunk with all hands north of Iceland.

German submarines U-848 sunk with all hands off Ascension Island.

The Vatican is bombed.

1944
174 Lancasters of No. 5 Group, RAF, breach the Dortmund-Ems Canal, one of Germany's main transport arteries.

British troops in Italy captured Ravenna, cutting the railway line to Bologna.

British forces land at Salonika, in Greece.

The German 4th Army recaptures the town of Goldap in East Prussia.

U.S. planes pound the harbour at Manila in the Philippines and destroy 249 Japanese aircraft.

The Japanese cruiser Nachi was sunk in Manila Bay by U.S. aircraft.

The Stern Gang assassinate Lord Moyne in Cairo, Egypt.

Good Morning Folks!

World War II Today: November 6

1939
The Gestapo rounds up 183 professors of the Jagiellonian University in Krakow and sends them to Sachsenhausen concentration camp near Berlin. In Soviet occupied Poland, Ukrainian peasants murder 200 Polish refugees after offering them food and accommodation.

RAF aircraft carry out reconnaissance over western Germany

First big air battle on Western Front.

King Leopold and Queen Wilhelmina hold talks at The Hague

1940
Under-Secretary for War announces measures to give Home guard more permanent shape and better equipment without changing its ‘local and friendly character’.

Britain promises financial assistance to Greece, starting with £5 million advance.

Royal Canadian Navy destroyer Ottawa and Royal Navy destroyer Harvester sink Italian submarine Faa di Bruno off Ireland.

Nazi-captured US freighter City of Flint is returned to her American crew by Norway.

London, England a 2-engine German Heinkel He 111 bomber was shot down and sank in the shallows off Southern England. A waterlogged X-Geraet (“X-device”) was recovered. The X-Geraet played a role in the Battle of the Beams, a period early in the war when German bombers were equipped with increasingly accurate systems of radio navigation.

British troops occupy Gallabat on the border between Ethiopia and the Sudan

1941
Stalin claims Axis casualties on Eastern Front now 4.5 million, when actually less than 700,000. The first cases of frostbite in the German Army are recorded.

Soviet Union admits losing 350,000 dead, 378,000 missing and 1,020,000 wounded since the German invasion

United States agrees to loan Soviet Union one billion dollars interest free loan.

The German blockade runner ‘Odenwald’ which is disguised as a US merchant is captured by the US cruiser Omaha and the destroyer Somers.

The Japanese Southern Army is ordered to prepare detailed operational plans for the up and coming offensive.

1942
Halted before Ordshonikidse in the Caucasus, the 13th Panzer Division is fighting to prevent itself being cut off by superior Soviet forces attacking its flanks and rear. In a speech to the Congress of Soviet Deputies, Stalin warns the United States and Britain that ‘the absence of a second front against Fascist Germany may end badly for all freedom loving countries, including the Allies themselves’. He declares that ‘the aim of the coalition is to save mankind from reversion to savagery and mediaeval brutality’.

British 8th Army approaches Matruh. Heavy rain begins.

Further progress made by the Eighth Army with 20,000 further Axis prisoners being claimed.

1943
Soviet troops recapture Kiev and split the Fourth Panzer Army into three.

The Japanese land reinforcements North of Empress Bay.

Night of 6-7 November sees first significant Japanese counterattack on Bougainville.

German submarine U-226 sunk off Newfoundland

German submarines U-842 sunk with all hands in the North Atlantic

1944
Tito’s Yugoslav partisans forces take Monastir in southern Yugoslavia and now control the whole border with Greece.

The Chinese 22nd Division crosses the Irrawaddy in northern Burma.

In central Burma, British and Chinese troops drive toward Mandalay.

The German garrison at Middelburg surrendered to the Allies.

The Italian government announced the formation of a private army about six divisions strong, to enter into the war on the Allied side.

Yugoslavian partisans take Monastir, Yugoslavia, securing entire border with Greece.

1945
Foreign Commissar Molotov announces that Russia will soon have the atomic bomb.

The first landing of a jet on a carrier takes place on USS Wake Island when an FR-1 Fireball touches down.

One reason why the US military did not have enough rifles when the military forces were expanded was the fact that over half a million rifles were sent to Britain after Dunkirk, I also believe that some artillery was sent as well.

Good afternoon everyone ....GP

Hi all,

Good morning!


Leo "Apollo11"

Good morning Apollo. Good morning folks....GP

Good morning Folks!

World War II Today: November 7

1939
Queen Wilhelmina and King Leopold make an appeal for peace.

1940
RAF Bomber Command attacks the Krupp works at Essen, one of the biggest German arms factories

1941
Washington, D.C. Relations between the U.S. and Japan grew chilly in mid-1941 after President Franklin D. Roosevelt froze Japanese assets in the U.S. and embargoed oil and gasoline exports to Japan in retaliation for that country’s occupation of Indochinese airfields in what is today Vietnam.

Finnish advance is halted.

Chiefs-of-Staff now consider the Pacific a theatre of war.

1942
Eighth Air Force Heavy Bomber Mission No. 16: 68 aircraft dispatched to attack U-boat base at Brest. 34 attack the target, no aircraft lost.


General Giraud is rescued from France by a submarine and taken to Gibraltar.

1943
Eighth Air Force Heavy Bomber Mission No. 124: 59 aircraft sent to attack industrial areas at Wesel and 60 to attack industrial areas in Duren, supported by three pathfinders. No aircraft lost.

Japanese reinforcements are landed on Bougainville.

The French Committee of National Liberation refuses to recognise the independent Lebanese government.

The Soviet Ambassador to Mexico declares that the Soviet Union regards the Polish territory seized in 1939 as part of the Nazi-Soviet pact as Soviet territory, to be retained after the war.

1944
The United States presidential election was held. Incumbent Franklin D. Roosevelt was elected to an unprecedented fourth term (with Harry S. Truman as his vice-president), defeating Thomas E. Dewey 432 electoral votes to 99 and carrying 36 out of 48 states.

8th Army attacks towards Forli.

The Battle of Knin began between Yugoslav Partisans and Axis forces around the city of Knin in North Dalmatia.

The Air battle over Niš occurred over Niš, Serbia between the Air Forces of the United States and the Soviet Union. For an unknown reason, American P-38s attacked Soviet ground troops and then came under attack themselves from Yak fighters of the Soviet Air Force. It is unclear exactly what happened or why, since documents related to the incident apparently remain classified in both countries.

The American submarine Albacore struck a mine and sank off Hokkaido.

Victor Sorge, a Soviet spy, is executed in Japan.

The Nis air/kand battle . . .

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ni%C5%A1_incident

With more pictures . . .

https://www.flightlineweekly.com/post/a ... nd-the-usa

another link . . .

https://www.warhistoryonline.com/world- ... ident.html

Then from that last link, another interesting link

https://www.warhistoryonline.com/world- ... -wwii.html

Hey.

Hi all,

Good morning!


Leo "Apollo11"

Good Morning Folks!

World War II Today: November 8

1939
A bomb intended to kill Hitler explodes at the annual meeting of the veterans of the 1923 Nazi Putsch in Munich, but the Fuhrer had already left the beer cellar. The German media accused Britain of orchestrating the assassination attempt on Hitler.

Two British SIS agents, Major Richard Stevens and Captain S. Payne Best, are captured in Holland by the Germans.

Finland refuses Soviet demand for territory.

Former lawyer for Al Capone, Edward “Easy Eddie” O’Hare, is gunned down in Chicago for aiding IRS conviction of Capone; his son Butch will be a Navy ace pilot and namesake for O’Hare Airport.

1940
Italians begin big offensive in Albania.

Greek troops take 5,000 Italian prisoners.

RAF Bomber Command disrupts a speech being made by Hitler at Munich.

An earthquake damages the vital Romanian oilfields.

Melbourne, Australia over three nights in November 1940, the German minelaying ship Passat, a captured Norwegian tanker, had strategically planted 110 sea mines in Bass Strait, a busy trade route between Tasmania and Victoria. This field of mines had already claimed the British steamer SS Cambridge (1916) less than 24 hours previously off Wilsons Promontory. The 20-year-old American freighter SS City of Rayville fell victim to another of Passat’s mines, this off Victoria’s Cape Otway at the western end of the strait.

1941
Army Group North advances across the Volkhov river and captures Tikhivin.

Hitler claims that Soviet losses are as high as eight to ten million.

1942
On the anniversary of the 1923 Beer Hall Putsch in Munich, Hitler tells his old comrades that Stalingrad is practically in German hands, adding that he didn’t want to take that city just because it happens to bear the name of Stalin.

Operation ‘Torch’ begins with Anglo-American forces under Lieutenant General Eisenhower landing in Morocco and Algeria against minimal Vichy French resistance.

Petain orders French troops in North Africa to resist the Allies. Some do, but Algiers falls on the first day.

Mersa Matruh is re-taken by British.

Eighth Air Force Heavy Bomber Mission No. 17: 38 aircraft dispatched to attack industrial targets at Lille, 15 to attack airfield at Abbeville/Drucat. One aircraft lost.

1943
Hitler in his last speech to Nazi Party says “We shall go on fighting past 12 o’clock”.

The British Eighth Army gains the heights on the Sangro less than 100 miles East of Rome.

First significant Japanese counterattack on Bougainville is repulsed. On the same day the Japanese begin a second attack against a different part of the beachhead but the two attacks are badly coordinated.

1944
For the first time in the history of the Third Reich, Hitler fails to appear in Munich to address “the Old Fighters” on the anniversary of the 1923 Beer Hall Putsch. Speculation mounts as Himmler reads a speech in the Fuhrer’s place.

25,000 Jews are forced to walk over 100 miles in rain and snow from Budapest to the Austrian border, followed by a second forced march of 50,000 persons, ending at Mauthausen Concentration camp.

Canadians secure Walcheren and the Scheldt Estuary to protect port of Antwerp, Belgium. German resistance on Walcheren island ends. The Battle of the Scheldt and Operation Infatuate ended in Allied victory.

US Third Army begins offensive against Siegfried line toward Metz, France.

Joseph Goebbels announced the V-2 rocket campaign for the first time. Winston Churchill followed suit and finally announced that England had been under rocket attack, providing the people of London with an explanation for all the mysterious explosions of recent weeks.

The American submarine Growler was sunk west of the Philippines by Japanese warships.

After his 258th victory, German Luftwaffe ace Walter Nowotny is killed as his Me 262 jet is shot down by two US P-51 Mustangs.

British launch offensive in western Burma toward Akyab.