Did not know the Volksturm were organised this early. Thanks Surprise Attack.
I cannot find any major WW2 actions to describe for a while and am off on holiday in a week, so will not post here for a while. Have enjoyed filling in. Arnhem is a favourite subject of mine(more 1st Para’s situation).
Its great you guys filled in for me when the weather was nice and the days were long
1938 Sept.26 In an emotional Sportspalast speech Hitler refused to budge on his Godesberg demands and promised to invade Czechoslovakia by Oct 1st if they were not granted. Hitler screamed, “German patience has come to an end.”
1939 The German Eighth Army joined in the attack on Warsaw.
Free French Communist party was dissolved by presidential decree. It became illegal to propagandizs themes of the Third International. French Communists at this time were leaders of the anti-war movement, having quickly adapted to the new Moscow-Berlin alliance.
1940 Scrap iron and steel were barred from export to Japan by Roosevelt
Britian protested Finlands grant of transit rights to the Germans.
1941 Hitler ordered a halt in the offensive directed at Moscow. He had refused his generals permission to concentrate their drive against the Russian capital prefering to take the Ukraine with all its resorces. Hitler disparaged their thinking,saying," My generals know nothing about the economic aspects of war."
The German drive east of Kiev was halted by seasonal rainstorms, the Rasputitsa
U.S. merchant ships operating in “defense waters” were directed to report any sightings of Axis planes or ships and to attack them if possible.
1942 Stalin called for a British-U.S. second front in western Europe as soon as possible.
I should have posted on the 24th, but I didnt so here it is
Sept 24 1942 “Soviet women in combat”
Olga Yamschchikova of the Red Air Force shot down a Ju-88 twin engine bomber over Stalingrad on this day in 1942, she became the first women nite fighter pilot to score an aerial victory. Olga was a member af an all woman unit, the 586th Fighter Aviation Regiment of the 122nd Air Division which saw action from Stalingrad through the end of the war . The woman pilots flew 4,419 combat missions ans were credited with having downed 38 enemy aircraft.
I really wanted to post for Sept 17th 1941, ( second battle of Changsha)
1943 Japanese troops failed to drive the Australians out of the Finschhafen area.
The German force on Corfu surrendered.
U.S.naval forces began operating out of Natal, Brazil
1944 Allied withdrals continued from Arnhem with the operation a costly failure.
Estonia was completely occupied by the Russians
Sept 27 1934 Italy France and Britian the former Allies of WW1 jointly announced support for Austrian “independence and integrity” in a move calculated to curb Hitlers menacing actions.
1938 Czechoslavia again declares its willingness to negoiate or arbitrate the dispute.
The British Forein office and said France was obliged to aid Czechoslovakia if invaded byGermany and in that case Britian and Russia would stand by France. The statement added “it is still not to late to stop this great tragedy and for the peoples of all nations to insist on a settlement by free negotiation.
Chamberlain addressed the British people by radio and said “How horrible, fantastic, incredable it is that we should be digging trenches and trying on gas-masks here because of a quarrel in a far away country between people of whom we know nothing.”
Roosevelt urged Hitler and Czek president Benes to resolve the Sudeten problem and called on France and Britian to avoid war.
The British navy was mobilized.
1939 Warsaw surrendered. More than 140,000 Polish troops laid down their arms. The seige had resulted in the deaths of 2,000 Polish solders and 10,000 civilians. An eighth of the city’s buildings were destroyed.
Hitler told his military commanders that he had decided " to attack in the west as soon as possible since the Franco-British Army is not yet prepared.” He set Nov. 12 as the tenative attack date.
1940 Germany, Italy, and Japan entered into a 10 year military and economic agreement. The Tripartite Pact was signed in Berlin. It’s declared “prime purpose” was " to establish and maintain a new order of things calculated to promote the mutual prosperity and welfare of the peoples concerned." the Pact was the formalization of the Axis partnership, and the unmistakable targets of the strenthened alliance were the United States and the Soviet Union.
Fifty-five Luftwaffe planes were downed over Britian
More to post but its past my bed time and I dont get to play my on line war games……too late a start
October 14th 1944.
I forgot; forgive me!
Erwin Johannes Eugen Rommel commited suicide.
He was born in Wurtemburg on 15th November 1891. Had a glittering career as an Infantry commander in WW1, winning the Pour Le Merite(which he proudly wore) fighting the Italians. He shot to prominence in WW2, after being close to Hitler, leading the 7th Panzer Division in France. In February of 1941 he was sent to North Africa to command a small German contingent fighting alongside Italy. He would become every school boy’s dream commander, running a well supplied British Army ragged for 16 months before capturing the key port of Tobruk, in Libya. He was promoted Field Marshal for this. In November he met his match in Montgomery and despite a few Allied reverses was always retreating. He was not in Africa when the Axis surrendered.
In 1944 he was in France as commander of Army Group B(the important North).
He was wounded and invalided back to Germany. While he was there he was approached by anti-Hitler plotters and because of this link he took his life rather than stand trial.
@wittmann:
October 14th 1944.
I forgot; forgive me!
Erwin Johannes Eugen Rommel commited suicide.
He was born in Wurtemburg on 15th November 1891. Had a glittering career as an Infantry commander in WW1, winning the Pour Le Merite(which he proudly wore) fighting the Italians. He shot to prominence in WW2, after being close to Hitler, leading the 7th Panzer Division in France. In February of 1941 he was sent to North Africa to command a small German contingent fighting alongside Italy. He would become every school boy’s dream commander, running a well supplied British Army ragged for 16 months before capturing the key port of Tobruk, in Libya. He was promoted Field Marshal for this. In November he met his match in Montgomery and despite a few Allied reverses was always retreating. He was not in Africa when the Axis surrendered.
In 1944 he was in France as commander of Army Group B(the important North).
He was wounded and invalided back to Germany. While he was there he was approached by anti-Hitler plotters and because of this link he took his life rather than stand trial.
Thank you Aequitas. I am no good with Pcs and pictures are beyond me!
Had been waiting to do Oct 14th and Rommel as I thought he was probably a favourite general of many of us: always mine as a child.
Got back from Florence on Sunday and forgot. Actually wrote that drunk last night off the top of my head!
as you can see I also attached one pic with the emblem of the 7th PD on a Mark IV (edit: Sorry Mark III) on it, They used the Ghost or Phantom as their own marking. Feared from the French soldiers as they kept continuely saying about the 7th ,that they most of the time emerged from were they would have at least expected them.
Oct 17 1937 Japanese troops aided by Chinese and Mongol mercenaries, captured Paotow,terminus of the Peking-Suiyan railway.
1939 German planes bombed the British Naval Base at Scapa flow. The training ship “Iron Duke” was damaged.
1941 The U.S. destroyer “Kearney” was torpedoed and damaged southwest of Iceland while on convoy escort duty. Eleven were killed, the first American military casualties of the war.
Thje American Navy ordered all American merchant ships in Asian waters to put into friendly ports.
General Hideki Tojo was named Prime Minister of Japan.
1942 Stiff fighting developed at Eora Creek along the Kokoda trail. Japanese reinforcements were sent in to stop the Austrailian advance.
Ships for the Northw African invasion forces began being assembled at the Firth of Clyde.
1943 The German Raider “Michel” was sunk by an American submarine off the coast of Japan. It was the last of the 10 armed merchantmen which the German navy employed during the war. Beginning in Febuary 1940, when the first one put to sea, they were a scourge to Allied merchant vessals. Each equipped with six to eight powerful guns and torpedo tubes. Some even had one or two of their own reconnaissance aircraft. Raiders only attacked ships operating alone. With one exception of one Raider captain Helmuth von Ruckteshell, who was later tried as a war criminal, the offices commanding these ships always operated within the rules of warfare and international law. In all, the Raiders accounted for a total of 133 ships totaling 830,000 tons.
Russian forces crossed the Dnieper south of Gomel.
1944 U.S. Rangers began landing on the Islands off Leyte Gulf in the Philippines
Oct 23 1937 Japanese planes raided several cities in eastern China.
1940 Hitler meet Franco at the French resort town of Hendaye on the Spanish border. Germany wanted a joint attack on Gibraltar, but Hitler was unwilling to grant Franco’s wishes for large areas of French North and West Africa in exchange for Spain’s participation in thwe war. Without these territorial concessions, Franco declined to go ahead with the Gibraltar plan and began hedging on his promise to go to war.
1942 The desert war reached a turnaround point with the begining of the second battle of El Alamein. More than a thousand British guns pounded the Axis batteries for 20 minutes before XXX Corps began its drive on the northern end of the battle line.
Genoa and Turin were bombed by the R.A.F.
Japanese forces attempted to cross the Mataniko River on Guadalcanal. After an intense artillary barrage (the heaviest in the fighting) the Japanes scored some initial success but lost an estamated 600 men. The Marines suffered 25 dead.
Radio Berlin announced theat Britian would not be a member of the post war “European Charter” because "she had estranged herself from Europe more and more under Churchills regime
Admiral Darlan arrived in Rabat, Morocco, and called for unity and defense of the Vitchy-controlled area.
U.S. forces sailed from Hampton Roads, Virginia, for the invasion of North Africa.
Mrs. Elenor Roosevelt arrived in London as guest of King George VI and Queen Elizabeth.
1943 The provisional government of India of Subhas Chandra Bose declared war on Britian and the U.S.
1944 MacArthur restored the Philippines civil government under president Sergio Osmena at ceremonies at Tacloban, the temporary capital. U.S. forces pressed forward in several pronged attacks to consolidate their gains on Leyte.
The oldest surviving member of the R.A.F. from W.W.II died today at 99, he was shot in the ancle while being shot down in 1940,
@aequitas:
as you can see I also attached one pic with the emblem of the 7th PD on a Mark IV (edit: Sorry Mark III) on it, They used the Ghost or Phantom as their own marking. Feared from the French soldiers as they kept continuely saying about the 7th ,that they most of the time emerged from were they would have at least expected them.
My understanding is that it was the Germans who called it the ghost division, because Rommel would deliberatly avoid radio contact with HQ, in order to exploit gains in the field and stay at the front.
The division on the HQ’s map would move so fast, and be in so many places, that HQ could not determine it’s location hence calling it -The Ghost Division-
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y5V6sxZ8-eg&bpctr=1351053622
Tribute ;)
Thanks Surprise Attack. I had no idea Franco and Hitler talked about Gibraltar.
Cannot see what problem Hitler had with conceding parts of West Africa and I think we all know from playing how important to the Allies Gib was.
Dare I say, Hitler made a mistake!
Those Guadalcanal casualties are a sign of things to come too.
All in all an important day.
Just noticed you said North and West Africa.
Still, I would have made the deal.
OK ,to do it the correct way:
The 7th Panzerdivision was called by the French the „Gespensterdivision“ (La division fantome). Wich means The Ghost Division, but the emblem was worn by the 11th PD because : The nameing was given by the French during the West campagne and used for/of the 11.SB (Schützen Brigade) von Angern; and came along or together with the 7th PD wich was also lead by Kleist. Later on when the 11th PD was built, it designed the Emblem, the Ghost picture and used it as their additional Emblem.
I hope this will explain it, wiki doesn´t! ( I got it from a German Forum)
Today, October 31st, in 1941 the US Destroyer Reuben James was sunk off Iceland while escorting a British convoy. The U-Boat that sank her was U552, commanded by Erich Topp. Reuben James was a post WW1 ship of the Clemson Class. Over 100 sailors died when she sank. The US was still neutral, so the incident caused controversy at the time.
Erich Topp survived the war and lived to the age of 91. He was the third most successful U-Boat commander, sinking nearly 200000 tons of shipping. The U552 survived to be scuttled by her crew.
Today on the 8th of November 1942, three Task Forces landed in North Africa. The Western TF came directly from the US. It composed 2Armoured and 3 and 9 Inf Divisions under the command of General George Patton. The Central TF had come from the UK and composed the 1US Armour and part of the 82 Airborne under Lloyd Fredendall . The Eastern TF also came from the UK and composed the 78UK Inf and US 34Inf Divisions under Kenneth Anderson.
Patton’s TF landed at Casablanca on the Atlantic coast and the other two entered the Med at Gobraltar and landed at Oran and Algiers. All three TF were protected by a strong Air contingent and did not meet any German Subs.
No one knew how the Vichy French would react, but fortunately seeing the number of Allied troops was enough to persuade Admiral Darlan, Petain’s Commander in Chief, that surrender was the best alternative.
The Americans had joined the war against the European Axis and were soon to discover what the German War Machine was capable of. even in defeat.
On the 10th November 1942 the Germans implemented Fall Anton: the invasion of Vichy France. It was a reaction to the Allied landings in North Africa(Torch) on the 8th.
The 1st(Blaskowitz) advanced into the South of France and the 7th(Dollmann), later of Normandy fame, moved into the North of France and on to Vichy and Toulon.
The Italian 4th Army advanced along the French Riviera and took Corsica.
The French forces could do nothing to prevent the Germans doing this, as they were not strong enough.
France was now fully truly occupied and would remain so until the Allies landed on 6th June 1944 and its liberation could begin.
November 13th 1941, the British Aircraft Carrier was hit by a torpedo fired from the U81, commanded by Friedrich Guggenberger. She was a big ship and, thoughcapable of carrying more, usually housed 54 aircraft. The Ark Royal had been instrumental in the search and sinking of the Bismarck in May, as well as involved in the hunt for the Scharnhorst and Gneisenau in 1940.
When she was hit by the torpedo, she was in the process of ferrying planes from Gibraltar to Malta. It was thought at first by her Captain, Maund, that she could reach Gibraltar. She was to sink on the 14th, with the loss of only one sailor, killed when the torpedo hit.
She was thought a lucky ship, many times surviving attacks.
Her wreck was discovered in 2002, some 30 nautical miles from Gibraltar.
November 19th 1942: the Russians launched Operation Uranus. It was the major offensive designed to encircle Stalingrad and its 200000 men. While Chuikov held Paulus’ 21 Division 6th Army in Stalingrad, two massive Army Fronts were to rip holes North and East of the city, targeting the two weaker Armies from Romania. The attacks had to be far enough away from 6th Army(still a potent force with 3 Panzer Divisions)that it could not help contain the breakthroughs.
To the North, Vatutin’s SW Front easily broke through the weak and low in Anti Tank gun 8 Romanian Divisions that made up Dumitrescu’s 3rd Romanian Army holding a 100 mile front line. Romanenko’s 5 Guards Tank Army was no match for these formations and the only reserve was the 1st Tank, with old Czech tanks and the weak 22nd Pz.
To the East of Stalingrad the 4th Romanian Army(Constantinescu), 7 Inf Divisions, was attacked by Yeremenko’s renamed Stalingrad Front. It, at least had Hoth’s 4PZ to its rear, though it no longer contained any Pz Divisions.
In 7 days the damage would be done, as units from both Fronts met at Kalach to seal the encirclement of nearly 250000 men, mostly German.
Sweet thread thanks guys!
Why have I not been reading this?
On the 20th November 1940, Hungary joined the Tripartite Pact with Germany, Italy and Japan.
They had been wooed by Hitler with two Awards of land and saw their interests best represented by sticking with their former WW1 ally. The land granted them by Hitler was, in 1938,former Czechoslovakia: southern Slovakia and part of Southern Carpathian Rus. Three months before signing the pact in 1940, they were awarded the Northern half of Translyvania from Romania. This Award was to cause problems for the German High Command in Russia from 1941 on, as Hungarian and Romanian units could not be in close proximity for they would fight each other, their hatred was so much.
Naturally, after the war, Hungary lost these territorial gains, or Awards.
Furthermore, signing the Tripartite Pact would cost them 237000 military casualties and many more civilian ones and as we know, their own freedom to Russian occupation.
