This day in WW II.....

The slaughter of the "Yellow Force" at Lingayen Gulf never happened either. I recall reading, maybe in They Were Expendable, that troops opened fire on a Japanese patrol boat scouting the area, others joined in with everything from small arms to artillery, and lo and behold not a single Jap made it ashore. Of course they weren't trying to land; the actual invasion came on Dec 22.

 

The Fog of War. Easy to make wrong assumptions.

 

Thanks. I should have footnoted that.

The accuracy (or lack thereof) in some of these headlines intrigues me. News was being delivered to the home-fronts so very quickly. Much was omitted or blacked out. Much was misrepresented.

 

17 December 1944:




• Members of the 1st SS Panzer Group led by Joachim Peiper execute dozens of American POWs at Baugnez, Belgium during an ill-fated offensive. The 1st SS Panzer would go on to summarily execute additional American soldiers and Belgian civilians over the course of the next several days.

“At approximately 1415, soldiers of KGr. Peiper opened fire on the American prisoners in the field next to the Café. The entire episode lasted no more than about 15 minutes. While the shooting was taking place, vehicles of the Kampfgruppe continued to drive past on the N-23. By 1500 Baugnez was quiet, and it was shortly after this, and certainly before 1600 hours, that 61 Americans who somehow were still alive in the field of death next to the Café attempted their escape. Unfortunately, there were still a few Germans in the vicinity, and they opened fire as the escapees ran to the west and northwest. At least 15 were killed. Three more died later, and one was never seen again.” —By Michael Reynolds, Massacre At Malmédy During the Battle of the Bulge


[

 

Missed yesterday . . . Dec 16, 1941 . . .

USS Yorktown (CV-5) and escorts depart Norfolk, VA bound for San Diego CA and on to Pearl Harbor and a final destiny at Midway in June. Aboard was the Yorktown Air Group made up of VB-5, VF-42, VS-5 and VT-5.

My father, in VF-42, forgot his sword; my mother had to go back to their apartment and bring it to the ship so he'd be completely outfitted . . . it is still aboard the ship.

 

18 December 1939:




The Graf Spee was scuttled yesterday, Mr Churchill addresses the nation:

 

I know what you mean OP! I was an officer and sometimes I didn't even believe me.

 

On this day in 1944, 277 bombers and other aircraft, including 77 B-29s of the US 14th Air Force heavily bombed Hankow, China. Hankow was a Japanese supply base and strategically located at the juncture of the Han and Yangtze Rivers. This raid was a part of Operation Matterhorn.

Read all about it;

Operation Matterhorn - Wikipedia

 

"The attack left Hankow burning for three days, proving the effectiveness of incendiary weapons against the predominantly wooden architecture of the Far East." --wiki

Brutal.

 

Anywhere collateral damage is deemed successful to the mission.

 

19 December 1942 :






• Despite small gains made on the 19th, Germany’s 4th Panzer Army is unable to break through Soviet Red Army defenses at Stalingrad to link up with the trapped German 6th Army, led by General von Paulus. Operation Winter Storm will not meet its objectives.

 

20 December 1943 :




In a brutal war, a moment of compassion: German Luftwaffe pilot Franz Stigler, in a Messerschmitt Bf 109, spares the damaged American B-17 bomber Ye Olde Pub:

 

21 December 1941:




• Japanese carriers Sōryū and Hiryū launch twenty-nine D3As , two B5Ns, and eighteen Zeros to attack defenders on Wake Island.



Sōryū


• U-451 is spotted by radar and sunk. She was sunk off Tangier, Morocco, on the night of 21 December 1941 by a Fairey Swordfish Mk. I, V4431, flying with 812 Naval Air Squadron from RNAS North Front, Gibraltar.



Fairey Swordfish, Mk I

 

22 Dec 1939:





Finnish forces defeat a Soviet assault at Summa. Soviet T-28, ‘Postivaunu’, and SMK tanks lead the assault and tanks penetrate Finnish lines. However, the Finns stand their ground, even with Soviet tanks behind them, and repell the Red Army infantry. Without infantry support, the Soviet tanks are isolated and disabled.



T-28s in Finland circa 1940


“It is said the defense troops found clubs one of the best weapons against tanks. They rushed the mechanical monsters, smashed the protruding machine guns with heavy clubs and then tossed in hand grenades.” — A.P., 22 Dec 1939

 

Don't underestimate a Finn with a big stick......

(And I think they were using Molotov Cocktails to disable the tanks, so the grenade reference shouldn't be taken as gospel, either.)