Today in WWII History

October 13, 1943

Italy declares war on Germany
On this day in 1943, the government of Italy declares war on its former Axis partner Germany and joins the battle on the side of the Allies.

With Mussolini deposed from power and the collapse of the fascist government in July, Gen. Pietro Badoglio, Mussolini's former chief of staff and the man who had assumed power in the Duce's stead by request of King Victor Emanuel, began negotiating with General Eisenhower regarding a conditional surrender of Italy to the Allies. It became a fact on September 8, with the new Italian government allowing the Allies to land in Salerno, in southern Italy, in its quest to beat the Germans back up the peninsula.

The Germans too snapped into action. Ever since Mussolini began to falter, Hitler had been making plans to invade Italy to keep the Allies from gaining a foothold that would situate them within easy reach of the German-occupied Balkans. On the day of Italy's surrender, Hitler launched Operation Axis, the occupation of Italy. As German troops entered Rome, General Badoglio and the royal family fled to Brindisi, in southeastern Italy, to set up a new antifascist government.

On October 13, Badoglio set into motion the next stage of his agreement with Eisenhower, the full cooperation of Italian troops in the Allied operation to capture Rome from the Germans. It was extremely slow going, described by one British general as "slogging up Italy." Bad weather, the miscalculation of starting the operation from so far south in the peninsula, and the practice of "consolidation," establishing a firm base of operations and conjoining divisions every time a new region was captured, made the race for Rome more of a crawl. But when it was over, and Rome was once again free, General Badoglio would take yet one more step in freeing Italy from its fascist past-he would step down from office.

 

October 14, 1944

"The Desert Fox" commits suicide
On this day in 1944, German Gen. Erwin Rommel, nicknamed "the Desert Fox," is given the option of facing a public trial for treason, as a co-conspirator in the plot to assassinate Adolf Hitler, or taking cyanide. He chooses the latter.

Rommel was born in 1891 in Wurttenberg, Germany, the son of a teacher. Although not descended from military men, the newly unified German empire made it fashionable to choose a military career, which young Rommel did, becoming an officer cadet. During World War I, he showed himself to be a natural leader with unnatural courage, fighting in France, Romania, and Italy. Following the war, he pursued a teaching career in German military academies, writing a textbook, Infantry Attacks, that was well regarded.

At the outbreak of World War II, Rommel was given command of the troops that guarded Hitler's headquarters, a disappointment for a man used to fighting on the front lines with the infantry. But in early 1940, he was given his chance to put to use his gifts, when he was given command of the 7th Panzer Division. Although a novice as far as mechanized forces were concerned, he soon mastered the advantages and proved his leadership abilities again in the German offensive against the French channel coast in May.

In early 1941, Rommel was given control of the troops sent to North Africa to aid Germany's ailing ally, Italy, in maintaining its position in Libya. It is here, in the deserts of North Africa, that Rommel earned his vaunted reputation, as well as his nickname (he became known for his "fox-like" sneak attacks). Winning significant victories against the British, whom he begrudgingly admired, Rommel nevertheless became weary of this theater of operations; he wanted to go back to Europe. It wasn't until a second battle to take el-Alamein in Egypt went against him that the "invincible" general was finally called home back to Europe.

Hitler put Rommel back in northern France, to guard against an Allied invasion. Rommel's suggestions for the precautions necessary to repel an enemy invasion were not heeded, and he began to lose confidence in Hitler and Germany's ability to win the war. When Rommel was approached by friends to agree to head the German government in the event of Hitler's overthrow, he agreed-although there was no explicit talk of assassination, which he found abhorrent.

D-Day was launched, and Rommel's prediction of disaster for Germany's position played itself out. Still, Hitler would not consider negotiations with the Allies. Rommel ended up in the hospital after his car was attacked by British bombers and he was forced off the road. Meanwhile, details of the failed assassination plot had come to Hitler's attention, including Rommel's contact with the conspirators. As Rommel was convalescing in his home at Herrlingen, two generals visited and offered him his choice-trial or suicide. Rommel told his wife and son what had transpired, and that he had chosen to take the cyanide capsules the generals had provided.

The German government gave Rommel a state funeral. His death was attributed to war wounds.

 

SS CARIBOU (October 14, 1942) 2,222 ton passenger ferry of the Newfoundland Railways, built in Rotterdam. Launched on June 9, 1925 and destined for service in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, Newfoundland. While sailing through the Cabot Strait between St. John's and Port aux Basques on October 14, 1942, escorted by the minesweeper HMCS Grand-Mére, the ferry was blown apart at 3.20am by a torpedo from the German submarine U-69. The Caribou was carrying 251 crew and passengers of whom 118 were military personnel. Also on board were fifty head of cattle. The fact that the defenceless ferry was carrying military personnel and escorted by a warship made this a legitimate target for the U-boat. The sinking took the lives of 136 persons including 16 women and 14 children. There were 115 survivors, 104 being rescued by the minesweeper. Two of the survivors died en route to hospital in Sydney, Nova Scotia. Among those lost was naval nurse Margaret Wilson, the only Canadian nurse killed in WWII through enemy action. Of the crew of forty six, thirty one lost their lives. Six soldiers of the Prince Edward Island Highlanders also died. Of the fourteen children on board only one survived.

The U-69 (Kptlt. Urlich Gräf) was sunk east of Newfoundland on February 17, 1943, by depth charges from the British destroyer HMS Fame. All hands (46) perished.

 

KOMET (October 14, 1942)

German commerce raider (3,287 tons) escorted by four Motor Torpedo Boats and some minesweepers was bound for the North Atlantic. The British Admiralty, knowing that an attempt was being made to send the Komet to sea, had stationed a strong force of craft in the English Channel to intercept her. In the short action which followed, the Komet was set on fire and shortly after, blew up, killing all 351 of her crew. Two of the torpedo boats and one minesweeper were also sunk.

 

October 15, 1946

Herman Goering dies
On this day in 1946, Herman Goering, commander in chief of the Luftwaffe, president of the Reichstag, head of the Gestapo, prime minister of Prussia, chief forester of the Reich, chief liquidator of sequestered estates, supreme head of the National Weather Bureau, and Hitler's designated successor dies by his own hand.

Goering was an early member of the Nazi Party and was wounded in the failed Munich Beer Hall Putsch in 1923. That wound would have long-term effects, as Goering became increasingly addicted to painkillers. Not long after Hitler's accession to power, Goering was instrumental in creating concentration camps for political enemies. Ostentatious and self-indulgent, he changed his uniform five times a day and was notorious for flaunting his decorations, jewelry, and stolen artwork. It was Goering who ordered the purging of German Jews from the economy following the Kristallnacht pogrom in 1938, initiating an "Aryanization" policy that confiscated Jewish property and businesses.

Goering's failure to win the Battle of Britain and prevent the Allied bombing of Germany led to his loss of stature within the Party, aggravated by the low esteem with which he was always held by fellow officers because of his egocentrism and position as Hitler's right-hand man. As the war progressed, he dropped into depressions and continued to battle drug addiction.

When Goering fell into U.S. hands after Germany's surrender, he had in his possession a rich stash of paracodin pills, a morphine derivative. He was tried at Nuremberg and charged with various crimes against humanity. Despite a vigorous attempt at self-acquittal, he was found guilty and sentenced to be hanged, but before he could be executed, he committed suicide by swallowing a cyanide tablet he had hidden from his guards.

 

October 16, 1946

Alfred Rosenberg is executed
On this day in 1946, Alfred Rosenberg, the primary fabricator and disseminator of Nazi ideology, is hanged as a war criminal.

Born in Estonia in 1893, Rosenberg studied architecture at the University of Moscow. After receiving his degree, he stayed in Russia through the early days of the Russian Revolution and may have even flirted with communism briefly. In 1919, he immigrated to Munich, and met up with Dietrich Eckart, the poet-turned-editor of the Voelkischer Beobachter, the propagandistic newspaper of the Nazi Party. Through Eckart, Rosenberg met Adolf Hitler and Rudolf Hess and joined the newly formed Nazi Party. Hitler replaced Eckart with Rosenberg as editor of the paper, so impressed was Hitler with the "intellectual" architect.

Rosenberg immediately began using the news organ to disseminate his racist philosophy, now also the official Nazi philosophy, which was cobbled together from the writings of two men extremely influential on Germany's growing anti-Semitism, racism, and grandiose self-perception: Houston Stewart Chamberlain, an Englishman, and Count Joseph Arthur de Gobineau, a French diplomat, both of whom believed that the Aryan Germans were destined to be the masters of Europe.

When the 1923 Munich Beer Hall Putsch collapsed, and Hitler was thrown in jail, he turned the reins of the party over to Rosenberg, whom Hitler believed would prove feckless as a leader and thus no ultimate threat to his own authority. And there was nothing to fear-for the Nazi Party would be banned and dismissed as a laughingstock until Hitler took control again upon his release.

Rosenberg's literary output continued as the Nazis fought for legitimacy and power. The Future Direction of a German Foreign Policy argued for the invasion and occupation of Poland and the Soviet Union. The Myth of the 20th Century laid out the convoluted notions of Nordic racial superiority once again, also describing in no uncertain terms who the enemies of a German-Nazi Europe were: "Russian Tartars" (that is, Slavs), and Semites, which included not merely Jews but all the Latin ethnic groups--as well as Christianity, especially the Roman Catholic Church. This "blueprint" for a "natural right" of conquest fueled Hitler's already violent prejudices and megalomaniac character.

Rosenberg's roles during the war included working, from his Office of Foreign Affairs, with Norwegian fascist Vidkun Quisling in the overthrow of Norway's government. Rosenberg was also responsible for overseeing the transportation of stolen artworks from Vichy France to Germany.

At the Nuremberg trials, Rosenberg was found guilty of war crimes and ordered hanged.

 

October 17, 1941

Konoye government falls
On this day in 1941, the government of Prince Fumimaro Konoye, prime minister of Japan, collapses, leaving little hope for peace in the Pacific.

Konoye, a lawyer by training and well studied in Western philosophy, literature, and economics, entered the Japanese Parliament's upper house by virtue of his princely status and immediately pursued a program of reform. High on his agenda was a reform of the army general staff in order to prevent its direct interference in foreign policy decisions. He also sought an increase in parliamentary power. An antifascist, Konoye championed an end to the militarism of Japanese political structures, especially in light of the war in Manchuria, which began in 1931.

Appointed prime minister in 1933, Konoye's first cabinet fell after full-blown war broke out between Japan and China. In 1940, Konoye was asked to form a second cabinet. But as he sought to contain the war with China, relations with the United States deteriorated, to the point where Japan was virtually surrounded by a U.S. military presence and threats of sanctions. On August 27, 1941, Konoye requested a summit with President Roosevelt

in order to diminish heightening tensions. Envoys were exchanged, but no direct meeting with the president took place. (The U.S. government believed it could send the wrong message to China-and that Japan was on the losing end of that war anyway.)

In October, Konoye resigned because of increasing tension with his army minister, Tojo Hideki. Tojo succeeded Konoye as prime minister, holding on to his offices of army minister and war minister. Imperial Japan's foreign policy was now formally controlled by the military. After the bombing of Pearl Harbor, Konoye was put under military surveillance, his political career all but over until 1945, when the emperor considered sending him to Moscow to negotiate peace terms. That meeting never came off.

When Saipan fell to the U.S. Marines and Army, Tojo's government collapsed. Upon Japan's surrender, Tojo shot himself to prevent being taken prisoner by the United States. He lived and was tried by an international war-crimes tribunal--and hanged on December 22, 1948. As for Konoye, the grand irony of his career came when he was served with an arrest warrant by the U.S. occupying force for suspicion of war crimes. Rather than submit to arrest, he committed suicide by drinking poison.

 

October 18, 1942

Vice Admiral Halsey named new commander of the South Pacific
On this day in 1942, Vice. Adm. William F. Halsey replaces Vice Adm. Robert L. Ghormley as commander, South Pacific.

The man nicknamed "Bull" by the press began his military career as a destroyer commander during World War I. Halsey was made a captain at the age of 53, earned his naval aviator's wings, and was promoted to vice admiral in 1940. But it was the bombing of Pearl Harbor that would mark out his future for him. Halsey's task force was one of the few functioning battle groups left after the destruction of so much of the American fleet, placing him in the position of making the unpredictable and aggressive strategic decisions for which he would become renowned.

In 1942, he led surprise attacks on the Marshall and Gilbert Islands and supported the American reinforcement of troops on Samoa. It was his task force (a temporary organization of a fleet for a specific operation) that carried the 16 B-25 bombers for Jimmy Doolittle's raid on Tokyo in April 1942. By this time, Halsey's reputation for being where the action was had made him arguably the most famous American admiral of the war. And so it is ironic that he missed two major Naval engagements: the Battle of the Coral Sea (his fleet was not strategically positioned to participate) and the Battle of Midway (a severe case of dermatitis put him out of commission).

But by October 1942, Halsey was back just in time to be appointed commander of South Pacific operations by Admiral Nimitz, who wanted Vice Admiral Ghormley replaced. (Ghormley had suffered several defeats militarily and severe cases of indecision and anxiety personally.) Brilliant work in the capture of the Solomon Islands and New Guineas led to Halsey's promotion to full admiral. His career continued to strike awe in his admirers and terror in his enemies, as he succeeded in destroying the Japanese fleet in the Battle of Leyte Gulf in 1944, and commanding U.S. forces in the operations that led to the capture of Okinawa and the surrender of the Japanese there.

 

OCTOBER 18

1812 - U.S. sloop of war Wasp captures HM brig Frolic.

There have been several U.S. warships named Wasp, the most well-known being the aircraft carriers, one of which was lost in WWII.

JT

 

October 19, 1943

Chinese and Suluks revolt against Japanese in North Borneo
On this day in 1943, local Chinese and native Suluks rise up against the Japanese occupation of North Borneo. The revolt, staged in the capital, Jesselton, resulted in the deaths of 40 Japanese soldiers.

The Japanese had begun scooping up islands in the Dutch East Indies in late 1941. Kuching, on the northern coast of Borneo, was taken in December; January of '42 saw the fall of Brunei Bay and Jesselton, also in North Borneo. The British and Dutch forces on the islands were dealt swift and severe blows. Attempts by the Allies to hold on to other islands in the region--Malaya, Sumatra, and Java--began shortly thereafter, with British General Archibald Wavell commanding a unified force of British, Dutch, and Australian soldiers. It was a disastrous failure.

The treatment of Allied and civilian prisoners in the Japanese-controlled islands was horrendous, with hundreds dying of disease and starvation. The rebellion of Chinese settlers and native Suluks in the Borneo capital of Jesselton, although delivering a blow to the Japanese to the tune of 40 dead occupying soldiers, was dealt with quickly and brutally. The Japanese destroyed dozens of Suluk villages, rounded up and tortured thousands of civilians, and executed almost 200 without trial. In one extreme example of cruelty, several dozen Suluk women and children had their hands tied behind them and were hanged from their wrists from a pillar of a mosque. They were then shot down by machine-gun fire.

North Borneo would not be liberated until 1945, mostly the work of Australian forces. The next year, it would be made a colony of Britain. That region of Borneo controlled by the Dutch was given sovereignty in 1949 after a rebellion by Indonesian forces.

 

October 20, 1944

U.S. forces land at Leyte Island in the Philippines
On this day in 1944, more than 100,000 American soldiers land on Leyte Island, in the Philippines, as preparation for the major invasion by Gen. Douglas MacArthur. The ensuing battles of Leyte Island proved among the bloodiest of the war in the Pacific and signaled the beginning of the end for the Japanese.

The Japanese had held the Philippines since May 1942, when the awful defeat of American forces led to General MacArthur's departure and General Wainwright's capture. MacArthur was back, as he promised, but his invasion of Luzon required a softening up of the enemy. Thus, the amphibious landing of the American forces at Leyte and the concomitant goal of destroying the Japanese fleet in the gulf was undertaken.

The Japanese anticipated the American landing by launching Operation Sho-Go, an attempt to divert the U.S. 3rd Fleet north and away from the fighting on the island. The Japanese fleet assembled was the largest ocean task force assembled during the war, including seven battleships, 11 heavy cruisers, and 19 destroyers. American submarines and aircraft carriers met the Japanese fleet and the Battle of Leyte Gulf began on October 23.

Meanwhile on Leyte Island, the American troops took on the Japanese garrison, which was composed of 80,000 soldiers. It took 67 days to subdue the island, with extraordinary acts of physical bravery and courage demonstrated on both sides. Even after the Americans had taken control of the island, Japanese soldiers who had been hidden away continued to emerge and fight on, preferring to die than surrender. All told, the Japanese lost more than 55,000 soldiers during the two months of battle and approximately another 25,000 in mopping up operations in early 1945. The U.S. forces lost about 3,500-compared with the Japanese loss of 80,000 total.

The sea battle of Leyte Gulf was the same story. The loss of ships and sailors was horrendous for both sides. The sinking of the American carrier Princeton resulted in the drowning deaths of 500 men. When the Japanese battleship Musashi was destroyed by a massive American aerial attack, more than 1,000 sailors died, including the captain who stood on his bridge and literally went down with his ship. Three days of sea battle saw the destruction of 36 Japanese warships-compared with America's three. It also saw the introduction of the Japanese kamikaze-"divine wind"--suicide bombers. The St. Lo, an American aircraft carrier, was one of the first casualties, when one kamikaze pilot drove his plane straight into its flight deck.

More than 5,000 kamikaze pilots died in this gulf battle-taking down 34 ships. But when all was said and done, the Japanese had not been able to prevent the loss of their biggest and best warships, signaling the virtual end of the Japanese Imperial Fleet. The American victory on land and sea opened the door for General MacArthur's invasion and the recapture of the Philippines.

 

October 21, 1941

Germans massacre men, women, and children in Yugoslavia
On this day in 1941, German soldiers go on a rampage, killing thousands of Yugoslavian civilians, including whole classes of schoolboys.

Despite attempts to maintain neutrality at the outbreak of World War II, Yugoslavia finally succumbed to signing a "friendship treaty" with Germany in late 1940, finally joining the Tripartite "Axis" Pact in March 1941. The masses of Yugoslavians protested this alliance, and shortly thereafter the regents who had been trying to hold a fragile confederacy of ethnic groups and regions together since the creation of Yugoslavia at the close of World War I fell to a coup, and the Serb army placed Prince Peter into power. The prince-now the king--rejected the alliance with Germany-and the Germans retaliated with the Luftwaffe bombing of Belgrade, killing about 17,000 people.

With Yugoslavian resistance collapsing, King Peter removed to London, setting up a government-in-exile. Hitler then began to carve up Yugoslavia into puppet states, primarily divided along ethnic lines, hoping to win the loyalty of some-such as the Croats-with the promise of a postwar independent state. (In fact, many Croats did fight alongside the Germans in its battle against the Soviet Union.) Hungary, Bulgaria, and Italy all took bites out of Yugoslavia, as Serb resisters were regularly massacred. On October 21, in Kragujevac, 2,300 men and boys were murdered; Kraljevo saw 7,000 more killed by German troops, and in the region of Macva, 6,000 men, women, and children were murdered.

Serb partisans, fighting under the leadership of the socialist Josef "Tito" Brozovich, won support from Britain and aid from the USSR in their battle against the occupiers. "The people just do not recognize authority...they follow the Communist bandits blindly," complained one German official reporting back to Berlin.

 

HMS COSSACK (October 21, 1941)

The fifth of the Tribal Class British destroyers to bear this name, famous for its rescue of prisoners from the German ship Altmark in Jossing Fjord, Norway, on February 16, 1940. While escorting a convoy from Gibraltar to Britain the Cossack (1,959 tons) was hit by a torpedo from the German U-boat U-563 The explosion blew off the bow and forward section of the ship killing 159 officers and ratings. Still afloat, the vessel was taken in tow stern first by a tug from Gibraltar but bad weather caused the tow to be slipped and the Cossack sank soon after.

Some survivors were rescued by the escorts HMS Legion and HMS Carnation and taken to Leith, Scotland. (The Altmark was later converted to a tanker under the name Uckermark and while anchored in the harbour at Yokohama, Japan, sank after a huge explosion ripped the vessel apart while the crew were having lunch. Cause of the explosion was thought to be a spark from tools used by a repair gang working near the fuel tanks. Forty-three crewmen from the Uckermark died).

 

October 22, 1942

Allies confer secretly about Operation Torch
On this day in 1942, American Maj. Gen. Mark Clark meets in Algeria with French officials loyal to the Allied cause, as well as Resistance fighters, regarding the launch of Operation Torch, the first Allied amphibious landing of the war.

It was decided as early as Christmas 1941, at the Arcadia Conference in Washington, that an Allied offensive against Rommel and the German army in North Africa would be launched. The details were debated for months, as American government officials objected to an early British operation, nicknamed Gymnast, which was deemed costly and ineffective-and was scrapped. The American chiefs of staff were also anxious to engage the Germans in Europe-not Africa. An ultimatum was even proposed: Unless the British supported an Allied cross-Channel attack, that is, an invasion of France, the United States would turn its attention to the Pacific and maintain only a defensive posture toward Germany. President Roosevelt was unwilling to issue such an ultimatum-and the chiefs of staff were ordered to work out a compromise operation for North Africa.

Operation Torch was that compromise. A secret meeting in Algiers, which was also one of the intended landing targets, was planned by an American diplomat stationed in North Africa. General Clark and members of his staff flew to Gibraltar and were then taken to Algiers via British submarine. Meeting with French army officers and Resistance fighters, Clark laid out the plan for the American landing and opened the discussion for who would be entrusted with leading the French forces. Gen. Charles De Gaulle, so instrumental in the organization of Resistance forces, was ruled out, as he would prove antagonistic to those French soldiers and officers still loyal to Petain and Vichy France, but who might be encouraged to turn on their German masters when supported by a massive Allied operation. It was finally agreed that Gen. Henri Giraud would lead the African French, as he had support in both the Vichy and Free French camps.

The meeting was interrupted at one point by the arrival of French police loyal to the Vichy government. Clark and company had to hide out in a nearby wine cellar. The conference resumed the next day--and plans for bringing the "Torch" of freedom to French North Africa took final shape.

 

October 23, 1941

Soviets switch commanders in drive to halt Germans
On this day in 1941, chief of the Soviet general staff, Georgi K. Zhukov, assumes command of Red Army operations to stop the German advance into the heart of Russia.

Zhukov's military career began during World War I, when he served with the Imperial Russian Army. He then joined the Red Army in 1918, taking time off to study military science in both the Soviet Union and Germany. By the outbreak of World War II, Zhukov was commander of the Soviet forces stationed on the Manchurian border and led a counteroffensive that beat back the Japanese attack in 1939.

By the time of the German invasion of Russia, Zhukov had been promoted from chief of staff of the Soviet army during the "winter war" against Finland, to commander in chief of the western front. It was in this capacity that he now prepared to beat back the German invaders, first from Moscow, and then from central Russia altogether. He would eventually be promoted to general and become a key player in the planning or execution of virtually every major Soviet engagement until the end of the war. Ultimately, he would represent the USSR at Germany's formal surrender and take command of the Soviet occupation of Germany.

Stalin's wise choice in handing so much power and responsibility to this one man was regretted only after the war, when Zhukov's popularity threatened his own. Stalin "rewarded" the general with obscure positions that wasted his talent and kept him out of the spotlight. Zhukov was finally made minister of defense after Stalin's death in 1953 in Premier Nikita Krushchev's new government. But as the military attempted to remove itself from the iron grip of internal Communist Party politics, Zhukov, who supported autonomy for the army, began to butt heads with the premier, who wanted to keep the Red Army under the Central Committee's collective thumb.

Ironically, when the Presidium, the "conservative" (in this case, Stalinist) legislative body that opposed certain "democratic" reforms proposed by Krushchev, attempted to push the premier from power, it was Zhukov who flew Central Committee members to Moscow to tip the balance of power and keep Krushchev's position secure. As a reward, Zhukov was made a full member of the Presidium, the first professional soldier ever to hold such an office (it also served to have a man who proved himself loyal on a body that was otherwise hostile). But Zhukov's renewed attempt to free the army from party control resulted in his dismissal by Krushchev. Zhukov would once again be lost to public view--until Krushchev's fall from power in 1964. Zhukov would eventually win the Order of Lenin medal (1966) and publish his autobiography (1969).

 

:bow: God praise the all mighty Zhukov!! :bow:

 

MUSASHI (October 23-26, 1944)

The giant 64,200 ton Japanese battleship built at the Mitsubishi Shipyard in Nagasaki, was sunk during the Battle of Leyte Gulf. The super battleship took 6 torpedo hits and 17 bomb hits during four attacks from the 259 planes of Admiral Halsey's Third Fleet. The Musashi, her speed now down to six knots and her bows almost at sea level, then rolled over on her port side and sank taking 1,023 of her crew to their deaths. This was nearly half of her complement of 2,200 men. Her captain, Real Admiral Inoguichi Toshihira, went down with his ship.

 

USS PRINCETON (October 23-26, 1944)

American carrier was one of the six US warships sunk in the Battle of Leyte Gulf, the largest naval engagement since Jutland. The other five ships were the Gamber Bay (119 men were killed) and the USS St Lo, both escort carriers, the destroyers Hoel (202 killed) and Johnston (187 killed) and destroyer escort Samuel B. Roberts. Casualties from the six ships were 898 killed and 913 wounded. The Princeton, hit by a bomb from a dive bomber, suffered 229 killed and 211 seriously injured when her magazine exploded. She had to be scuttled by the light cruisers USS Irwin and USS Reno. The Gamber Bay was the only American carrier sunk by naval gunfire in World War II.

 

October 24, 1945

The United Nations is born
On this day in 1945, the United Nations Charter, which was adopted and signed on June 26, 1945, is now effective and ready to be enforced.

The United Nations was born of perceived necessity, as a means of better arbitrating international conflict and negotiating peace than was provided for by the old League of Nations. The growing Second World War became the real impetus for the United States, Britain, and the Soviet Union to begin formulating the original U.N. Declaration, signed by 26 nations in January 1942, as a formal act of opposition to Germany, Italy, and Japan, the Axis Powers.

The principles of the U.N. Charter were first formulated at the San Francisco Conference, which convened on April 25, 1945. It was presided over by President Franklin Roosevelt, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, and Soviet Premier Joseph Stalin, and attended by representatives of 50 nations, including 9 continental European states, 21 North, Central, and South American republics, 7 Middle Eastern states, 5 British Commonwealth nations, 2 Soviet republics (in addition to the USSR itself), 2 East Asian nations, and 3 African states. The conference laid out a structure for a new international organization that was to "save succeeding generations from the scourge of war,...to reaffirm faith in fundamental human rights,...to establish conditions under which justice and respect for the obligations arising from treaties and other sources of international law can be maintained, and to promote social progress and better standards of life in larger freedom."

Two other important objectives described in the Charter were respecting the principles of equal rights and self-determination of all peoples (originally directed at smaller nations now vulnerable to being swallowed up by the Communist behemoths emerging from the war) and international cooperation in solving economic, social, cultural, and humanitarian problems around the world.

Now that the war was over, negotiating and maintaining the peace was the practical responsibility of the new U.N. Security Council, made up of the United States, Great Britain, France, the Soviet Union, and China. Each would have veto power over the other. Winston Churchill called for the United Nations to employ its charter in the service of creating a new, united Europe-united in its opposition to communist expansion-East and West. Given the composition of the Security Council, this would prove easier said than done.

 

ARISAN MARU (October 24, 1944)

Japanese freighter of 6,886-tons bound for Japan (in convoy of 17 ships) from Manila Bay in the Philippines. In the holds were about 100 civilians and 1,782 American prisoners of war being transported as slave labourers to work in the mines and factories of Japan. Crowded so close together they could not lie down, the holds soon became a hell-hole as the temperature soared to over 100 degrees F. The lack of fresh air caused many to go mad as the holds became fouled by the stench of sweating bodies, urine and human excrement. As the ship sailed into a typhoon, the odour of vomit from the hundreds of sea sick prisoners added to the wretched conditions.

Four days out into the China Sea, in the Bashi Straits, at 1500 hrs on the 24th, a terrible jolt shook the ship from bow to stern as three torpedoes from the American submarine USS Shark (some sources say USS Snook....both these submarines failed to return from that patrol) split the ship in two. The two halves separated but remained afloat only to sink two hours later. Most of the Japanese crew and guards were the first to escape by the few available lifeboats. Those guards left behind were set upon by the enraged POW's and killed. Only seven men survived the sinking by clinging to wreckage. Two were picked up by the Japanese escort destroyer the other five were later rescued by a Chinese fishing boat and reached the Chinese coast. As the Arisan Maru was unmarked, the captain of the submarine had no way of knowing that the ship carried POW's.

Many other 'hell ships' sailed the pacific seas and were sunk during the last three years of the war but little is known about them. After the war investigators discovered that the Japanese had destroyed numerous records of these voyages. Between 1942 and 1945 it is recorded that 134 Japanese ships made 156 voyages carrying POW's. The number of prisoners amounted to 126,064 of which 21,039 died.