What happened today? Part two.

1941 - Germans overrun Mariupol, in southern Russia

On this day in 1941, the German invasion of the Soviet Union begins a new stage, with Hitler's forces capturing Mariupol. The Axis power reached the Sea of Azov.

Despite the fact that Germany and Russia had signed a "pact" in 1939, each guaranteeing the other a specific region of influence without interference from the other, suspicion remained high. Despite warnings from his advisers that Germany could not fight the war on two fronts (as Germany's experience in World War I proved), Hitler became convinced that England was holding out against repeated German air assaults, refusing to surrender, because it had struck a secret deal with Russia. Fearing he would be "strangled" from the East and the West, he created, in December 1940, "Directive No. 21: Case Barbarossa"-the plan to invade and occupy the very nation he had actually asked to join the Axis only a month before!

On June 22, 1941, after having postponed the invasion of Russia when Italy's attack on Greece forced Hitler to bail out his struggling ally in order to keep the Allies from gaining a foothold in the Balkans, three German army groups struck Russia hard by surprise. The Russian army was larger than German intelligence had anticipated, but they were demobilized. Stalin had shrugged off warnings from his own advisers, even Winston Churchill himself, that a German attack was imminent. By the end of the first day of the invasion, the German air force had destroyed more than 1,000 Soviet aircraft. And despite the toughness of the Russian troops, and the number of tanks and other armaments at their disposal, the Red Army was disorganized, enabling the Germans to penetrate up to 300 miles into Russian territory within the next few days.

Hitler's battle for Stalingrad and Moscow still lay ahead, but the capture of Mariupol, at the sea's edge, signaled the beginning of the end of Russia-as least as far as Hitler's propaganda machine was concerned. "Soviet Russia has been vanquished!" Otto Dietrich, Hitler's press chief, announced to foreign journalists the very next day.

 

Monday, October 9, 1939 www.onwar.com


From Berlin... Hitler issues Directive No. 6. Its message is simple: "Should it become evident in the near future that England and, under her influence, France also, are not disposed to bring the war to an end, I have decided, without further loss of time to go over to the offensive." The offensive is to be directed across the Low Countries and is intended to defeat strong sections of the French and British armies when these arrive to help the Dutch and the Belgians. The ground taken is to provide protection for the Ruhr and to give bases for the air war against Britain. The aims of the plan are, therefore, limited when compared with the Schlieffen Plan of 1914 or with the scheme which is actually adopted in May 1940. There is no mention of completely defeating France. This order is a further blow to the autonomy of the German army. Their view is that, although it lies within Hitler's authority as head of state and Commander in Chief of the Wehrmacht to order an attack to be prepared as soon as possible, the army should be asked where and how this attack should take place. Even Keitel argues against Hitler on this issue.

In Paris... Thirty-five of the 46 Communist deputies in the French parliament are arrested for agitating against the war.(Remember the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact )

Friday, October 9, 1942


From Moscow... Stalin announces a major change in the command structure of the Soviet Army. All commanding powers are taken from the Political Commissars in the Army. Their role is reduced to morale and propaganda. Military decisions will be left to the commanding officers.

Saturday, October 9, 1943


On the Eastern Front... In the Caucasus, the Germans complete their evacuation of the 17th Army from the Kuban Peninsula. About 255,000 troops, 27,000 civilians and army supplies are successful withdrawn to the Crimea. Soviet forces under Petrov complete the occupation of the Kuban Peninsula.

 

1944 - Churchill and Stalin confer

On this day in 1944, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and Soviet Premier Joseph Stalin begin a nine-day conference in Moscow, during which the war with Germany and the future of Europe are discussed.

Germany's defeat now seemed inevitable, and Stalin was prepared to commit the USSR to intervening in the war against Japan once Germany had formally surrendered. This optimistic outlook enabled a significant portion of the talks to center on the relative spheres of influence of the two superpowers in a postwar European environment. Churchill ceded the disposition of Romania, which Stalin's troops were liberating from German control even as the conference commenced, to the Soviet Union. But the British prime minister was keen on keeping the Red Army away from Greece. "Britain must be the leading Mediterranean power." They made a deal: Romania for Greece.

Churchill was more accommodating elsewhere, willing to divvy up the spoils of war. Yugoslavia could be cut down the middle, east for Russia, west for the West. Churchill also laid out a plan by which the German populations of East Prussia and Silesia would be moved into the interior of Germany, with East Prussia split between the USSR and Poland, and Silesia handed over to Poland as compensation for territories Stalin already occupied and intended to keep.

But Churchill was insistent on one issue that would be harder to negotiate in 50-50 terms-freedom. Churchill wanted every nation to be free to select the government most amenable to its people, especially smaller, more vulnerable nations. "Let them work out their own fortunes during the years that lie ahead." Churchill was frank about the West's fear of expansionist communism. But none of what was discussed was carved in stone or even put on paper--a fact that would be all too obvious as the Cold War commenced.

 

Tuesday, October 10, 1939 www.onwar.com


In Berlin... Admiral Raeder mentions to Hitler for the first time the possibility of invading Norway to secure naval and especially submarine bases (see December 8, 1939 and January 27, 1940). Churchill is, at this time, arguing in the British Cabinet that Norwegian coastal waters should be mined to interfere with German iron-ore traffic.

In Moscow... A Soviet-Lithuanian Pact is signed, giving the USSR the use of bases in Lithuania. Vilna is restored to Lithuania from which it was annexed by Poland in 1922. This pact is the last in a series designed to ensure Soviet control of the Baltic.


Thursday, October 10, 1940


In Occupied Luxembourg... The Germans run a plebiscite in Luxembourg. When the results are counted they find that 97 percent of the population is opposed to their occupation. The experiment is not repeated elsewhere.

Friday, October 10, 1941


In the Soviet Union... Soviet General Zhukov is called to Moscow from Leningrad to assume control of the defense of the capital city.

Tuesday, October 10, 1944


On the Eastern Front... Elements of the Soviet 1st Baltic Front reach the Baltic sea north of Memel. Soviet forces begin attacks on Riga, the capital of Latvia. Meanwhile, in southeast Hungary, there is a large armored engagement near Debrecen. German forces are pushed back but then counterattack and destroy a claimed three corps. In Yugoslavia, the 3rd Ukrainian Front continues attacks south of Belgrade. The Belgrade-Nis rail line is cut near Velika Plana.

On the Western Front... Allied forces continue ongoing offensives in the Scheldt estuary, around Aachen and Metz. The US 1st Army (part of US 12th Army Group) issues a demand to the German garrison in Aachen to surrender.

In the Ryukyu Islands... US Task Force 38 (Admiral Mitscher), part of the US 3rd Fleet (Admiral Halsey), launches air strikes on Onami-Oshima, Okinawa and Sakashima. TF38 includes 11 fleet carriers, 6 light carriers, 6 battleships and numerous cruisers and destroyers. Many Japanese aircraft are destroyed in combat and 10 merchant ships are sunk around Okinawa. Japanese counter air strikes fail to locate the American ships.

 

1944 - Eight hundred children are gassed to death at Auschwitz

On this day in 1944, 800 Gypsy children, including more than a hundred boys between 9 and 14 years old are systematically murdered.
Auschwitz was really a group of camps, designated I, II, and III. There were also 40 smaller "satellite" camps. It was at Auschwitz II, at Birkenau, established in October 1941, that the SS created a complex, monstrously orchestrated killing ground: 300 prison barracks; four "bathhouses," in which prisoners were gassed; corpse cellars; and cremating ovens. Thousands of prisoners were also used as fodder for medical experiments, overseen and performed by the camp doctor, Josef Mengele ("the Angel of Death").

A mini-revolt took place on October 7, 1944. As several hundred Jewish prisoners were being forced to carry corpses from the gas chambers to the furnace to dispose of the bodies, they blew up one of the gas chambers and set fire to another, using explosives smuggled to them from Jewish women who worked in a nearby armaments factory. Of the roughly 450 prisoners involved in the sabotage, about 250 managed to escape the camp during the ensuing chaos. They were all found and shot. Those co-conspirators who never made it out of the camp were also executed, as were five women from the armaments factory-but not before being tortured for detailed information on the smuggling operation. None of the women talked.

Gypsies, too, had been singled out for brutal treatment by Hitler's regime early on. Deemed "carriers of disease" and "unreliable elements who cannot be put to useful work," they were marked for extermination along with the Jews of Europe from the earliest years of the war. Approximately 1.5 million Gypsies were murdered by the Nazis. In 1950, as Gypsies attempted to gain compensation for their suffering, as were other victims of the Holocaust, the German government denied them anything, saying, "Gypsies have been persecuted under the Nazis not for any racial reason but because of an asocial and criminal record." They were stigmatized even in light of the atrocities committed against them.

 

Thursday, October 12, 1939 www.onwar.com


In Germany... The deportation of Jews from occupied Austria and Czechoslovakia to occupied Poland begins under the direction of an SS administration headed by Eichmann.

In Moscow... Soviet and Finnish representatives meet to discuss border revisions. The Soviets want the cession of some territory near Leningrad, control of the islands in the Gulf of Finland, use of the port of Hanko and other rearrangements of the border in the far north near Murmansk. In return they offer rather more land than they demanded in the Suomussalmi area. The Finns only feel able to offer a much smaller range of concessions.

Saturday, October 12, 1940


From Berlin... Operation Sealion is deferred until the spring of 1941. It will never take place.

Sunday, October 12, 1941 www.onwar.com

In North Africa... Relief operations continue to the besieged British outpost at Tobruk (7000 troops are taken in and just under 8000 are taken out). The minelayer Latona is sunk by a Stuka attack and one destroyer is damaged in the operations.

Monday, October 12, 1942


In the North Atlantic... A British Liberator bomber sinks German U-boat U-597. It is the first success scored by the single RAF squadron of long range bombers. Despite their usefulness, the Liberator is reserved for strategic bombing missions over Europe and will not be used in quantity in the Atlantic for some time.

Tuesday, October 12, 1943


In Italy... During the night (October 12-13) the US 5th Army begins its assault on the German Volturno Line. Elements of the British 10th Corps (McCreery) make some progress on the coast but German counterattacks generally hold its attacks. The 3 divisions of US 6th Corps (Lucas), however, push forward. A combination of determined German defenders and poor weather restrict advances to the main roadways.

Thursday, October 12, 1944


In Greece... Allied paratroops land at Athens airfield. Other British forces land on Corfu. German forces evacuate the Piraeus.

 

1946 - Gen. Joseph Stilwell dies

On this day in 1946, Gen. Joseph W. Stilwell, the man who commanded the U.S. and Chinese Nationalist resistance to Japanese incursions into China and Burma, dies today at age 63.
Born March 19, 1883, in Palatka, Florida, and a graduate of the West Point Military Academy, Stilwell began distinguishing himself early in his career. In World War I, he served with the American Expeditionary Force in Europe, as well as in the Philippines. He was also a student of the Chinese language, which garnered him a position as military attaché in Peking from 1935 to 1939. It was during the 1930s that Stilwell began to bond with the Chinese peasantry-and developed an infamous distrust, if not contempt, for Chinese political leadership. Known for his straight-talking manner and as a man who did not suffer fools gladly, he made no qualms about his dislike for Chinese Nationalist leader Chiang Kai-shek, who Stilwell considered corrupt and greedy (and whom he nicknamed "the Peanut").
Nevertheless, when World War II broke out, Stilwell reluctantly accepted Chiang's offer to become commander of U.S. Army forces in China and Burma-as well as to become Chiang's chief of staff. Stilwell also supervised the dispersion of American Land-Lease shipments to China, much-needed supplies for the war effort that Chiang wanted funneled through his office.

Stilwell's initial military operation, to keep open the Burma Road between India and China and to repel Japanese incursions into Burma, failed. The operation in Burma was so disastrous that Chinese forces under his command stopped taking orders. And as Allied supplies to China were being strangled (the Burma Road was the necessary shipping route), Stilwell and his forces were forced to retreat into India. "We got run out of Burma, and it is humiliating as hell," the general later admitted.

Further attempts by Stilwell to rally Chinese forces against the Japanese in both Burma and China were often thwarted by both Chiang, who was more concerned about the communist threat of Mao Tse-tung, and not allowing his ultimate authority to be usurped by the Americans, and the American Air Force, which, naturally, wanted to divert the war effort from the ground to the air.

Stilwell did manage to lead Chinese divisions to retake Myitakyina, and its airfield, from Japanese control, rebuilding the Ledo Road, a military highway in India that led into Burma (the road was later renamed Stilwell Road). But conflicts with Chiang resulted in Stilwell's removal in 1944. He then served as commander of the 10th Army on Okinawa, ultimately receiving the surrender of 100,000 Japanese troops in the Ryukyu Islands, in southern Japan. Stilwell finished off his career as commander of the 6th Army. The man who Gen. George C. Marshall declared "far-sighted" and "one of the exceptionally brilliant and cultured men in the Army…qualified for any command in peace or war," died in San Francisco-with his nation at peace.

 

Friday, October 13, 1939 www.onwar.com


In the United States... In a radio broadcast, Colonel Charles Lindbergh questions the right of Canada "to draw this hemisphere into a European war because they prefer the Crown of England to American independence." He appears to meet charges that he is pro-German by calling for both Nazi and Communist influence in America to be "stamped out." He also says that British and French colonies in the Caribbean should be handed over to the US to pay war debts.

Tuesday, October 13, 1942


On the Eastern Front... In the southern part of the city of Stalingrad, German 48th Panzer Corps, part of German 4th Panzer Army reaches the Volga River. However, to the north the Soviets hold on to the large factory buildings, continuing their counterattacks.

In the Solomon Islands... On Guadalcanal, 3000 American troops land from the convoy which were the subject of the Battle of Cape Esperance. The Japanese bring up the battleships Kongo and Haruna to bombard the airstrip at Henderson Field during the night. 50 American planes are destroyed on the ground, about one half of the aircraft present. While the shelling is occurring, Admiral Tanaka takes advantage of the break in American air cover and lands 4500 men and large quantities of supplies at Tassafaronga.

Friday, October 13, 1944


On the Eastern Front... In Latvia, elements of the Soviet 2nd and 3rd Baltic Fronts break through the German defensive positions around Riga, the capital city. During the day, Soviet forces reach the outskirts of the city.

Over Liberated Belgium... The first German V1 and V2 attacks land on the port of Antwerp.

In Formosa... For a second day, US Task Force 38 (Admiral Mitscher) launches air strikes on Japanese positions. Altogether, American aircraft record 2350 sorties and lose 48 aircraft. The Japanese defenders attack with some 190 aircraft. The USS Franklin is lightly damaged and the Australian cruiser Canberra sustains heavy damage in the Japanese counterattacks.

 

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.

 

Saturday, October 14, 1939 www.onwar.com


In Britain... At 0130, the British battleship, Royal Oak (29,150 tons), is sunk at anchor in the Home Fleet base at Scapa Flow, in the Orkney Islands, by U-47 commanded by Kapitanleutnant Prien . Three of 7 torpedoes hit and in 13 minutes the ship capsized. British losses are about 800 dead (786-810) and 414 survivors of a crew of 1200. German aerial reconnaissance photographs had revealed a 50-foot gap in the defenses at the entrance to Kirk Sound -- wide enough for a U-boat. This is a major blow to British prestige as well as an indication of a very serious real weakness in the defenses. Meanwhile, the Polish submarine Orzel reaches British waters after a daring escape from the Baltic Sea.
On the Western Front... General Gamelin, French Commander-in-Chief, issues an Order of the Day predicting a massive German offensive "at any moment."

Tuesday, October 14, 1941


On the Eastern Front... The German attack northwest of Moscow reaches Kalinin. Soviet resistance is very determined. Meanwhile, the battle of Vyazma is concluded.

Wednesday, October 14, 1942


On the Eastern Front... In Stalingrad, using heavy air support and five divisions, the Germans nearly break through Soviet resistance at the Tractor Factory. The Soviets are reinforced with a Guards Division. The Tractor Factory remains in Soviet hands.

From Berlin... Hitler orders a halt to all offensive action on the Eastern Front, except at Stalingrad and in a small area of the Caucasus along the Terek River

Thursday, October 14, 1943


Over Germany... The American 8th Air Force conducts a raid on the German ball-bearing works at Schweinfurt. The force of 291 B-17 Flying Fortresses does considerable damage to the target but lose 60 planes with others damaged. The loss rate is too high to maintain so the USAAF abandons long-range, unescorted daylight raids.

Saturday, October 14, 1944


In Germany... Field Marshal Rommel is visited at home by Nazi government representatives. He is suspected of complicity in the July 20th plot to assassinate Hitler. Rommel is given a choice of a public trial or suicide with a state funeral and a guarantee of immunity from persecution for his wife and family. He chooses to commit suicide. His death is publicly announced as resulting from wounds.



In Greece... Allied forces occupy Athens and the Piraeus. Further British forces land on Corfu. The British 3rd Corps is about to land at Piraeus.

 

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.

 

Its horrible that such a brilliant man was forced to kill himself. Unlike Hitler he was a genius in military excersises and tactics and it's tragic that he would kill himself for the sake of Hitler.

 

Tuesday, October 15, 1940

From Rome... The Italian War Council makes the final decision for an attack on Greece. Hitler is not to be told beforehand and instead is to be presented with a fait accompli. The Italians hope for the campaign to be over within two weeks. Operations will start at the end of the month.

In the Mediterranean... The British submarine Rainbow engages the Italian submarine Enrico Toti (which was previously damaged and is unable to submerge) in a gun battle off the coast of Calabria. The Rainbow is sunk.

Sunday, October 15, 1944 www.onwar.com


In Budapest... Admiral Horthy, the prime minister and regent, asks for an armistice with the USSR in a radio broadcast.

 

going back to the Schweinfurt-Regensburg raid. The US bombers were escorted only part way but they were "escorted". Also in addition to the 60 bombers shot down. 20 more were written off as losses when arrived at base but these were never counted........interesting eh ? Raids continued through the fall/early winter of 43-44 escorted again only part way and usally by P-47's. this was the hey-day of the Luftwaffe's twin engine fighter attacks equipped with the heavy cannon and Br. 21 rocket launchers. with the advent of the 354th fighter group and the P-51 it was nearly all over for the twin engine destroyers........

~E

 

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.

 

Monday, October 16, 1939 www.onwar.com


On the Western Front... Initially, German forces strike along a 4-mile frontage immediately east of the Moselle River. French gunfire is credited with ending this advance. Later in the day, German forces attack on a 20-mile frontage east of the Saar River. The French "covering forces" retire, according to plan. Within 48 hours, the Germans push the French back from the gains of the Saar offensive in September. There are few casualties on either side though the Allies claim German forces suffer 5000 casualties in the operations.

In Britain... Nine of the new Ju88 dive-bombers attack warships at Rosyth, Firth of Forth. An unexploded bomb penetrates the cruiser HMS Southampton. HMS Edinburgh also sustains damage. The crew of the destroyer HMS Mohawk suffers casualties. RAF Spitfires, piloted by "part-time" pilots of the Glasgow and Edinburgh Auxiliary Air Force squadrons, engage the German aircraft.

In Berlin... The German High Command announces the official end to the Polish Campaign. Some Polish regulars continue to resist in remote areas.

In Paris... The Polish embassy claims that Polish troops continue to hold out against German and Soviet invaders in Suwalki, in the Carpathian Mountains, and in the Pripet Marshes at Bialowieza.

Thursday, October 16, 1941

In Japan... Prime Minister Konoye resigns. War Minister Tojo replaces him assuming the offices of not only Prime Minister, but also War Minister and Home Affairs Minister. Shigenori Togo is named Foreign Minister and Admiral Shimada, Navy Minister. This Cabinet is judged to have a pro-war stance.

In Vichy France... Former Prime Ministers, Daladier, Reynaud and Blum are all arrested on Marshal Petain's orders to face charges that they are responsible for the defeat of France

Monday, October 16, 1944

In Budapest... There is an announcement that the recent Hungarian request for an armistice is void. Admiral Horthy resigns and is taken to Germany. Ferenc Szalasy becomes regent and prime minister.

On the Western Front... Around Aachen, troops of the US 19th and 8th Corps (elements of US 1st Army) link up to the east of the city, completing its encirclement. Farther south, the US 6th Corps (part of US 7th Army) encounters heavy German resistance around Bruyeres on the Moselle River. To the south, the French 1st Army begins new attacks.

In Greece... British forces land on the island of Lemnos.

 

Tuesday, October 17, 1939 www.onwar.com


In Britain... German Ju88 bombers strike the British naval base at Scapa Flow. The training battleship Iron Duke (which was the flagship of Admiral Jellico -- 1914 to 1917 -- during World War I) is damaged and has to be beached.

Sunday, October 17, 1943 www.onwar.com


On the Eastern Front... Soviet forces breakthrough the German defenses around Kremenchug. Other Soviet forces cross the Dniepr south of Gomel and capture Loyev.

In New Guinea... The Japanese mount another air attack on Allied positions in Oro Bay and sustain heavy losses in aircraft and crew. The Japanese counteroffensive around Finschafen continues to be held by Australian forces.

In the Pacific... The last operational German auxiliary cruiser, Michel, is sunk by the American submarine Tarpon off the Japanese coast. The German raider has sunk 17 ships during its cruise.

 

Wednesday, October 18, 1939 www.onwar.com


In Stockholm... The president of Finland meets with the kings of Denmark, Norway and Sweden to consider the threat resulting from Soviet demands for a revision of the Finnish-Soviet border. Hitler has already assured the Swedes that Germany will remain neutral in a war between Finland and the USSR and strongly advised the Swedes to do the same.

Wednesday, October 18, 1944


On the Eastern Front... In Moscow it is announced that the 4th Ukrainian Front (Petrov) has entered Czechoslovakia. German forces from Greece and southern Yugoslavia are rapidly falling back to avoid being cut off by advancing Soviet forces.

In Germany... All able-bodies males between the ages of 16 and 60 are now liable for conscription into the Volkssturm (the home defense force).

 

October 18th, 1942

Hitler enacts directive Nr. 46, the "commando order". "From now on all men operating against German troops in so-called Commando raids in Europe or in Africa, are to be annihilated to the last man."

http://wwiitech.net/main/germany/archives/hitlerscommandoorder/index.html


This is, in different sources, dated to October 18th as well as August 18th, but I think the first date is correct. Strange enough, the text can't be found on the web in German.

[ 18. October 2003, 07:30 AM: Message edited by: KnightMove ]

 

This has been discussed here several times including quite recently. People who refer to an August date probably have not properly looked into the matter and are trying to link it with the Dieppe raid. However, the issue at Dieppe contributes and is PART of the overall reasoning, but the October dates are correct.

There is quite a lot of rubbish associated with this order and a lot of people have climbed on the 'I know what happened - buy my book' gravy train. Probably the underlying factor is lack (as far as I am aware) of any document where Hitler states his thinking and reasoning precisely?

Meaning, was it in responce to one specific action, or was Hitler having a bad day? What I find odd is that while Hitler was very clearly really really put out by the Commandos, he never ordered a mirror force to be set-up. I don't refer to some units who did similar assignments on occassion, but to a fully structured and ongoing establishment as the British had.

No.9