On this day during WW2

Discussion in 'All Anniversaries' started by spidge, May 31, 2006.

  1. Peter Clare

    Peter Clare Very Senior Member

    1-2 July 1940

    The Royal Air Force drops its first 2,000 pound bomb on German battleship Scharnhorst at Kiel.
     
  2. Peter Clare

    Peter Clare Very Senior Member

    1 July 1942

    The first Boeing B17 Flying Fortress to be ferried across the Atlantic, lands at Prestwick in Scotland.
     
  3. Peter Clare

    Peter Clare Very Senior Member

    July 1940.

    The submarine Thames which sailed from Dundee for a patrol off Norway, was reported overdue, with the loss of 62 crew.

    Coastal convoys from Falmouth to the Thames were started.
     
  4. Peter Clare

    Peter Clare Very Senior Member

    ARANDORA STAR (July 2, 1940)


    One of four ships placed at the disposal of the War Office for the transportation of enemy aliens to Canada. The Arandora Star sailed from Liverpool, without escort, to St. John's, Newfoundland, carrying 473 German male civilians interned when war broke out in 1939, and 717 Italian male civilians interned after Mussolini declared war on June 10, 1940. The vessel carried a crew of 176 and a military guard of some 200 men. Also on board were some Italian internees from internment camps on the Isle of Man, many of whom were genuine refugees mistakenly selected for deportation. The 15,501 ton Arandora Star (Blue Star Line) was torpedoed and sunk by the German U-boat U-47, (Korvkpt. Günther Prien, 1908-1941) seventy five miles off Ireland, at 7.05am. A second explosion, apparently a boiler, broke the ship in two before she finally sank at 7.40am. At about 2.30pm, the Canadian destroyer, HMCS St. Laurent, found the lifeboats and started to take the survivors on board. They reached Greenock in Scotland on Wednesday, July 3, at 8.45am. where the sick and injured were taken to Mearnskirk Hospital in Newton Mearns by a fleet of ambulances. The 813 survivors were later put on another ship, the Dunera, and transported to Australia. A total of 743 persons lost their lives on the Arandora Star: 146 Germans, 453 Italians, and 144 crew and soldiers. (The U-47 went missing on March 7, 1941) In Bardi, a village in northern Italy, a chapel has been built to commemorate the victims of the Arandora Star. This disaster changed British internment policy. From then on, all internees were interned in British camps only. (On a remote cliff on the island of Colansay a memorial was unveiled to commemorate all those who perished and in particular to a Giusseppe Delgrosso whose body was washed ashore near this spot. Near the memorial plaque is a cairn of stones. All visitors are requested to bring a stone and add it to the cairn so that it will continue to grow)
     
  5. Peter Clare

    Peter Clare Very Senior Member

    SS HOIHOW (July 2, 1943)


    British vessel of 2,798 tons, owned by the China Navigation Company Limited of London and requisitioned early in 1943 by the Ministry of War Transport. Used mainly as a 'General Purpose Stores' ship servicing the island bases in the Indian ocean. While sailing from Mauritius to Tamatave the Hoihow was attacked by the German submarine U-181 (Wolfgang Lüth) On board were a crew of 94 and 7 gunners plus 48 passengers including members of the Queen Alexandria Nursing Corp, some military and medical personnel. Of the 149 souls on board, only 5 survived.
     
  6. Peter Clare

    Peter Clare Very Senior Member

    SS JEAN NICOLET (July 2, 1944)


    Liberty ship, torpedoed and then shelled and set on fire off Ceylon by the Japanese submarine I-8. On board were 41 crew plus 28 US Armed Guards and 31 passengers. All were taken on board the submarine and with hands tied behind their backs, were forced to sit on deck while the Japanese sailors systematically killed most of them with bayonets and spanners used as clubs. With the last 30 survivors still on deck the submarine crashed dived when an enemy plane was spotted. The 30 survivors were left struggling in the water. A few managed to swim back to the burning hulk of the Jean Nicolet and launched a raft before the ship sank. Luckily, 23 of them survived to be picked up by the Indian Navy trawler 'Hoxa'. The I-8s captain ordered that three survivors be retained as POWs. Sadly, only one survived the war.
     
  7. Peter Clare

    Peter Clare Very Senior Member

    July 2, 1944
    American bombers deluge Budapest, in more ways than one

    On this day in 1944, as part of Operation Gardening, the British and American strategy to lay mines in the Danube River by dropping them from the air, American aircraft also drop bombs and leaflets on German-occupied Budapest.
    Hungarian oil refineries and storage tanks, important to the German war machine, were destroyed by the American air raid. Along with this fire from the sky, leaflets threatening "punishment" for those responsible for the deportation of Hungarian Jews to the gas chambers at Auschwitz were also dropped on Budapest. The U.S. government wanted the SS and Hitler to know it was watching. Admiral Miklas Horthy, regent and virtual dictator of Hungary, vehemently anticommunist and afraid of Russian domination, had aligned his country with Hitler, despite the fact that he little admired him. But he, too, demanded that the deportations cease, especially since special pleas had begun pouring in from around the world upon the testimonies of four escaped Auschwitz prisoners about the atrocities there. Hitler, fearing a Hungarian rebellion, stopped the deportations on July 8. Horthy would eventually try to extricate himself from the war altogether-only to be kidnapped by Hitler's agents an!
    d consequently forced to abdicate.
    One day after the deportations stopped, a Swedish businessman, Raoul Wallenberg, having convinced the Swedish Foreign Ministry to send him to the Hungarian capital on a diplomatic passport, arrived in Budapest with 630 visas for Hungarian Jews, prepared to take them to Sweden to save them from further deportations.
     
  8. Peter Clare

    Peter Clare Very Senior Member

    July 3, 1940
    Operation Catapult is launched

    On this day in 1940, British naval forces destroy the French fleet at Mers-el-Kebir, a port in Algeria, in order to prevent Germany from co-opting the French ships to use in an invasion of Britain.


    With the occupation of France, the German aggressor was but a Channel away from Britain. In order to prevent the Germans from using French battleships and cruisers in an attack on Britain, Operation Catapult was conceived: the destruction or capture of every French ship possible. The easiest stage of Catapult was the seizure of those French ships already in British ports. Little resistance was met. But the largest concentration of French warships was at the Oran, Algeria, port of Mers-el-Kebir, where many warships had fled to escape the Germans. This stage of Catapult would prove more difficult.


    Britain gave the French ships four choices: join British naval forces in the fight against Germany; hand the ships over to British crews; disarm them; or scuttle them, making them useless to the Germans. The French refused all four choices. Britain then made a concession: Sail to the French West Indies, where the ships would be disarmed or handed over to the United States. The French refused again. So the Brits circled the port and opened fire on the French fleet, killing 1,250 French sailors, damaging the battleship Dunkerque and destroying the Bretagne and the Provence.


    On July 4, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill told the House of Commons that he would leave Britain's actions to "history." On July 5, Vichy France broke off diplomatic relations with Britain.
     
  9. Peter Clare

    Peter Clare Very Senior Member

    BRETAGNE (July 3, 1940)


    In one of the saddest episodes of the war, the French battleship Bretagne was sunk by British warships, which included the Hood, Ark Royal and Valiant. The refusal by Vichy France to hand over their battleships to Britain, rather than fall into the hands of the German Navy, resulted in the attack at the French naval bases at Mers-el-Kabir, and Oran, North Africa. Hit by 15-inch salvoes from a range of 14,000 yards, the Bretagne exploded and capsized with the loss of 977 men. Many died clinging to the life-saving nets as the ship rolled over. Another ship, the Provence, (23,250 tons) was badly damaged and suffered the loss of 135 men. The battle-cruiser Dunkerque (26,500 tons) lost 210 men. The British attack on Mers-el-Kabir took the lives of 47 officers, 190 petty officers and 1,054 ratings, a total of 1,282 men. This action caused great bitterness in France, many French pilots volunteering to bomb Gibraltar, which they did on the night of 24/25 September, 1940, dropping 200 tons of bombs on the British fortress.
     
  10. Peter Clare

    Peter Clare Very Senior Member

    3 July 1940.

    For the first time, the targets attacked by RAF Bomber Command during this day include invasion barges being massed for a possible invasion of Britain.
     
  11. Peter Clare

    Peter Clare Very Senior Member

    July 4, 1943
    Polish general fighting for justice dies tragically

    On this day in 1943, Polish General Wladyslaw Sikorski dies when his plane crashes less than a mile from its takeoff point at Gibraltar. Controversy remains over whether it was an accident or an assassination.
    Born May 20, 1888, in Austrian Poland (that part of Poland co-opted by the Austro-Hungarian Empire), Sikorski served in the Austrian army. He went on to serve in the Polish Legion, attached to the Austrian army, during World War I, and fought in the Polish-Soviet War of 1920-21. He became prime minister of Poland for a brief period (1922-23).
    When Germany invaded and occupied Poland in 1939, Sikorski became leader of a Polish government-in-exile in Paris. He developed a good working relationship with the Allies-until April 1943, when Soviet Premier Joseph Stalin broke off Polish-Soviet diplomatic relations after Sikorski requested that the Red Cross investigate the alleged Soviet slaughter of Polish officers in the Katyn forest of eastern Poland in 1942.
    After Germany and the USSR divided up Poland in 1939, thousands of Polish military personnel were sent to prison camps by the Soviets. When Germany invaded Russia in 1941, Stalin created a pact with the Polish government-in-exile to cooperate in the battle against the Axis. Given the new relationship, the Poles requested the return of the imprisoned military men, but the Soviets claimed they had escaped and could not be found. But when Germany overran eastern Poland, the part that had previously been under Soviet control, mass graves in the Katyn forest were discovered, containing the corpses of over 4,000 Polish officers, all shot in the back. The Soviets, apparently, had massacred them. But despite the evidence, the Soviet government insisted it was the Germans who were responsible.
    Once news of the massacre spread, a formal Declaration of War Crimes was signed in London on January 13, 1943. Among the signatories was General Sikorski and General Charles de Gaulle. But Sikorksi did not want to wait until after the war for the punishment of those responsible for the Katyn massacre. He wanted the International Red Cross to investigate immediately.
    It is believed that Britain considered this request a threat to Allied solidarity and some believe that in order to silence Sikorski on this issue, the British went so far as to shoot down his plane. There is no solid evidence of this.
    After the war, the communist Polish government officially accepted the Soviet line regarding the mass graves. It was not until 1992 that the Russian government released documents proving that the NKVD, the Soviet secret police, had been responsible for the Katyn slaughter-backed up by the old Soviet Politburo.
     
  12. Peter Clare

    Peter Clare Very Senior Member

    4 July 1943

    The first glider (sailplane) is towed across the Atlantic, from Dorval in Canada to Prestwick in Scotland, by a Dakota of RAF Transport Command.
     
  13. Peter Clare

    Peter Clare Very Senior Member

    4 July 1942

    The United States Army Air Force (USAAF) flies its first operation over Europe. Six Douglas Boston light bombers of the 15th Bombardment Squadron (Light) accompany six Bostons of No.226 Squadron in attacks upon Luftwaffe airfields at De Kooy, Bergen, Haamstede and Valkenburg in the Netherlands. Intense light anti-aircraft fire is encountered when crossing the Dutch coast. Two of the aircraft flown by USAAF crews are lost, one is damaged beyond repair and another is damaged.

    Following the success of the Afrika Korps in capturing the British stronghold of Tobruk on 21 June, the Luftwaffe resums its assault on Malta. During July, Axis air units fly 2,851 sorties against the island, during which they drop 695 tons of bombs and 2,300 incendiaries. Luftwaffe attacks are concentrated on Malta's airfields in an attempt to destroy its air defence fighters on the ground and wrest air superiority from the Royal Air Force. During the attacks, 37 Luftwaffe aircraft and 36 Supermarine Spitfires of the Royal Air Force are shot down. Attacks slacken from 14 July, but resume their former intensity during 23-27 July.
     
  14. Peter Clare

    Peter Clare Very Senior Member

    CONVOY PQ-17 (July 4-14, 1942)


    The convoy, comprising 35 merchant ships (22 American, 8 British and 5 other Allied ships) sailed from the Bay of Reykjavik in Iceland for the Russian port of Murmansk in the Barents Sea. In the belief that the German warships Tirpitz, Scheer and Hipper were on their way to intercept the convoy, the British Admiralty issued the order to "Scatter" and proceed to their destination at utmost speed. During the 700 mile dash to safety, Luftwaffe bombers from the German airfields at Kirkeness and Petsamo, and U-boats had a field day, between them they sent to the bottom a total of 23 ships taking the lives of 153 mariners. Only eleven ships managed to reach port. On board the sunken vessels were 3,350 trucks, 435 tanks and around 200 aircraft, essential war material badly needed by the Soviets. (Under the Lend-Lease agreement Britain supplied a total of 4,292 tanks to the Soviet Union, the United States supplied 3,734 tanks and 1,188 tanks were sent by Canada. The number of aircraft supplied was 5,800 from Britain, 6,430 from the USA)
    The first Artic convoy to Russia, PQ-1, left Scottish waters on September 29, 1941. By the end of the year five others were to follow, landing 120,000 tons of supplies at the northern port of Murmansk. This included 600 tanks, 1,400 motor vehicles and around 800 aircraft. Of the 55 ships taking part in the first six convoys, all reached their destination safely. In the first six months of 1942, ten convoys made the hazardous journey. Comprising 146 ships, 128 made it to port, 18 being sunk on the way. In all, between 1941 and 1945, 42 convoys were sent to Russia. Consisting of 843 ships, 58 were sunk on the way out and 96 were destroyed in port or on the way back.
     
  15. Peter Clare

    Peter Clare Very Senior Member

    FOYLEBANK (July 4, 1940)


    Merchant vessel of 5,582 tons (ex ‘Andrew Weir’ ) requisitioned in 1939 and converted into an anti-aircraft gunship for patrols around Britain's east coast. In June 1940, as the Battle of Britain was in progress, she arrived at the harbour of the Royal Naval Base of Portland in England's south coast. At breakfast time on July 4 the ship was attacked by a squadron of German JU 87 Stuka dive bombers. In an action that lasted only eight minutes the Foylebank (Captain H. Wilson) was hit by over twenty bombs. The vessel listed to port and shrouded in smoke and flames, finally sank. Casualties among her 298 man crew were 176 men killed and many injured. The question one may ask is 'where was Fighter Command during the attack on the Foylebank?' as the Tangmere RAF Station was only a few minutes flying time away.
     
  16. Peter Clare

    Peter Clare Very Senior Member

    4 July 1940.

    During the afternoon of this day He111s attacked the Bristol works at Filton. No.92 Squadron RAF engaged and claimed one and a probable. The shot down Heinkel of 4./KG54 was chased from Weston-Super-Mare to Dorset, where it crash-landed. P/O. C H. Saunders and Sgt. R H. Fokes landed beside the crashed Heinkel and helped the German crew escape from their burning bomber.
     
  17. Peter Clare

    Peter Clare Very Senior Member

    July 5, 1940
    United States passes Export Control Act

    On this day in 1940, Congress passes the Export Control Act, forbidding the exporting of aircraft parts, chemicals, and minerals without a license. This prohibition was a reaction to Japan's occupation of parts of the Indo-Chinese coast.
    Now that the Germans occupied a large swath of France, the possibility of Axis control of French colonies became a reality. Among those of immediate concern was French Indo-China. The prospect of the war spreading to the Far East was now a definite possibility. Increasing its likelihood was the request by Imperial Japan to use army, naval, and air bases in French Indo-Chinese territory, an important vantage point from which to further its campaign to conquer China. As Vichy France entered into negotiations on this issue, the Japanese peremptorily occupied key strategic areas along the coast of Indo-China.
    The United States, fearing the advance of Japanese expansion and cooperation, even if by coercion, between German-controlled France and Japan, took its own action, by banning the export of aircraft parts without a license and, three weeks later, the export of aviation fuel and scrap metal and iron without a license. The United States was not alone in its concern. Great Britain, which had it own colonies in the Far East (Burma, Hong Kong, and Malaya) also feared an aggressive Japan. The day after the Export Act was passed, the British ambassador would be asked by Japan to close the Burma Road, a key supply route of arms for China, Japan's prey. Britain initially balked at the request but, fearing a declaration of war by a third enemy, caved in and closed the road, though only for a limited period.
     
  18. Peter Clare

    Peter Clare Very Senior Member

    SS ANSELM (July 5, 1941)


    Built at Dumbarton in 1935 at a cost of 158,876 English Pounds, the Anselm (5,954 tons, Captain D. Elliot) was converted to a troop carrier in 1940. While transporting 98 crew and 1,210 troops, including 175 Royal Air Force personnel who were heading for the Gold Coast, now Ghana, from Gourock, Scotland, to Freetown, West Africa, (Convoy WS-9B) the ship was struck on the port side by a torpedo from the U-96 (Willenbrock). The ship sank in twenty-two minutes about 300 miles north of the Azores. In the panic and chaos which followed, a total of 254 men, including the 175 RAF men, were lost. One of the escorts,HMS Challenger, positioned herself alongside the sinking ship and managed to rescue 60 men.
     
  19. Peter Clare

    Peter Clare Very Senior Member

    I.J.N. ARARE (July 5, 1942)


    Imperial Japanese Navy destroyer which was part of Admiral Nagamo's carrier force in the attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. The Arare was sunk by the American submarine, USS Growler about seven miles east of Kiska Harbour. The torpedo struck the Arare amidships causing the destroyer to blow up and sink. A total of 104 of her crew were killed but her captain, Commander Ogata Tomoe, survived.
     
  20. Peter Clare

    Peter Clare Very Senior Member

    HMS NIGER (July 5, 1942)


    British minesweeper returning to the UK from Murmansk, sank after sailing into a British laid minefield off the coast of Iceland. The Niger was transporting 39 survivors from the 10,000 ton cruiser HMS Edinburgh which was sunk by the U-456 on May 2nd, 1942, taking with her 57 members of her crew. The captain of the Niger, along with 80 crewmembers and 38 survivors from the Edinburgh went down with the ship. Only 8 men survived, one of whom was from the Edinburgh.
     

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