|
Post by emron on Jun 8, 2020 21:42:48 GMT 12
8 June 1940
Norwegian Campaign: On their way to Scapa Flow and while sailing through the Norwegian Sea, the funnel smoke from HMS Glorious and her two escorting destroyers Acasta and Ardent was spotted by the German battleships Scharnhorst and Gniesenau (part of Operation Juno). The British spotted the German ships shortly after 16:00 and Ardent was dispatched to investigate. Glorious did not alter course or increase speed. Five Swordfish were ordered to the flight deck and Action Stations were ordered at 16.20. No combat Air Patrol was being flown, no aircraft were ready on the deck for quick take-off and there was no lookout in Glorious’ crows nest. Scharnhorst opened fire on Ardent at 16:27 at a range of 16,000 yards, causing the destroyer to withdraw, firing torpedoes and making a smokescreen. Ardent scored one hit with her 4.7-inch guns on Scharnhorst but was hit several times by the German ships' secondary armament and sank at 17:25. Scharnhorst switched her fire to Glorious at 16:32 and scored her first hit six minutes later on her third salvo at a range of 26,000 yards, when one 11.1in hit the forward flight deck and burst in the upper hangar, starting a large fire. This hit destroyed two Swordfish being prepared for flight and the hole in the flight deck prevented any other aircraft from taking off. Splinters penetrated a boiler casing and caused a temporary drop in steam pressure. At 16:58 a second shell hit the homing beacon above the bridge and killed or wounded the captain and most of the personnel stationed there. Ardent’s smokescreen became effective enough to impair the visibility of the Germans from about 16:58 to 17:20 so they ceased fire on Glorious. Glorious was hit again in the centre engine room at 17:20 and this caused her to lose speed and commence a slow circle to port. She also developed a list to starboard. The German ships closed to within 16,000 yards and continued to fire at her until 17:40. Glorious sank at 18:10. As the German ships approached Glorious, Acasta which had been trying to maintain the smokescreen, broke through her own smoke and fired two volleys of torpedoes at Scharnhorst. One of these hit the battleship at 17:34 abreast her rear turret and badly damaged her. Acasta also managed one hit from her 4.7-inch guns on Scharnhorst but was riddled by German gunfire and sank at around 18:20. Survivors estimated that about 900 men abandoned Glorious. The German ships had suffered extensive damage themselves, and unaware that Allied ships were not in contact with Glorious beat a hasty retreat, and did not try to pick up survivors. The Royal Navy meanwhile, knew nothing of the sinking until it was announced on German radio. All ships encountering enemies had been ordered to broadcast a sighting report, but no such message was received from Glorious. New Zealander F/L Patrick Jameson and his commanding officer, Squadron Leader "Bing" Cross found themselves on a Carley float with thirty other survivors. After three days drifting in the freezing temperatures only seven men were alive to be picked up by the Norwegian cargo vessel Borgund. The two RAF pilots being the only surviving pilots of their unit. The Hurricanes that they had so skillfully landed aboard Glorious only hours before, went down with ship. The total killed or missing was 1,207 from Glorious, 160 from Acasta and 152 from Ardent, a total of 1,519. There were only 40 survivors.
|
|
|
Post by emron on Jun 18, 2020 16:35:44 GMT 12
18 June 1940
United Kingdom: Included in his speech to the House of Commons today was the peroration: “What General Weygand has called the Battle of France is over... the Battle of Britain is about to begin. Upon this battle depends the survival of Christian civilisation. Upon it depends our own British life, and the long continuity of our institutions and our Empire. The whole fury and might of the enemy must very soon be turned on us. Hitler knows that he will have to break us in this island or lose the war. If we can stand up to him, all Europe may be freed and the life of the world may move forward into broad, sunlit uplands. But if we fail, then the whole world, including the United States, including all that we have known and cared for, will sink into the abyss of a new dark age made more sinister, and perhaps more protracted, by the lights of perverted science. Let us therefore brace ourselves to our duties, and so bear ourselves, that if the British Empire and its Commonwealth last for a thousand years, men will still say, ”This was their finest hour”.
France: The 7th Panzer Division took Cherbourg. The 5th Panzer Division reached Brest. Rennes: General Altmayer and HQ 10 French Army surrendered, thus ending any hope of a "Brittany Stronghold". St Nazaire: Commander of the British Expeditionary Force, Lieutenant-General Alan Brooke and his staff were evacuated to England aboard anti-submarine trawler HMT Cambridgeshire as the destroyer originally allocated was no longer available.
18 June 1945
United Kingdom: William Joyce was put on trial in London. The charge was treason. He will be convicted and executed for broadcasting propaganda from Germany during the war as "Lord Haw Haw".
Commonwealth of the Philippines: Organized Japanese resistance ends on Mindanao Island in the Philippines.
U.S.A. On his arrival by plane from Paris, General of the Army Dwight D. Eisenhower received a tumultuous welcome in Washington, D.C., where he addressed a joint session of the U.S. Congress.
|
|
|
Post by emron on Jun 19, 2020 20:03:48 GMT 12
19 June 1940
United Kingdom: Lieutenant-General Alan Brooke landed at Plymouth from France. In this next evacuation since Dunkirk, he had supervised the embarkation of 144,171 British with 300 of their large guns; 18,246 French; 24,352 Polish; 4,938 Canadian; and a few Belgian troops. However during the operation the troopship, Cunard White Star liner Lancastria was sunk off Saint Nazaire with the loss of nearly 3,000 passengers, most of them troops from the BEF and RAF returning to England. This was Britain's worst maritime disaster. News of the disaster was suppressed by the British Government because of the impact it might have had on the country's morale and was only announced over a month later.
London: Brigadier General Charles de Gaulle, little known even in France outside military circles until he became under-secretary for national defence in the last days of the Reynaud government, had flown to England on 17 June. With special permission from Winston Churchill, he last night broadcast this appeal to the French people via BBC Radio: “Believe me, I who am speaking to you with full knowledge of the facts, and who tell you that nothing is lost for France. The same means that overcame us can bring us victory one day. For France is not alone! She is not alone! She is not alone! She has a vast Empire behind her. She can align with the British Empire that holds the sea and continues the fight. She can, like England, use without limit the immense industry of the United States. This war is not limited to the unfortunate territory of our country. This war is not over as a result of the Battle of France. This war is a world war. All the mistakes, all the delays, all the suffering, do not alter the fact that there are, in the world, all the means necessary to crush our enemies one day. Vanquished today by mechanical force, in the future we will be able to overcome by a superior mechanical force. The fate of the world depends on it. I, General de Gaulle, currently in London, invite the officers and the French soldiers who are located in British territory or who might end up here, with their weapons or without their weapons, I invite the engineers and the specialised workers of the armament industries who are located in British territory or who might end up here, to put themselves in contact with me. Whatever happens, the flame of the French resistance must not be extinguished and will not be extinguished. Tomorrow, as today, I will speak on the radio from London”.
France: Cherbourg; The Allies completed their withdrawal by blowing up the docks. The Germans occupied Lyons. New Zealand: The Orion, a German raider disguised as a merchant ship, had slipped undetected into New Zealand waters and laid 228 contact mines in the approaches to the Hauraki Gulf on the night of 13/14 June. At 3.40 a.m. today, the 13,415-ton trans-Pacific liner RMS Niagara, which had just left Auckland on its regular run to Suva and Vancouver, struck two mines off Northland’s Bream Head and sank quickly by the bow. Fortunately, all 349 passengers and crew got away safely in 18 lifeboats; the only casualty was the ship’s cat, Aussie. Also lost was the ship’s secret cargo of small-arms ammunition and gold ingots worth £2.5 million (equivalent to nearly $250 million today). In late 1941, an epic salvage effort recovered almost all of the gold from the wreck, which lay at a depth of 60 fathoms (110 m).
|
|
|
Post by emron on Jun 21, 2020 20:41:26 GMT 12
21 June 1940
United Kingdom: London; Evidence about "Knickebein", a German radio navigation aid, was given to a British cabinet level committee, by R.V. Jones. The actions taken after this meeting resulted in progress and played a large part in lessening the effects of the German Blitz.
France: When Hitler received word from the French government that they wished to negotiate an armistice, he selected the Forest of Compiegne as the site for the negotiations. Compiègne had been the site of the 1918 Armistice, which ended the First World War with a humiliating defeat for Germany; Hitler viewed the choice of location as a supreme moment of revenge for Germany over France. Hitler visited the site today to start the negotiations which took place in the same railway carriage in which the 1918 Armistice was signed (it had just been removed from a museum building and placed on the spot where it was located in 1918). Hitler sat in the same chair in which Marshal Ferdinand Foch had sat when he faced the defeated German representatives. After listening to the reading of the preamble, Hitler left the carriage in a calculated gesture of disdain for the French delegates and negotiations were turned over to Wilhelm Keitel the Chief of Staff of OKW. Italian soldiers pushed into France on a wide front. The attacks occurred through various Alpine passes but were defeated on the day.
Norwegian Campaign: Yesterday Admiral Günther Lütjens sortied with battleship Gneisenau, heavy cruiser Admiral Hipper and four destroyers in the direction of Iceland. His intention was to give the impression he was attempting to break out into the Atlantic, to draw British attention away from Scharnhorst. However, 40 miles north-west of the island of Halten, Norway, Gneisenau was torpedoed by submarine HMS Clyde. The torpedo hit the ship in the bow, just forward of the splinter belt, and caused serious damage. The ship took on a significant amount of water in the two forward watertight compartments and she was forced to return to Trondheim at reduced speed. Today the British learnt that the damaged Scharnhorst had sortied south from Trondheim under heavy escort, intent on returning to Germany. At 1245 six FAA Swordfish departed NAS Hatston with orders to fly to a designated point 40 miles off the Norwegian coast, turn northwards to search for the enemy fleet. It was sighted ahead at 1458, Scharnhorst in the centre of a circular screen with one escort ahead, one astern, and two on either beam. The attacks approached from the port bow. Unfortunately for the British cause, none of the six torpedoes dropped hit home in this, the last act of the Norwegian Campaign. Two of the Swordfish were shot down by close AA fire from the battleship, one of the surviving aircraft managed to navigate back to Hatston. The other three survivors made safe return to RAF Sumburgh as planned.
21 June 1945
Okinawa: Hill 69 on Okinawa fell to US forces. Japanese General Ushijima's body was found near his HQ located there. Okinawa was declared secured at 1330 hours local time after 82 days fighting. The three-month-long battle, the bitterest campaign so far in the Pacific was over. Admiral Chester Nimitz's HQ declared today that the stubborn Japanese defence force, reduced to 30,000 men in the last week, had finally disintegrated. About 1,700 surrendered today and 1,000 yesterday. Hundreds of Japanese committed suicide by jumping from the cliffs into the sea, but most chose to follow their own code of honour and fight to the death. At least 9,000 Japanese have died in the last three days, since the final US push began with the arrival of reinforcements of the 8th Marine Regiment. One of the final victims was the US Tenth Army commander, Lt-Gen Simon Buckner, killed by shrapnel as he inspected the ridgeline that the enemy had chosen for its final stand. Senior Corps Commander, Marine Lt-Gen Roy Geiger assumed command of the Tenth Army, the only occasion in which a US Field Army was commanded by a Marine. Japan: With US troops now only 400 miles from Japan, Emperor Hirohito urged senior ministers and service chiefs to find a way to end the war by diplomatic means. The emperor took the unusual initiative after a final farewell radio message from Okinawa indicating that collapse was imminent. It was sent by Generals Sho and Ushijima before they committed ritual suicide together.
|
|
|
Post by emron on Jun 22, 2020 22:05:31 GMT 12
22 June 1940
France: General Charles Huntziger, the leader of the French delegation accepted the armistice terms and he signed on behalf of France at 18:36 in Compiegne. General Keitel signed for Germany. Cease-fire would come into effect at 00:35 25 June.
|
|
|
Post by emron on Jun 24, 2020 20:43:07 GMT 12
24 June 1940
Italy: At 1915 hours in the Villa Incisa all'Olgiata on the Via Cassia. Rome, after receiving his government's permission, General Huntziger signed the armistice on behalf of the French and Marshal Badoglio for the Italians. The Italian armistice to come into effect at the same time as the German agreement, thirty-five minutes past midnight (0035 hours) 25 June.
|
|
|
Post by emron on Jul 7, 2020 20:17:38 GMT 12
7 July 1940
Mediterranean: Admiral Cunningham sailed from Alexandria with battleships HMS Warspite, HMS Malaya and HMS Royal Sovereign, aircraft carrier HMS Eagle, 5 light cruisers and 16 destroyers, in three battle groups, to cover convoys from Malta to Alexandria and to challenge the Italians to action. French Rear Admiral Rene Emile Godfroy agreed to allow his ships to be demobilized in Alexandria Harbour. Battleship Lorraine, 4 cruisers, 3 destroyers and a submarine of the French navy were interned. French West Africa: The aircraft carrier HMS Hermes and heavy cruiser HMS Dorsetshire and the RAN heavy cruiser HMAS Australia were laying off Dakar where the French battleship Richelieu and other ships were in the harbour. The British issued an ultimatum to surrender but the French refused to allow the ultimatum to be delivered by blocking the sloop HMS Milford from entering the port.
7 July 1945
U.S.A.: President Harry S. Truman, Secretary of State James F. Byrnes and Fleet Admiral William D. Leahy boarded the heavy cruiser USS Augusta (CA-31) en-route to Antwerp, Belgium. Their ultimate destination was Potsdam, Germany for a conference with British and Soviet leaders.
|
|
|
Post by emron on Jul 8, 2020 21:46:10 GMT 12
8 July 1940
Mediterranean: Admiral Cunningham received reports that two Italian battleships; Giulio Cesare and Conti di Cavour, together with 14 cruisers, 32 destroyers and 4 torpedo boats were in transit the Ionian Sea covering a convoy to Benghazi. After four days of attacking the Vichy French Fleet at Oran (Operation Catapult), Vice-Admiral Sommerville's Force H, built around HMS Ark Royal sortied into the Western Mediterranean to support the Mediterranean Fleet's effort to escort two convoys running between Alexandria and Malta. Within eight hours of departing the force was attacked by Italian bombers but emerged unscathed. French West Africa: During the night, the British launched two attacks to disable the French battleship Richelieu at Dakar. In the first, four depth charges dropped over the side of a motor boat from aircraft carrier HMS Hermes failed to explode. In the second, carrier-based Swordfish Mk. I aircraft of No. 814 Squadron in HMS Hermes torpedoed Richelieu, rendering her incapable of steaming at more than half power. Her main battery, however, was unaffected.
|
|
|
Post by emron on Jul 26, 2020 17:59:38 GMT 12
26 July 1945
United Kingdom: The results of the General Election were announced. The Conservative Party of Winston Churchill lost to the Labour Party. Clement Attlee became Prime Minister.
Germany: United States President Harry S Truman, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and Chairman of China, Chiang Kai-shek issued the Potsdam Declaration, a document which outlined the terms of surrender for the Empire of Japan. It included "We call upon the government of Japan to proclaim now the unconditional surrender of all Japanese armed forces, and to provide proper and adequate assurances of their good faith in such action. The alternative for Japan is prompt and utter destruction." The declaration was released to the press in Potsdam this evening and simultaneously transmitted to the Office of War Information (OWI) in Washington. By 5 p.m. Washington time, OWI's west coast transmitters, aimed at the Japanese home islands, were broadcasting the text in English, and two hours later they began broadcasting it in Japanese. Simultaneously, American bombers dropped over 3 million leaflets, describing the declaration, over Japan. The declaration was never transmitted to the Japanese government by diplomatic channels.
Pacific: Tinian Island: The heavy cruiser USS Indianapolis delivered a consignment of U-235 and other parts needed to assemble the atomic bomb “Little Boy”.
|
|
|
Post by emron on Jul 30, 2020 18:55:46 GMT 12
30 July 1945
Philippine Sea: At 00:15 while sailing alone en-route to Leyte from Guam, heavy cruiser USS Indianapolis was struck on her starboard side by two Type 95 torpedoes, one in the bow and one amidships, from the Japanese submarine I-58. The explosions caused massive damage. Indianapolis took on a heavy list (the ship had had a great deal of armament and gun-firing directors added as the war went on, and was therefore top-heavy) and settled by the bow. Twelve minutes later, she rolled completely over, then her stern rose into the air and she sank. Some 300 of the 1,195 crewmen aboard went down with the ship. With few lifeboats and many without life jackets, the remainder of the crew was set adrift. On 31 July, when she should have arrived at Leyte the officer responsible for tracking the movements of Indianapolis at the headquarters of Commander Philippine Sea Frontier, failed to investigate the matter and made no immediate report of the fact to his superiors. Navy command did not know of the ship's sinking until survivors were spotted in the open ocean three and a half days later. Declassified records later showed that three stations received her distress signals but none acted upon the call. One commander was drunk, another had ordered his men not to disturb him, and a third thought it was a Japanese trap.
|
|
|
Post by emron on Aug 4, 2020 14:09:46 GMT 12
2 August 1945
Philippine Sea: At 10:25, while on routine patrol and three and a half days after the sinking, the crew of a US Navy PV-1 Ventura of Squadron VPB-152 based a Peleliu, spotted survivors from USS Indianapolis adrift at sea. They immediately dropped a life raft and radio transmitter. All air and surface units capable of rescue operations were dispatched to the scene at once. First to arrive was a PBY-5A Catalina and it’s crew dropped more life rafts; one raft was destroyed by the drop while others were too far away from the exhausted survivors. Against standing orders not to land in open ocean, the pilot took a vote of his crew and decided to land the aircraft in twelve-foot swells. He was able to manoeuvre his craft to pick up 56 survivors. Space in the plane was limited, so men were lashed to the wing with parachute cord which rendered the aircraft unflyable. After nightfall, the destroyer escort USS Cecil J. Doyle, the first of eleven rescue ships, used its search light as a beacon and together with the other vessels picked up all the remaining survivors from the water. After the rescued survivors and the crew were transferred from the Catalina it was sunk by Cecil J. Boyle as it could not be recovered. Of 1,195 crewmen aboard Indianapolis, approximately 300 went down with the ship. Only 316 of the nearly 900 men set adrift after the sinking survived. The sinking resulted in the greatest loss of life at sea from a single ship in the history of the US Navy. The U.S. government delayed reporting the tragedy until August 15, the same day it announced that Japan had agreed to surrender.
|
|
|
Post by emron on Aug 6, 2020 11:03:51 GMT 12
6 August 1945
Japan: Hiroshima; Having been dropped from B-29 Superfortress “Enola Gay” 44 seconds earlier, uranium gun-type atomic bomb “Little Boy” detonated 1900ft over the city centre at 8.15 JST. People on the ground reported a brilliant flash of light followed by a loud booming sound. Some 70,000–80,000 people, around 30 percent of the population of Hiroshima at the time, were killed by the blast and resultant firestorm which reached it’s peak 3 hours after the explosion. Another 70,000 were injured, many of whom died later in the year. It is estimated that as many as 20,000 Japanese military personnel were killed. U.S. surveys estimated that 4.7 square miles of the city were destroyed. Unofficial and confused reports were soon received of a terrible explosion in Hiroshima. All these reports were transmitted to the headquarters of the Imperial Japanese Army General Staff. Military bases repeatedly tried to call the Army Control Station in Hiroshima. The complete silence from the city puzzled the General Staff; they knew that no large enemy raid had occurred and that no sizeable store of explosives was in Hiroshima at that time. A young officer was instructed to fly immediately to Hiroshima, to land, survey the damage, and return to Tokyo with reliable information for the staff. It was felt that nothing serious had taken place and that the explosion was just a rumour. The staff officer went to the airport and took off for the south-west. After flying for about three hours, while still nearly 100 miles from Hiroshima, he and his pilot saw a great cloud of smoke from the bomb. After circling the city to survey the damage they landed south of the city, where the staff officer, after reporting to Tokyo, began to organize relief measures. Tokyo's first indication that the city had been destroyed by a new type of bomb came from President Truman's announcement of the strike, sixteen hours later.
|
|
|
Post by emron on Aug 9, 2020 18:43:38 GMT 12
9 August 1945
Japan: Nagasaki; For fifty minutes, three bomb runs were made over the primary target Kokura, burning fuel and exposing the aircraft repeatedly to the heavy defences around the city, but the bombardier was unable to drop visually. With fuel running low because of a failed fuel pump, B-29 Bockscar headed for it’s secondary target, Nagasaki. A last-minute break in the clouds over Nagasaki allowed Bockscar’s bombardier to visually sight the target as ordered. The Fat Man weapon, containing a core of about 11lb of plutonium was dropped over the city's industrial valley. It exploded at 1650ft, 47 seconds later at 11:02 Japanese Time, halfway between the Mitsubishi Steel and Arms Works in the south and the Nagasaki Arsenal in the north. This was nearly 1.9 miles north-west of the planned hypocentre. Although the bomb was more powerful than the one used on Hiroshima, the blast was confined to the Urakami Valley and a major portion of the city was protected by the intervening hills. Nevertheless at least 35,000–40,000 people were killed and 60,000 others injured. In the days and months following the explosion, more people died from their injuries. Because of the presence of undocumented foreign workers, and a number of military personnel in transit, there are great discrepancies in the estimates of total deaths by the end of 1945; a range of 39,000 to 80,000 can be found in various studies.
|
|
|
Post by emron on Aug 15, 2020 10:22:39 GMT 12
15 August 1945
Japan: Tokyo: Yesterday Emperor Hirohito met with the cabinet where he announced his decision to unconditionally accept the Allied terms of surrender. He requested them to prepare at once an imperial rescript so that he could broadcast to the nation. The cabinet unanimously ratified the Emperor's wishes. Immediately after the conference, the Foreign Ministry transmitted orders to its embassies in Switzerland and Sweden to accept the Allied terms of surrender. These orders were picked up and received in Washington at 02:49, August 14. The text of the Imperial Rescript on surrender was finalized by 19:00 August 14, transcribed by the official court calligrapher, and brought to the cabinet for their signatures. Around 23:00, the Emperor, with help from an NHK recording crew, made a gramophone record of himself reading it. At 12:00 noon Japan Standard Time today the Emperor’s recorded speech to the nation, reading the Imperial Rescript on the Termination of the War, was broadcast.
|
|
|
Post by emron on Aug 15, 2020 18:48:47 GMT 12
15 August 1945
Japan: The United States Third Fleet, Task Group 38.5 with ships of the British Pacific Fleet (HMS King George V, Indefatigable, Newfoundland, HMNZS Gambia and 10 destroyers) in company, attacked airfields and other targets near Tokyo this morning. The first wave of aircraft from the carriers, including one strike from HMS Indefatigable was dispatched before the cease fire order was received and a second flight was recalled. During the first strike some forty Japanese aircraft were engaged, of which about thirty were shot down. Combat air patrols shot down nine enemy bombers in the vicinity of the fleet. Six American aircraft were lost. The Gambia recorded that the signal ‘Cease hostilities against Japan’ was made by the Commander Task Force at 11.23 a.m. While the signal was still flying there was a burst of cannon fire overhead from fighters engaging a Japanese bomber. This aircraft dropped a bomb which fell into the sea between the Gambia and Indefatigable. The aircraft was shot down, part of it falling on the after superstructure of the Gambia. During the engagement Gambia fired what were possibly some of the last shots of World War II. The ships then retired to the southward. At 10.10 am (GMT) 15 August, the Admiralty made the signal in plain language to all British ships: ‘Splice the main brace.’
|
|
|
Post by emron on Aug 16, 2020 13:41:22 GMT 12
16 August 1940
United Kingdom: Flight Lieutenant Eric James Brindley Nicolson of 249 Squadron took part in the Battle of Britain today and was later awarded the Victoria Cross for his actions.
The announcement and accompanying citation for the decoration was published in supplement to the London Gazette on 15 November 1940, reading:
Air Ministry, 15 November 1940. The KING has been graciously pleased to confer the Victoria Cross on the undermentioned officer in recognition of most conspicuous bravery: — “Flight Lieutenant James Brindley NICOLSON (39329) — No. 249 Squadron. During an engagement with the enemy near Southampton on 16th August 1940, Flight Lieutenant Nicolson's aircraft was hit by four cannon shells, two of which wounded him whilst another set fire to the gravity tank. When about to abandon his aircraft owing to flames in the cockpit he sighted an enemy fighter. This he attacked and shot down, although as a result of staying in his burning aircraft he sustained serious burns to his hands, face, neck and legs. Flight Lieutenant Nicolson has always displayed great enthusiasm for air fighting and this incident shows that he possesses courage and determination of a high order. By continuing to engage the enemy after he had been wounded and his aircraft set on fire, he displayed exceptional gallantry and disregard for the safety of his own life.”
Only after the enemy plane dived away to destruction did he bail out. He was able to open his parachute in time to land safely in a field. Fully recovered by September 1941, Nicolson was posted to India in 1942. Between August 1943 and August 1944 he was a squadron leader and commanding officer of No. 27 Squadron, flying Bristol Beaufighters over Burma. During this time he was awarded the DFC. Sadly later and by then a Wing Commander, Nicolson was killed on 2 May 1945 when an RAF B-24 Liberator from 355 Squadron, in which he was flying as an observer, caught fire and crashed into the Bay of Bengal. His body was not recovered. He is commemorated on the Singapore Memorial. Nicolson was the only Battle of Britain pilot and the only pilot of RAF Fighter Command to be awarded the Victoria Cross during the Second World War. His V.C. is displayed at the RAF Museum, Hendon, England.
Finland: The US Army transport American Legion departed Petsamo. Passengers include Her Royal Highness Crown Princess Martha of Norway and her 3 children; President Roosevelt had invited her to come to the U.S. American Legion was the last neutral ship to leave Petsamo. In addition to her passengers, she carried a crated twin-mount 40 mm Bofors gun "with standard sights, spare parts and 3,000 rounds of ammunition." purchased by the US Navy’s Bureau of Ordnance from Bofors, Sweden.
USA: Washington: The United States was to "swap" 50 ageing destroyers for 99-year, rent-free leases on British naval and air bases in the western hemisphere. The draft agreement was made public two days ago, and was re-affirmed by President Roosevelt in a press conference today stressing the advantages of the deal to the USA. The destroyers in question were obsolescent, but still serviceable, "four-stackers" dating from the Great War, which Churchill told Roosevelt were desperately needed to escort convoys under attack from U-boat "wolf-packs".
|
|
|
Post by emron on Aug 20, 2020 20:12:58 GMT 12
20 August 1940
United Kingdom: London: Prime Minister Winston Churchill’s address to the House of Commons today included: “The gratitude of every home in our island, in our Empire, and indeed throughout the world except in the abodes of the guilty goes out to the British airmen who, undaunted by odds, unweakened by their constant challenge and mortal danger, are turning the tide of world war by their prowess and their devotion. Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few. All hearts go out to the fighter pilots, whose brilliant actions we see with our own eyes day after day but we must never forget that all the time, night after night, month after month, our bomber squadrons travel far into Germany, find their targets in the darkness by the highest navigational skill, aims their attacks, often under the heaviest fire, often at serious loss, with deliberate, careful precision, and inflict shattering blows upon the whole of the technical and war-making structure of the Nazi power. On no part of the Royal Air Force does the weight of the war fall more heavily than on the daylight bombers, who will play an invaluable part in the case of an invasion and whose unflinching zeal it has been necessary in the meantime on numerous occasions to restrain. I have no hesitation in saying that the process of bombing the military industries and communications of Germany and the air bases and storage depots from which we are attacked, which will continue on an ever-increasing scale until the end of the war and may in another year attain dimensions hitherto undreamed of, assure one at least of the most certain, if not the shortest, of all the roads to victory. “
|
|
|
Post by emron on Sept 2, 2020 10:18:30 GMT 12
2 September 1945
Japan: Tokyo; Around 9 a.m. this morning Tokyo time, the Japanese Instrument of Surrender was signed aboard battleship USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay. Mr Mamoru Shigemitsu, Minister of Foreign Affairs in the new Japanese Cabinet, signed first on behalf of his Emperor and Government. He was followed by General Yoshijiro Umozu who signed for the Imperial General Staff. General MacArthur signed next as Allied Supreme Commander. Fleet Admiral Nimitz signed for the United States, Admiral Sir Bruce Fraser for the United Kingdom and Air Vice-Marshal L. M. Isitt for New Zealand. Lieutenant Allingham, RNZNVR of HMNZS Gambia was ADC to Air Vice-Marshal Isitt and accompanied him on board the Missouri for the surrender ceremony.
|
|
|
Post by emron on Sept 15, 2020 12:03:05 GMT 12
15 September 1940 (Sunday)
United Kingdom: Battle of Britain; Commencing shortly after midnight the Luftwaffe launched its largest and most concentrated attack against London in the hope of drawing out the RAF into a battle of annihilation. Around 1,500 aircraft took part in the air battles which lasted until dusk. The action was the climax of the Battle of Britain. The RAF lost 29 fighters and destroyed 60 enemy aircraft. Having been defeated in daylight, the Luftwaffe thereafter turned its attention to The Blitz night campaign which lasted until May 1941 and in the aftermath of the failed raid Hitler would indefinitely postpone Operation Sea Lion, the planned invasion of the United Kingdom.
|
|
|
Post by emron on Feb 9, 2021 20:27:25 GMT 12
8 February 1941
Germany: Operation Marita; German and Bulgarian military staff agreed arrangements for Wehrmacht forces to enter and transit Bulgaria in preparation for the German invasion of Greece. Italy: Operation Sonnenblume; German troops began departing in the first convoy from Naples to North Africa. Libya: Lieutenant-General Giuseppe Tellera, Italian Chief-of-Staff North Africa Theatre and acting commander of Italian 10th Army, died in an Allied hospital from wounds received the previous day during the Battle of Beda Fomm.
|
|