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Post by Dave Homewood on Jul 12, 2017 23:41:50 GMT 12
I'd never heard of that capture of the MV Hauraki. I honestly did not realise the Japanese were operating as far over as Africa. Wow! he British Eastern Fleet was stationed in East Africa by then too,weren't they?
I met a sailor who was onboard Leander when that torpedo struck.
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Post by emron on Jul 13, 2017 22:25:44 GMT 12
Dave, some further info.
MV Hauraki was built in 1922 and was the Union Steam ship Company of New Zealand’s first diesel powered vessel. In 1940 after the outbreak of war she was requisitioned by the British Ministry of War under the command of Captain A.W.Creese and manned mostly by New Zealanders and Australians, for use on wartime ‘special services’. Laden with war supplies for the Middle East she sailed from Wellington via Sydney, to Fremantle for re-fuelling. Then left on 4th July 1942 bound for her destination via Colombo. Eight days out of Fremantle and while in the Indian Ocean she was ambushed by Japanese armed Merchant Cruisers Hokoku Maru and Aikoku Maru and being unarmed and unescorted she was not able to resist being captured. The ship was forced to sail under armed guard via Japanese occupied ports to Singapore where the passengers and non-essential crew members were placed in camps and prisons such as Changi Jail while the engineers were made to steam the ship up to the Mitsubishi Dockyard in Yokohama Harbour. 23 crew members were imprisoned at D-1 P.O.W camp in Yokohama and were forced labour at the dockyard. The Hauraki then had some modifications and repairs done, some to rectify the sabotage damage inflicted on machinery by the NZ crew. Re-named Hoki Maru she was sent to sea on the task of carrying defence materials to the Japan held Pacific theatres. She lasted about eighteen months at this job until, on February 17th 1944, she was caught at anchor in Truk Lagoon east of Eten Island, then a Japanese stronghold and major airstrip. An Avenger bomber from the carrier USS ‘Bunker Hill’ hit the port side with an aerial torpedo igniting the cargo of fuel and destroying the ship. She sank in 50 metres of water. Of the 55 aboard at the time of capture only 27 crew survived the war including 19 in Japan.
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Post by Dave Homewood on Jul 13, 2017 23:28:18 GMT 12
Thanks Ron, quite a story.
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Post by emron on Jul 14, 2017 22:34:01 GMT 12
14 July 1789 Parisian revolutionaries and mutinous troops stormed and dismantled the Bastille, a royal fortress and prison that had come to symbolize the tyranny of the Bourbon monarchs. This dramatic action signalled the beginning of the French Revolution.
14 July 1941 French High Commissioner for Syria and the Lebanon signed the Armistice of Saint Jean d'Acre at Acre, British Mandate of Palestine, surrendering his command to the British. In exchange, he received the British agreement for the French soldiers to retain their personal arms and full honours.
14 July 1942 US President Franklin Roosevelt ordered the Joint Chiefs of Staff to abandon major offensive operations in the Pacific Theater and instead direct planning efforts on the invasion of North Africa. In Operation Pinpoint, HMS Eagle departed Gibraltar to deliver 32 Spitfire fighters to Malta. She was escorted by cruiser HMS Cairo, cruiser HMS Charybdis, and five destroyers. The First Battle of Ruweisat Ridge began at 2300 hours, under cover of darkness. It started well with the Indian (5th Brigade) and New Zealand infantry (4th Brigade and 5th Brigade) overrunning two Italian divisions, but unbeknown to them had inadvertently bypassed a group of German tanks as well as a few German infantry positions.
14 July 1943 Before dawn, Allied Northwest African Strategic Air Force Wellington bombers attacked Palermo and Messina in Sicily, while C-47 Skytrain transports dropped British airborne troops at the Simeto River at Primosole Bridge. The paratroopers attempted to establish a bridgehead, but they faced stiff opposition. During the day, British and American aircraft attacked Messina, Marsala, Enna, Palermo, Randazzo, Licata, and Lentini. In indirect support, American aircraft struck Naples on mainland Italy. Elsewhere in Sicily, US troops captured Niscemi and Biscari airfield while other British troops captured Vizzini.
14 July 1945 American battleships USS South Dakota, USS Indiana, and USS Massachusetts and escorting destroyers bombarded Kamaishi, Honshu, Japan. The primary target was the Kamaishi Works of the Japan Iron Company, but several destroyers shells overshot the target and hit the town, killing many civilians. Battleship shells were more accurate, destroying about 65% of the industrial complex, but they also killed many civilians. This was the first time the Japanese home islands were subjected to naval bombardment. To the north, the sinking of 6 warships and 37 steamers on the ferry route between Honshu and Hokkaido effectively cut off the latter from the rest of the home islands.
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Post by emron on Jul 15, 2017 20:15:36 GMT 12
15 July 1940 The British Home Office banned fireworks, flying kites, and flying balloons.
Hampden bombers from RAF Hemswell mounted a daring but unsuccessful raid to Wilhelmshaven, Germany in an attempt to cripple the Tirpitz and Admiral Scheer. Four aircraft were lost and the remainder returned with damage. The German warships were unharmed.
Low cloud and rain kept most aircraft grounded, but small formations of German bombers still ventured into British air space. The attack along the Scottish coast was unfruitful, and the raid on the Westland Aircraft factory at Yeovil, Somerset damaged one runway and one hangar. German bombers were also sent to attack the convoy code named Pilot, but British fighters drove off the bombers before they reached the convoy.
15 July 1941 Honouring Charles de Gaulle's previous proclamation that the Allies had invaded the Vichy-held French Mandate of Syria and the Lebanon as liberators rather than conquerors, the British who had accepted the Vichy surrender on the previous day handed control of the territory to the locals.
15 July 1942 New Zealand 4th Brigade and 5th Brigade captured the western end of Ruweisat Ridge near El Alamein, before dawn. Without tank support, however, they suffered heavy casualties as German tanks repeatedly attacked, overrunning several positions by dusk and capturing 730 prisoners. At the eastern end of the ridge, Indian 5th Infantry Brigade, with British tank support, captured several Axis positions. Keith Elliott and Charles Upham earned their VC during this action.
15 July 1945 American battleships USS Iowa, USS Missouri, and USS Wisconsin bombarded industrial targets at Muroran, Hokkaido; the main targets were Wanishi Iron Works plants and the Muroran Works. From the air, American naval aircraft attacked northern Honshu and Hokkaido, destroying railways and coal ferries. 104 US Army P-51 fighters based in Iwo Jima Meiji, attacked Kagamigahara, Kowa, Akenogahara, Nagoya, and Suzuko. B-24 bombers attacked Tomitaka, Usa, Kikaiga-shima, Amami Islands, Yaku-shima, Osumi Islands, and Tamega Island. After sun down, American B-29 bombers mined Japanese waters at Naoetsu and Niigata and Korean waters at Najin, Busan, and Wonsan, while other B-29 bombers attacked and seriously damaged the Nippon Oil Company facilities at Kudamatsu in southwestern Japan
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Post by emron on Jul 16, 2017 18:45:16 GMT 12
16 July 1940 Adolf Hitler issued Führer Directive 16 for the preparation of an invasion plan for southern Britain in mid-Aug. 16 July 1941 Soviet Army Lieutenant Jacob Jughashvili (Yakov Dzhugashvili) son of Joseph Stalin, was taken prisoner by the Germans. Army General Leonard Gerow recommended General George Marshall to activate the Philippine Army and to provide it additional funding. He also recommended that Douglas MacArthur be asked to return from the retired list as the commander in chief in the Philippine Islands.
16 July 1942 US Navy Vice Admiral Robert Ghormley named Vice Admiral Frank Fletcher as the commanding officer of the Solomons Expeditionary Force; Rear Admiral Leigh Noyes commanding officer of carrier air groups; Rear Admiral John McCain commanding officer of land-based air groups; Rear Admiral Richmond Turner the commanding officer of the Amphibious Force. The Japanese began the construction of an airfield on Guadalcanal, Solomon Islands.
16 July 1943 In Sicily, Canadian troops captured Caltagirone, American troops captured Agrigento, while British troops secured the Primosole Bridge and marched for Catania. On the same day, Allied aircraft attacked Valguarnera, Vibo Valentia, Randazzo, and other targets in Sicily. Winston Churchill and Franklin Roosevelt jointly issued an announcement to the Italian people, urging them to remove Benito Mussolini from power and to seek surrender. On the same day, Allied aircraft dropped leaflets containing the same message over Italian cities. Before dawn, British Wellington bombers of the Allied Northwest African Strategic Air Force attacked Crotone, Reggio di Calabria, and Villa San Giovanni in southern Italy. During the day, American B-24 Liberator bombers of the USAAF Ninth Air Force Bari in southern Italy. 16 July 1944 A total of 1,087 B-17 Flying Fortress bombers of USAAF Eighth Air Force attacked Germany in three waves (407, 238, and 407 bombers, respectively), escorted by 240, 214, and 169 fighters, respectively, with most of the bombers targeting Munich, Stuggart, Augsburg, and Saarbrucken. During the day, about 375 USAAF Ninth Air Force aircraft attacked German positions in the Saint-Lô and Rennes areas in France throughout the day. After dark, 5 B-17 bombers were launched to drop propaganda leaflets over France and another group of 24 B-17 bombers flew in support of French resistance groups About 380 USAAF Fifteenth Air Force aircraft from Italy attacked Munchendorf Airfield, Winterhafen oil depot, Vienna marshalling yard, and the Wiener Neudorf engine factory in and near Vienna, Austria.
16 July 1945 The cruiser USS Indianapolis sailed from San Francisco with a top secret cargo - components of the atomic bomb to be dropped on Hiroshima unless the Japanese surrendered. The Indianapolis would take 10 days to sail to the island of Tinian, Mariana Islands where US B-29 bombers were waiting. The Americans successfully detonated an atomic bomb, plutonium weapon “Gadget”, at the Alamogordo Bombing Range in New Mexico. The test blast created temperatures 10,000 times the surface temperature of the sun and was felt 200 miles away. The explosion was the equivalent of 20,000 tons of TNT and threw a column of fire and smoke 35,000 feet into the night sky. The authorities covered up by claiming that an ammunition dump had exploded.
16 July 1969 Apollo 11 was launched by Saturn V rocket from Kennedy Space Centre in Merritt Island, Florida, and was the fifth manned mission of NASA's Apollo program. Mission commander Neil Armstrong and pilot Buzz Aldrin, landed the lunar module Eagle on July 20, 1969, at 20:18 UTC. Armstrong became the first to step onto the lunar surface six hours later on July 21 at 02:56:15 UTC. Michael Collins piloted the command module Columbia.
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Post by Dave Homewood on Jul 16, 2017 19:00:38 GMT 12
I wonder how that went down in Russia when Stalin's son was captured, because in Russia they had no concept of prisoners of war, they simply did not take prisoners.
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Post by emron on Jul 16, 2017 21:25:47 GMT 12
According to Wiki:
Yakov Iosifovich Dzhugashvili was the eldest of Joseph Stalin's three children, the son of Stalin's first wife, Kato Svanidz. Dzhugashvili served as an artillery officer in the Red Army and was captured in the early stages of the German invasion of USSR at the Battle of Smolensk. The Germans later offered to exchange Yakov for Friedrich Paulus, the German Field Marshal captured by the Soviets after the Battle of Stalingrad, but Stalin turned the offer down, allegedly saying, "I will not trade a Marshal for a Lieutenant." According to some sources, there was another proposition as well, that Hitler wanted to exchange Yakov for Hitler's nephew Leo Raubal; this proposition was not accepted either. While Soviet propaganda always asserted that Dzhugashvili was captured, Stalin’s daughter, Svetlana Alliluyeva, wrote in her memoirs that her father believed his son deliberately surrendered to the Germans after being encouraged to do so by his wife. Stalin, she wrote, had Yulia imprisoned and interrogated as a result. In February 2013 Der Spiegel printed evidence that it interpreted as indicating that Yakov surrendered. A letter written by Dzhugashvili's brigade commissar to the Red Army’s political director, quoted by Der Spiegel, states that after Dzhugashvili's battery had been bombed by the Germans, he and another soldier initially put on civilian clothing and escaped, but then at some point Dzhugashvili stayed behind, saying that he wanted to stay and rest. Until recently, it was not clear when and how he died. According to the official German account, Dzhugashvili died by running into an electric fence in the Sachsenhausen concentration camp, 14 April 1943, aged 36. After the war, British officers in charge of captured German archives came upon the papers depicting Dzhugashvili’s death at Sachsenhausen. The German records indicated that he was shot while attempting to flee after an argument with British fellow prisoners. The British Foreign Office briefly considered presenting these papers to Stalin at the Potsdam Conference as a gesture of condolence. They scrapped the idea because neither the British nor the Americans had informed the Soviets that they had captured key German archives. Sharing those papers with Stalin would have prompted the Soviets to inquire about the source of these records.
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Post by Dave Homewood on Jul 16, 2017 21:55:29 GMT 12
Fascinating. I had never actually considered that Stalin might be a family man and have kids. I guess it's possible there are still direct descendants alive now.
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Post by emron on Jul 17, 2017 21:12:53 GMT 12
Stalin married twice and had sons Yakov, Vasily and daughter Svetlana. I don't think any of their childhood would be described as happy family upbringing. Yakov married before the war and had 2 children. Vasily had 7 children before he died in 1962. More famous Svetlana lived until 2011 and had 3 children. Five of these grandchildren are still alive. It's rumoured and proven that Stalin had other illegitimate children so the list of his descendants is larger.
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Post by emron on Jul 17, 2017 23:08:56 GMT 12
17 July 1941 German Armeegruppe Sud encircled 20 Soviet Army divisions near Uman, Ukraine. Further south, troops of the Romanian 3rd Army reached the Dniester River, captured a row of bunkers on the far bank, and repulsed a series of Soviet counterattacks. US President Franklin Roosevelt and Secretary of State Cordell Hull met with Japanese Ambassador Kichisaburo Nomura in Washington DC, in an attempt to open negotiations between the two countries regarding peace in the Pacific region.
17 July 1942 Winston Churchill warned Joseph Stalin that, in the aftermath of the convoy PQ-17 disaster, no further convoy missions were planned for northern Russia in the foreseeable future.
17 July 1944 In the morning, 670 B-17 and B-24 bombers of the US Eighth Air Force, escorted by 433 fighters, attacked targets in France. In diversion, B-26B bombers of the US VIII Air Support Command attacked Cayeux, to draw away German fighters. At Coutances, napalm was used for the first time. On the ground, American troops entered Saint-Lô. In the evening, 34 B-17 and 106 B-24 bombers, escorted by 209 P-51 fighters, attacked 12 German V-weapon launching sites in the Pas de Calais area. After sundown, 5 B-17 bombers dropped propaganda leaflets in France and the Netherlands while 16 B-24 bombers flew in support of French resistance activities. Soviet First Ukrainian Front encircled 40,000 German troops at Brody, Poland (now in Ukraine). Across the wider region, Soviet troops crossed the Bug River on a 40-mile front. 57,600 German prisoners of war were paraded through the streets of Moscow.
Whilst loading ammunition and explosives at Port Chicago, California, a powerful explosion took place as the majority of the ordnance within and near the Liberty ship A. E. Bryan detonated in a fireball seen for miles. An Army Air Forces pilot flying in the area reported that the fireball was 3 miles in diameter. Chunks of glowing hot metal and burning ordnance were flung over 12,000 ft into the air. The E. A. Bryan was completely destroyed and the Victory ship Quinalt Victory berthed nearby was blown out of the water, torn into sections and thrown in several directions; the stern landed upside down in the water 500ft away. The Coast Guard fire boat CG-60014-F was thrown 600ft upriver, where it sank. The pier, along with its boxcars, locomotive, rails, cargo, and men, was blasted into pieces. Ninety-seven men on the two ships were killed instantly and even a 12 ton locomotive on the dockside vanished without trace. In total 320 men were killed and 290 injured. More than 200 of the dead were black sailors being used as loaders. Later many sailors refused to work until safety was improved. Fifty were court martialled, convicted of mutiny and jailed. A public outcry led to their release but they were still deprived of all veteran's benefits for the rest of their lives.
17 July 1945 UK Task Force 37 and US Task Force 38.2 launched their first strike on the Japanese home islands. It was the first British attack on Japan in the Pacific War. British Seafire carrier fighters were launched against Japanese airfields at Kionoke, Naruto, and Miyakawa. American warships bombarded Hitachi, Ibaraki Prefecture. 1,207 16-inch shells from battleships and 292 6-inch shells from cruisers were fired.
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Post by davidd on Jul 18, 2017 10:18:39 GMT 12
Whoops! I think the RNZAF should be struck off the list under date 17 July 1942 as attacking "various Japanese bases and shipping in the northern Solomon Islands and New Guinea". Believe me, they just didn't, they were not there! We had Hudsons, Vincents and Singapore flying boats based in Fiji, at this time, but attacking the northern Solomons? Definitely not. However steps were being taken to form up a new Hudson squadron in New Caledonia (this took place about a week later), but there were solely engaged on anti-sub patrols for months into the future, and never attacked Japanese shipping or land bases, but they did attack the odd enemy sub.
I would also quibble with the date (17/7/44) given for the first use of Napalm in WW2. I know that the RNZAF in the Pacific had been using the M-69 Napalm bomblets for over a month by this time, being carried by PV-1s from Piva Uncle strip, Bougainville. According to one source on the web, first use of any form of Napalm was on 15th December 1943, in Papua New Guinea, when it was used against enemy strong points by means of US Army flame thrower teams. It has been said that Napalm is what saved the flame thrower as a weapon, as the new combustible fuel improved the efficiency of the thrower by a huge margin, and everything that was wrong with the original fuel was vastly improved, in every way, and turned a largely dud weapon into a fearsome monster (at least as far as the enemy was concerned).
First aerial use in the Pacific was on 15th February 1944, "near" the island of Pohnpei (known as Ponape till 1984) in the eastern Caroline islands (and now the seat of the capital of the Federated States of Micronesia) in the western central Pacific. The 14th July 1944 attack in Europe was supposedly the first in that Continent, but I doubt that this is the full story by any means. As Napalm was perfected during later part of 1942 and early 1943, and put into mass production in latter year, it seems highly likely that shipments of this new material would be shipped to various overseas theatres where American and British land forces were in contact with the two major enemies, and it is likely that both flame throwers and tactical strike aircraft were soon being loaded with these weapons (M-69s in various configurations of cluster bombs) by early 1944. Presumably these would include the Italian campaign, the Burma/India theatre, as well as the Solomons/Papua New Guinea theatre, and later also further north in the Philippines, perhaps also the Gilberts and Marshalls, also other enemy bases in the Carolines, and former Dutch East Indies, etc. I have just found another very dodgy claim for the "first use of Napalm in the Pacific", dated 23/7/44, a US Navy carrier aircraft strike against Tinian, in the Marianas. The more you look, the more "napalm first used" claims can be found. I Have also found that RNZAF P-40s from Bougainville were possibly using M-69 clusters against Japanese storage areas in the Cape Gazelle/Rabaul area in the March/April 1944 period, but because the unit records do not always specify the full designation of these bombs, it is difficult to differentiate between Napalm bombs and Magnesium bombs. The interesting thing is that the Napalm filled bombs are never referred to as such, they are normally called "Oil bombs", or Incendiary bombs with a "Gel" filling. These were very small bombs (just 4 pounds each) which were primarily seen as fire bombs for the destruction of wooden buildings, or dry vegetation, and their effect was nowhere as spectacular as the much later napalm bombs as used in Korea or Vietnam. Still you would really not want them falling anywhere near your own house, as the 500 pound cluster (with 128 small bombs) was designed to shoot these little fellows in all directions as the original cluster sprang apart several feet above ground level, and the individual bomblets were automatically ignited after hitting the ground. David D
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Post by emron on Jul 18, 2017 21:34:56 GMT 12
I've removed this item from the 17 July timeline: "US Army, US Navy, and New Zealand Air Force aircraft attacked various Japanese bases and shiping in the northern Solomon Islands and New Guinea." I'll verify which particular missions were undertaken on this day in 1942. I agree that the RNZAF did not participate until later in the year. Likewise I'll check and qualify the statement about the first use of napalm if necessary.
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Post by emron on Jul 19, 2017 22:13:19 GMT 12
18 July 1942 US Navy Rear Admiral Richmond Turner took command of the Amphibious Forces South Pacific at Wellington, New Zealand.
18 July 1943 US Navy airship K-74 detected an enemy submarine, by radar, in the Straits of Florida between the United States and Cuba. It commenced the attack on German submarine U-134 10 minutes later. The anti-aircraft guns of U-134 hit the airship, and she crashed at 2355 hours. K-74 was the only American blimp to be shot down during the war
18 July 1945 Halifax, Nova Scotia had a miraculous escape when the Bedford Naval magazine blew up. Thousands were evacuated as explosions rocked the town for 24 hours, but battling firemen managed to prevent the flames from reaching the main magazine. Fortunately there were only fifteen injured and one fatality.
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Post by emron on Jul 19, 2017 23:19:21 GMT 12
19 July 1940 The first prototype of the cavity magnetron was delivered to the British radar research center near Swanage, England. Prime Minister Winston Churchill made a proposal to the British War Cabinet suggesting the creation of Special Operations Executive (SOE) to conduct espionage, sabotage and aid local resistance against Germany.
19 July 1941 Fijian ship Viti departed Suva, for Gilbert and Ellice Islands with New Zealand military servicemen aboard. She was to drop off small reconnaissance parties on many of the atolls and small islands to act as lookouts or "coastwatchers", to watch for German surface raiders. Winston Churchill decided to share with the Soviets, military intelligence gained by deciphering German Enigma-encoded messages. However they would not be told the true source of the intelligence, but instead that it was gained through spies in Berlin.
19 July 1942 An Australian cruiser squadron, sailing as US Navy Task Force 44 and under Royal Navy Rear-Admiral Victor A.C. Crutchley's command, arrived at Wellington, New Zealand.
19 July 1943 The Italian capital of Rome experienced its first air raid by the USAAF, which resulted in 1,500 civilian deaths. 157 B-17 and 112 B-24 aircraft embarked on this attack, 5 of which were lost. Most of the bombers focused on rail marshalling yards in or around the city. US 7th Army and British 8th Army continued to make advances in Sicily, encountering resistance along the coast. Bernard Montgomery ordered his British 8th Army to take an alternate route inland toward Messina in the north. The Allied Northwest African Tactical Air Force launched B-25 bombers to attack Catania and Randazzo while US 9th Air Force P-40 aircraft bombed railroads and railcars at Alcamo to support the ground troops. After sundown, Allied bombers struck Aquino and Nicosia.
19 July 1944 Franklin Roosevelt was nominated to run for a fourth term as the President of the United States. In France, Canadian troops cleared Caen's southern suburbs, capturing Vaucelles, Louvigny, and Flery-sur-Orne, while British 11th Armoured Division captured Bras and Hubert-Follie. In the afternoon, 262 US 9th Air Force B-26 Marauder and A-20 Havoc aircraft attacked bridges on the Loire River and Seine River and a fuel dump at Bruz. 19 July 1945 After sundown, US 20th Air Force launched 27 B-29 Superfortress bombers to mine waters off Japan and Korea, 127 B-29 bombers to attack Fukui, 126 B-29 bombers to attack Hitachi, 91 B-29 bombers to attack Choshi, 126 B-29 bombers to attack Okazaki, and 83 B-29 bombers to attack the Nippon oil plant at Amagasaki; only 3 B-29 bombers were lost by the US 20th Air Force during this night.
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Post by emron on Jul 20, 2017 23:26:00 GMT 12
I've removed this item from the 17 July timeline: "US Army, US Navy, and New Zealand Air Force aircraft attacked various Japanese bases and shiping in the northern Solomon Islands and New Guinea." I'll verify which particular missions were undertaken on this day in 1942. I agree that the RNZAF did not participate until later in the year. Likewise I'll check and qualify the statement about the first use of napalm if necessary. Most likely the first occasion this device was used in combat by the US forces in Europe: On July 17, 1944, napalm incendiary bombs were dropped for the first time by 14 American P-38 Lightning aircraft of the 402nd Fighter Squadron / 370th Fighter Group on a fuel depot at Coutances, near St. Lô, France. I'm not sure what ordnance was used but during earlier trials in May they used napalm-filled 75, 100 or 165gal droppable fuel tanks adapted with igniters and detonators.
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Post by Dave Homewood on Jul 21, 2017 1:08:24 GMT 12
18 July 1945 Halifax, Nova Scotia had a miraculous escape when the Bedford Naval magazine blew up. Thousands were evacuated as explosions rocked the town for 24 hours, but battling firemen managed to prevent the flames from reaching the main magazine. Fortunately there were only fifteen injured and one fatality. Wow, a second time? They suffered a huge explosion in December 1917 with 1,950 people confirmed dead (estimated to be more like 2000 killed)and around 9000 injured! en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halifax_ExplosionImagine the locals living through the 1917 one and then having it happen again in 1945, even if on a smaller scale.
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Post by emron on Jul 21, 2017 20:57:38 GMT 12
20 July 1940 Six Swordfish torpedo bombers from carrier HMS Eagle attacked Tobruk, Libya in search of Italian cruiser Giovanni dalle Bande Nere that escaped the Battle of Cape Spada on the previous day. The cruiser was not found in port, thus destroyers Ostro and Nembo and transport Sereno were attacked and sunk instead.
20 July 1942 US Marines sailed from New Zealand for exercises at Fiji. US 1st Marine Division issued the Operation Watchtower plans for the invasion of Guadalcanal in the Solomon Islands. HMS Eagle departed Gibraltar with 31 Spitfire fighters and 4 Swordfish torpedo bombers for Malta in Operation Insect
20 July 1944 Operation Valkyrie was launched to assassinate Hitler and to overthrow the Nazi German government. It failed, leading to the arrest and execution of many who became implicated in the plot
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Post by emron on Jul 22, 2017 10:56:54 GMT 12
21 July 1941 The Allied convoy "Substance" departed Gibraltar to supply Malta; it contains six transports, carrier Ark Royal, battlecruiser Renown, battleship Nelson, several cruisers, and six destroyers.
195 German Luftwaffe bombers, mostly He 111, took off from an airfield near Smolensk, Russia to attack the Soviet capital of Moscow in multiple waves during the night. The resulting air alarms were the first to be sounded in the city. Moscow had strong anti-aircraft defences, the city was protected by 170 fighters, and the citizens were able to take shelter in the newly completed underground railway stations, but German air crews reported the presence of very few Soviet fighters after sunset. On the next day the Soviets would report the downing of 22 German bombers, but German records only showed 6 bombers failing to return.
21 July 1942 The United States Marine Corps 1st Base Depot established an advanced echelon at Wellington, New Zealand. 2,000 Japanese Army and Special Naval Landing Forces troops, and labourers, along with field guns and horses, landed at Gona on the northern coast of New Guinea. 10 kilometers to the east, another group of 1,000 Japanese landed at Buna.
New Zealand 6th Brigade launched an offensive south of Ruweisat Ridge near El Alamein at 1630 hours, gaining several key positions early in the attack, but the British tanks failed to follow up as planned, thus leaving the forward units vulnerable to the counterattacks that would arrive on the next day.
21 July 1943 A large number of US Army and US Navy aircraft attacked Japanese positions at Bairoko, New Georgia in the Solomon Islands. Despite the powerful air strikes, the Northern Landing Group's attack on Bairoko Harbor was repulsed and the Americans fell back to Enogai; the Northern Landing Group consisted of 1st Marine Raider Regiment, 4th Raider Battalion, and 3rd Battalion of the US Marine Corps and the 148th Division of the US Army. Nearby, a very small contingent of US Army, US Navy, and US Marine Corps officers landed at Barakoma, Vella Lavella to scout the area for a possible landing site.
Before dawn, Allied Northwest African Tactical Air Force attacked Italian ships in waters near Randazzo, Sicily. On land, US 1st Infantry Division captured Alimena, US 3rd Infantry Division captured Corleone, US 45th Infantry Division captured Valledolmo, US 82nd Airborne Division captured San Margherita, US Rangers captured Castelvetrano, and Canadian 1st Division captured Leonforte. After dark, US 9th Air Force B-25 bombers attacked the Randazzo area again. Before dawn, Wellington bombers of the Allied Northwest African Strategic Air Force attacked the airfield at Crotone and the rail marshalling yard at Naples in southern Italy. During the day, US B-17 bombers also of the Allied Northwest African Strategic Air Force attacked the airfield at Grosseto on the western coast of central Italy.
21 July 1944 1,110 bombers of US 8th Air Force were launched from England, against Germany, hitting München (Munich), Saarbrücken (targeting rail marshalling yards), Oberpfeffenhofen, Walldrun (targeting rail marshalling yards), Regensburg, Stuttgart, Schweinfurt, and other locations; a total of 31 bombers and 8 escorting fighters were lost.
US 3rd Marine Division landed near Agana and US 1st Provisional Marine Brigade landed near Agat on Guam, Mariana Islands; the landing was supported by US Navy Task Force 53. US Navy and US Army aircraft attacked Tinian of Mariana Islands, Eniwetok of Marshall Islands, and Truk and Yap of Caroline Islands as indirect support. Troops of the US Army 77th Infantry Division arrived in the afternoon; their landing was difficult due to the lack of LVT vehicles. A mile-deep beachhead was established at both landing sites by sundown. The Japanese attempted a counterattack during the night, which was repulsed.
The French Expeditionary Corps and the US VI Corps began to withdraw from the front lines in Italy to prepare for the invasion of Southern France
21 July 1945 The Allied leadership threatened Japan with destruction if it did not surrender. Allied leaders selected Nürnberg (Nuremberg), Germany as the location for trials against accused German war criminals.
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Post by emron on Jul 22, 2017 21:51:33 GMT 12
22 July 1941 Japanese Foreign Minister Teijiro Toyoda, who had replaced Yosuke Matsuoka only four days prior, reaffirmed Japan's alliance with Germany and Italy. Meanwhile he attempted to stabilize the deteriorating relations with the United States.
22 July 1942 Troops of the Japanese South Seas Detachment began to march across the Kokoda Trail from Buna toward Port Moresby in Australian Papua. USAAF B-17, B-25, and B-26 bombers, escorted by P-39 and P-400 fighters and supported by RAAF P-40 fighters, targeted Japanese shipping in the area. In five separate attacks they damaged transport Ayatosan Maru and killed 16 men aboard destroyer Uzuki. After dark, Australian Lieutenant John Chalk led a contingent of Papuans in small engagements with Japanese soldiers before falling back.
German tanks counterattacked the positions gained by the latest Allied offensive in Egypt, inflicting heavy losses among New Zealand troops. By the time the British 23rd Armoured Brigade arrived, it was bogged down by a minefield as it engaged in battle with German tanks. When the engagement ended, the brigade was practically wiped out.
Two transports with the final elements of the US 1st Marine Division departed from Pearl Harbour for New Zealand, part of a 12 ship convoy.
22 July 1944 In Italy, American troops entered the outskirts of Pisa while troops of both the 8th and 5th armies advanced to within 15 miles of Florence. The towns of Castelfiorentino and Tavernelle were occupied and Polish troops in the Adriatic area pressed northwards from Ancona.
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