On this day during W.W. 2

[Witt]

On the 16th June 1940 Marechal de France Henri Philippe Petain became France’s Prime Minister, replacing Reynaud. He was 84 years old. He had been a great soldier of France; in WW1 he had excelled in defence and at counterattacking.
Now with no reserve to speak of, he decided that France must surrender to Germany and did so on the 22nd. At the time he was a very popular man and much loved by the French people.
He would live to the age of 95, having been imprisoned for treason for collaboration.

[CWO Marc]

@wittmann:

Now with no reserve to speak of, he decided that France must surrender to Germany and did so on the 22nd. At the time he was a very popular man and much loved by the French people. He would live to the age of 95, having been imprisoned for treason for collaboration.

He got off lightly: he had been sentenced to death in a post-war trial, but de Gaulle commuted the sentence to life in prison in view of his advanced age (unlike Pierre Laval, who was executed for treason).  I’ve seen some of the annual messages to the French people that Petain recorded when he was head of the Vichy regime, and I doubt that they endeared him to his fellow citizens.  In them, he talks to the population in the reprimanding tone of a stern father, saying that their memory is poor (an odd thing to say for an eighty-something-year-old whose own mental powers were fading) and that they will only acquire the virtues they ought to have “through the discipline that I impose upon you.”

[aequitas-et-veritas]

Very interesting CWO Marc, didn’t know about that.

[CWO Marc]

@aequitas:

Very interesting CWO Marc, didn’t know about that.

Extracts from Petain’s annual speeches can be seen (with English subtitles) in the documentary The Eye of Vichy, which is available on DVD.  One of the creepiest things about Petain during the Vichy years was the way he fostered around himself a personality cult worthy of North Korea: pictures of “le Marechal Petain” handed out to schoolchildren, newsreel narrators enthusiastically describing his public appearances and private functions (including his notorious handshake with Hitler at Montoire), crowds of (presumably picked) admirers assembled in public squares to cheer him, an ocean liner named after him – the whole works.  The ocean liner, by the way, was given a new name when Petain fell from power.

[Witt]

At 3.30am on Sunday the 22nd June 1941 7 Infantry armies and 4 Panzer Groups rolled into Russia. From Notlrthern to South the frontier was about 1000 miles, this distance grew the further the Germans advanced.
3 million soldiers, 600000 vehicles, 3580 Panzers, 7184 guns and over 1800 aircraft were employed. Nearly every Panxer Division was involved(17 of 20). We forget the Hermans relied on horses for much of their towing and 3/4 million were used.
The invasion force was divided into 3 Armu Groups: North under Leeb, Centre under Bock and South under Von Rundstedt. They were to follow the three traditional invasion routes, heading for Leningrad, Moscow and Kiev. AG Centre was led by two Panzer Groups under the successful and experienced Guderian and Hoth.
The Russians, despite warnings, were totally surprised.

[CWO Marc]

@wittmann:

At 3.30am on Sunday the 22nd June 1941 7 Infantry armies and 4 Panzer Groups rolled into Russia.

Operation Barbarossa was launched just two days short of the anniversary of Napoleon’s own invasion of Russia.  In fairness, Barbarossa had been delayed some five weeks owing to Germany’s invasion of the Balkans…but still, the June 22 date wasn’t a good omen.

[Witt]

I had no idea Napoleon’s invasion was in June too.
Thank you.

[CWO Marc]

@wittmann:

I had no idea Napoleon’s invasion was in June too.
Thank you.

In a book I once read, the author commented on the Barbarossa date by saying that Hitler had a reckless disregard for anniversaries.

Speaking of anniversaries, yesterday I noticed a magazine rack selling copies of a glossy commemorative one-shot magazine marking the upcoming 150th anniversary of the Battle of Gettysburg.

[Witt]

Grr! You know I am not coming. And I should.
I am sure I could get something similar here though.

Re Hitler: Glad to see I am not the only loony obsessed with anniversaries!

Have subsequently read only 15 Panzer Divisions(of 19!)were involved in Barbarossa.
I was sure the 10 Divisions of 1940 were doubled on Hitler’s orders, but with a corresponding loss in Panzer Battalions(fewer tanks per Division).
I hate reading(and remembering)facts wrong or different.
Need to find another source.

[Witt]

I got the figure of 17 from Alan Clark’s Barbarossa and have found out from Wicki where the other three were.
2nd and 5th were in the Balkans: there was still need for them after Athens’ fall. The 2nd did not reach the Eastern Front until Sept its losses were so heavy. That I did not know. I presumed it would have been one of the starting Divisions.
I  knew the  15th was in Africa.

[Witt]

June 28th 1944: Colonel General Friedrich Dollmannn died of a heart attack, or possibly of suicide.
He had commanded 7th Army since October of 1939 and had taken part in the invasion of France as part of Leeb’s AG C. Since the fall of France his army had commanded the forces in Normandy and Brittany as half of AG B’s important Channel and Northern France’s defences. His was the weaker of the two and he had seen his army weakened by three weeks of Allied pressure. On the 26th June he had lost the port of Cherbourg to US 7Corps and Hitler had said he would face a Court Martial. He died aged 62 at his Le Mans HQ.
He was born in Wurzburg in northern Bavaria and joined the army in 1899. He rose to Battalion command of an Artillery unit in WW1 and remained in the army, slowly being promoted until he held Corps command in Poland.
His job, like Marcks’ one commanding 84Corps, was not made easy by the Allies’ early successes in Normandy.

[Witt]

Not sure he was in Poland.
I read he was, but cannot corroborate this with a list of Division and Corps commanders for the invasion.  Now I have read elsewhere(in German!) that he was given command of 7th Army on August 31st.
He may have been in France for the  whole of the Polish campaign.
Sorry!

[Warplayer12]

Today is july 5th 2013, the 70th anniversary of the battle of kursk, hitlers last gamble to re-gain the strategic initiative in the east.

I just wanted to note that, I am fascinated by this battle.

[Witt]

7th July 1944: the largest Banzai attack of the war occured. The island of Saipan, Mariana Islands, was set to fall to the Americans. The Japanese commander, General Yoshitsugu Saitō, called for a Banzai attack. Some of the Japanese were on crutches, others had bandages heads. 4000 would fall, but the 1st and 2nd Battalion of the 25th Regiment of Marines were almost destroyed in the attack.
All was for nought: Saipan fell on the 9th.
American casualties were the highest to date: 3000 killed and 10000 wounded.
The Japanese died almost to a man, many a civilian, including women and children commited suicude, some jumped  from the cliffs.

[Witt]

10th July 1943 and 5 days after the Ostheer’s Kursk offensive, two Allied armies landed in Southern Sicily. The Western Landing was the American 7th Army, commanded by Lt Gen George Patton. The Eastern One the British 8th Army, under the successful General Bernard Montgomery.
Most of the elements were veteran ones that had fought in North Africa. The British had 2 Corps, the 13th and 30th, the Americans had Bradley’s II Corps, formerly Patton’s own.
The Allies were lucky that the Axis had fallen for their deception plans, heavily reinforcing the Balkans, but only sending 2 Divisions to Sicily to bolster the mainly weak Italian Coastal Divisions. Expecting an Italian switch of sides(his rude!)the  Germans had Rommel in Northern Italy waiting to takeover its defence.
The Italians did have 250000 men on Sicily under the 66 year old Generale D’Armata Guzzoni. His forces were divided into two Corps: the XII in the West and the XVI in the East.
The two German Divisions were the 15th Pzg and the HG Panzer.
The Germans and Italians put  up a good fight, but were no match for the Aliies.
Disturbingly, the better part of both German Divisions were allowed to escapes over the Straits of Messina and form part of the later defence of the Italian mainland.
Possibly the greatest casualty of the campaign, was Patton, who was passed over for command of American troops in Italy, because he slapped a shell shocked  soldier.

[Witt]

After Tunisia, Sicily was another disaster for Italy.
160000 men became casualties, mostly prisoners. This was the last straw and would see Italy pull out of the war in early September. (Mussolini was deposed on the 25th July.)
This added enormous strain to the German war effort, heavily engaged in the East. They now had to replace the Italian garrisons in the Balkans and double the number of troops in Southern France.
Allied casualties were about 20000.

[Warplayer12]

three years earlier, on july 10 1940, the vichy government in southern france is established.

[Warplayer12]

Today in 1943, the Germans and Soviets clashed in what would become one of the biggest tank battles of history.

The battle took place near the town of Prokhorovka, 87 km south of kursk. (which was the german objective for operation zitadelle as a whole)

[CWO Marc]

@Axistiger13:

three years earlier, on july 10 1940, the vichy government in southern france is established.

The spa town of Vichy was chosen as the seat of the new government because, as a popular resort, it had a large number of hotels which it was hoped would be able to accommodate the new regime’s personnel and departments.  Space nevertheless turned out to be tight.  In addition, Vichy was hardly an exciting place to be, especially during wartime and under Petain’s authoritarian regime; it was known as “The Capital of Boredom.”

[Witt]

6th August 1945: an atomic bomb, named “Little Boy” was dropped on the Japanese city of Hiroshima by a B29, with the name of “Enola Gay”.
Seventy thousand people died instantly. Tens of thousands would die of the after effects.