On this day during W.W. 2

@wittmann:

Have you any idea when the US first got the better of the Japanese in a Cruiser battle and was there one factor that made the difference or was it a combination?

I don’t really know the answer (cruiser actions not being a subject on which I’ve read a lot), but you might want to have a look at an intriguing but little-known naval action that took place between the US and Japan in early 1943: the Battle of the Komandorski Islands.  It involved 1 heavy cruiser, 1 light cruiser and 4 destroyers on the US side and 2 heavy cruisers, 2 light cruisers and 4 destroyers on the Japanese side.  It was one of the rare occasions in WWII (and one of the even rarer ones in the Pacific theatre of operations) in which two surface fleets slugged it out entirely with gunfire, and without any aircraft or subs taking part.  The Japanese had a 2-to-1 advantage in both heavy and light cruisers, yet the battle was essentially a tactical draw (and arguably a strategic defeat for Japan).  So in this sense the Americans did better than expected in view of their weaker force.

A very interesting read, thank you Marc.
Failure to finish off the US ships resulted in the Japanese commmander being relieved. 
I see he commanded a 42000 ton Battleship in 1934.

1st March 1941 Bulgaria signed the Tripartite Pact. They were the last major Axis  nation to do so;  Yugoslavia  and Croatia were still to sign. In return for military access to invade Greece, Hitler promised the Bulgarian Tsar Boris III all the territory she had lost to Serbia and Greece after siding with the Central Powers in WW1. His PM Bogdan Filov signed on his behalf.
Bulgaria did not furnish any troops for Operation Barbarossa, unlike the other signatories. In fact though they declared war on the UK and the US, they resisted Gerrman pressure to do so against Russia. Instead they sent troops to occupy Thrace  and Macedonia. Pro Russian feeling was strong in the country especially from 1943 on. With theSoviets close to their border, on the 23rd August 1944, they declared war on Germany. Russia was not to be placated and declared war on them 13 days later; for 3 days Bulgaria found itself  in the strange position of being at war with both countries! Sofia was entered by Soviet troops on the 14th September 1944 and soon it was free of German troops. Three armies of 450000 troops liberated Macedonia as the Germans were pushed out.
Their casualties for WW2 were a very low 25000, most fighting the Germans in the last 8 months of the war. Their 130000 strong 1st Army entered Hungary and by war’s end, Austria, joining up with British 8th Army in Klagenfurt on 8th May 1945.

March 6: Cologne was captured by units of 1st US Army today in 1945.
Cologne is  in West Germany and is an ancient city; the Romans founded Colonia on the Rhine as the capital of Germania Inferior. It was also a great Medieval city, its cathedral a beautiful Gothic example, not finished unti the 19th century. Napoleon later made it part of his empire. Its proximity to the French border ensured it was strongly fortified and designated one of the Fortresses of the German Confederation. After WW1 it found itself in the Demilitarised Rhineland, so these defences were removed.
During WW2 it was the HQ of Wehrkreis VI and home to the 211Inf Regt and 26 Art. Its prewar population was over 700000 and it was never a great centre of Nazi sympathy. On may 31st 1942 it  was the target of the first 1000 plane bomber raid(actually 1046 bombers). In total it suffered 262 bombing raids and 20000 civilian casualties.  By the end of the war its population was reduced to 40000, most of which was voluntary and to rural areas, to avoid the bombings.

@wittmann:

It was also a great Medieval city, its cathedral a beautiful Gothic example, not finished unti the 19th century.

Considering what a thorough job the Allied bombers did of demolishing Cologne, it’s amazing that Cologne Cathedral managed to survive the war.  It took some seventy bomb hits over the years without collapsing.  To quote Curt Jurgens in the submarine movie The Enemy Below, “We build them good in Germany, eh?”

Good film.
I love Sub films.
I saw the cathedral 4 years ago, as I had a friend working nearby. Have always liked Germany.

On the 11th March 1945 24 Japanese twin engined Bombers left Japan’s southern most island, Kyushu, for a kamikaze raid on the Ulithi Atoll, part of the Caroline Islands.
The Atoll had been used as an anchorage by the Japanese and was a radio and weather station, but had abandoned it in 44. The US Navy saw how it could be used to house hundreds of its ships while in the Western Pacific, without the need to return to Pearl. It was a gigantic staging area for ops late in the war, particularly against Okinawa.
The 24 Bombers carried fuel for one way(was 1300 miles) and one 1700lb bomb. Only two of the P1Y1s reached the Atoll, six turning back with mechanical problems, some landing at nearby Yap Island, the rest ditching in the sea. One hit the Essex Class Carrier, the Randolph, in the stern below the flight deck killing 27 and wounding 105. The second hit a road, mistaking it for a Carrier in the dark.
The Randolph was repaired at the Atoll and was in action at Okinawa in April.

14th March 1943: the Krakow Ghetto was finally “liquidated”.

There had been 68000 Jews living in Krakow before the war. The 15000 who were allowed to remain as slave labourers were, by 1941, crammed in a ghetto.
On the 13th and 14th March  1943 maybe 2000 were shot in the streets, 8000 sent to Plaszow Labour Camp, the rest to Auschwitz.

This day was reenacted in Spielberg’s “Schindler’s List”.

24th March 1944:Major General Orde Wingate and eight others died in a plane crash(a Mitchell) in the jungle.
He had just been lauded by Churchill as “a man of genius and audacity”. He oft quoted the bible and was an eccentric man, whose battlefield successes in the use of irregular tactics were spectacular.
In the 30s his British led lJewish Commandos (Special Night Squads) safeguarded the Oil Fields and settlements in Palestine from Arab gangs.
In Sudan in 1940 he raised a rebellion which helped oust the Italians from Ethiopia, again using British officers and local troops. In 1942 he was sent to India to come up with a plan to thwart the Japanese in Burma. He trained a Brigade strength unit of Ghurkas and British troops for deep penetration raids. They became known as Chindits and were first used in the Spring of 1943. They caused havoc behind the Japanese lines, destroying anything which could disrupt their communication lines, sometimes even 200 miles away. Unfortunately, the price paid was the loss or exhaustion of most of his small units.
Some, including General Slim, thought it was a waste of resources, but on the whole it probably helped more than it hindered the Allies. It certainly boosted morale.
It was in 1944 that a larger forc e of 20000 was being prepared for further action, that Wingate lost his life. Operations continued, but without their leader, the Chindits unit was absorbed into other commands. Many think Burma’s reconquest was down to Wingate’s hard work. Merrill’s (US) Marauders were modelled on them.

@wittmann:

He trained a Brigade strength unit of Ghurkas and British troops for deep penetration raids. They became known as Chindits and were first used in the Spring of 1943. They caused havoc behind the Japanese lines, destroying anything which could disrupt their communication lines, sometimes even 200 miles away. Unfortunately, the price paid was the loss or exhaustion of most of his small units. Some, including General Slim, thought it was a waste of resources, but on the whole it probably helped more than it hindered the Allies. It certainly boosted morale.

The first Chindit operation also made the important point that ordinary British troops, given the proper training and support, could operate successfully deep in the jungle, which hitherto had been considered the private preserve of the Japanese.  This helped the British psychologically by shattering the perception that the Japanese had some undefined special abilities which made them unbeatable in the jungle.

I read that, but did not post it.
Thank you for adding it, Marc.

Fire in the Night - good biography of Wingate

The guy was out there

9th of april 1940

germany invades norway and denmark

The invasion of denmark would go down in history as one of the shortest wars in history, while the invasion of norway would be the axis victory that took the longest time to achieve.  Norway surrenderd after 2 months, (8-9 weeks) on the 10th of june. (french campaign lasted 1 month and 12 days)

The german invasion went good in most of the places, but they where stopped in oslo and kristiansand. They got around kristiansand by flying french flags, while they landed outside the oslo fjord and marched to oslo. The german invasian was lucky that there was a sudden fog the morning of the invasion, which is why they so easily managed to bypass the defensive fortresses guarding the norwegian fjords.

Thanks Kreuzfeld. I thought it was today, but have done some work this morning and have not opened any books as yet!

Are you by any chance a native of either country?

Edited as I misspelt your name; apologies.

Yes, I am a native of norway. My grandfather was in the norwegian merchant fleet, and was in london during the blitz, one of the nights the building he was in collapsed, but the blast threw him under an iron table saving his life. He was dug out the next morning.

Should also add;

The german attack on norway would probably benefit the allies more than the axis. The norwegian merchant fleet was the 4th biggest in the world, with about 7% of the worlds merchant tonnage, and 18% of all the worlds oiltankers. The average age of the norwegian merchant fleet was lower than the other allies, and more of the ships where disel ships.

Norway contributed with more than 1000 merchant ships and 30000 sailors to the allied wareffort.

Thank you for that addition: wonder why Norway had such a big fleet.
Glad your grandfather survived too.

Norway had such a big fleet because norway always had such a big fleet. Shipping have been a big part of norwegian economy since the viking age, except for a dryspell in the late middle ages. Shipping is still one of the biggest parts of the norwegian economy, It is still quite big http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_merchant_marine_capacity_by_country

in 1940 whaling and shipping where basicly the only thing norwegians did economically, so there where alot of ships in norway that the british got (85% of them), while not much on the mainland for the germans,

The most valuable thing about the norwegian mainland at this point was that Narvik was the closest port to kiruna, a swedish mine that had and still have a HUGE metal production, one of the biggest productions in europe.

Thank you again. I knew about Sweden, but you have taught me much.
Those modern figures threw up a few surprises.