Thursday, March 31, 2011

1940 Chronology: 31 March

German u-boats (an average of 14 craft operating at any one time) have sunk 753,803 tons of Allied shipping in the waters round Great Britain and the eastern Atlantic as far south as the Strait of Gibraltar since the start of hostilities, for a loss to the Kriegsmarine of 18 submarines.

German battleships and destroyers operating in the North Sea have sunk a total of 63,098 tons of shipping, and 281,154 tons have been sunk round the coasts of Britain by mines laid by submarines, destroyers and aircraft as well as 36,189 tons by air action.

Bibliography
World War II Magazine's WWII Day-By-Day Desk Diary

Monday, March 28, 2011

1940 Chronology: 28 March

France and Britain conclude a joint undertaking that neither will make a separate peace treaty with Germany.

The Allied Supreme War Council decides to mine Norwegian coastal waters and to occupy western Norwegian ports from April 5.

Bibliography
World War II Magazine's WWII Day-By-Day Desk Diary

Friday, March 25, 2011

Operation Jedburgh, by Colin Beavan


Operation Jedburgh: D-Day and America's First Shadow War, by Colin Beavan
Penguin Books, 2006
298 pages plus 32 b&w pages of photos, Acknowledgments, Appenddix (Jedburgh teams and their members), Notes, sources and index
Library: 940.548673094 4 BEA

Description
In 1943, less thn a year before D-Day, nearly three hundred American, British and French soldiers - shadow warriors-parachuted deep behind enemy lines in France as part of the covert Operation Jed Burgh. Working with the beleaguered French Resistance, the "Jeds" launched a stunningly effective guerilla campaign against the GErmans in preparation for the Normany invasion.

Colin Beavsn, whose grandfather helped direct Operation Jedburgh for the OSS, draws on scores of interviews with the surviving Jeds and their families to tell the thrilling story of the rowdy daredevils who carried out America's first special-forces mission, forever changing the way Americans waged war.

Table of Contents
List of Maps
A Note on Dialogue
Preface

/Part 1: DAngerous Beginnings
1. Shadow War Setback
2. Resistance? What Resistance?
3. A Spark of Rebellion
4. Uncle Sam Joins In

Part II. The Call for Hazardou Duty
5. A Slim Chance
6. Anyone Here Speak French?
7. We Just WAnt to Fight
8. Shrinks With Notepads

Part III. Makiung Agents
9. Killing Lessons
10. Give Her a Ring and Say Goodbye
11. Happy New Year!
12. Close to Mutiny
13. Eisenhower's Plan
14. Some Shit
15. In Case of Death

Part IV. Initial Targets
16. Suicide Pills
17. Forget About Vengeance
18. Boys vs Panzers
19. "Alles Kaput"
20. Blowing TRains to Bits
21. Back in Action
22. Napoleon's Hat

Part V: Preparing the Fighters
23. Manna of Weapons
24. What Would Dad Think
25. Insubordination
26. The Breakjout Approaches
27. "In Grave DAnger"

Part VI. France Explodes
28. Cobra Strike
29. "A Message of the Highest Importance"
30. Flying Body Parts
31. Arrested
32. Jeds Rain Down
33. Leaving a Man to Die

Part VII. Stopping the GErman Escape
34. Southern Uprising
35. Withdrawal
36. Lioke Shooting Quail
37. "Purification"
38. Surrender
Epilogoe

Acknowledgmenys
Appendix: The Jedburgh Teams and their Members
Notes
Sources
Permissions
Index

Wednesday, March 23, 2011

Playing With the Enemy, by Gary W. Moore


Playing With the Enemy: A Baseball Prodigy, A World at War, and a Field of Broken Dreams, by Gary W. Moore
Savas Beatie, 2006
300 pages, no index, no notes, no bibliography. A few b&w illustrations
Library: 940.54MOO


Description
It was true in the 1940s, and it is still true today: if you have talent, someone will notice. In Gene Moore's case, that someone was the Brooklyn Dodgers.

Gene Moore was a farm kid from Sesser, Illinois, a town so small even mapmakers ignored it. Although he quit school to help out on the farm, he continued to play baseball on the town team. Some players were twice his age, butthey didn't mind because Gene could hit the ball farther than anyone else, he as the best catcher anyone had ever seen, and he could throw men out from his knees. Gene was 15 years old.

Word spread across the United States about the country boy who could hit the ball a country mile. The Brooklyn Dodgers wanted to take a look at this farm kid, barely old enough to shave and still awaiting his first kiss, but brash enough to call pitches from behind the plate and instruct other players how to position themselves for certain hitters.

When GEne's baseball career was interrupted by Pearl Harbor, he enlisted in the US Navy to play baeball on the Navy team. In 1944, GEne and his teammates were sent back to the States for a special top secret mission: the guarding of German sailors from U-505. Stuck in Louisiana, Gene taught the enemy how to play baseball-a decision that irrevocably changed his life...and maybe our national pastime.

Inspired by true events, Playing with the enemy is the riveting story of a young man and his brush with destiny. When Gene's son Gary confronted his father with evidence of a baseball career, Gene broke decades of silence and finally told Gary about his remarkable odyssey through depression-era Illinois, WWII, and the minor leagues.

Gene Moore's astonishing story is an exciting, heart-wrenching saga that captures the heart of everyone who reads it. Jammed with memorable characters from an extraordinary time in our country's history, Playing With the Enemy is a story that will be read and reread for generations to come. And it is one you will never forget.

Table of Contents
Preface and Acknowledgments
Forword by Jim Morris
Introduction by John C. Skipper
1. The Letter
2. July 21, 1940
3. The Corner of Matthew and Mulberry
4. Sunday, July 22, 1940
5. Monday, August 6, 1940
6. A Day of Infamy
7. In the Navy
8. Team Navy!
9. North Africa
10. Casablanca
11. War Games
12. Rumors
13. Reunion
14. U-505
15. Norfolk
16. Camp Ruston, Louisiana
17. Playing With the Enemy
18. The Berlin Bombers
19. We Have Guns!
20. Kraut Ball!
21. Fighting with the Enemy
22. The Final Innings
23. The Friendship Game
24. The Broken Purple Heart
25. Branch Rickey
26. Home, Again
27. Reality
28. Return of a War Hero
29. The Letter Arrives
30. Dark Night of the Soul
31. Resurrection
32. Reporting to Greenville
33. The Second Shot
34. Getting Back the Game
35. I Heard You was a Hitter
36. The Perfect DAy
37. The Day After Perfection
38. Frank Boudreau
39. Sacrifice Play
40. Is That the Story You Expected to Hear?
41. Old Friends
42. The Death of the Boy Who Loved to Catch
Postscript

Monday, March 21, 2011

1940 Chronology: 21 March

The French government orders a consignment of 'heavy water' from Norway for atomic research.

A British delegation has a secret meeting with representatives of the Turkish government at Aleppo.

Aleppo
(from Wikipedia)
Aleppo is the second largest city in Syria after Damascus and the capital of Aleppo Governorate. With an official population of 2,301,570 (2005 official estimate), expanding to over 4 million in the metropolitan area, it is also the second largest city in the Levant. For centuries, Aleppo was Greater Syria's largest city and the Ottoman Empire's third, after Constantinople and Cairo. Although relatively close to Damascus in distance, Aleppo is distinct in identity, architecture and culture, all shaped by a markedly different history and geography.

Aleppo is one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world; it has been inhabited since perhaps as early as the 6th millennium BC.[9][10] Excavations at Tell Qaramel (25 km north of Aleppo) show the area to have been inhabited since the 11th millennium BC, which makes it the oldest known human settlement in the world. Excavations at Tell as-Sawda and Tell al-Ansari, just south of the old city of Aleppo, show that the area was occupied since at least the latter part of the 3rd millennium BC; and this is also when Aleppo is first mentioned in cuneiform tablets unearthed in Ebla and Mesopotamia, in which it is noted for its commercial and military proficiency. Such a long history is probably due to its being a strategic trading point midway between the Mediterranean Sea and Mesopotamia.

The city's significance in history has been its location at the end of the Silk Road, which passed through central Asia and Mesopotamia. When the Suez Canal was inaugurated in 1869, trade was diverted to sea and Aleppo began its slow decline. At the fall of the Ottoman Empire after World War I, Aleppo ceded its northern hinterland to modern Turkey, as well as the important railway connecting it to Mosul.

Then in the 1940s it lost its main access to the sea, Antioch and Alexandretta (Iskenderun), also to Turkey. Finally, the isolation of Syria in the past few decades further exacerbated the situation, although perhaps it is this very decline that has helped to preserve the old city of Aleppo, its mediaeval architecture and traditional heritage. Aleppo is now experiencing a noticeable revival and is slowly returning to the spotlight. It recently won the title of the "Islamic Capital of Culture 2006", and has also witnessed a wave of successful restorations of its treasured monuments.

Bibliography
World War II Magazine's WWII Day-By-Day Desk Diary

Sunday, March 20, 2011

1940 Chronology: 20 March

Daladier's cabinet in Paris resigns. Paul Reynaud forms a war government.

Edouard Daladier
from Wikipedia:
Édouard Daladier (French pronunciation: [18 June 1884 – 10 October 1970) was a French Radical politician and the Prime Minister of France at the start of the Second World War.

Daladier's last government was in power at the time of the negotiations preceding the Munich Agreement, when France backed out of its obligations to defend Czechoslovakia against Nazi Germany. He was pushed into negotiating by Britain's Neville Chamberlain, without which war would have been inevitable at that time. Unlike Chamberlain, Daladier had no illusions about Hitler's ultimate goals. In fact, he told the British in a late April 1938 meeting that Hitler's real aim was to eventually secure "a domination of the Continent in comparison with which the ambitions of Napoleon were feeble." He went on to say "Today, it is the turn of Czechoslovakia. Tomorrow, it will be the turn of Poland and Romania. When Germany has obtained the oil and wheat it needs, she will turn on the West. Certainly we must multiply our efforts to avoid war. But that will not be obtained unless Great Britain and France stick together, intervening in Prague for new concessions but declaring at the same time that they will safeguard the independence of Czechoslovakia. If, on the contrary, the Western Powers capitulate again, they will only precipitate the war they wish to avoid."

Nevertheless, perhaps discouraged by the pessimistic and defeatist attitudes of both military and civilian members of the French government, as well as traumatized by France's blood-bath in World War I that he personally witnessed, Daladier ultimately let Chamberlain have his way. On his return to Paris, Daladier, who was expecting a hostile crowd, was acclaimed. He then commented to his aide, Alexis Léger: "Ah, les cons (the fools)!".

Rearmament
In October 1938, Daladier opened secret talks with the Americans on how to bypass American neutrality laws and allow the French to buy American aircraft to make up for productivity deficiencies in the French aircraft industry. Daladier commented in October 1938, "If I had three or four thousand aircraft, Munich would never have happened", and he was most anxious to buy American war planes as the only way to strengthen the French Air Force.

A major problem in the Franco-American talks was how the French were to pay for the American planes, as well as how to bypass the American neutrality acts. In addition, France had defaulted on its World War I debts in 1932 and hence fell foul of the American Johnson Act of 1934, which forbade loans to nations that had defaulted on their World War I debts. In February 1939, the French offered to cede their possessions in the Caribbean and the Pacific together with a lump sum payment of 10 billion francs, in exchange for the unlimited right to buy, on credit, American aircraft. After torturous negotiations, an arrangement was worked out in the spring of 1939 to allow the French to place huge orders with the American aircraft industry; though most of the aircraft ordered had not arrived in France by 1940, the Americans arranged for French orders to be diverted to the British.

World War II
When the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact was signed, Daladier responded to the public outcry by outlawing the French Communist Party, which had refused to condemn Joseph Stalin's actions. In 1939, after the German invasion of Poland, he was reluctant to go to war, but he did so on 4 September 1939, inaugurating the Phony War. On 6 October of that year, Hitler offered France and Great Britain a peace proposal.

There were more than a few in the French government prepared to take Hitler up on his offer; but, in a nationwide broadcast the next day, Daladier declared, "We took up arms against aggression. We shall not put them down until we have guarantees for a real peace and security, a security which is not threatened every six months.". On 29 January 1940, in a radio address delivered to the people of France entitled The Nazi's Aim is Slavery, Daladier left little doubt about his opinion of the Germans. In his radio address, he said: "For us, there is more to do than merely win the war. We shall win it, but we must also win a victory far greater than that of arms. In this world of masters and slaves, which those madmen who rule at Berlin are seeking to forge, we must also save liberty and human dignity."

In March 1940, Daladier resigned as Prime Minister in France because of his failure to aid Finland's defence during the Winter War, and he was replaced with Paul Reynaud. Daladier remained, however, Minister of Defence, and his antipathy to Paul Reynaud prevented Reynaud from replacing Maurice Gamelin as Supreme Commander of all French armed forces.

Paul Reynaud
Paul Reynaud (15 October 1878 - 21 September 1966) was a French politician and lawyer prominent in the interwar period, noted for his stances on economic liberalism and militant opposition to Germany. He was the penultimate Prime Minister of the Third Republic and vice-president of the Democratic Republican Alliance center-right party.

Although Reynaud was increasingly popular, the Chamber of Deputies elected Reynaud premier by only a single vote with most of his own party abstaining; over half of the votes for Reynaud came from the French Section of the Workers' International (SFIO) party. With so much support from the left - and the opposition from many parties on the right - Reynaud's government was especially unstable; many on the Right demanded that Reynaud attack not Germany, but the Soviet Union.[7] The Chamber also forced Daladier, whom Reynaud held personally responsible for France's weakness, to be Reynaud's Minister of National Defense and War. One of Reynaud's first acts was to sign a declaration with British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain that neither of the two countries would sign a separate peace.

Reynaud abandoned any notion of a "long war strategy" based on attrition. Reynaud entertained suggestions to expand the war to the Balkans or northern Europe; he was instrumental in launching the allied campaign in Norway, though it ended in failure. Britain's decision to withdraw on 26 April prompted Reynaud to travel to London to personally lobby the British to stand and fight in Norway.[8]

The Battle of France began less than two months after Reynaud came to office. France was badly mauled by the initial attack in early May 1940, and Paris was threatened. On 15 May, five days after the invasion began, Reynaud contacted his British counterpart and famously remarked, "We have been defeated... we are beaten; we have lost the battle.... The front is broken near Sedan." Charles de Gaulle, whom Reynaud had long supported and one of the few French commanders to have fought the Germans successfully in 1940, was promoted to brigadier general and named undersecretary of war.

Bibliography
World War II Magazine's WWII Day-By-Day Desk Diary

Saturday, March 19, 2011

1940 Chronology: 19 March

The first strong condemnation of Nazism from an official represntative of the US government. The US ambassasdor in Canada, James Cromwell, declares that Hitler's GErmany is openly trying to destroy the social economic order on which the government of the USA is based.

As a reprisal for the GErman attack on Scapa Flow on 14 October 1939, 50 RAF bombers raid the GErman seaplane base at Hornum on the island of Sylt.

James Cromwell
from Wikipedia
James Henry Roberts Cromwell (June 4, 1896 – March 19, 1990) was an American diplomat, candidate for the United States Senate, author, and one-time husband of Doris Duke, "the richest girl in the world".[1]

Biography
He was born in Manhattan on June 4, 1896 to Eva Roberts and Oliver Eaton Cromwell. Cromwell’s sister Louise Cromwell Brooks was the first wife of Douglas MacArthur and the third wife of Lionel Atwill. After the death of her husband, Eva Cromwell married Edward T. Stotesbury in 1912 and moved to Philadelphia where Cromwell grew up.

Cromwell's first wife was automotive company heiress Delphine Dodge, the only daughter of Horace Dodge of Grosse Pointe, Michigan, one of the two co-founders of the Dodge Motor Company. Cromwell and Delphine were the parents of one daughter, Christine Cromwell, born in 1922. They were divorced in 1928.

In 1935, Cromwell married the 22 year-old Doris Duke. It was a "marriage from hell". olitically, both Cromwell and Duke were supporters of Franklin Roosevelt and his New Deal. He published books to present his economic ideas and advocated a tighter control of the Federal Reserve. In 1940, for 142 days, he was the United States Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary to Canada. He resigned to run for Senator of New Jersey in the 1940 elections, where he was defeated. After bitter and protracted legal proceedings Cromwell and Duke were divorced in 1948.

Cromwell was married to his third wife, Maxine MacFetridge, from April 24, 1948, until her death in 1968. Their daughter, Maxine Hope Cromwell (later Hopkins), was born in New York on November 17, 1948. Germaine Benjamin was Cromwell's fourth and last wife, from 1971 until her death in 1987.

Cromwell died in the Marin Terrace retirement home in Mill Valley, California, at the age of 93.


Bibliography
World War II Magazine's WWII Day-By-Day Desk Diary

Friday, March 18, 2011

1940 Chronology: 18 March

Hitler and Mussolini meet at Brennero, on the Brenner pass. The Italian dictaor declares that Italy is ready to join the war against Britain and France.

From Wikipedia:
Brenner Pass (German: Brennerpass; Italian: Passo del Brennero) is a mountain pass through the Alps along the border between Italy and Austria, and is one of the principal passes of the Alps. It is the lowest of the Alpine passes, and one of the few in the area. For that reason possession of the pass has long been coveted.

Below the pass, high Alpine pastures have been used by dairy cattle for summer grazing, making space available at lower altitudes for cultivating and harvesting hay for winter fodder. Many of the high pastures are at altitudes over 1,000 meters.

The central section, the Brenner Pass itself, covers the track between Sterzing and Matrei, through the village of Brenner.

The pass was a trackway for mule trains and carts until a carriage road was opened in 1777. The railway was completed in 1867 and is the only transalpine rail route without a major tunnel. Since the end of World War I in 1918, when international borders shifted, control of the pass has been shared between Italy and Austria. Until then, both sides of the pass had been within the Habsburg-ruled Austro-Hungarian Empire. During World War II, the German leader Adolf Hitler and the Italian leader Benito Mussolini met there to celebrate their Pact of Steel on 18 March 1940. This pass was the way out of Germany for some Nazis after collapse of the government in 1945.

Bibliography
World War II Magazine's WWII Day-By-Day Desk Diary

Wednesday, March 16, 2011

News: Latvian court allows march honouring Waffen SS forces

The Local: Germany's News in English: Latvian court allows march honouring Waffen SS forces

Hundreds of people met in the Latvian capital of Riga on Wednesday to remember World War II veterans who fought with Nazi Germany in the Waffen SS, after a court overturned a ban on the controversial annual gathering.

On Tuesday, a Riga court removed the city council’s ban on the “Legion Day,” allowing the veterans and their supporters to march through the city centre the next day.

They plan to commemorate the some 140,000 Latvian men who fought against the Russians with the German military.

Latvia was occupied by the Red Army in 1940, and many residents saw the Germans as liberators when they marched in one year later. A number of men subsequently volunteered or were conscripted into the Latvian Legion, an offshoot of the Waffen SS.

While the group, nationalist veterans’ organisation Daugavas Vanagi, says the march is simply a remembrance of those forced to wear the Nazi uniform, critics allege that it actually exalts the fascist forces.

“A brave Latvian leader must say to his people: These should not be heroes to a democratic member of the European Union,” director of the Simon Wiesenthal Center Efraim Zuroff told German news agency DPA.

A group of ethnic Russians also gathered in central Riga to protest the march, saying it dishonoured their fight against Nazi Germany, according to news agency AP.

A large number of police were also reportedly on hand to ensure the ceremony was conducted peacefully.

Tuesday, March 15, 2011

Hitler Triumphant, edited by Peter Tsouras


Hitler Triumphant: Alternate Decisions of World War II, edited by Peter Tsouras
Greenhill Books, 2006
288 pages. Maps, illustrations, 16 pages of b&w photos, no index
Library: 940.53 HIT

-Alternate scenarios based on real events and characters
-"What ifs' played out realistically with radical outcomes
-Written by eleven renowned military historians

Based on a series of fascinating "What ifs" posed by leading military historians, this compelling new alternate history reconstructs the moments during the Second World WAr which could conceivably have altered the entire course of the conflict and lef to a German victory.

Based on real battles, actions and characters, each scenario has been carefully constructed to reveal how at points of decision a different choice or minor incident could have set in motion an entirely new train of events altering history forever.

Scenarios in this volume range from the possibility of a British prime minister making peace with Hitler in 1940, through the fall of Malta in 1942 and its likely consequences, to the heavy defeat of Eisenhower's landings in northern France in 1943.

Table of Contents
List of illustrations
List of contributors
Introduction

1. May day
-The premiership of Lord Halifax, by Nigel Jones
2. Peace in Our Time
-Memories of Life at Fuhrer Headquarters, by Charles Vasey
3. The Spanish Gambit
-Operation FELIX, by John Prados
4. Navigare Necesse Est, Vivere Non Est Necesses
-Mussolini and the Legacy of Pompey the GReat, by Wade G. Dudley
5. The Health of the State
-Italy and Global War, by David C. Isby
6. Black Cross, Green Crescent, Black Gold
-The Drive to Indus, by David M. Keithly
7. Wings over the Caucasus
-Operation LEONARDO, by Paddy Griffith
9. To the Last Drop od Blood
-The Fall of Moscow, by Kim H. Campbell
9. The Stalingrad Breakout
-"Raus pulls you Throu" by Peter G. Tsouras
10. For WAnt of an Island
-The Fall of Malta and German Victory, by John D. Burtt
11. Ike's Cockade
-Thee Allied Invasion of France 1943, by Stephen Badsey

Sunday, March 13, 2011

1940 Chronology: 13 March

Finland: At 11:00 am all hostilities cease on the Finnish front. In its war with the Soviet Union, Finland has lost some 25,000 dead, as against 200,000 lost by the Russians; the wounded number 45,000 against an unspecified, but certainly higher, number by the Russians.

By the end of the operations on the Finnish front, at least 45 Russian infantry divisions, 4 calvary divisions and 12 armoured groups have been deployed. The Finns have never been able to put more than 200,000 men altogether in the field.

Bibliography
World War II Magazine's WWII Day-By-Day Desk Diary

Saturday, March 12, 2011

1940 Chronology: 12 March

Moscow: A peace treaty between Finland and the Soviet Union is signed in Moscow. The conditions dictated by the Soviet government and accepted by the Finns are severe; they include the cession of the Karelian isthmus, including Viipuri, of part of eastern Karelia, and of the Rybachiy peninsula in the Barents sea.

The terms confirm that the Hanko peninsula must be leased to the USSR for 30 years and that Russian personnel and materials must be allowed free passage in the region of Petsamo. Stricken and humiliated, Finland retains its independence.

Bibliography
World War II Magazine's WWII Day-By-Day Desk Diary

Thursday, March 10, 2011

85-year-old U.S. Army sniper veteran proves he hasn't lost his skills as he picks off a target at 1,000 yards

DailyMailOnline [UK]: 85-year-old U.S. Army sniper veteran proves he hasn't lost his skills as he picks off a target at 1,000 yards

He may be 85 years old, but when Army sniper veteran Ted Gundy was given the chance to show off the skills he used in World War Two, he proved he could still keep up with the very best.

That’s because he was invited to try out the Army’s latest technology in a challenge to hit a target a whopping 1,000 yards away.

But the former member of the Missouri honour guard, stepped up to the challenge with an extremely level head.

After all, he had fought in the Battle of the Bulge – considered one of the most defining clashes of U.S. Army history and remains the largest battle ever fought by United States troops.

Before he could get his hands on the modern day equipment, the Army presented him with a 1903 A4 replica sniper – the same he used in the war and had not seen since 1944.

Despite a 66-year gap without using the gun, he had no [problem] picking off a target at 300 yards, with all three shots hitting the target.

It was then that the officers taught him how the Army’s custom made Remington 700 works and explained how a 1,000 yard shot can be achieved.

It involves a second sniper, called a spotter, judging the wind direction and any other conditions that could affect the bullet’s trajectory.

Mr Gundy, who lives in Memphis, Missouri, said before the shot: ‘I couldn’t even dream in a thousand years how you would even see the target, yet alone hit it.

‘I hope that I can hit the target but if I was betting money I’d bet nine to one that I don’t. That’s a long, long way.’

But his modesty was greater than his skills and he managed with ease to pick off the target, with three impressive head shots all within five inches of each other.
He said afterwards: ‘I couldn’t believe I could have hit anything that far away.’
SFC Robby Johnson, who taught Mr Gundy how to use the new equipment said: ‘To meet someone that was actually there and was a sniper back then, it’s just a great honour.’

Mr Gundy, holding back the tears, said the experience was ‘one of the nicest things to ever happen in my life.’

Freedom Flyers, by J. Todd Moye


Freedom Flyers: The Tuskegee Airmen of World War II, by J. Todd Moye\Oxford University Press, 2010
185 pages plus acknowledgments, Notes on pages, notes on sources, Bibliography, index and 8 pages of photos

Description
As the country's first Africam American military pilots, the Tuskegee Airmen fought in World WAr II on two fronts: against the Axis powers in the skies over Europe and against Jim Crow racism and segregation at home. Although the pilots flew more than 15,000 sorties and destroyed more than 200 German aircraft, their most far-reaching achievement defies qualification: delivering a powerful blow to racial inequality and descrimination in American life.

In this inspiring account of the Tuskegee Airmen, historian J. Todd Moye captures the challenges and triumphs of these brave pilots in their own words, drawing on more than 800 interviews recorded for the National Park Service's Tuskegee Airmen Oral History Project. Denied the right to fully participate in the US war effort alongside whites at the beginning of WWII, African Americans-spurred on by black newspapers and by civil rights organizations such as the NAACP-compelled the prestigious Army Air Corps to open its training program to black pilots, despite the objections of its top generals.

Thousands of young men came from every part of the country to Tuskegee, Alabama, in the heart of the segregated South, to enter the program, which expanded in 1943 to train multi-engine bomber pilots in addition to fighter pilots.

By the end of the war, Tuskegee Airfield had become a small city populated by black mechanics, parachute packers, doctors, and nurses. Together, they helped prove that racial segregation of the fighting forces was so inefficient as to be counterproductive to the nation's defense.

Freedom Flyers brings to life the legacy of a determined, visionary cadre of African American airmen who proved their capabilities and patriotism beyond question, transformed the armed forced-formerly the nation's most racially polarized institution, and jump-started the modern struggle for racial equality.

Table of contents
Prologue: "This is where you ride"
1. The use of Negro manpower in war
2. The Black Eagles take flight
3. The Experiment
4. Combat on Several Fronts
5. The Trials of the 477th
6. Integrating the Air Force
Epilogue: Lets make it a holy crusade all the way around
Acknowledgments
Notes
A Note on sources
Bibliography
Index

Wednesday, March 9, 2011

1940 Chronology: 9 March

Finland: The Finnish army is no longer able to hold its positions and General Mannerheim asks the politicians to come to terms with the enemy.

Bibliography
World War II Magazine's WWII Day-By-Day Desk Diary

Tuesday, March 8, 2011

1940 Chronology: 8 March

Finland: The Russians take Viipuri. The USSR refuses a Finnish request for an immediate armistice.

Bibliography
World War II Magazine's WWII Day-By-Day Desk Diary

Monday, March 7, 2011

Stirling's Men, by Gavin Mortimer


Stirling's Men: The Inside History of the SAS in World War II, by Gavin Mortimer
Cassell, 2004
364 pages plus 24 b&w photos on glossy paper, bibliography and index.
Library: 940.541241 MOR


Description
Today, the SAS is the most famous fighting force in the World. But for most of WWII no one knew very much about them.

Gavin Mortimer has interviewed nearly sixty of the wartime SAS soldiers, including many veternans who have never before revealed their role in the legendary regiment. We follow them on raids against German airfields in North Africa, through Siciliy and Italy where they derailed trains and stormed coastal gun emplacements, into France in 1944 where 8,000 enemy personnel were killed or wounded by the SAS, and finally Germany when the fighting against fanatical SS troops was merciless.

Along the way we meet the incredible characters thrown together by war, including the Irish rugby international who won four DSO's, the Lancashire miner who escaped from a Nazi firing squad, and of course, Stirling himself: the man responsible for founding the greatest Special Forces unit the world has ever seen.

Table of Contents
Map list
Maps
Acknowledgments
Glossary
Main Players
Foreword
1. North Africa 1941-2
2. Sicily and Italy 1943
3. France 1944
4. The End in Sight 1945
Epilogue
Bibliography
Index

Sunday, March 6, 2011

1940 Chronology: 6 March

Finland: A Finnish delegation led by Juho Kusti Paasikivi, an experienced politician and diplomat, arrives in Moscow. General Mannerheim, seeing it is useless to continue the one-sided struggle, has accepted that there must be talks with the Soviet Union.

The Western powers still continue to offer aid, but send only small quantities of mostly outof-date arms.

Juho Kusti Paasikivi
(from Wikipedia)
Juho Kusti Paasikivi (November 27, 1870 – December 14, 1956) was the seventh President of Finland (1946–1956). He also served as Prime Minister of Finland (1918 and 1944–1946), and was generally an influential figure in Finnish economics and politics for over fifty years. He is particularly remembered as a main architect of Finland's foreign policy after the Second World War.

He was born as Johan Gustaf Hellsten in 1870 at Hämeenkoski in Päijänne Tavastia in Southern Finland, the son of August Hellsten, a merchant, and Karolina Wilhelmina Selin. He Finnicized his name to Juho Kusti Paasikivi in 1885.

General Mannerheim
(from Wikipedia)
Baron Carl Gustaf Emil Mannerheim (4 June 1867 – 27 January 1951) was the Commander-in-Chief of Finland's Defence Forces, Marshal of Finland and a politician. He was Regent of Finland (1918–1919) and the sixth President of Finland (1944–1946).

Mannerheim was born in the Grand Principality of Finland, a territory of Imperial Russia, into a family of Swedish-speaking nobles settled in Finland since the late 18th century. His paternal German ancestor Marhein had emigrated to Sweden during the 17th century. His maternal ancestry has its roots in Södermanland, Sweden.

He made a career in the Russian army, rising to general. He also had a prominent place in the ceremonies for Tsar Nicholas II's coronation and later had several private meetings with the Russian Tzar. After the Bolshevik revolution, Finland declared its independence but was soon embroiled in a civil war along class lines. The workers overwhelmingly held a socialist ("Red") creed; whereas the bourgeois, farmers, and businessmen held a capitalist ("White") creed. Mannerheim became the military chief of the Finnish Whites and defeated the Reds and communists. Twenty years later, when Finland was at war with the Soviet Union from 1939–1944, Mannerheim was appointed commander of the country's armed forces.

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World War II Magazine's WWII Day-By-Day Desk Diary

Saturday, March 5, 2011

1940 Chronology: 5 March

Finland: The USSR announces that it is 'once more' prepared to negotiate peace on the terms offered before, which expired on 1 March. The Finnish government, faced with a desperate military situation, accepts.

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World War II Magazine's WWII Day-By-Day Desk Diary

Friday, March 4, 2011

1940 Chronology: 4 March

In Finland, Russian armoured troops attack the city of Viipuri [now Vyborg, in the USSR], the most strategic point in Karelia and indeed in southern Finland. The operation is assisted by thick ice covering the waters of the Gulf of Finland.

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World War II Magazine's WWII Day-By-Day Desk Diary

Thursday, March 3, 2011

1940 Chronology: 3 March

In Finland, Russian General Timoshenko launches a massive offensive in Karelia.

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World War II Magazine's WWII Day-By-Day Desk Diary

1940 Chronology: 29 February

In Finland, General Timoshenko's troops complete their overrun of the second Finnish defensive line.

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World War II Magazine's WWII Day-By-Day Desk Diary

Wednesday, March 2, 2011

1940 Chronology: 2 March

The French army information services reveal German preparations for an attack on Norway and Denmark. Sweden and Norway repeat their warning that Allied troops and war material may not cross their territory.

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World War II Magazine's WWII Day-By-Day Desk Diary

Tuesday, March 1, 2011

Navajo Nation mourns death of another code talker

KSWT 13 News: Navajo Nation mourns death of another code talker
WINDOW ROCK, Ariz. (AP) - Joe Antonio Silversmith, a member of the Navajo Code Talkers who confounded the Japanese during World War II by transmitting messages in their native language, has died. He was 86.

Navajo Nation officials say Silversmith died Monday at his home in Coolidge, N.M. No cause of death was immediately available.

Tribal President Ben Shelly ordered flags on the Navajo Nation Nation to be flown at half-staff from March 2-5 to honor Silversmith.

Silversmith joined the 297 Marine Platoon at age 18 and served in the South Pacific from March 1943 to 1946.

In 2001, Silversmith received the Silver Congressional Medal of Honor for serving in World War II.

He is survived by his wife, Ramona, two daughters and six grandchildren.

Silversmith's funeral is scheduled for Saturday in Thoreau, N.M.

Legislation introduced to honor CAP World War II veterans

The Weekly: Legislation introduced to honor CAP World War II veterans

WASHINGTON (March 1, 2011) – Bipartisan legislation has just been introduced in the 112th Congress to honor World War II members of Civil Air Patrol. The two identical bills are intended to award a single Congressional Gold Medal to Civil Air Patrol in recognition of the highly unusual service performed by the volunteer men and women of the organization who, using their own aircraft, conducted combat operations and other emergency missions during a period of great danger to America.

In the U.S. Senate, Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, introduced S. 418, along with Sens. Mark Begich, D-Alaska, Mike Crapo, R-Idaho, Daniel Inouye, D-Hawaii, Olympia Snowe, R-Maine, and Ron Wyden, D-Ore. In the U.S. House, Rep. Bob Filner, D-Calif., has introduced H.R. 719. The introduction of the two bills starts a national campaign to honor Civil Air Patrol veterans in time for the organization’s 70th anniversary on Dec. 1, 2011. CAP was established in 1941, one week before Pearl Harbor.

Inouye, commenting recently on the wartime service of Civil Air Patrol members, said, “During World War II, these courageous men and women dutifully patrolled our air space, searched for submarines off our coasts and provided our nation with whatever they were asked to give. They made the same sacrifices I and thousands of uniformed armed service members made during that historic conflict. They deserve our praise and should be honored for their service."

The Congressional Gold Medal commemorates distinguished service to the nation and is considered by many to be the highest form of congressional recognition. Since 1776, only about 300 such awards have been given to a wide range of military leaders and accomplished civilians, including George Washington, John Glenn, Robert Frost, Douglas MacArthur and Colin Powell. Foreigners awarded the medal have included Winston Churchill, Simon Wiesenthal and Mother Teresa.

The award to Civil Air Patrol would be unusual in that a single medal would be awarded for the collective efforts of all CAP World War II adult members. Other organizations that have been recognized by Congress for their wartime contributions include the Navajo Code Talkers, Tuskegee Airmen and Women’s Airforce Service Pilots.

CAP and its members have received little recognition for their World War II service, particularly the anti-submarine coastal patrols, and were not granted veterans’ benefits. Other than some air medals for Coastal Patrol participants, CAP volunteers received little official recognition of their service.

In order for this legislation to be considered by the appropriate congressional committees, 67 senators and 290 representatives must co-sponsor the legislation.

CAP’s World War II volunteers were a diverse group, consisting of men and women 18 to 81 years of age. Surviving CAP members from World War II who are no longer in CAP (or the families of those who are deceased) should contact Holley Dunigan at hdunigan@capnhq.govor call 1-877-227-9142, ext. 236. More information is available at www.capmembers.com/goldmedal.

1940 Chronology: 1 March

Finland: The Soviet ultimatum putting peace proposals to Finland expires.

Western Front: The phoney war continuers with a few exchanges of artillery and a little patrol action. There is German air force action over the North Sea and the Orkneys.

The US Secretary of States, Sumner Welles, arrives in Berlin from Rome before going on to London and Paris. His government has instructed him to offer American mediation in the search for a basis of agreement between the belligerents. But, the enterprise is doomed to failure, first because it is too late, and secondly because by now none of the combatants believe that peace is possible.

Bibliography
World War II Magazine's WWII Day-By-Day Desk Diary