July 24: Operation Gomorrah

On this date in History ... July 24, 1943:  

Operation Gomorrah is launched. 

Britain begins bombing Hamburg Germany by night and the US bombs it by day. 30,000 Germans were killed & 280,000 buildings were destroyed. 

The effect on Hitler was significant. He refused to visit the burned out cities as “the ruins of the city bespoke nothings but the end of the war for him.” 

Out of the 791 British aircraft, only 12 were lost due to a new radar jamming device named “Window”.  Strips of aluminum foil were dropped by bombers on their way to the bombing sites, confusing German radar who thought the strips were dozens and dozens of aircraft. This confusion diverted the German defense away from the actual bombing targets.

June 6: D-Day & Theodore Roosevelt Jr.

On this date in History .... June 6, 1944:

The day after General Eisenhower gave the order to commence Operation Overlord, which would become known as "D-Day", and would become the largest amphibious military operation in history. Some of the numbers of the day include:

• 6000 ships and landing crafts, carrying ....
• 176,000 troops
• 822 aircraft that would drop parachutists in Normandy
• 13,000 additional aircraft to provide cover and air support.

Hitler believed the invasion was a fake and a diversion and refused to release German troops to the area. 

Theodore Roosevelt Jr., the eldest son of Theodore and Edith Roosevelt, was the only general on D-Day to land by sea with the first wave of troops. He would be the oldest man involved in the invasion (age 56) and the only man to serve with his son on D-Day at Normandy. 

He heard the first wave landing craft had drifted more than a mile off target.  Armed with only a pistol, he took off walking with his cane to find the causeways to be used as an inland landing point. He then returned to the commanders and shared the information, coordinating the attack.  His famous words at this point were, "We'll start the war from right here!"

Roosevelt died a month later of a heart attack in his tent.  He was buried in the American cemetery in Normandy.  

His Medal of Honor Citation reads:

"Citation: for gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty on 6 June 1944, in France. After 2 verbal requests to accompany the leading assault elements in the Normandy invasion had been denied, Brig. Gen. Roosevelt's written request for this mission was approved and he landed with the first wave of the forces assaulting the enemy-held beaches. He repeatedly led groups from the beach, over the seawall and established them inland. His valor, courage, and presence in the very front of the attack and his complete unconcern at being under heavy fire inspired the troops to heights of enthusiasm and self-sacrifice. 

Although the enemy had the beach under constant direct fire, Brig. Gen. Roosevelt moved from one locality to another, rallying men around him, directed and personally led them against the enemy.  Under his seasoned, precise, calm, and unfaltering leadership, assault troops reduced beach strong points and rapidly moved inland with minimum casualties. He thus contributed substantially to the successful establishment of the beachhead in France."

Citation/Quote Source: 
http://www.1id.army.mil/bigredone/commandteam/former/ADC/Roosevelt%20Jr.,%20Theodore.htm

May 27: The Bismarck

On this date in History .... May 27, 1941:  

The British navy sinks the German battleship Bismarck in the North Atlantic near France. The German death toll was more than 2,000.  

On February 14, 1939, the 823-foot Bismarck was launched at Hamburg. Nazi leader Adolf Hitler hoped that the state-of-the-art battleship would herald the rebirth of the German surface battle fleet. After a May 24^th battle with “almost the entire British Home Fleet”, the Bismarck was crippled and badly leaking fuel.  It tried to return to occupied France but the British fleet tracked it down and finished it off. 

The incident inspired this Johnny Horton song:

April 29: Liberation of Dachau

On this date in History ..... 1945:

The U.S. Seventh Army liberated Dachau, the first concentration camp established just five weeks after Hitler became Chancellor. 

The pile of shoes found by American
soldiers when they entered Dachau.
Photo source: www.theholocaustexplained.org 

American soldiers encountered 30 railroad cars of dead bodies in various stages of decomposition as they neared the camp. Once inside the camp, they found more dead bodies and 30,000 survivors. The story goes that the Americans were so enraged at what they found, that 30 SS guards were machine-gunned down. 

The civilian townspeople of Dachau were forced to come to the camp and see what was going on right next to them. They then had to bury over 9000 of the dead.  (See this blog for more on the story of bringing neighboring civilians to see these camps: www.scrapbookpages.com ).

Incomplete records indicated over 32,000 people died in the camps of Dachau.  (To put this in perspective, my hometown had a population of approx. 36,000 in 2012. Can you imagine going home one day and finding out the entire town had been killed?)   

While the liberation of this camp was going on, Adolf Hitler and Eva Braun were having a wedding ceremony. They committed suicide the next day.

And in case you missed the big headline:  Prince William and Kate Middleton decided to get married on Adolph and Eva's wedding date.  How did the royal wedding planners miss THAT piece of trivia?

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February 26: Hitler Begins the Luftwaffe

On this date in History ..... 1935:

Nazi leader Adolf Hitler signs a secret decree authorizing the founding of the Reich Luftwaffe as a third German military service to join the Reich army and navy. In the same decree, Hitler appointed Hermann Goering, a German air hero from World War I and high-ranking Nazi, as commander in chief of the new German air force.

 

While the Versailles Treaty prevented Germany from building a military, Hitler began a civilian airline named Lufthansa which gave pilots flight training. All of this was done in the open so foreign governments would not be suspicious and believe it was civilian.  As the fleet grew, Britain and France protested but Germany’s production of planes continued.  In four short years, Germany boasted a fleet of over 1000 fighters and over 1000 bombers.

 

Eventually, British technology (radar and the Spitfire plane) out performed Germany’s planes, reducing the Germany threat in the skies.

 

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December 31: Henry Ford

On this date in History ..... 1927:

Henry Ford publishes the last issue of his newspaper, the Dearborn Independent. 

 

Ford used the paper as a platform for his anti-Semitic views. Ford was “an unapologetic bigot”, hating labor unions, immigrants and everything Jewish, blaming Jewish bankers with everything that was wrong with the world, and convinced that the Jewish population would take over the world by way of commerce and exchange. He believed wars were started by Jews just so they could profit from them.

 

In 1927 a Jewish lawyer sued him for defamation. Ford faked an auto accident to avoid testifying and ended up settling out of court. He issued an insincere apology: “--"to my great regret," he wrote, "I have learned that Jews...resent this publication as promoting anti-Semitism.”  

 

Many of its articles and essays were collected and published in a book called "The International Jew: The World's Foremost Problem." It was a bestseller in Nazi Germany and remains in print today.  In January 1937, a Ford statement to the Detroit Jewish Chronicle disavowed "any connection whatsoever with the publication in Germany of a book known as theInternational Jew." 

 

Hitler even quoted the Dearborn Independent in Mein Kampf and Henry Ford was the only American that Hitler specifically named.

 

On Ford’s 75^th birthday, the German Consul gave Ford the award of the Grand Cross of the German Eagle, the highest medal Nazi Germany could bestow on a foreigner.

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December 11: Hitler declares war on U.S.

On this date in History .... 1941:

Hitler declares war on the United States. 

Hitler had a verbal agreement with Japan that Germany would join Japan in a war against the U.S. but was unsure on how that would come about. The bombing of Pearl Harbor was the perfect opening, even though the attack had surprised even Germany.  

German Foreign Minister von Ribbenthrop feared the addition of the U.S. would overwhelm Germany’s war effort but Hitler didn’t agree. He thought Japan was stronger than they actually were and figured once Japan defeated the U.S. then Japan would help Germany defeat Russia.

Once the declaration of war had been delivered, Hitler addressed the Reichstag, claiming the true cause of the war was entirely the fault of Roosevelt and his failed New Deal, accusing FDR of inciting war, falsifying causes, then wrapping himself in “Christian hypocrisy and slowly but surely leads mankind to war”.  At the end of this speech, the Reichstag “leaped to their feet in thunderous applause.” 

FDR’s request to Congress for a Declaration of War was unanimously approved.


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