A (hopefully) ongoing thread of historical events/tidbits that happened during WW II. Feel free to add to this thread.

03/01/44 (January 3rd, 1944)

Greg "Pappy" Boyington is shot down by a Zero piloted by Captain Masajiro Kawato.

OOoh, I like this thread. It's like one of those WWII calendars minus the price!

03/01/41 (January 3rd, 1941)

Italian Air Force operations against the UK cease.

Jan 3, 1945

On this day, in preparation for planned assaults against Iwo Jima, Okinawa, and mainland Japan, Gen. Douglas MacArthur is placed in command of all U.S. ground forces and Adm. Chester Nimitz is placed in command of all U.S. naval forces.

Well being this thread just started I'll say that on 1 Janurary 1945, Gerhard Barkhorn scored his 300th victory during Operation Bodenplatte.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: wayno7777,

On this date in 1945 my father was in Germany with the rest of the US 95th Division. They had crossed the Saar River several weeks before, pushing the Germans out of France.

Salute to all the brave men of the Allied Expeditionary Force.

Zeus-cat

January 3rd, 1940, 41, 42, 43, 44, and 45:

Many combatant, non-combatant, army, navy, air force and civilian personnel from every involved nation, including some from nations not directly involved, die.

Boy o boy, have we come a long way from then!

4/1/44 (January 4th, 1944)
"Operation Carpetbagger"-American and RAF aircraft drop arms and supplies to French, Belgian and Italian partisans.

Error

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Luftwaffe_109,

quote:

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Originally posted by WTE_Dukayn:
Jan 3, 1945

On this day, in preparation for planned assaults against Iwo Jima, Okinawa, and mainland Japan, Gen. Douglas MacArthur is placed in command of all U.S. ground forces and Adm. Chester Nimitz is placed in command of all U.S. naval forces.

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Really???!!! I Never heard that before... You mean that MacArthur was in overall command of the U.S, Marines at Iwo Jima in Feb-Mar 1945????!! That is absolutely Amazing!!!...and I thought I knew a LOT about US in WWII...

What I knew was that Commanders for the Iwo Jima operation, code named detachment were as follows:
Admiral Raymond A. Spruance was the operation's overall commander.
Joint Expeditionary Force commander was Vice Admiral Richmond Kelly
Turner. Second in command of the Joint Expeditionary Force was Rear
Admiral Harry W. Hill. Lieutenant General Holland M. "Howlin' Mad-
Smith was assigned as the commanding general of expeditionary troops.
The 5th Amphibious Corps was commanded by Major General Harry Schmidt. Under his command fell the 3d Marine Division commander, Major General Graves B. Erskine; the 4th Marine Division commander, Major General Clifton B. Cates; and the 5th Marine Division commander, Major General Keller E. Rockey.


I didn't know that MacArthur was placed in charge over Spruance and all the naval and Marine forces involved...that really surprised me. I had thought MacArthur had under his command the line of advance(theater of operations) of New guinea advancing up through the Phillipines and(potentially) over and up through Formosa towards Japan itself. Okinawa was the next/last island, and was primarily an Army operation, over which it Could be logical that MacArthur would retain control.

I had thought that Nimitz was in command of the Central Pacific Naval and Marine island hopping operations through Marianas etc and finally up to/including Iwo Jima in Feb 1945...

So I researched it a bit further:
In Fact, Nimitz retained command of the Iwo Jima operation....while true that MacArthur in January 1945 was given control of all American "land forces" in the Pacific, that did NOT include US Marine "Land forces" on places such as Iwo Jima in Feb 45.

Admiral Nimitz , upon America's entry into World War II, had been made CinC Fleet/Ocean Area, putting him in control of both air and sea(including US marine) forces. He oversaw American forces at Midway and the Battle of the Coral Sea, and directed further victories at the Solomon Islands, the Gilbert Islands,etc, and finally, as commander of all naval forces in the Pacific, in Iwo Jima and Okinawa.

Just a bit of clarification...

This could be a very interesting thread...glad it was started.

On this date in Jan 4th 1944 may dad was in the USN stationed in San Diego, Coronado Island ,waiting for overseas deployment, protecting the US from a IJN invasion through Mexico.

I think some of our Polish friends may know Jan. 5 was an important day in their history. Here's a link.

http://www.historychannel.com/tdih/tdih.jsp?category=worldwarii

Russians retook Borovsk.

http://www.usswashington.com/dl04ja42.htm

2d Marine Div arrives on Guadalcanal and battle-weary units begin to be replaced with fresh units.

http://www.ibiblio.org/hyperwar/USMC/Guadalcanal/USMC-M-Guadalcanal-9.html

Meanwhile, the USN carries on operations against IJN forces in the Solomons chain.

To all those men and women who had to fight and especially those who died. All because some idiots wanted to control the world. We didn't start it, be sure as hell finished it. And then we paid to rebuild it for them...unreal!

05/01/44 (Januayr 5th, 1944

Headquarters for the American Strategic Airforce moves to Britian: General Spattz appointed C in C (Commander in Chief) of US 8th Airforce and 15th Airforce.

On this day (5th January) in 1941 in North Africa:

The British 8th Army (under Wavell) captures Bardia in Cyrenaica, taking 45,000 Italian prisoners of war.

Waiting for Jan 06 news.......

6th jan 1940 ltn Jorma Sarvanto (Finnish airforce) shot down 6 SB-2 bombers out of 9 just in 5 minutes (flying Fokker D21). Sarvanto was flying alone.

A true hero!

06/01/43

Opening of 4 days of air attacks on Japanese convoys off New Guinea.

Thanks

On this day (6th January) in 1941 in the Mediterranean:

The Luftwaffe launches its first attacks against British convoys bound for Malta in the Mediterranean.