Subject: WWII-L Digest - 22 Jul 1994 to 23 Jul 1994

From: Automatic digest processor <[email-masked]>
Date: Sun, 24 Jul 1994 00:01:04 -0400

There are 14 messages totalling 477 lines in this issue.

Topics of the day:

  1. INF: USN Chronology 07-23-94
  2. Japanese Surrender (3)
  3. 50 Years Ago - 24-JUL-1944
  4. WEAP: Hetzer TD's
  5. 50th: A NARROW ESCAPE
  6. Invasion USA
  7. Japan's intent to attack Germany ... afterwards.
  8. Moe Berg ... and Other Remarkables.
  9. ATTENTION:  Disbelievers and Unread Ingrates!  :-) (2)
 10. (My) Military/Naval History Events at GenCon, Mil WI, 20-21Aug94
 11. Airpower Between the Wars

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Date:    Sat, 23 Jul 1994 04:39:16 PST
From:    "Keller, Theron P." <[email-masked]>
Subject: INF: USN Chronology 07-23-94

UNITED STATES NAVY CHRONOLOGY
from:
//byrd.mu.wvnet.edu/pub/history/military/wwii/naval_chronology/chr4(4,5).txt

1944
07/23 Sun.  United States naval vessels damaged:
             Destroyer NORMAN SCOTT (DD-690), by coastal defense gun,
              Marianas Islands area,
              15 d. 02'N., 145 d. 50'E.
             Highspeed minesweeper CHANDLER (DMS-9), by fire, Mari-
              anas Islands, area,
              15 d. 08'N., 145 d. 28'E.

Theron P. Keller
Logicon, Inc.
Dahlgren, VA  22448 USA
[email-masked]

------------------------------

Date:    Sat, 23 Jul 1994 09:51:52 -0600
From:    Tony Schuler <[email-masked]>
Subject: Japanese Surrender

Where can I find information on Japanese fighting on once occupied
islands after September 2, 1945? Were there many instances of fighting after
the war was officially over. I also note that VJ day is 9/2/45 in America and
8/15/45 in Britain. Why the vast differences in dates between the two govern-
ments?

thanks,

tony schuler

------------------------------

Date:    Sat, 23 Jul 1994 08:19:29 -0700
From:    John Davis <[email-masked]>
Subject: 50 Years Ago - 24-JUL-1944

On 24-JUL-1944, the following occurred -

World War II - The Battlefronts
-------------------------------
Western Front - The US 28th Division lands at Normandy. Allied air bombings
     begin in preparation for Operation Cobra, west of St Lo. Very bad weather
     postpones the start of the operation however.

Eastern Front - The 1st Belorussian Front captures Lublin, in Poland. The
     right flank of the 1st Ukraine Front crosses the river San northwest of
     Lvov.

Marianas - On Guam, the 3rd Marine Division are meeting strong Japanese
     resistance as they attempt to capture the heights overlooking the
     northern beachhead. The 2nd and 4th Marine Divisions land on the
     northwest coast of Tinian Island. The invasion force is composed of about
     15,600 men. The Japanese garrison of about 6,200 men, is drawn off to the
     the southwest corner of the island by a dummy landing opposite the town
     of Tinian by the 2nd Marine Division. During the afternoon, the Japanese
     troops try to reach the north of the island, where the landings have been
     successfully carried out, but suffer severe losses from a hail of napalm
     bombs dropped by US aircraft. This is the first time that napalm is used
     in the Pacific. During the night, 600 Japanese attack the beachhead but
     are wiped out. Additional counter-attacks occur later on during the
     night. At dawn, the Marines advance and count 1,241 Japanese dead.

New Guinea - The Americans repulse yet another attempt by the Japanese to
     cross the river Driniumor in the Aitape area. Near Afua, about 2,000
     Japanese are still surrounding units of the US 112th Cavalry.

China - The garrison at the town of Hengyang continue to hold out bravely
     against the Japanese attacks. The town is cut off and unable to receive
     any supplies for a week owing to the bad weather conditions.

Naval Dispatches
----------------
US battleship COLORADO (BB-45) damaged by coastal defense gun, Marianas
     Islands area.

LST 481 damaged by coastal defense gun, Marianas Islands area.

The Homefront
-------------
Unions To Favor Vets - Carl J. Schoeninger, commander of the Veterans of
     Foreign Wars, says that he has reached an agreement with the AFL and CIO
     officials pledging preferential treatment be given to war veterans.
     Seniority credits will be given for the military service period and union
     dues and membership fees will be set at the Jan. 1, 1940 level.

Radios In Need Of Repair - The WPB reports that 15% of the 46,000,000 American
     radios have been forced out of operation since the beginning of the war
     and that an additional 28% need repair.

=============================================================================

Sources: "2194 Days of War" by Cesare Salmaggi and Alfredo Pallavisimi, "The
World Almanac Book Of WW II" by Peter Young, "United States Naval Chronology,
World War II" by Naval Historical Division - United States Navy, "Facts On
File Yearbook 1944, Person's Index Of World Events" edited by R.L. Lapica.

----------
John Davis  ([email-masked]/[email-masked])
Cary, N.C.
----------

------------------------------

Date:    Sun, 24 Jul 1994 00:31:02 +0900
From:    Akira Takiguchi <[email-masked]>
Subject: WEAP: Hetzer TD's

"David N. Tanner" <[email-masked]>:
>Can some one out there give me some good information on Hetzers,
>specifically about their use on the eastern front. I've been under
>the impression that they were used primarily on the western front and
>would like to confirm that they were used in the east.

     As usual :), I recommend Mr. Spielberger's work.  _Leichte
Jagdpanzer_ (Spielberger et al, Volume 14 of the series Militaerfahrzeuge)
probably contains everything you want.  From page 87:

    1944  Jul  90  East
          Aug  57  East
               14  West
          Sep  28  East
               45  West
               10  SouthEast

     etc, etc.  More Hetzers went to the Eastern Front than to the West.

Akira Takiguchi  ATSON, Inc.

------------------------------

Date:    Sat, 23 Jul 1994 16:43:15 +0200
From:    JOHN AUSLAND <[email-masked]>
Subject: 50th: A NARROW ESCAPE

  Oslo, July 23, 1994

  July 24 and 25, 1944 were unforgetable days for those of us in the 7th Corps,
which we came to associate with OPERATION COBRA.  July 24 was the day for the
false start, July 25 for the heavy bombing.  I will send later a message which
gives an account of the operation.  Just now I will register a more personal
note about what happened to me on July 24, by using extracts from Chapter 6 of
LETTERS HOME.

          A NARROW ESCAPE

          During the morning of July 24, I entered a farm yard. I
          do not remember why I was there, since the First
          Battalion to which I was attached was in reserve. I do
          remember clearly, however, what happened.

          As I approached the farm, an infantryman warned me
          that the Germans had it under observation and had been
          firing artillery shells when anyone entered the yard. I
          crossed the open space, therefore, quickly and went into
          a barn. A young officer was lying on his back on a table.
          At first, I thought he was asleep. Then I noticed the
          ashen color a face takes on after a person dies. I looked
          at him for awhile, trying to discover any signs that he
          had been hit. There were none.

          Leaving this building, I ducked into a nearby shed, where
          I found Capt. Claude Mercer, liaison officer to the Second
          Battalion, lying on a stretcher. I said, "Mercer, what in
          the hell happened to you?" Fortunately, rather than
          replying to my question, he said, "Get out of that door,
          you dumb bastard!" Just as I took a step forward to
          where I was protected by the shed's stone wall, an
          artillery shell exploded in the farmyard. Shell fragments
          flew through the door where I had been and hit the wall
          beyond.

          All this happened so quickly that I was not sure later
          whether I had thanked Claude. This was on my mind for
          many years, and I was glad to see him in 1980 at a 4th
          Division reunion. This gave me a chance to express my
          appreciation for his saving my life.

          With Claude Mercer out of action, I reported to the
          commander of the Second Battalion and told him I would
          take over as liaison officer. At that point, the battalion
          staff had taken shelter in a stone shed on the side of
          the farmhouse away from the German artillery. Every
          once in a while, a shell would hit the top of the house,
          and tiles would thunder down onto the roof of the shed.
          Although not terribly dangerous, it was unnerving.

          Having no telephone communications with the forward
          observers who were with the infantry companies, I told
          Orville Schroeder, my communications sergeant, to lay
          lines to them. Understandably, he protested, saying,
          "Those Germans have us under observation. It will be
          suicide to go out there." I insisted, however, that he do
          it, since it was essential to have communications. He
          looked at me and said, "All right. I'll do it. But, if I am
          killed, it will be on your conscience."

          The most difficult thing in battle is to order men to do
          things which could cost their lives. There is, however,
          often little choice. This was one of those times. I was,
          nevertheless, greatly relieved when Sgt. Schroeder
          reappeared, having laid the telephone lines. Partly to cope
          with my feelings of guilt, I later recommended him for an
          award.  END EXCERPTS

  I can add that, in 1992, I revisited the scene of COBRA and, with some
difficulty, located the farm in which this incident took place.  As always, the
people who lived there were very hospitable.  The reason it was difficult to
identify the place was that they had rebuilt the shed, so that it had a stone
facade rather than concrete.

------------------------------

Date:    Sat, 23 Jul 1994 10:30:57 -0700
From:    Jack Brown <[email-masked]>
Subject: Re: Japanese Surrender

> I also note that VJ day is 9/2/45 in America and
> 8/15/45 in Britain. Why the vast differences in dates between the two govern-
> ments?

8-15 was the day the Japanese announced they were surrendering.
Effectively, the war was over.  9-2 was the day they actually signed the
papers on the Missouri.

=========================================================================
Lord, grant me the serenity to accept the things  | [email-masked].
I cannot change, the courage to change the things |   washington.edu
I can and the wisdom to hide the bodies of those  | [email-masked]
people I had to kill because they pissed me off.  | aka Jack Brown
=========================================================================

------------------------------

Date:    Sat, 23 Jul 1994 08:49:06 PDT
From:    Sidney Allinson <[email-masked]>
Subject: Re: Invasion USA

Jim Curry...
        "clergyman... only American civilian to be killed by enemy action
        on continental US..."
??
I belive that a family of one woman and three (?) children were killed
in Oregon when they came across a Japanese balloon-bomb which exploded.
Early 1945, as I recall."

Sidney Allinson.

--

------------------------------

Date:    Sat, 23 Jul 1994 14:18:05 -0500
From:    "Louis R. Coatney" <[email-masked]>
Subject: Japan's intent to attack Germany ... afterwards.

Robert Hohlt,

     I remember reading a pre-war interview of a Zhirinovsky-like
Japanese militarist, wherein he implied Japan's intent to rule the
*whole* world.

     No, there's no way I could re-trace it ... (unless it's in the
old READER'S GUIDE TO PERIODICAL LITERATURE ... or ...)

Lou Coatney

------------------------------

Date:    Sat, 23 Jul 1994 14:24:59 -0500
From:    "Louis R. Coatney" <[email-masked]>
Subject: Moe Berg ... and Other Remarkables.

A henchman of Beria in the Soviet NKVD -- I believe his name
  was Raikhman (Reichmann? auf Deutsch) -- became a productive
  expert on celestial physics.  Among his mistresses was one
  of the prettier Bolshoi ballerinas.  Stalin/Beria eventually
  felt uncomfortable around him enough that they exterminated
  him.

Not WWII, related but Albert Pinkus, "The Indiana Jones of Chess,"
  was featured in some of the CHESS LIFE issues around the turn of
  the year.  After he got wiped out on Wall Street by the Great
  Crash, Pinkus turned to exotic animal/plant collecting in South
  America and to chess  for money.

Lou Coatney

------------------------------

Date:    Sat, 23 Jul 1994 16:31:14 -0500
From:    "Louis R. Coatney" <[email-masked]>
Subject: ATTENTION:  Disbelievers and Unread Ingrates!  :-)

Rushed right over to my Macomb Public Liberry, and ... :

LONG DAY'S JOURNEY INTO WAR:  DECEMBER 7, 1941, by Stanley
  Weintraub.  New York:  Dutton, 1991.  "Curtain Call:  Doomsday"
  Page 653:

     It was the afternoon of August 5, 1945.  To a group of six
hundred Army officers assigned to the Hiroshima garrison, Professor
Yoshitaka Mimura of Hiroshima Bunri University, a theoretical
physicist, was explaining the scientific possibilities of new
weapons which might reverse the tides of war.  Japan had little Navy
or Air Force left.  Within months, a massive invasion of the home
islands seemed likely.  "Could you tell us, sir," a young lieutenant
colonel asked, ['Ever notice how it's always the "young lieutenant
colonels" who ask the good, unorthodox questions?  LRC] "what an
atomic bomb is?  Is there any possibility that the bomb will be
developed by the end of this war?"
     Mimura chalked a rough sketch on the blackboard to illustrate
the chemical reactions required.  Scientists at Tokyo University, he
explained, have "theoretically penetrated" the secrets of nuclear
fission.  If they could apply their theories practically, and atom
bomb "could be even smaller than a piece of caramel candy[!!!!], but,
if exploded five hundred meters above a populated city, it could
possibly destroy 200,000 lives."
     "When can we have that bomb?"
     [more]

Weintraub's book is *excellent*.  However, there is little in the
  way of sources -- including *this* portion -- so you can take that
  up with HIM!  :-)

(Although this is in response to a WWII-L question/challenge, the
  episode would seem relevant to the other groups copied.)

Lou Coatney, Historian at Large

------------------------------

Date:    Sat, 23 Jul 1994 16:46:32 -0500
From:    "Louis R. Coatney" <[email-masked]>
Subject: (My) Military/Naval History Events at GenCon, Mil WI, 20-21Aug94

More and more often, the wargaming world has been bringing in
  military and academic professionals -- I'm *not* one, at present
  :-) -- to its conventions for some serious/informative historical
  symposia, so the military history nets might be interested in
  hearing about these activities.

GenCon will be held, as usual, at Milwaukee's big convention
  center, MECCA.

My scheduled events are:

1. An 8-player (max.) tournament of my game GERMAN EAGLE VS. RUSSIAN
  BEAR:  Saturday, Noon/12PM (to 7:45PM, although 3 games/rounds of
  GEvsRB should be over by 5 or 6, I would say.)

2. Mers El Kebir:  1:1200 WWII naval miniatures using MY OWN (simple,
  fast) rules.  "Down-and-dirty-on-the-floor classical naval
  wargaming.  VIVE L'HONNEUR FRANCAIS!

On Friday, 19Aug94, I will be taking my newest paper model ships
  (I've been designing) to FINESCALE MODELER magazine in Waukesha for
  a photo session -- sort of like what PLAYBOY does, except for SHIP
  models.  :-)  That afternoon, I'll be up in Cederburg, where MODEL
  SHIP BUILDER will be honoring them similarly.

(So far, I've done (Italian) SOLDATI I/II, (U.S) prewar/single-stack
  SIMS, and (British) L&M and L/AA destroyers.  These cardstock paper
  "kits" provide a much more "realistic" model construction
  experience (and a much more realistic composition of model, being
  sheet construction).  CONFIDENTIALLY, ...   Oh, well.  :-)

Lou Coatney, Historian/Librarian/Entrepreneur at Large

Also on Friday, I hope to be taking one of the most beautiful girls
  on this planet out to lunch, at a resort outside of Milwaukee.
  Wish me luck!!

------------------------------

Date:    Sat, 23 Jul 1994 16:42:31 -0700
From:    "Office TH325, Extension 3566" <[email-masked]>
Subject: Re: Japanese Surrender

>From:         Tony Schuler <[email-masked]>
>Subject:      Japanese Surrender
>To:           Multiple recipients of list WWII-L <[email-masked]>
>
>Where can I find information on Japanese fighting on once occupied
>islands after September 2, 1945? Were there many instances of fighting after
>the war was officially over. I also note that VJ day is 9/2/45 in America and
>8/15/45 in Britain. Why the vast differences in dates between the two govern-
>ments?
>

Here is one:  No Surrender: My Thirty-Year War, by Hiroo Onoda.
Translated by Charles S. Terry (Dell Books).  He held out in the Phillipines
until 1974.  He had a companion for all but the last two years.

In the foreward it says that Sergeant Shoichi Yokoi hid out in Guam
until the previous year.

I got this book for a quarter when the Public Library sold old books.  I
confess that after I had finished it I still had no idea why he did what
he did.  Culture gap I guess.

John Riegsecker
Department of Mathematics and Computer Science
University of Puget Sound

[email-masked]

------------------------------

Date:    Sat, 23 Jul 1994 19:52:36 -0500
From:    GEORGE BAUER <[email-masked]>
Subject: Re: ATTENTION:  Disbelievers and Unread Ingrates!  :-)

Lou:

Please don't take a request for sources as a challenge or indication of
disbelief.  In my case, and I hope in most cases, it is a request from
an individual who likes to know (or needs to know) a written citation
for the information.  (Of course, I know that some people make the
request as shorthand for "I don't believe you!  Prove it!)

Anyway, I for one appreciate the scholarship evident on this list, take
no offense at someone asking me for sources, and hope nobody takes offense
at my making that request on occasion.

  =========================================================================
  | DR.  GEORGE R. BAUER             | INTERESTS:                         |
  |                                  | Computers in Business & Education. |
  | Recently returned from my second | Education:  Curriculum development.|
  |   extended stay in Prague.       |    International Education, TEFL.  |
  | Working on second book about     | Central Europe:  Post revolution   |
  |   Prague and new Czech Republic  |    economic, social, political     |
  |   and a book about the B-25      |    problems and opportunities.     |
  |   in WWII.                       | B-25 in WWII.                      |
  | E-Mail:                          | Free lance writing and editing.    |
  |   USA:  [email-masked]    | Stamp collecting.                  |
  =========================================================================

------------------------------

Date:    Sat, 23 Jul 1994 20:31:13 -0500
From:    GEORGE BAUER <[email-masked]>
Subject: Airpower Between the Wars

I have just read a book called AIRPOWER by Major Al Williams, copyright 1940,
which appearsto be a most thorough and excellent treatment of air power
between the wars.

Can anybody comment on its authenticity or lack of same?

Thanks.

  =========================================================================
  | DR.  GEORGE R. BAUER             | INTERESTS:                         |
  |                                  | Computers in Business & Education. |
  | Recently returned from my second | Education:  Curriculum development.|
  |   extended stay in Prague.       |    International Education, TEFL.  |
  | Working on second book about     | Central Europe:  Post revolution   |
  |   Prague and new Czech Republic  |    economic, social, political     |
  |   and a book about the B-25      |    problems and opportunities.     |
  |   in WWII.                       | B-25 in WWII.                      |
  | E-Mail:                          | Free lance writing and editing.    |
  |   USA:  [email-masked]    | Stamp collecting.                  |
  =========================================================================

------------------------------

End of WWII-L Digest - 22 Jul 1994 to 23 Jul 1994
*************************************************