February 1996 - World War II History Round Table



February 1996

Volume 4 Number 5

Published by the WW II History Roundtable

Edited by Jim and Jon Gerber

Welcome to the February meeting of the Harold C. Deutsch WW II History Roundtable. We’d like to start with an article sent in by one of our members that is very appropriate for our group. It is written by Paul Gagnon who is the Executive Secretary of the National Council for History Education.

A Larger Reality by Paul Gagnon

“The value of history - that is, of our knowing and understanding as much of it as we can - may be summed up in three phrases: it matures us; it heartens us; it sets us free. How do we grow in maturity, to understand the human condition and ourselves? First, of course, by direct personal experience - in the family, in school, on the street, at work and play, from our own joy and pain. But second, we grow by extending our experiences. Through history, biographic memoirs, imaginative literature, we can know, to some extent, what it meant to be a slave, or fight the battle of Verdun, or work the coal mines or endure the Holocaust. We can enter a larger reality, place ourselves in time, compare ourselves with others. Indeed we may come to understand what “otherness” - a prime fruit of maturity - means.

The wider experience of history is not always cheerful. But neither will it justify despair. We come to understand what no other study makes so clear: the reality of both tragedy and comedy, of paradox, and the beauty of work well done, of daily acts of human nurture. We observe how hard it has always been to build and keep civilization, or to better human life. But we also observe that these have nonetheless been done by brave people in the past. While history denies us the easy comforts of optimism and pessimism, it gives heartening proof that the effort is not always in vain.

Finally, the study of history, more than any other discipline, frees us to choose for ourselves the paths we wish to take as citizens and as private persons. The dignity of free choice can arise only out of knowing the alternatives possible in public and private life, that immense range of approaches people have taken to order their political, economic, and social lives, to pursue personal integrity, creativity, and private happiness. Without historical memory, we are amnesiacs, prisoners of our immediate milieu, ignorant of the possibilities for liberation that the past reveals. The first aim of education in a democracy is to confer upon as many people as possible the power to freely choose for themselves. The study of history is the precondition to that power, and to our free search for the larger meaning of human history and life.”

Through the WW II Roundtable we seek to bring history to life through oral presentations of those people who lived through this conflict which so shaped all of our lives. The study of history may indeed change our lives and may influence many of the choices that we have to make for ourselves. While most of our presentations have to do with battles and campaigns of WW II, tonight we are pleased to present a talk on an aspect of the all important home front. Barbara Gertsema will speak tonight about the US Army Arsenal in New Brighton and how vital this installation was to the war effort. At its peak in 1943 the Arsenal employed 24,000 men and women, whose vital work supported our fighting troops in WW II. We welcome Barb to our program tonight and look forward to adding to our knowledge of WW II.

One of our other members who wishes to remain anonymous sent in this poem which I don’t think is too risque.

Ode of an Old Vet

When I was young and gay,

and the race had just began.

All my bones were limber

not all .... but one.

Now that I am old

and the race is almost run.

All my bones are stiff

not all.... but one.

“This ... is London.”

The two most recognizable voices Americans heard on their radios broadcasting from London belonged to Winston Churchill and Edward R. Murrow. The dapper Murrow was not above lying in the gutter so that his microphone could pick up the sounds of bombs and sirens. By the end of the war Murrow had flown as an observer on twenty-five combat missions. His CBS broadcasts from England opened with “This...is London.”

The Last Dogfight

The last dogfight in the European Theater involved a Piper Cub spotting plane named Miss Me of the US 5th Armored and a German Fiessler Storch, also a spotting plane. They met in the sky over Germany in April, 1945. Lieutenant Duane Francies, pilot, and his observer, Lieutenant William Martin, dove on the Storch and fired their Colt 45’s, bringing the German plane down. They landed and captured the pilot and the German observer. It was the only German plane shot down with a handgun.

February through WW II

February 11, 1940

Diplomatic Relations - The Germans and Soviets sign a further trade and economics agreement. The Soviets will supply raw materials, especially oil and food, in return for manufactured products of all kinds, including arms.

February 12, 1941

North Africa - General Rommel arrives in Tripoli. Nominally more important is the appointment of the new Italian Commander in Chief for Libya, General Garibaldi. The first units of what will become the Africa Korps begin to land at Tripoli on February 14th. The advance guard is a battalion of light infantry and an antitank unit. Field Marshall Kesselring is in Rome as the German representative.

February 14, 1942

British Air Operations - The Area Bombing Directive is issued to RAF Bomber Command. The attacks ‘should now be focused on the morale of the enemy civil population and, in particular, of the industrial workers.’ It is understood that the aiming points for the attacks will be the inflammable residential districts rather than the factories, and that the desired effects will be produced by destroying the workers’ houses rather than the means of production.

February 2, 1943

Eastern Front - The last German troops in Stalingrad surrender. Of the approximately 280,000 Germans originally surrounded in the city, 90,000 are prisoners and about 40,000 have been evacuated, mostly seriously wounded. The Luftwaffe has lost 500 transport planes in the fruitless supply operation and other equipment losses have been huge. The Soviets later announce that they have removed 147,000 German and 47,000 Soviet corpses from the city for reburial. The prisoners are indifferently treated by the Russians, and only 5000 ever return to Germany, the last in 1955. On the Russian side much of the credit for the success of the operations in the city must go to Chuikov for his forceful leadership and the street-fighting tactics that he has developed. Zhukov has been the dominant influence over the wider strategic plans.

February 16, 1944

Italy - The Germans begin a major attack on the Anzio beachhead. Units of five divisions attack the relatively fresh 45th US and 56th British Divisions. The Luftwaffe has gathered its strength as well, operating in support of the attack and against the shipping offshore. There is no decisive breakthrough on land but the Allied forces are pushed back.

February 20, 1945

Eastern Front - The Soviet forces are now moving northward into German Pomerania on a 200-mile front. The German forces opposing them are from Himmler’s Army Group Vistula, and his incompetence has contributed to their plight.

Further reading:

Minnesota During World War II

by The Minnesota Historical Society

Roots Vol. 17, No.2 Winter 1989

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