Eighty Years Ago This Week

  What came to be known as the Battle of Berlin got properly underway with raids on four nights: 440 RAF aircraft in the first, then 764 bombers two days later, followed the next night by one of 383 and three nights later,  443 Lancasters. After the devastation wrought on Hamburg that summer Bomber Command had staged one large raid in August, but its commander, Air Marshal Arthur Harris, was determined to obliterate the whole city, which he believed would win the war for the allies. He was prepared for a campaign that would involve several raids and the loss of 300-400 of his aircraft. 123 were lost in the November raids, a loss rate of 4.9%, heavy but sustainable. A total of  some 7,000 tons of bombs were dropped, killing perhaps 3,000 people and ravaging most of the city's central district, destroying or severely damaging many famous buildings including the Kroll Opera House which had housed the German parliament since the Reichstag was burned out in 1933. The US began ...

  German amphibious and airborne forces landed on Leros in the Dodecanese which the British had persisted in occupying despite the fall of Kos with its airfield in September, which gave the Germans practical air superiority. This was practically the last significant parachute assault conducted by the Germans in the war. The British and their Italian allies held out for four days before surrendering. 3,200 British and  5,350 Italian soldiers were captured for no results whatever. The remaining islands were quietly evacuated. Churchill had hoped that the Dodecanese campaign would bring Turkey into the war on the allied side, instead it was a major loss of prestige for Britain in the Mediterranean.   The Japanese navy had gathered a powerful force based around seven cruisers at the well-defended base of Rabaul on New Guinea. This menaced the US forces which had recently landed on Bougainville as a prelude to an attack on Rabaul itself. The US Navy responded with a strike...

On the twentieth anniversary of the failed beer hall putsch, Hitler delivered what proved to be his last speech commemorating the event, one of the principal festivals in the Nazi calendar. He assailed England as the principal driving force in the war and as a pawn of the Jews. He hinted at the pending use of secret weapons when he told his listeners that the hour of retribution ( Vergeltung ) "will" come. America might be out of reach for the moment but one state - obviously Britain - was. Here is the origin of the term V-weapons. He described himself as profoundly religous, albeit because he cast himself and the German people as having been chosen by "providence" for greater things. The Ukrainian capital Kyiv (then known by the Russian name Kiev) fell to the Soviets as part of a wider offensive on the southern front.  The German VII holding the city was forced to retreat under massive attack; there was no significant fighting in the city itself. Radio Moscow anno...

    American led forces in the South West Pacific launched the next steps in Operation Cartwheel, which was intended to eliminate the major Japanese base at Rabaul. US forces landed on the island of Bougainville with the ultimate objective of establishing an airfield for short range aircraft to attack Rabaul. Just to the north a New Zealand brigade landed on the Treasury Islands which were to serve as stepping stones for the ultimate assault; one was slated as the site for a radar base. A Japanese naval force was despatched to hamper the Bougainville operation but the transport ships for the first wave had unloaded rapidly and been withdrawn. In turn a US Navy force engaged the Japanese ships in a night action where their radar gave them a decisive advantage. The Japanese withdrew after losing two ships and damage to two more. The US build-up could continue practically unopposed. The installation of Lord Wavell as the Viceroy to India brought attention in Britain to the burgeo...