Tag: WWII
Fort William Henry Harrison and World War II’s Red Ball
Corporal Charles H. Johnson of the 783rd Military Police Battalion, waves on a “Red Ball Express” convoy near Alenon, France in September, 1944. The town was the approximate mid-point on the highway between the Normandy beaches and the ever moving American front lines. The site was used as a break point for changing and feeding drivers, refueling, and maintaining trucks. Courtesy National Archives.
Sources:
Carey, Christopher: The Red Ball Express: Past lessons for Future Wars, English Military Review, April, 2021.
Colley, David P.: The Road to Victory: The Untold Story of World War II’s Red Ball Express, (https://archive.org./details/isbn_9781574881738). Potomac Books. ISBN 1-57488-173, 2021.
Delmont, Matthew: The forgotten story of Black soldiers and the Red Ball Express during World War II, The Conversation Newsletter, April, 2021.
D’Este, Carlo, Decision in Normandy, Penguin Putnam, 1983, 1994
Eisenhower, Dwight D.: Crusade in Europe: A Personal Account of World War II, Vintage Books, December, 2021.
Hastings, Max: Overlord: D-Day and the Battle for Normandy, Simon & Schuster, 1984.
National World War II Museum, “Keep ‘em Rolling”: 82 Days on the Red Ball Express”, February 1, 2021
Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia, “Red Ball Express,” downloaded November 11, 2023.
Victory in Europe (V-E Day)
“Our Victory is only Half Over”
Victory in Europe, or V-E Day is the day celebrating the formal acceptance by the Allied Nations of Nazi Germany’s unconditional surrender of its armed forces. German military leaders signed the surrender documents at various locations in Europe on May 7, 1945. The surrender prompted mass celebrations in European and American Cities. President Harry S. Truman dedicated V-E Day to President Franklin D. Roosevelt, who had died just weeks earlier, and is quoted with saying “Our victory is only half over” in reference to continued fighting in the Pacific Area. On May 7, 1945, both Great Britain and the United States celebrated Victory in Europe Day. Cities in both nations, as well as formerly occupied cities in Western Europe, put out flags and banners, rejoicing in the defeat of the Nazi war machine. The largest ever mobilization of American manpower, ultimately calling up over 15 million U.S. men and women to serve from 1941 to the end of hostilities in 1945, over 57,000 men and women seeing combat but a total 75,000 Montanans served World Wide. Proportionately this was near the top of all states. Montanans were quick to enlist and they were healthy! The proportion that was rejected because of physical defect was smaller than the national average. Montana’s death rate in World War II was exceeded only by that of New Mexico, in proportion to population. Montana had the record of oversubscribing first in eight World War II savings bond drives. The eighth of May spelled the day when German troops throughout Europe finally laid down their arms: in Prague, Germans surrendered to their Soviet antagonists, after the latter had lost more than 8,000 soldiers, and the Germans considerably more; in Copenhagen and Oslo; at Karlshorst, near Berlin; in northern Latvia; on the Channel Island of Sark—the German surrender was realized in a final cease-fire. More surrender documents were signed in Berlin and in eastern Germany. The main concern of many German soldiers was to elude the grasp of Soviet forces, to keep from being taken prisoner. About 1 million Germans attempted a mass exodus to the West when the fighting in Czechoslovakia ended, but were stopped by the Russians and taken captive. The Russians took approximately 2 million prisoners in the period just before and after the German surrender. Meanwhile, more than 13,000 British POWs were released and sent back to Great Britain. Pockets of German-Soviet confrontation would continue into the next day. On May 9, the Soviets would lose 600 more soldiers in Silesia before the Germans finally surrendered. Consequently, V-E Day was not celebrated until the ninth in Moscow, with a radio broadcast salute from Stalin himself: “The age-long struggle of the Slav nations… has ended in victory. Your courage has defeated the Nazis. The war is over.”
Victory over Japan Day (V-J Day)
“I deem this reply a full acceptance of—the unconventional surrender of Japan--.” President Truman
Victory over Japan Day (also known as V-J Day) was announced by President Harry S. Truman in the following statement: “I have received this afternoon a message from the Japanese government in reply to the message forwarded to that government by the secretary of state on Aug. 11, 1945. I deem this reply a full acceptance of the Potsdam declaration which specifies the unconditional surrender of Japan—.” A little after noon Japan Standard Time on August 15, 1945, Emperor Hirohito’s announcement of Japan’s acceptance of the terms of Potsdam Declaration was broadcast to the Japanese people over the radio. Earlier the same day, the Japanese government had broadcast over Radio Tokyo that the “acceptance of the Potsdam Proclamation [would be] coming soon”, and had advised the Allies of the surrender by sending a cable to U.S. President Harry S. Truman via the Swiss diplomatic mission in Washington D.C. A nationwide broadcast by Truman was aired at seven o’clock p.m. (daylight savings time, Washington, D.C.) on Tuesday, August 14 announcing the communication and that a formal event was scheduled for September 2. In his announcement of Japan’s surrender on August 14 Truman said that “the proclamation of V-J Day must wait for the formal signing of surrender terms by Japan.” After news of the Japanese acceptance and before Truman’s announcement, Americans began celebrating “as if joy had been rationed and saved up for three years, eight months, and seven days since Sunday, December 7, 1941.”