Last Fall Pushing Forward

[cardboard_killer]

[80 years ago today] "• Jewish prisoners of the Sonderkommando of Auschwitz II-Birkenau Concentration Camp organize a revolt. Crematorium IV is set on fire and destroyed, while SS guards come under attack with knives, axes, and makeshift grenades. Some of the prisoners are successful in cutting through the perimeter fencing but the escapees will all be caught and killed. Three SS men are killed; ten wounded. Four Jewish women who had stolen the explosives from their workplace at the Union-Werke armaments factory, are later hanged.

 

• German river minesweeper FR-11 is sunk in the Danube by Soviet tanks.

 

• On the Finnish Arctic coast, the Soviets launch the Kirkenes-Petsamo Offensive Operation. The 131st and 99th Rifle Corps hit the German XIX Gebirgskorps south of Chapr Lake. The Soviet infantry, supported by artillery, aircraft, and--to the Germans’ surprise--tanks, sweep over several of the German strongpoints and by noon have almost reached the Titovka River on the Finnish-Soviet border.

 

Soviet troops during the Kirkenes-Petsamo Offensive Operation

 

- The German 2. Gebirgs Division, badly shaken, gives way and retreats toward Luostari along the Lan road. At Luostari the army’s main artery, the Arctic Ocean Highway, is threatened. Generaloberst Dr Lothar Rendulic orders the 6. Gebirgs Division to evacuate the Litsa front and release troops to protect the highway."

[cardboard_killer]

[80 years ago today] "• Soviet submarine ShCh-310 torpedoes and sinks German 400 ton dredger Bagger 3 west of Ventspils, Latvia. Thrteen minutes later ShCh-310 torpedoes and sinks the German (ex-Dutch) 4,500 ton transport ship Zonnewijk.

 

• Greek submarine Matrozos attacks the German 1,200 ton Achilles with gunfire. As she is fleeing, the steamer is torpedoed and sunk by HMS Vivid. The two submarines sink two German tugs with gunfire.

 

• The 5th Guards Motor Rifle Brigade, reinforced with self-propelled artillery regiment and anti-tank regiment, completes a 24 hour 120 km long march-maneuver, penetrating between two separated German kampfgruppes to enter the Great Morava valley of Yugoslavia. The objective is the bridge at Donje Livadice, the only 30-ton bridge over the Morava River which is vital to the advance on Belgrade. The brigade sends a flying column under Captain Liskov which surprises the German guards and removes the demolition charges that have already been installed.

 

• The Soviet 64th Rifle Corps together with elements of 45th Yugoslav Partisan Division manage to break the steadfast resistance of battle group Groth and liberate Zaječar.

 

• The Second Bulgarian Army continues its assault into the Leskovac-Niš area, pursuing the  retreating 7. SS-Freiwilligen Gebirgs-Division "Prinz Eugen". The Army, with Yugoslav partisan participation defeats a combined force of Chetniks and Serbian Frontier Guards at Vlasotince."

[cardboard_killer]

[80 years ago today] "• Soviet troops occupy Petsamo.

 

• Soviet torpedo aircraft sink the German 5,300 ton Erfurt in the Baltic.

 

• Soviet submarine Lembit torpedoes and sinks German auxiliary minesweeper M-3619 off the Polish coast.

 

• Hungarian regent Miklós Horthy de Nagybánya announces that Hungary has signed an armistice with the Soviet Union:

 

“Today it is obvious to any sober-minded person that the German Reich has lost the war. All governments responsible for the destiny of their countries must draw the appropriate conclusions from this fact, for as a great German statesman, Bismarck, once said, "No nation ought to sacrifice itself on the altar of an alliance." … I decided to safeguard Hungary’s honor even against her former ally, although this ally, instead of supplying the promised military help, meant finally to rob the Hungarian nation of its greatest treasure, its freedom and independence. I informed a representative of the German Reich that we were about to conclude a military armistice with our former enemies and to cease all hostilities against them.”

 

- Hitler immediately implements Operation Panzerfaust. SS Obersturmbannführer Otto Skorzeny kidnaps Horthy’s son while the already briefed Generals of the Royal Hungarian Army reject the idea of an armistice. Skorzeny leads a column of German troops with four Tiger II heavy tanks to the palace and there is gunfire for several minutes before Horthy orders his guards to stop resisting.

 

Germans and Hungarians enjoying a King Tiger in Budapest, October 1944.

 

- Taken into custody, Horthy is directed to sign a statement renouncing the armistice and resigning in favor of Fascist Arrow Cross leader Ferenc Szálasi. If he refuses, his son will be executed. Horthy signs. He and his family will be imprisoned in Bavaria until taken prisoner by the US Army. He will not be charged with war crimes and will live the rest of his life in exile in Portugal.

 

- Szálasi promises to maintain the alliance with Germany, and one of his first acts is to resume the deportation of Hungarian Jews.

 

• With the Red Army advancing, the Nazis are closing down eastern concentration camps and factories not directly involved in the war effort. Workers are to be sent to Auschwitz. This would include Oskar Schindler’s enamelware factory in Kraków. Using a mixture of bribery and persuasion, Schindler gains permission to move the factory and workers to Brünnlitz in the Sudetenland (modern Brněnec in the Czech Republic) and switch to production of anti-tank munitions.

 

- Despite this 300 of Schindler’s female workers are shipped to Auschwitz and the usual bribes are unsuccessful. Schindler sends his personal secretary with diamonds and expensive black market goods to secure their transportation to Brünnlitz.

 

Schindler addresses workers in Kraków before the move to Brünnlitz."

 

 

[cardboard_killer]

[80 years ago today] "• German minesweeper MRS-26 is sunk in the Tanafjord by a Douglas A-20 of Soviet Naval Aviation.

 

• The Soviet 83rd Rifle Division drives the Nazis from Nautsi, Finland (now Russia).

 

• Soviet minesweeper T-152 is mined and sunk off Estonia.

 

• Troops of the Fourth Ukrainian Front take Ungvár. This completes the Soviet conquest of what used to be known as Ruthenia.

 

• As the Germans tighten the noose on the Slovakian National Uprising, Slovakian fighters are driven out of their base at Banská Bystrica.

 

• In an attempt to cut off troops retreating from Greece and Macedonia, Soviet and Bulgarian units made strong bids to take Kraljevo and Skoplje. The Allies are trying to supply these forces over mountains while the Germans have troops to spare from shortening the line, and railroad supply. By 02 November Heersgruppe E will stop the Soviets at Kraljevo and several days later halt the Bulgarians east of Skoplje."

[cardboard_killer]

[80 years ago today] "

• Colonel Otto Hatz, Hungarian military attaché to Ankara, Turkey, defects to the Soviets, bringing with him documents about the Hungarian Army and fortifications on the Danube River. In retaliation the Germans will put his family in a concentration camp, where his mother will die.

 

• Stalin refuses a Swiss request to renew diplomatic relations due to Switzerland’s ban on the Communist Party and its continuing trade with Germany.

 

• Soviet Fifty-Seventh Army crosses the Danube near Batina and Apatin.

 

• Three squadrons of the US 82nd Fighter Group are conducting fighter-bomber operations over Kosovo, attacking German positions when they spot and attack a dense column of vehicles near Niš, Serbia.

 

P-38s of the 82nd FG over Italy in 1944.

 

- They are attacking the headquarters of the Soviet 11th Guards Mechanized Corps which is moving north to Hungary. The Soviets recognize the distinctive P-38 Lightnings and take no defensive measures until they start strafing and dropping bombs. Generál-leytenánt G. P. Kotov is killed when his staff car is strafed while several other vehicles are wrecked with 31 killed and 37 wounded. Soviet troops run from the road seeking cover. Soviet AA response is unreported.

 

- A nearby flight of Yak-3s from the 866th Fighter Regiment respond and attacks the Americans. Some five minutes of dogfight occur before both sides break off, with three Yaks and four P-38s reportedly downed, though the details and exact losses of the incident are still classified by both countries. The Americans claim that they were off course due to a navigation error, and that the Soviets were using German vehicles (which was not the case for this formation)."

 

[cardboard_killer]

[80 years ago today] "• Heinrich Himmler issues orders to close the remaining crematorium at Auschwitz and destroy all evidence.

 

• The German 1,800 ton Elie is sunk by a mine laid the day before by Soviet submarine L-21. L-21 also torpedoes and sinks the Swedish 600 ton coaster Hansa northwest of Halskuk.

 

• The German flak trawler V-305 is damaged and fishing vessel Spreeufer is sunk in a minefield laid in October by Soviet submarine Lembit.

 

• As the Soviet Eighth Army hems the Germans into an untenable position on Ösel (Saaremaa) Island in the Moonsund, Heersgruppe Nord commander Ferdinand Schörner ordered the remaining troops evacuated to the mainland. The evacuation force of small craft is covered by heavy cruisers Admiral Scheer and Prinz Eugen, destroyers, and torpedo boats.

 

- Soviet aircraft launch several air attacks, sinking a damaging several small craft and shooting down Admiral Scheer’s Arado floatplane as it is spotting for shore bombardment fire. During the air action one Yak-9, one A-20, and three Bf-109 are also downed. Admiral Scheer herself is targeted by several Pe-2 and A-20 aircraft. Two torpedoes miss narrowly and all bombs are near-misses except for a single hit which fails to explode. German minesweepers M-15, M-204 and M-328 are damaged.

 

- 4,700 German troops are evacuated from the island. Total German losses are 7,700 killed or captured. Soviet forces now control the entrance to the Gulf of Riga.

 

Moonsund Operation

 

Admiral Scheer under attack by Naval Aviation Pe-2s"

[cardboard_killer]

[80 years ago today] "• Marcel Albert, commanding No.4 Escadrille of Groupe de Chasse No.3 “Normandie-Nieman”, is awarded the Order of Lenin and made a Hero of the Soviet Union. He defected from Vichy to the UK with a Dewoitine D.520 in October, 1940. His aerial score stands at 23 confirmed kills, mostly FW-190s, and his squadron is the highest performing of the Group. He will be awarded the Croix de Guerre and Grand’Croix de la Légion d’Honneur on return to France.

 

 

• The term “Foo Fighter” is coined by Donald Meiers of the USAAF 415th Night Fighter Squadron after his Beaufighter is followed by a fast moving unidentified flying object. The actual term used is "Another fucking foo fighter!" in his report to the squadron intelligence officer. Allied pilots over Europe and in the Pacific have reported glowing objects following their aircraft. Some pilots describe them as resembling Christmas tree lights and report that they seem to toy with the aircraft, making wild turns before simply vanishing. Pilots and aircrew report that the objects fly formation with their aircraft and behave as if under intelligent control, but never display hostile behavior. However, they cannot be outmaneuvered or shot down.

 

- The military takes the sightings seriously, suspecting that they might be secret German weapons, but postwar investigation reveals that German and Japanese pilots had reported similar sightings."

[cardboard_killer]

[80 years ago today] "• U-365 sinks Soviet sub chaser BO-230 with all hands east of Murmansk with a homing torpedo.

 

• U-995 fires pattern running torpedoes into Soviet convoy PK-20 (Petsamo→Kola Inlet) northwest of Murmansk, sinking the 1,100 ton steamer Proletarij.

 

• The call goes out today for all German women over 18 to volunteer for the army and air force as auxiliaries because "the enemy's hatred is intent on annihilating the German people."

 

• The Soviet Third Ukrainian Front progresses rapidly with the Fourth Guards Army reaching Lake Balaton; the left flank elements overrun Szigetvár. Forty-sixth Army attacks from Csepel Island across the west channel of the Danube to Ercsi. The Seventh Guards and Sixth Guards Tank Armies advance beyond Hatvan. OKH gives Heersgruppe Süd two panzer divisions and three 60-tank Tiger battalions for a counterattack against the Soviets.

 

A-20s over Hungary or Germany.