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  • 4th June 1940

    1940: Dunkirk rescue is over - Churchill defiant


    The Prime Minister, Winston Churchill, has described the "miracle of deliverance" from Dunkirk and warned of an impending invasion.

    His moving speech to Parliament came on the day the last allied soldier arrived home from France at the end of a 10-day operation to bring back hundreds of thousands of retreating allied troops trapped by the German Army.

    Many French troops remained to hold the perimeter and were captured.

    Major-General Harold Alexander inspected the shores of Dunkirk from a motorboat this morning to make sure no-one was left behind before boarding the last ship back to Britain.

    The beach and sea were in chaos. There were bodies floating in the water and we were under constant attack from machine-gun fire, bombing, explosions sending shrapnel in every direction.


    There were bodies floating in the water and we were under constant attack from machine-gun fire, bombing, explosions sending shrapnel in every direction.

    People's War memories »
    Battle-weary and hungry soldiers from the retreating British Expeditionary Force (BEF) as well as French and Belgian troops had spent many days waiting to board ships from the one remaining pier, the east mole.

    Many thousands were taken straight off the beaches, struggling in shallow waters to board small vessels that transferred them to the waiting ships.

    When those who survived the evacuation arrived exhausted in England they were welcomed as returning heroes and offered plenty of tea and sandwiches as they boarded special trains.

    Commander-in-chief of the BEF, Lord Gort, arrived back in England on 1 June and was also been feted as a hero.

    When his force was almost swallowed up by the Germans - after the French were driven south from Sedan and the Belgians surrendered - he took the vital decision to withdraw to Dunkirk where, according to the Times newspaper, four-fifths of his men were rescued.

    This afternoon Mr Churchill admitted to the House that when Operation Dynamo was launched on 26 May to rescue allied forces cornered by the advancing Germany Army, he expected about 20,000 or 30,000 would be saved.

    But thanks to the valour of the Royal Navy and Royal Air Force, no less than 338,000 British and French troops were rescued and brought back across the Channel to fight another day.

    Mr Churchill tempered his admiration for the success of Operation Dynamo with these words: "Wars are not won by evacuations".

    He said there was no doubt in his mind that the last few weeks had been a "colossal military disaster".

    The BEF had to leave behind all its heavy armour and equipment.

    The French army was weakened, the Belgian army had surrendered, Channel ports, valuable mines and factories in France and Belgium had been taken over by the enemy.

    He said the nation should brace itself for another blow. "We are told that Herr Hitler has a plan for invading the British Isles," he said.

    Returning troops were vital if Britain were to resist such an invasion.

    He ended his speech with a defiant message to Hitler's armies.

    "We shall defend our island whatever the cost may be. We shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills. We shall never surrender."

    Britain would "ride out the tyranny of war, if necessary for years, if necessary alone."

    Mr Churchill paid special tribute to the Royal Air Force that had provided what protection it could for the ships and stranded soldiers .

    The Royal Navy sent 220 light war ships and 650 other vessels under a hail of bombs and artillery fire.

    "When you arise in the morning, think of what a precious privilege it is to be alive - to breathe, to think, to enjoy, to love."


    Marcus Aurelius Roman Emperor (161 to 180 A.D.)

    Comment


    • Didn't know the "On This Day" thread had been resurrected !!!!
      "Well, stone me! We've had cocaine, bribery and Arsenal scoring two goals at home. But just when you thought there were truly no surprises left in football, Vinnie Jones turns out to be an international player!" (Jimmy Greaves)!"

      Comment


      • July 4 1943

        Polish general fighting for justice dies tragically



        On this day in 1943, Polish General Wladyslaw Sikorski dies when his plane crashes less than a mile from its takeoff point at Gibraltar. Controversy remains over whether it was an accident or an assassination.

        Born May 20, 1888, in Austrian Poland (that part of Poland co-opted by the Austro-Hungarian Empire), Sikorski served in the Austrian army. He went on to serve in the Polish Legion, attached to the Austrian army, during World War I, and fought in the Polish-Soviet War of 1920-21. He became prime minister of Poland for a brief period (1922-23).

        When Germany invaded and occupied Poland in 1939, Sikorski became leader of a Polish government-in-exile in Paris. He developed a good working relationship with the Allies-until April 1943, when Soviet Premier Joseph Stalin broke off Polish-Soviet diplomatic relations after Sikorski requested that the Red Cross investigate the alleged Soviet slaughter of Polish officers in the Katyn forest of eastern Poland in 1942.

        After Germany and the USSR divided up Poland in 1939, thousands of Polish military personnel were sent to prison camps by the Soviets. When Germany invaded Russia in 1941, Stalin created a pact with the Polish government-in-exile to cooperate in the battle against the Axis. Given the new relationship, the Poles requested the return of the imprisoned military men, but the Soviets claimed they had escaped and could not be found. But when Germany overran eastern Poland, the part that had previously been under Soviet control, mass graves in the Katyn forest were discovered, containing the corpses of over 4,000 Polish officers, all shot in the back. The Soviets, apparently, had massacred them. But despite the evidence, the Soviet government insisted it was the Germans who were responsible.

        Once news of the massacre spread, a formal Declaration of War Crimes was signed in London on January 13, 1943. Among the signatories was General Sikorski and General Charles de Gaulle. But Sikorksi did not want to wait until after the war for the punishment of those responsible for the Katyn massacre. He wanted the International Red Cross to investigate immediately.

        It is believed that Britain considered this request a threat to Allied solidarity and some believe that in order to silence Sikorski on this issue, the British went so far as to shoot down his plane. There is no solid evidence of this.

        After the war, the communist Polish government officially accepted the Soviet line regarding the mass graves. It was not until 1992 that the Russian government released documents proving that the NKVD, the Soviet secret police, had been responsible for the Katyn slaughter-backed up by the old Soviet Politburo.


        July 4 1963

        South Vietnamese officers plot coup



        Gen. Tran Van Don informs Lucien Conein of the CIA that certain officers are planning a coup against South Vietnamese President Ngo Dinh Diem. Diem, who had been supported by the Kennedy administration, had refused to make any meaningful reforms and had oppressed the Buddhist majority. Conein informed Washington that the generals were plotting to overturn the government. President John F. Kennedy, who had come to the conclusion that the Diem government should no longer be in command, sent word that the United States would not interfere with the coup.

        In the early afternoon hours of November 1, a group of South Vietnamese generals ordered their troops to seize key military installations and communications systems in Saigon and demanded the resignation of Diem and his brother, Ngo Dinh Nhu. Diem was unable to summon any support, so he and Nhu escaped the palace through an underground passage to a Catholic church in the Chinese sector of the city. From there, Diem began negotiating with the generals by phone. He agreed to surrender and was promised safe conduct, but shortly after midnight he and his brother were brutally murdered in back of the armored personnel carrier sent to pick them up and return them to the palace.

        Kennedy, who had given tacit approval for the coup, was reportedly shocked at the murder of Diem and Nhu. Nevertheless, U.S. Ambassador Henry Cabot Lodge called the insurgent generals to his office to congratulate them and cabled Kennedy that the prospects for a shorter war had greatly improved with the demise of Diem and Nhu


        © www.historychannel.com
        "Well, stone me! We've had cocaine, bribery and Arsenal scoring two goals at home. But just when you thought there were truly no surprises left in football, Vinnie Jones turns out to be an international player!" (Jimmy Greaves)!"

        Comment


        • 4 July 1976

          Israelis rescue Entebbe hostages



          Israeli commandos have rescued 100 hostages, mostly Israelis or Jews, held by pro-Palestinian hijackers at Entebbe airport in Uganda.
          At about 0100 local time (2200GMT), Ugandan soldiers and the hijackers were taken completely by surprise when three Hercules transport planes landed after a 2,500-mile trip from Israel.

          About 200 elite troops ran out and stormed the airport building.

          During a 35-minute battle, 20 Ugandan soldiers and all seven hijackers died along with three hostages.


          "This operation will certainly be inscribed in the annals of military history, in legend and in national tradition"


          (Yitzhak Rabin, Israeli Prime Minister)


          The leader of the assault force, Lieutenant Colonel Yonatan Netanyahu, was also shot dead by a Ugandan sentry.

          The Israelis destroyed 11 Russian-built MiG fighters, which amounted to a quarter of Uganda's air force.

          The surviving hostages were then flown to Israel with a stopover in Nairobi, Kenya, where some of the injured were treated by Israeli doctors and at least two transferred to hospital there.

          Speaking at the Israeli Knesset (parliament) this afternoon, Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin who ordered the raid said: "This operation will certainly be inscribed in the annals of military history, in legend and in national tradition."

          Air France plane seized

          The crisis began on 27 June, when four militants seized an Air France flight, flying from Israel to Paris via Athens, with 250 people on board.

          The hijackers - two from the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine and two from Germany's Baader-Meinhof gang - diverted the plane to Entebbe, where it arrived on 28 June.

          The hijackers - who were joined by three more colleagues - demanded the release of 53 militants held in jails in Israel and four other countries.

          Uganda's President and dictator Idi Amin arrived at the airport to give a speech in support of the PFLP and supplied the hijackers with extra troops and weapons.

          On 1 July, the hijackers released a large number of hostages but continued to hold captive the remaining 100 passengers who were Israelis or Jews.

          Those who were freed were flown to Paris and London.

          Among them were British citizens George Good, a retired accountant and Tony Russell, a senior GLC official, who arrived in London on Friday.

          The crew were offered the chance to go but chose to stay with the plane. The remaining hostages were transferred to the airport building.

          The hijackers then set a deadline for 1100GMT for their demands to be met or they would blow up the airliner and its passengers. But their plan was foiled by the dramatic Israeli raid.

          In Context

          The mission, originally dubbed Operation Thunderbolt by the Israeli military, was renamed Operation Yonatan in honour of Netanyahu - elder brother of Binyamin Netanyahu, who was Israel's Prime Minister from 1996 to 1999.
          The raid continues to be source of pride for the Israeli public, and many of the participants went on to high office in Israel's military and political establishment.

          Among them was Dan Shomron, who was in overall command of the rescue operation. He became Chief of Staff of the Israel Defence Force.

          Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin was assassinated during his second term in office in 1995.

          Idi Amin was humiliated by the surprise raid. He believed Kenya had colluded with Israel in planning the raid and hundreds of Kenyans living in Uganda were massacred soon afterwards.

          But from this time, Amin's regime began to break down.

          Two years later Idi Amin was forced into exile in Saudi Arabia.

          He died in Jeddah in August 2003.

          © www.bbc.co.uk
          "Well, stone me! We've had cocaine, bribery and Arsenal scoring two goals at home. But just when you thought there were truly no surprises left in football, Vinnie Jones turns out to be an international player!" (Jimmy Greaves)!"

          Comment


          • 4 July 1954

            Housewives celebrate end of rationing



            Fourteen years of food rationing in Britain ended at midnight when restrictions on the sale and purchase of meat and bacon were lifted.
            Members of the London Housewives' Association held a special ceremony in London's Trafalgar Square to mark Derationing Day.

            The Minister of Fuel and Power, Geoffrey Lloyd, burned a large replica of a ration book at an open meeting in his constituency.

            But the Minister of Food, Major Gwilym Lloyd-George, told a meeting at Bebington in Cheshire he would keep his as a souvenir and praised all those traders and organisations that had co-operated with the rationing system.

            For the first time since the war began in 1939 London's Smithfield Market opened at midnight instead of 0600 and meat sellers were doing a roaring trade.

            High prices

            Although the final step in dismantling the whole wartime system of food distribution comes into effect, it's not all good news.

            Butchers are predicting meat prices will soar for the next couple of weeks until the effect of supply and demand cools the situation down.

            In February the Ministry of Food stopped controlling the sale of pork and announced it would end all food rationing this summer.

            Food rationing began on 8 January 1940, four months after the outbreak of war.

            Limits were imposed on the sale of bacon, butter and sugar.

            Then on 11 March 1940 all meat was rationed. Clothes coupons were introduced and a black market soon developed while queueing outside shops and bartering for extra food became a way of life.

            There were allowances made for pregnant women who used special green ration books to get extra food rations, and breastfeeding mothers had extra milk.

            Restrictions were gradually lifted three years after war had ended, starting with flour on 25 July 1948, followed by clothes on 15 March 1949.

            On 19 May 1950 rationing ended for canned and dried fruit, chocolate biscuits, treacle, syrup, jellies and mincemeat.

            Petrol rationing, imposed in 1939, ended in May 1950 followed by soap in September
            1950.

            Three years later sales of sugar were off ration and last May butter rationing ended.


            © www.bbc.co.uk
            "Well, stone me! We've had cocaine, bribery and Arsenal scoring two goals at home. But just when you thought there were truly no surprises left in football, Vinnie Jones turns out to be an international player!" (Jimmy Greaves)!"

            Comment


            • Am trying to keep the "On This Day" thread going. Dunno where Groundhog got all the
              stuff from, but here's what I got....

              24 July 1969:
              Briton freed from Soviet prison

              British lecturer Gerald Brooke has been returned to London after four years in a Soviet jail.
              Mr Brooke, 31, was arrested by the Russian secret service, the KGB, in April 1965 for smuggling anti-Soviet leaflets.

              The Russian teacher was sentenced to five years' detention, one year in prison, four years in labour camps, for "subversive anti-Soviet activity on the territory of the Soviet Union" at Moscow City Court three months later.

              Speaking at Heathrow airport, where he arrived at 1117 BST, Mr Brooke revealed the Russian authorities only told him he was being sent home 24 hours ago.

              His release, nearly a year early, came after negotiations between the British and Russian Governments.

              Harold Wilson's Labour Government has been criticised by the opposition for jeopardising British security by agreeing to release Soviet agents Peter and Helen Kroger in exchange for Gerald Brooke.

              On English soil


              Looking pale and thin as he stepped off his plane, an Aeroflot Ilyushin 62 jet, wearing his old school tie - Firth Park Grammar in Sheffield - Mr Brooke was startled by the phalanx of media waiting for him.

              He explained he had been suffering from an inflamed colon, aggravated by prison food, and he was not used to speaking English or seeing so many people.

              His 29-year-old wife Barbara, a librarian, greeted him with his mother Marion, 74.

              They prevented him from answering too many questions about his ordeal.

              All he said about prison conditions is "they were not particularly soft".

              Mr Brooke is looking forward to relaxing at home in Finchley this evening.

              Mr and Mrs Kroger will be released from prisons in Britain in October after serving just nine years of their 20-year sentence for their part in the Portland Spy case.

              British intelligence services discovered the couple had seriously damaged national security by passing secret details about the country's submarine activities to the USSR.

              © www.bbc.co.uk

              24 July 2000:
              Loyalist killer Michael Stone freed from Maze

              Loyalist paramilitary hitman Michael Stone has been released from the Maze prison in Northern Ireland.
              He was given a 684-year sentence in 1989 for six murders and five attempted murders, but has been set free as part of the Good Friday peace agreement.

              Stone, 45, became a leader of the largest loyalist paramilitary group in the Maze - the Ulster Freedom Fighters (UFF) - and a hero for the loyalist cause outside.


              I do not regret any fatalities that have occurred


              Michael Stone


              Dressed in black and sporting his trademark ponytail he was greeted by about 50 supporters outside the jail at 1045 BST before heading for east Belfast, where he grew up.

              In a candid interview at the Avenue One pub Stone said: "Today is a day of celebration for my friends, myself and my family."

              "But I recognise that there are those in the nationalist-republican community who view my release with sadness and anger, just as the release of the republican prisoners on Friday will also anger the loyalist-unionist community."

              Television cameras caught Stone launching a gun and grenade attack at the IRA funeral of the two men and one woman shot dead by the SAS on Gibraltar in March 1988.

              As well as the three men killed and 60 people injured during his lone assault on the Milltown Cemetery, he also killed another three Catholics between 1984 and 1987.

              But although he had welcomed the ceasefire Stone will not apologise for his past.

              "If I was to say sorry, I believe it would fall on deaf ears. I would be called a hypocrite. Those operations were military operations. I do not regret any fatalities that have occurred," he explained.

              Stone has nine children from two failed marriages and three grandchildren and hopes to settle in an affluent area of east Belfast with his fiancée Suzanne Cooper.

              Speaking about his future, Stone laughed off the idea of any involvement in politics, but looks forward to work in the community, like many other former paramilitary prisoners.

              © www.bbc.co.uk
              "Well, stone me! We've had cocaine, bribery and Arsenal scoring two goals at home. But just when you thought there were truly no surprises left in football, Vinnie Jones turns out to be an international player!" (Jimmy Greaves)!"

              Comment


              • Originally posted by Groundhog View Post
                March 1

                1815

                Napoleon Bonaparte landed in France having escaped from Elba.

                1981

                Bobby Sands began a hunger strike at the Maze Prison in Northern Ireland. He died 65 days later.

                Died

                1916

                7637 Gnr David McEniry, Royal Artillery. In Belgium. Born Clonmel, son of Dr McEniry of Ballymacarbry, Co. Waterford.

                1917

                43118 Pte James Hassey, 1st Bn Royal Dublin Fusiliers. KIA Western Front. From Waterford City.
                Leading Seaman William Nolan. Royal Navy. From Tramore, Co. Waterford.

                1941

                First Radio Officer John Greany, Merchant Navy. Aboard the SS Pacific. From Mallow, Co. Cork. His brother James was a Chaplain in the RAF and died 8th Feb 1945.
                second time round..


                Catch-22 says they have a right to do anything we can't stop them from doing.

                Comment


                • Sorry Kermit, twas more interesting first time round, and I can read your one in the examiner every day anyway.

                  Remember this is the Military History section. I fail to see how Nick Leeson fits into this


                  Catch-22 says they have a right to do anything we can't stop them from doing.

                  Comment


                  • Kermit writes for the Eczaminer?

                    Comment


                    • The Battle of El Alamein

                      65 years ago tomorrow, at 2140 on 23 October 1942, the Battle of El Alamein began. Zero hour for the Allied infantry was 2200, but the artillery preparation commenced 20 minutes earlier. Most of the guns were 25-pounders, the same gun that is still in use with the RDF. They didn’t all open fire at precisely the same time though: the fireplan had been calculated to ensure that each of the 882 shells in the initial salvo landed on the Germans and Italians at exactly the same moment.

                      After 15 minutes the fire ceased; five minutes of silence followed as the guns were laid on to the next set of targets, and as they opened up again at 2200, the infantry got up and began to advance. The defeat of the Axis forces at El Alamein is much celebrated by English historians, but the infantry who rose up out of their slit trenches and walked towards the enemy that night were Australians, New Zealanders, South Africans and Scots.....

                      Comment


                      • The Battle of El Alamein

                        ...For the British-led forces, it was primarily a foot-slogging battle of infantry and artillery, with tank support at times, not so different from the battles of WWI, and a style of fighting with which they were obviously more comfortable than the modern, fluid, mobile fighting style of the Germans, typified by Rommel.

                        The British (the English, largely) did provide 8th Army’s armoured divisions, whose main job was to exploit the holes punched by the artillery-supported infantry in the Axis defences and break through into the open desert beyond; but the main armoured force - 10 Corps under Lieutenant-General Herbert Lumsden - were said at the time to be ‘sticky’ and achieved few if any of their initial objectives.

                        These armoured regiments – mostly ex-cavalry or county yeomanry - having charged the German tanks and guns many times over the previous months, had learned that this was suicidal. Part of the problem was British tank design: tanks were either too slow, undergunned, underarmoured, or mechanically unreliable, and usually it was a combination of two or more of these weaknesses. The British armoured regiments were saved by the arrival of the American Grants and Shermans, which finally gave them tanks that could stand up to the Panzers.

                        And of course they had had to face the mighty German 88mm, an anti-aircraft gun that became famous as a powerful anti-tank weapon, together with the very effective 50mm standard German anti-tank gun. In contrast, the British 2-pounder anti-tank gun – which also equipped most British tanks – was no longer up to the job and was being replaced by the much more effective 6-pounder in 1942. The tank crews were also inhibited by the enormous amount of mines in the sand, which severely constrained and slowed their movement until they could finally ‘break free into open country’....

                        Comment


                        • The Battle of El Alamein



                          ... The war in the North African desert had begun in June 1940 when Mussolini opportunistically declared war on Britain and France, just as France was about to collapse following the German blitzkrieg offensive and the evacuation of British forces through Dunkirk. Italian forces in Libya invaded Egypt a few months later, but were counter-attacked and soundly beaten by the much smaller British Western Desert Force under General Richard O'Connor. By early February 1941, after only two months, O'Connor's 36,000 men had advanced over 800 miles, destroyed an entire Italian army of ten divisions, taken over 130,000 prisoners, 400 tanks and 1,292 guns at the cost of 500 killed and 1,373 wounded.

                          But then two things happened: first, the British transferred forces from North Africa in a vain attempt to help the Greeks defend against the German invasion, and subsequently to defend Crete, which the Germans took by airborne assault. And secondly, Hitler decided he couldn't let his Axis ally Mussolini - however incompetent he might be - to be humiliated and defeated by the British, so he sent a small but mobile German force under General Erwin Rommel - less than two divisions initially - to bolster the Italian defence. Contrary to his orders, Rommel attacked the British and in a matter of weeks, he chased them back to the frontier with Egypt, taking back all the ground lost by the Italians.....

                          Comment


                          • Venice Hackett did not die at home. She was blown up in the LEINSTER torpedo disaster mentioned at the top of the page, Oct 13, 1918. Her death is registered in St. Marylebone District in London--not sure why. Venice's full name was Venice Clementia Henrietta Hackett, and she was engaged at the time of her death. Two of her brothers did die in service during WWI, her youngest brother died of disease at home, a younger sister died in childbirth, and the remaining sister died of cancer, all preceeding their father, Edward Augustus Hackett, in death. After his home in Co. Offaly was taken by the Land Commission, he died in a hotel in Co. Wicklow.

                            Comment


                            • Originally posted by Elizabeth View Post
                              Venice Hackett did not die at home. She was blown up in the LEINSTER torpedo disaster mentioned at the top of the page.
                              The Leinster was sunk in the Irish sea. Any UK (Britain and Ireland at the time) service person who died in the UK during WW1 is listed as dying at home. Not necessarily in the family home. I didn't know she died on the Leinster though. Thanks for the info. Having said that the family headstone says she died returning from France whereas the Leinster was sailing the other way when sunk.

                              The casualty rolls of the Royal Irish Regt mention several soldiers KIA at home during the Easter Rising.
                              Last edited by Groundhog; 7 February 2009, 22:29.
                              sigpic
                              Say NO to violence against Women

                              Originally posted by hedgehog
                              My favourite moment was when the
                              Originally posted by hedgehog
                              red headed old dear got a smack on her ginger head

                              Comment


                              • 8th November 1960 Niemba Ambush Congo

                                An Irish patrol of 11 soldiers, based at Kamina and operating in the Niemba area, was attacked by over 100 native Baluba tribesmen.

                                The men who died

                                Lieutenant Kevin Gleeson
                                Sergeant Hugh Gaynor
                                Cpl Liam Duggan
                                Cpl Peter Kelly
                                Pte Matthew Farrell
                                Tpr Peter Fennell
                                Tpr Anthony Browne
                                Pte Michael McGuinn
                                Pte Gerald Kileen

                                Pte Joe Fitzpatrick and Tpr Tom Kenny Survived

                                Comment

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