Friday, 25 June 2010
25 June 1945
Motor Minesweeper 168 of the Royal Navy is destroyed by a mine in Genoa harbour with the loss of all 15 crew. One of the men who died was 23 year old James McGroarty, an Ordinary Signalman from Renton in Scotland. James' brother David, an Able Seaman, also died on service on 13 October 1942 at the age of 19.
Thursday, 24 June 2010
24 June 1944
Thirteen RAF Lancasters and three Mosquitos of 617 (Dambusters) Squadron make a third attempt to bomb the V2 rocket base at Wizernes in northern France. The previous missions had been aborted due to low cloud but this operation was a success with a number of bombs hitting the railway line and launching tunnel.
A number of aircraft were hit by flak and Lancaster DV403 was lost, crashing at Leulinghem. DV403 was armed with a Tallboy earthquake bomb and had a crew of eight, four of whom died in the crash. James Ian Johnstone DFC died later in hospital in St. Omer and the three surviving crew members were captured and became prisoners of war.
A number of aircraft were hit by flak and Lancaster DV403 was lost, crashing at Leulinghem. DV403 was armed with a Tallboy earthquake bomb and had a crew of eight, four of whom died in the crash. James Ian Johnstone DFC died later in hospital in St. Omer and the three surviving crew members were captured and became prisoners of war.
Wednesday, 23 June 2010
23 June 1942
Churchill's message to Stalin on the anniversary of Operation Barbarossa:
As the Soviet Union enters the second year of the war I, as Prime Minister of Great Britain, which in a few months' time will enter on its fourth year of war, send to you, the leader of the great allied Soviet peoples, a renewed expression of our admiration for the magnificent defence of your armed forces, guerrilla bands, and civilian workers during the past year, and of our firm conviction that those achievements will be equaled and surpassed in the coming months. The fighting alliance of our two countries and of our other allies, to whom there have now been joined the vast resources of the United States, will surely bring our enemies to their knees. You can count on us to assist you by every means in our power.
During the year which has passed since Hitler fell upon your country without warning, friendly relations between our two countries and peoples have been progressively strengthened. We have thought not only of the present, but of the future, and our Treaty of Alliance in the war against Hitlerite Germany and of collaboration and mutual assistance in the post-war period, concluded during M. Molotov's recent visit to this country, has been welcomed as sincerely by the British people as I know it has been welcomed by the Soviet people. That Treaty is a pledge that we shall confound our enemies and, when the war is over, build a sure peace for all freedom-loving peoples.
As the Soviet Union enters the second year of the war I, as Prime Minister of Great Britain, which in a few months' time will enter on its fourth year of war, send to you, the leader of the great allied Soviet peoples, a renewed expression of our admiration for the magnificent defence of your armed forces, guerrilla bands, and civilian workers during the past year, and of our firm conviction that those achievements will be equaled and surpassed in the coming months. The fighting alliance of our two countries and of our other allies, to whom there have now been joined the vast resources of the United States, will surely bring our enemies to their knees. You can count on us to assist you by every means in our power.
During the year which has passed since Hitler fell upon your country without warning, friendly relations between our two countries and peoples have been progressively strengthened. We have thought not only of the present, but of the future, and our Treaty of Alliance in the war against Hitlerite Germany and of collaboration and mutual assistance in the post-war period, concluded during M. Molotov's recent visit to this country, has been welcomed as sincerely by the British people as I know it has been welcomed by the Soviet people. That Treaty is a pledge that we shall confound our enemies and, when the war is over, build a sure peace for all freedom-loving peoples.
Tuesday, 22 June 2010
22 June 1941
And so it begins. Operation Barbarossa, the invasion of the Soviet Union, is launched at 0300. In an instant, more than 40 million civilians and soldiers are thrown into the meat grinder that will consume them over the next 4 years. This tragic, profligate waste of life becomes all the more poignant with the knowledge that this one day was actually the beginning of the end of the Second World War.
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