This date in history

[Jimbuna]

1916 Irish republicans abandon the post office in Dublin and surrender unconditionally, marking the end of the Easter Rising.

1926 France & US reach accord on repayment of WW I.

1942 Jews forced to wear a Jewish Star in Netherlands & Vichy-France.

1945 Terms of surrender of German armies in Italy signed.

1945 US Army liberates 31,601 in Nazi concentration camp in Dachau, Germany.

1946 28 former Japanese leaders indicted in Tokyo as war criminals.

1975 Vietnam War: Operation Frequent Wind: The U.S. begins to evacuate US citizens from Saigon prior to an expected North Vietnamese takeover. U.S. involvement in the war comes to an end.

1990 Wrecking cranes began tearing down the Berlin Wall at the Brandenburg Gate.

[Jimbuna]

1789 George Washington is inaugurated as the first President of the United States of America.

1920 The British Government ends military conscription.

1942 1st submarine built on Great Lakes launched, (Peto), Manitowoc, Wi.

1943 Bergen-Belsen Concentration Camp for Jews forms.

1945 Concentration camp Munchen-Allag freed.

1945 Red Army opens attack on German Reichstag building in Berlin.

1945 Russian Army frees Ravensbruck concentration camp.

1975 Last US helicopter leaves US embassy grounds, Saigon surrenders.

2008 Two skeletal remains found near Ekaterinburg, Russia, were confirmed by Russian scientists to be the remains of Alexei Nikolaevich, Tsarevich of Russia and one of his sisters.

[Jimbuna]

1915 German submarine torpedoes US tanker Gulflight.

1915 British liner Lusitania leaves NY for Liverpool.

1923 Hitler and Ernst Rohm attempt to break up socialist May Day demonstrates, inviting Nazis from as far away as Nuremberg to take part in the violence.

1931 Empire State Building opens in NewYork City.

1940 The 1940 Olympics are cancelled.

1944 Messerschmitt Me 262 Sturmvogel, 1st jet bomber, makes 1st flight.

1945 About 1,000 citizens of Demmin in Germany, commit suicide provoked by occupation by Soviet Red Army.

1945 Admiral Karl Doenitz forms German government.

1946 Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery appointed British supreme commander.

1948 North Korea proclaims itself Democratic People's Republic of Korea.

1961 Fidel Castro announces there will be no more elections in Cuba.

1961 Pulitzer prize awarded to Harper Lee for her novel "To Kill a Mockingbird".

1966 Last British concert by Beatles (Empire Pool in Wembley).

[Jimbuna]

1915 John McCrae writes the poem "In Flanders Fields"

1938 Concentration camp at Flossenburg goes into use.

1945 WWII: German ship "Cap Arcona" laden with prisoners sunk by Royal Air Force in East Sea, 5,800 killed - one of largest maritime losses of life.

1946 International military tribunal in Tokyo begins.

[Aktungbby]

1945: Operation Dracula : allied forces free Rangoon, Burma (Myanmar) The Indian 26 Division enters the city, already abandoned by the Imperial Japanese Army:

The British were joyfully welcomed, perhaps not universally as liberators, but certainly as they could restore order and bring in food and other assistance. When the Japanese and Ba Maw's officials left Rangoon, widespread looting and lawlessness had broken out and continued for several days. The retreating Japanese had burned down the jail housing Burmese prisoners. They had also destroyed St. Philomena's Convent, which had been used as a hospital, killing 400 of their own men. After three years of war and deprivation, the city was deep in filth, many of the population had fled to escape the Kempeitai (Japanese military police) and those remaining were in rags. Dacoits (armed bandits) plagued the outskirts and various infectious diseases were rife.

[Jimbuna]

1904 Construction begins by the United States on the Panama Canal.

1916 At request of US, Germany curtails its submarine warfare.

1917 A flotilla of US destroyer ships arrive in Queenstown, Ireland, to aid in convoying ships to England.

1932 Al Capone enters Atlanta Penitentiary convicted of income tax evasion.

1948 The Hague Court of Justice convicts Nazi SS officer in the Netherlands Hans Rauter of Crimes against Humanity (executed 24 March 1949).

1979 Margaret Thatcher becomes the first woman to be elected Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.

[Jimbuna]

1945 Mauthausen Concentration camp in Austria liberated by US forces from 41st Reconnaissance Squadron.

1945 Uprising against occupying SS troops in Prague.

1945 World War II: Admiral Karl Dönitz, leader of Germany after Hitler's death, orders all U-boats to cease offensive operations and return to their bases.

1955 West Germany is granted full sovereignty by its three occupying powers.

1980 Siege at Iranian Embassy in London ends as British SAS and police storm the building.

[Jimbuna]

1626 Dutch colonist Peter Minuit buys Manhattan Island from local Indians for 60 guilders worth of trinkets.

1937 German airship Hindenburg explodes in flames at Lakehurst, NJ (36 die).

1941 Joseph Stalin became Premier of Russia.

1942 Corregidor & Philippines surrender to Japanese Armies.

1955 West Germany joins NATO.

1962 1st nuclear warhead fired from Polaris submarine (Ethan Allen).

[Jimbuna]

1915 RMS Lusitania sunk by German submarine off the southern coast of Ireland; 1198 lives lost.

1942 Nazi decree orders all Jewish pregnant women of Kovno Ghetto executed.

1945 WWII: Unconditional German surrender to the Allies signed by General Alfred Jodl at Rheims.

[Jimbuna]

1916 German munitions bunker in Fort Douaumont explodes killing 679 German soldiers.

1941 German Q-ship Pinguin sinks in Indian Ocean.

1942 Aircraft carrier USS Lexington sunk by Japanese air attack in Coral Sea.

1945 German General Von Keitel formally surrenders to Marshal Zhukov and the Soviets in Berlin.

1945 V-E Day; WWII ends in Europe after Germany signs an unconditional surrender.

[Catfish]

Originally Posted by Jimbuna

...
1941 German Q-ship Pinguin sinks in Indian Ocean....

https://worldwar2navies.wordpress.co...cornwall-1940/

There is quite a difference between a british "Q-ship" and a german auxiliary cruiser. The Pinguin was not a "Q-ship".

[Aktungbby]

Originally Posted by Catfish

https://worldwar2navies.wordpress.co...cornwall-1940/

There is quite a difference between a british "Q-ship" and a german auxiliary cruiser. The Pinguin was not a "Q-ship".

FROM your own link:

The ship also carried spare torpedoes and mines for replenishing U-boats at sea. By keeping her armament hidden behind false bulkheads or fittings, the ship retained the outward appearance of a merchant vessel. False flags, fictional ship names, and a crew that was always prepared to repaint her, rearrange gear and fittings, or construct dummy structures above decks helped further her deception. The newly converted vessel was recommissioned in February 1940 as HSK 5, for Hilfskreuzer (Auxiliary Cruiser) Number 5. The British, who were greatly worried by them, called such vessels “Q-ships,” “armed cruisers,” or “raiders.”

SINCE England won the war ( winners get dibs: ours were submarines; yours were evil U-boats etc.) ...but we'll compromise on this one and say : 'Armed auxiliary Quiser'!

[Catfish]

^ of course, it is an english link so that most of us here can read it - but what do you expect from an english source?


"Q-ships" were called that because most of the first ones operated from and around irish Queenstown, and they were especially "designed" to be a trap for submarines, err U-boats, sorry

The task of the auxiliary cruisers was to disrupt enemy trade, get prizes to divert to Germany, and generally be a threat to surface trade ships = commerce raiders. They were also designed and fitted with special quarters and a hospital to carry captured crews below deck, and they usually operated under the prize rule, something that can not be said of british "Q-ships".

The latter were designed to make the prize rule obsolete, as was the arming of civilian merchantmen (breaking signed treaties http://avalon.law.yale.edu/20th_century/hague07.asp), and being thought of the only way to cope with the german U-boats.


OT: This is the reason why Germany declared the "unrestricted" U-boat war, since the prize rule became obsolete with England using "Q-ships", and civilian ships becoming armed. The "unrestricted" U-boat war was not unrestricted, it only was in certain regions around England, and it only applied for two relatively short times. Also most german U-boat commanders refused to just torpedo a ship without stopping it first even during those unrestricted intervals.

Germany did not sink more ships during the "unrestricted" U-boat war, per time, on the contrary.

When the enemy press condemned the german U-boats, Germany answered that they did all according to the prize rule - so England was not able to do something against that. Instead England then used Q-ships and began to arm civilian merchants, to cope with the U-boats and, as a side effect, provoke international incidents.
A U-boat could not dare to surface and stop potential enemies under prize rule, when the enemy instantly shot at them. So their war became "unrestricted", if only for a short time.

[Jimbuna]

Originally Posted by Catfish

https://worldwar2navies.wordpress.co...cornwall-1940/

There is quite a difference between a british "Q-ship" and a german auxiliary cruiser. The Pinguin was not a "Q-ship".

Well....after the above and the date that England abolished the slave trade (#1229) I think I can safely say Aktung 'has got my six'

[Jimbuna]

1941 British intelligence at Bletchley Park breaks German spy codes after capturing Enigma machines aboard the weather ship Muenchen.

1945 Norwegian nazi collaborator Vidkun Quisling arrested.

1945 World War II: Hermann Goering is captured by the United States Army.

1962 The Beatles sign their 1st contract with EMI Parlophone.