U-858 Becomes First German Warship to Surrender to U.S. Forces in 1945

In the last post, I wrote about the surrender of this submarine off Delaware in 1945.

From Wikipedia.

The U-858 was commissioned 30 September 1943 and scuttled by the U.S. Navy in 1947.

Near the end of World War II, the U-858 was sent to the east coast of the United States with orders to destroy as much Allied shipping as it could.  However, it never sank or damaged any ship.  Instead, it surrendered to two destroyer escorts at sea on May 14, 1945 and was taken to Fort Miles, Lewes, Delaware.   Germany had surrendered May 7, 1945.

Afterwards, the submarine was used for publicity to raise war binds and then used for torpedo practice in the New England area before being scuttled near the end of 1947.

It was the first German warship to surrender to U.S. forces.

The War's Over, Man.  --GreGen

Coastal Defense As "Delaware Goes to War"

From the April 26, 2018, Delaware Online  "Coastal defense on display as Delaware 'Goes to War' this weekend"  Maddy Lauria.

Saturday the Fort Miles Historical Association will present their annual "Delaware Goes to War" program from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m..

They will recreate the surrender of the German submarine U-858 in May 1945.  That was the first foreign surrender on American soil since the War of 1812.

Fort Miles was a very active military base during the war.

They have installed lights on the observation tower Tower 3, one of eleven fire control towers at the fort.

--GreGen

Did War Work in Both World Wars

From the April 25, 2018, MidWeek  (DeKalb County, Illinois)  "Looking Back."

1943, 100 Years Ago.

"His activity this year will mean an important help in the war work.

"During the last war, Mr. Eckhardt held the vital post of corn administrator for Illinois and had supervision over the state's huge effort in supplying this vital crop."

Both wars.  --GreGen

Two More USS Oklahoma Unknowns Identified

In April, 2018.

**  Seaman 1st Class Henry Glenn Tipton.  Buried at Walnut Ridge, Arkansas.

**  Fireman 2nd Class Joseph D. Wheeler will be buried in Arkansas as well.

--GreGen

USS North Carolina Crewman Visits His Ship

From the April 26, 2018, WWAY, Wilmington, N.C.  "World War II veteran revisits ship decades after serving on USS North Carolina" Jenna Kurzyna.

It has been fifty years since his last visit to the "Showboat."   But Pat Fonzi, 95, remembers it well.  He was just 18 when first boarded the ship.

His comment after seeing the ship again:  "I was happy, everything looks beautiful. Now I can rest a lot different.  I know that everything is going to be nice."

Mr. Fonzi served 1941 to 1945 after joining the Navy to see the world.  On the battleship, he served as a gun captain.

He and his family traveled from Pennsylvania to Wilmington to see his old ship.  The USS North Carolina also hosted a memorial dedication and ribbon-cutting ceremony Thursday.

Always Great When a Veteran gets to Visit Their old Ship.  GreGen

Experience the USS North Carolina-- Part 2: Memorial Walkway Dedicated

Visitors can take free self-guided tours.  Guided tours are available at an additional fee.  Just be prepared to go up and down a whole lot of stairs.

On April 26, at 4:30 p.m., the SECU Memorial Walkway and cofferdam will be dedicated.  It is 1.2 mile long and ten-feet wide with five areas to sit to honor the five military branches.  This way visitors can view the entire ship.

The cofferdam was built to enable drydocking of the ship at its site.

April 26 will also coincide with the annual crew reunion.  Twelve original members are expected to be in attendance.

--GreGen

Experience the USS North Carolina and World War II

From the April 17, 2018, My HorryNew.com  "Experience World War II history aboard Battleship North Carolina" by Kristyn Winch.

The USS North Carolina was built in the New York Navy Yard in 1937.  It had a seven year service in the U.S. Navy and received 15 Battle Stars, the highest decorated battleship in the war.  It was at Iwo Jima.

Children in North Carolina donated nickels and dimes to bring the ship to Wilmington after it was found that the Navy was going to scrap the ship.

It is open 8 to 5 every day and from 8 to 8 Memorial Day to Labor Day.  Some 300,000 visitors board the museum ship every year.

--GreGen

How Well Do You Know World War II Slang-- Part 4: What Was a Mae West?

Continued from November 9, 2017.  To see the first three, hit the label "slang".

13.  WHAT WAS A HERSHEY BAR?--  Hershey bars were actually used in parts of Europe as an exchange.  Sometimes, prostitutes would settle for a Hershey bar.

14.  WHAT WAS A D-RATION?   Dirt Bag.  Vitamins in blocks of chocolate.

15.  MAE WAST WAS NOT ONLY A FAMOUS ACTRESS, BUT SOLDIERS ALSO USED HER NAME TO DESCRIBE WHAT?  An inflatable life jacket invented by Peter  Markins in 1920 and patented in 1928.

--GreGenSlang

Three More USS Oklahoma Unknowns Identified

**  Navy Seaman 2nd Class Frank Wood of Jackson, Ohio will be buried in North Carolina on October 14.  he was 25 at the time of his death.

**  Glenn Tipton of Arkansas was identified.  His remains will be returned to Lawrence County for reburial.

**  John Dennis Wheeler's remains from the USS Oklahoma have been identified.  he will be buried by his family in Gaither this month.

--GreGen

Navajo Code Talker Dies: Roy Hawthorne Sr, 92

From the April 24, 2018, Military.com site  "World War II Navajo Code Talker Dies at 92"  AP.

Roy Hawthorne Sr. died April 21 at age 92.

He enlisted in the USMC at age 17 and became a member of the famed group who transmitted messages in battle areas using their native Navajo language.  Their code was never broken by the Japanese.

Mr. Hawthorne was one of the better known Code Talkers as he appeared at many public events and spoke to groups often.

Even so, he never considered himself a hero.

After the war he was in the U.S. Army.

His funeral will be held Friday April 27, 2018.

--GreGen

USS North Carolina's Re-Enactors

From the December 2, 2017, WWAY 3, Wilmington, N.C.  "Battleship NC Comes Alive With WW II Re-enactors"  Justin McKee.

Re-enactors will be on hand portraying the duties and drills of men who served on the warship and they will also be answering questions.

One woman will be on hand portraying Rosie the Riveter.

This will all be at no extra charge beyond admission.

The event will be called "Battleship Alive" and happens a few times a year.  There will be another one in April.

My All-Time Favorite Ship.    --GreGen

Wants to Join the Navy

From the April 4, 2018, MidWeek  (DeKalb County, Illinois)  "Looking Back."

1943, 75 Years Ago.

"William S. Boies submitted to minor surgery on a toe this week, for the purpose of making it possible for him to pass the necessary physical examination to enter the navy.

"The surgery was performed at Sycamore Hospital."

I did not see his name on DeKalb County World War II Genealogy Trails, so he survived the war.

--GreGen

The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising

From Wikipedia.

Not to be confused with the 1944 Warsaw Uprising.

The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising took place in 1943 as an act of Jewish resistance to the Nazi effort to clear them out of the Warsaw Ghetto and transport them to the Trebinka Concentration Camp.

It started on April 19, 1943 and the German commander responded by burning the Ghetto block by block.  It ended May 16.  Some 13,000 Jews died, with about half of them burned to death or suffocated.  German casualties are not known, but under 300.

It was the largest single revolt by Jews against the Nazis during the war.

When the Germans took over Poland, they started moving Jews to ghettos in the major cities.  The Warsaw Ghetto was the largest of them with between 300,000 and 400,000 Jews.

--GreGen

Poland Marks 75th Anniversary of Warsaw Uprising-- Part 2: The Tradition of the Daffodils

The daffodil tradition comes from Marek Edelman, the last surviving commander of the uprising, who on every anniversary used to lay the spring flowers at the monument to honor the fighters.  he died in 2009.

The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising broke out April 19, 1943, when about 750 Jewish fighters armed with pistols and fuel bottles attacked a heavily armed German force that was putting an end to the ghetto's existence.

The fighters knew they were doomed but wanted to die at a time and place of their own choosing.

They held out for nearly a month.

--GreGen

Poland Marks 75th Anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising-- Part 1: 1943

From the April 20, 2018, Chicago Tribune.

Sirens wailed, church bells tolled and yellow paper daffodils of remembrance dotted the crowd as Polish and Jewish leaders extolled the heroism and determination of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising  fighters on the 75th anniversary of their ill-fated rebellion.

Polish President Andrzej Duda and World Jewish Congress President Ronald Lauder said the hundreds of young Jews who took up arms in Warsaw in 1943 against the might of the German Army fought for their dignity but also to liberate Poland from the occupying Germans.

People stopped in the streets and officials stood at attention as sirens and church bells sounded at noon to mourn the Jews who died in the uprising, as well as the millions of others murdered in the Holocaust.

--GreGen

Battle of Peleliu in the Pacific

From the April 13, 2018, U.S. Department of Defense  "U.S., Japan commemorate World War II Vattle of Peleliu.

The U.S. Navy, marines and Japanese Self-Defense Force laid wreaths at Peleliu Peace Memorial Park.  members of the Royal Navy and Royal Australian Navy were also in attendance.

The Battle of Peleliu is considered the bitterest fought one in the Pacific for the Marines, who landed on the island September 15, 1944.  The expected four-day battle lasted more than two months.  It resulted in a higher U.S. casualty rate than all of the Pacific Theater of operations.

The 1st Marine Division and later the Army 81st Infantry Division fought in  it.  The objective was the capture of an airstrip.

--GreGen

Bits of War: Oldest Pearl Harbor Vet Turns 106-- New Book on Dorie Miller-- Another USS Oklahoma Unknown ID'd

1.  OLDEST PEARL HARBOR SURVIVOR--  Ray Chavez of San Diego turns 106.

2..  NEW BOOK ON DORIE MILLER--  There is a new biography on Doris "Dorie" Miller called "Pearl harbor and the Birth of the Civil Rights Movement" by Thomas W. Cutrer and T. Michael Parrish

3.  ANOTHER USS OKLAHOMA UNKNOWN IDENTIFIED--  3-19-18--  Navy Fireman 1st Class Jarvis G. Outland.

Sure Glad They Are Identifying the Unknowns of the Oklahoma.  --GreGen

Researchers Mark Death of Pearl Harbor Mastermind Yamamoto

From the April 11, 2018, Fox News by Chris Carola, AP.

A group of U.S. and Japanese researchers have gone to a site in Papua New Guinea where U.S. fighters shot down a Japanese bomber carrying Yamamoto, who is credited with planning and executing the attack on Pearl Harbor.

U.S. codebreakers learned of his planned route for a tour of Japanese bases in the Solomon Islands.

He was shot down April 18, 1943, 75 years ago today.

--GreGen

Radio Londres-- Part 3: D-Day Is Here

Beginning in June 1944, the Allies innundated the radio network with messages.  On June 1 alone,  Radio Londres broadcast 200 messages..

Shortly before D-Day, it broadcast the first stanza of Paul Verlaine's poem "Chanson d'automine" which meant that the invasion was to begin within 24 hours.

Allied victory in Europe meant the end of Radio Londres.

--GreGen

Radio Londres-- Part 2: "Jean Has a Long Mustache"

The occupying German forces quickly prohibited listening to the radio broadcast.

Over it, French General Charles de Gaulle called for such protests as emptying Paris' streets for an hour, demonstrations, preparations for D-Day, "V" for Victory.  he told the French to paint Vs on walls.

Sometimes the Germans were able to jam the signals.

The station also sent coded messages, often an obscure personal one like "Jean has a long mustache" or "There is a fire in the insurance agency."  Sometimes it even meant absolutely nothing, but the Germans would think something was in the works.

--GreGen