Edward R. Murrow captivated and informed America during World War II. For more details about his life and career click on this link.
By: Phil Kohn. Dedicated to the memory of his father, GM3 Walter Kohn, U.S. Navy Armed Guard, USNR, and all men and women who have answered the country’s call in time of need. Phil can be contacted at ww2remembered@yahoo.com.
American broadcast journalist and war correspondent, Edward R. Murrow, on December 3, 1943, delivers his classic “orchestrated hell” broadcast over CBS Radio. In it, he describes a Royal Air Force nighttime bombing raid on Berlin. In Belorussia, the Red Army captures Gomel, the country’s second-largest city. In Warsaw, 100 tram workers are publicly executed in retaliation for sabotage on the tram line.
On December 4, the anti-Nazi Partisans of Josip Broz Tito set up a provisional government-in-exile in the liberated part of Yugoslavia. In Egypt, the Second Cairo Conference opens, with Winston Churchill, Franklin D. Roosevelt and Turkish president İsmet İnönü in attendance to discuss Turkey’s possible contribution to the Allied cause. İnönü’s final decision, to the disappointment of Churchill and Roosevelt, is to maintain Turkey’s neutrality. In Sucre, the Bolivian government declares war on the Axis powers. In the Pacific, the Japanese escort carrier Chuyo, traveling to Yokosaka, Japan, from the Japanese base at Truk, is torpedoed five times in three separate attacks over nine hours by the American sub USS Sailfin. The final hits cause Chuyo to capsize within six minutes. Of the 1,401 aboard, only 161 survive.
The first daylight air raid by the Japanese on Calcutta, India, takes place on December 5, killing 167 civilians and one soldier. There had been seven previous air raids on the Indian city, but all were at night.
In Italy, the U.S. Fifth Army continues its offensive on December 6, the goal being Cassino, in central Italy. The British X Corps captures Monte Camino while the U.S. II Corps attacks Monte La Difensa. To the east, the British Eighth Army approaches the Moro River. The Germans ship the first Italian Jews from Milan and Verona, in the northern part of the country, to the Auschwitz concentration camp in Occupied Poland.
In London, Air Marshal Sir Arthur “Bomber” Harris, commander in chief of RAF Bomber Command, tells his superiors on December 7 that he believes he can win the war if he is supported in his continuing attacks on Berlin and other targets. His targeted goal is to send off 15,000 Avro Lancaster heavy-bomber missions in the next few months. (In fact, Harris is able to launch 14,500 missions despite arguments about the effectiveness of the bombing.)
Lt. Gen. Carl Spaatz, U.S. Army Air Forces, becomes the chief of U.S. strategic air forces in Europe on December 8. In the Mediterranean, President Roosevelt visits the island of Malta and expresses to the populace the admiration of the American people.
On December 9, Chinese forces retake Changde, in Hunan province, from the Japanese. Unable to resist the Chinese offensive conventionally, the Japanese use chemical weapons prior to withdrawing. In the fighting, which began on November 2, 1943, and will continue until December 20, 1943, the Chinese suffer 20,000 military casualties versus around 11,000 Japanese killed and wounded. Nearly 300,000 civilians die during the battle. In Warsaw, Poland, anti-Nazi partisans of the Polish Underground State execute two Poles — Tadeusz Karcz, of Warsaw, and Antoni Pajor, of Dobranowice — for betraying Jews to the Gestapo. In Newark, New Jersey, crooner Frank Sinatra is classified 4-F by the Selective Service — unfit for military service for medical reasons (officially, a perforated eardrum).
