A DC-3 similar to the one that crashed in 1946.
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.
On January 18, 1946, an Eastern Airlines Douglas DC-3 on its last leg from Miami to Boston crashes in Cheshire, Connecticut, killing all 14 passengers and three crewmembers aboard. A subsequent investigation finds that a fire, caused by a fuel leak, started in the left engine and spread to the wing, which collapsed and separated from the fuselage, causing a total loss of control of the aircraft.
In Tokyo, on January 19, U.S. Gen. of the Army Douglas MacArthur, Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers, establishes the International Military Tribunal for the Far East. At the Dachau concentration camp in Bavaria, U.S. and Polish troops use tear gas to forcibly repatriate 339 deserters from the Red Army who had served with Germany during the war. (The repatriations had been agreed upon at the Yalta Conference.) Bombs go off in Jerusalem, blowing up a power substation and a wall of the central prison. In London, the first complaint heard by the United Nations Security Council is made by Iran against the Soviet Union. Iran alleges Soviet interference in its internal affairs and complains that the U.S.S.R. refuses to remove Soviet troops from its territory. The issue is ultimately resolved without UN intervention.
Charles de Gaulle on January 20 is replaced as acting president of the French Provisional Government by Vincent Auriol and as prime minister by Félix Gouin. De Gaulle, rejecting leftist demands that the army’s budget be cut by 20%, resigned his positions “irrevocably” on January 16. (De Gaulle resigned in what he considered a bold political move, thinking that with his being a war hero, the French public would clamor for his return, giving him more power and status. They didn’t.) In Athens, Greece, 150,000 people demonstrate against a proposal to bar members of the resistance from running for office in upcoming elections. The first free elections in Germany since 1933 are held for local offices in the American Zone of Occupation.
Greece on January 21 declares martial law in the Peloponnese (the southern mainland) and sends troops to Kalamáta in the face of royalist uprisings. At a minute past midnight, the United Steel Workers union begins a nationwide walkout, as 750,000 American workers halt work at the nation’s steel mills. It is the largest strike in U.S. history.
President Truman on January 22 establishes the Central Intelligence Group (CIG), the successor intelligence agency to the wartime Office of Strategic Services. In late 1945, Truman had coordinated various intelligence-reform plans considered in the drafting of the directive that created the CIG. (In 1947, CIG is re-named the Central Intelligence Agency [CIA].)
Félix Gouin is officially elected president of the French Provisional Government by the French Constituent Assembly on January 23. The U.S. Navy cargo ship USS Brevard, en route from Shanghai, China, to the U.S., rescues 4,296 Japanese civilians from their sinking ship, Enoshima Maru, which hit a mine around nine miles from the mouth of the Yangtze River off Shanghai. The Japanese are being repatriated, and their ship is sinking fast. Brevard pulls alongside the stricken ship and manages to get all but 25 passengers aboard. The entire rescue operation takes only 30 minutes and is listed in the Guinness Book of World Records as “the most people rescued at sea (civilians).”
On January 24, the United Nations General Assembly passes its first resolution (UN Resolution #1), which calls for the peaceful development of atomic energy and the elimination of nuclear weapons. The resolution creates the United Nations Atomic Energy Commission “to deal with the problems raised by the discovery of atomic energy.”
From Japan, on January 25, 1946, Gen. of the Army Douglas MacArthur recommends to the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff that Japanese Emperor Hirohito not be put on trial for war crimes. MacArthur states that “no specific and tangible evidence has been uncovered [concerning Hirohito’s involvement in war crimes],” and adds: “his indictment will unquestionably cause a tremendous convulsion among the Japanese people, the repercussions of which cannot be over-estimated.” Czechoslovakia begins a process that will continue into November that will expel 1,500,000 ethnic Germans from the country. In the U.S., the on-strike United Mine Workers union rejoins the American Federation of Labor. (The UMW had departed the AFL in 1940.) In Moscow, the U.S.S.R. begins its quest for the atomic bomb. In a meeting, Joseph Stalin tells physicist Igor Kurchatev to spare no expense in developing a nuclear weapon.
President Félix Gouin of France on January 26 names himself as the nation’s prime minister as well. Bikini Atoll, in the Marshall Islands, is selected by the U.S. as its site for testing of nuclear bombs because of its remote location, favorable winds, deep lagoon and small population of around 160 people. The First Indochina War begins as French troops and Vietnamese insurgents clash in the northwestern part of the country. The rebel force surrenders after two days of fighting.
Following the success of local elections in small towns in the American Occupation Zone of Germany on January 20, preparations are begun on January 27 for the holding of elections for towns and villages of under 20,000 in population in the British and French Occupation Zones. Elections in larger towns and cities will be held later in the year, including even those in the Soviet Zone.
In Japan, the Civil Censorship Department is established on January 28 by the American occupation authority, to cut prohibited material from Japanese films before release. Prohibited subjects include: scenes favorably depicting revenge, racial or religious discrimination, violence, militarism, Japanese nationalism, feudalism, or the exploitation of women or children. The government of Chile declares a state of siege after clashes between police and workers in Santiago kill nine people.
On January 29, Norwegian politician Trygve Lie is appointed as the first Secretary-General of the United Nations by unanimous vote of the Security Council.
In Minsk, Belorussian S.S.R., 14 Germans, including three generals, are hanged on January 30 for their part in the murder of millions of Soviet civilians and prisoners of war. In the U.S., the Franklin Roosevelt dime is first issued — on the late president’s birthday — replacing the Mercury-head ten-cent piece.
The Chinese People’s Consultative Congress holds its last session in Chungking on January 31. It finalizes plans to create a coalition government, a new constitution, and to reorganize the army. Kuang Aphaiwong replaces Seni Pramoj as prime minister of Siam (formerly Thailand). A new constitution for Yugoslavia is announced, based on the Soviet model, that establishes a federation of six constituent republics: Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia, Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia and Slovenia. Eurico Gaspar Dutra replaces José Linhares as president of Brazil.
