BW - EP148—010: February 1944 With Bob Hope—World War II News As We Leave February

Breaking Walls: The Podcast on the History of American Network Radio Broadcasting

On Friday February 25th, 1944 "Big Week," the allies six-day strategic bombing campaign against the Third Reich ended with a successful bombing of German cities Rostock and Augsburg, as well as several Dutch cities near the German border. Unfortunately, many civilians were killed or left homeless. The Germans also lost more than three-hundred-fifty aircrafts, and most importantly, more than one-hundred pilots. Meanwhile two large Japanese ships were torpedoed, killing five-thousand Japanese soldiers, but also thirty-five hundred Japanese laborers and hundreds of allied POWs. On Saturday the 26th, more than six-hundred Soviet bombers raided Helsinki. That day at 1:45 PM, NBC’s War Telescope signed on at 1:45PM eastern time. With the U.S. congress squabbling, Europe looked on. On Sunday February 27th, The U.S. Office of Strategic Services began Operation Ginny I with the objective of blowing up railway tunnels in Italy to cut German lines of communication. The mission failed when the OSS team landed in the wrong place and couldn’t locate the tunnel. That same day, the Soviets massacred more than seven-hundred villagers in Chechnya they deemed non transportable. On Monday the 28th, the German 14th Army mounted new attacks against the U.S. VI Corps at Anzio, while also massacring roughly one thousand ethnic Poles in the village of Huta Pieniacka. Although the tide of war was slowly turning, there were atrocities and accidents on both sides, and neither the Allies or the Axis was fighting a pristine campaign. Regardless, Europe understood that in a post war world, if victory was achieved, the U.S. needed to be a main part of whatever League of Nations could be built after, while the U.S. didn’t yet fully grasp just how much responsibility the country would have in rebuilding Europe.