1:15:00 - 1:40:00
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GEpLfryrCOg&t=6198s
After listening to Peter Moon (Vincent Barbarick) babble-on about his "research" that "confirmed" Dietrich's claims the attack on Pearl Harbor was because a Soviet spy in the US Gov't informed a Soviet spy in Japan, I am totally convinced Moon did not research any of it at all.
Barbarick even embellished Dietrich's lies by adding a few of his own, including US AAF Bomber Groups in the Pacific prior to December 7 1941 which did not exist! And that in aftermath of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, rescue and salvage crews were ordered not to use cutting torches because they might detonate scuttle charges which had been previously placed in the hulls of vessels damaged or sunk in the attack.
What Dietrich and Barbarick intend to allege in their upcoming book, is there were no attempts to rescue trapped Sailors and Marines who were all "intended to die". They even claim that on the night of Saturday, December 6th, 1941, a huge "going away" party was held in which the crews were "fattened-up" and "prepared for sacrifice".
That all the ships at Pearl Harbor were WW1 "hulks" not intended for any further use and to be targeted by the Japanese for the attack. That the USS Utah , a Battleship, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Utah_(BB-31) was a "Merchant ship" and had been modified with a false "carrier deck" and used as a "target" for US Navy planes. Though a small portion of his claim is true, anyone can look up the history of the USS Utah.
The photos taken of USS Utah following the attack do not show a "false carrier deck". In fact, Utah had been refitted and re-armed and recently returned to Pearl Harbor as an anti-aircraft gun training platform and was moored off Ford Island before the attack and to the Japanese pilots, her modified deck resembled that of an aircraft carrier. [16]
The entire segment with Moon was sickening. Moon is nothing more than an angry, vindictive fiction writer. He has no intention of publishing anything close to a historical study. He has not cited a single source relating to his latest embellishments of Dietrich's previous lies.
And the publishing of a years-old transcript of a Dietrich interview with the late Joyce Riley (whom Dietrich contacted on numerous occasions to establish) is a joke. You can bet that Moon will make numerous "edits" or "revisions" to the original transcript. My guess is that Moon has been reading my blog posts.
The American Volunteer Group (AVG) "Flying Tigers":
Peter Moon claimed that the 1st AVG in China was actually smuggling Opium while planning to bomb Japan and the Japanese knew about it. The truth is, the Flying Tigers were only in the initial phases of being created in the spring and summer of 1941.
The plan to create such a force began in the previous winter of 1940-41 with Lauchlin Currie and Claire Chennault arranging for 100 P-40B Warhawk fighters purchased by China to be partially disassembled, crated, and shipped to Burma for reassembly and assignment to pilots for training.
In July 1941, Currie had located the aircraft which were intended to be the bombing element of the 2nd and 3rd AVG. 33 Lockheed A-29 "Hudson" Light Bombers and 33 Douglas DB-7 (A-29) Attack Planes.
 |
| Curtiss P-40 "Warhawk" |
 |
| Lockheed A-29 "Hudson" |
 |
| Douglas A-20 "Havoc" In July 1941, The Joint Army-Navy Board approved the plan for the creation of the 1st AVG and the furnishing of aircraft to the Chinese Government and sent what is known as the "JB-355" Document (Classified Secret) to President Roosevelt for his approval. [14] |
 |
| Joint Army-Navy Board Paper 355, ("Aircraft Requirements of the Chinese Government"), Serial 691, National Archives, Washington, DC. [14] |
 |
| JB-355 Document Folder Cover |
 |
| JB-355 "Objectives" |
 |
| JB-355 "Phases" |
 |
| Intercepted Japanese Radio Message: May 29, 1941 |
 |
| Vultee P-66 Vanguard |
Below is FDR's directive to the Secretary of the Navy with respect to the proposed 2nd and 3rd AVG:
 |
| FDR Executive Directive for AVG - September 30, 1941 |
The directive signed by FDR clearly states that Chinese pilots would not complete training until the summer of 1942 and that the recruiting of American pilots should begin in January 1942.
This document (considered by some to be the "secret" order by FDR to bomb Japan) is irrefutable evidence that the United States had no intentions of conducting a bombing raid on Japan using the AVG in China in December 1941.
There is absolutely no mention in the JB-355 document of the use of B-17 heavy, long-range bombers to bomb Japan nor does the document state that any attack was planned for the first week in December 1941.
A "secret" cable was also sent by Lauchlin Currie to the US Embassy in Chungking for Madam Chiang Kai-Shek informing her of FDR's approval.
 |
| Cable from Currie to Chiang Kai-Shek |
It amazes me that given the lack of evidence to substantiate the claim that the US intended to bomb mainland Japan prior to December 7, 1941, the theory continues to be embellished.
Joint Army-Navy Board Paper 355, ("Aircraft Requirements of the Chinese Government"), Serial 691 was nothing more than a proposal.
Only a handful of the 66 light bombers actually made it to China and the remaining bombers under construction were eventually flown to Canada where they were then dismantled and crated for shipment to Great Britain.
The fate of the 1st AVG:
The AVG's first combat mission against the Japanese was on December 20, 1941.
AVG pilots earned official credit and received combat bonuses for destroying 296 enemy aircraft while losing only 14 pilots in combat.[1] The combat records of the AVG still exist and researchers have found them credible.[2]
On 4 July 1942, the AVG was disbanded and replaced by the 23rd Fighter Group of the United States Army Air Forces, which was later absorbed into the U.S. Fourteenth Air Force with General Chennault as commander. The 23rd FG went on to achieve similar combat success while retaining the nose art on the left-over P-40s.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flying_Tigers
The Japanese had a plan to attack Pearl Harbor as early as 1927:
"Yamamoto was not the first person to think of attacking the American naval base at Pearl Harbor. As early as 1927, war games at the Japanese Navy War College included an examination of a carrier raid against Pearl Harbor. The following year, a certain Captain Yamamoto lectured on the same topic. By the time the United States moved the Pacific Fleet from the West Coast to Pearl Harbor in May 1940, Yamamoto was already exploring how to execute such a bold operation. According to the chief of staff of the Combined Fleet, Vice Admiral Fukudome Shigeru, Yamamoto first discussed an attack on Pearl Harbor in March or April 1940. This clearly indicates that Yamamoto did not copy the idea of attacking a fleet in its base after observing the British carrier raid on the Italian base at Taranto in November 1940. After the completion of the Combined Fleet’s annual maneuvers in the fall of 1940, Yamamoto told Fukudome to direct Rear Admiral Onishi Takijiro to study a Pearl Harbor attack under the utmost secrecy. After the Taranto attack, Yamamoto wrote to a fellow admiral and friend stating that he had decided to launch the Pearl Harbor attack in December 1940". [19]
"Japan’s approach in 1941, which consisted of negotiations in parallel with preparations for war, never gave the negotiations any realistic chance of success unless the United States agreed to Japan’s conditions. Thus, increasingly, war became the only remaining option. An Imperial Conference on July 2, 1941, confirmed the decision to attack the Western powers. In early September, the Emperor declined to overrule the decision to go to war and the final authorization for war was given on December 1. By this time, Yamamoto’s Pearl Harbor attack force was already at sea". [19]
AVG status report, 2 Dec 1941
Six days before the outbreak of war, the AVG had 82 pilots and 79 planes, but not all of them were ready to fight. Some pilots had not yet checked out in the P-40 Warhawk - and some never would. And some of the planes were out of commission or lacking radios and guns.
What follows is Harvey Greenlaw's report. "Point A" was the code name for Kyedaw Airdrome, Toungoo. Note that it's impossible to know whether the 60 planes with radios were also the 60 planes with guns and whether all of the planes so equipped were operational.
HEADQUARTERS, FIRST AMERICAN VOLUNTEER GROUP
Office of the Group Operations OfficerPoint "A" Burma
December 2, 19411. The following is the status report of Pilots, Aircraft and Aircraft equipment as of December 2, 1941:
NUMBER OF PILOTS 1st Squadron 27
2nd Squadron 26
3rd Squadron 29
Total Group of Pilots 82
NUMBER OF HOURS FLOWN
1st Squadron 990:15
2nd Squadron 1243:00
3rd Squadron 1059:40
Total Hours 3292.55
STATUS OF AIRCRAFT
1ST Sqdrn.
In Commission 20
Out Commision 7
Total 27
2nd Sqdrn. In Commission 21
Out Commision 5
Total 27
3rd Sqdrn. In Commission 21
Out Commision 5
Total 27
Group
Total Airplanes in commission 62
Total Airplanes out Commision 17
Total Airplane 79
Total Airplanes equipped with radio 60
Total Airplanes equipped with armament 60
For the COMMANDING OFFICER:
H. K. Greenlaw,G-3. [20]
Lauchlin B. Currie:
"Currie was assigned to expedite the American Volunteer Group (Flying Tigers), which consisted largely of U.S. military pilots released for combat on behalf of China against Japan and technically part of the Chinese Air Force under the command of Claire Chennault.
Currie also organized a large training program in the United States for Chinese pilots. In May 1941, he presented a paper on Chinese aircraft requirements to General George C. Marshall and the Joint War Board.
The document, JB-355, accepted by the Board, stressed the role of an air force in China could play in defending Singapore, the Burma Road, and the Philippines against Japanese attack.
It pointed to its potential for strategic bombing of targets in Japan itself. These activities, together with Currie's work in helping to tighten sanctions against Japan, are said to have played a part in provoking Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor.[11]
Currie returned to Chungking in July 1942 to try to patch up the strained relations between Chiang and General Joseph W. Stilwell, commander of U.S. forces in China. Currie was one of several of FDR's envoys who recommended Stilwell's recall and reassignment.
Back in Washington, Roosevelt asked Currie to put his case to General Marshall, but the General dismissed the idea. Only much later did Marshall concede that his protégé's continued presence in China was indeed a mistake. Stilwell was recalled in October 1944."[12] [22]
Although Currie (a known Communist sympathizer) was accused of being a Soviet spy during the post-war "Red Scare". he was never prosecuted or convicted for espionage.
The claim that Currie would have informed the Soviet Agent Richard Sorge (posing as a Nazi journalist with close ties to the German Embassy) of an impending attack by the USA on Japan from China on December 8, 1941, is ludicrous.
Germany and Japan had signed the Anti-Comintern Pact of 1936 and the Tripartite Pact of 1940 which were essentially the basis for the alliance of Axis Powers. Any contact with Sorge would have been an act of treason by Currie since such intelligence would have been shared by the Germans to the Japanese.
As my research shows, the US had not completed the required logistics for such an attack. In fact, only 12 of the Lockheed Hudson bombers were being delivered to China in the fall of 1941 prior to Pearl Harbor.
More simply, such plans were no more than theoretical at the time and the use of Hudson aircraft. flown at night with inadequate bomb loads and range, lacking any fighter cover, although possible using radar, would likely have resulted in total failure.
Of the many primary sources I have cited in preparing this report, not a single one mentions Currie having any connection to Sorge whatsoever.
Richard Sorge:
Contrary to Dietrich's claim, Sorge was not an ethnic "Turk".
Sorge was born on 4 October 1895 in the settlement of Sabunchi, a suburb of Baku, Baku Governorate of the Russian Empire now in Azerbaijan.[4][5] He was the youngest of the nine children of Gustav Wilhelm Richard Sorge (1852 – 1907), a German mining engineer employed by the Deutsche Petroleum-Aktiengesellschaft (DPAG) and the Caucasian oil company Branobel and his Russian wife Nina Semionovna Kobieleva.[6] His father moved back to Germany with his family in 1898, after his lucrative contract expired.[7] [21]
Sorge enlisted in the Imperial German Army in October 1914, shortly after the outbreak of World War I. At 18, he was posted to a field artillery battalion with the 3rd Guards Division. He served on the Western Front and was severely wounded there in March 1916. Shrapnel severed three of his fingers and broke both his legs, causing a lifelong limp.
He was promoted to the rank of corporal, received the Iron Cross, and was later medically discharged. While fighting in the war, Sorge, who had started out in 1914 as a right-wing nationalist, became disillusioned by what he called the "meaninglessness" of the war and moved to the left.[9]
During his convalescence, he read Marx and became a communist, mainly by the influence of the father of a nurse with whom he had developed a relationship. He spent the rest of the war studying economics at the universities of Berlin, Kiel and Hamburg. Sorge received his doctorate in political science (Dr. rer. pol.) from Hamburg in August 1919.[13]
He also joined the Communist Party of Germany. His political views, however, got him fired from both a teaching job and coal mining work. He emigrated to the Soviet Union, where he became a junior agent for the Comintern in Moscow.
In May 1933, the GRU decided to have Sorge organize an intelligence network in Japan. He was given the codename "Ramsay"
Sorge posed as a German (Nazi) Journalist and as such had complete access to the German Embassy in Tokyo.
Sorge was eventually investigated by the Japanese and his arrest on October 18, 1941, was likely a result of his own failure to prevent his detection.
Death of The Soviet Spy:
Richard Sorge was executed in 1944. But Dietrich seems to have forgotten his claim Sorge was executed in November 1941 and now suggests Sorge may have been released or even escaped.
Here is the account of the execution of Sorge mentioned at the end of the video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fn9NyRfbSOo
It is hardly what Dietrich described as being "quick and merciful".
November 7. 1944 Sagumo Prison:
Statement of witness "Yuda" to Sorge's execution:
"Sorge being a European and an atheist, the chaplain had closed the door of the golden shrine before Sorge entered the antechamber, but now Sensho offered him tea and cakes and the opportunity to pray if he wished. Sorge refused both politely. He appeared completely at ease, very much master of himself. Yet just as the guards moved forward to escort him from the anteroom, Sorge turned to Ichijima and made one final request. “May I have a cigarette?” he asked. Ichijima was a compassionate man who had come to like and respect Sorge. But he was also a prison governor of integrity. He could not break regulations out of favoritism. “No,” he replied regretfully but firmly, “it is against the rules.”
Yuda broke in impulsively. “Oh, let him have a cigarette!” he urged. “I know it is against the rules, but it is his last wish. You can say you let him have some medicine at the last minute.” But Sorge’s request struck a wrong note with Ichijima. It was too flippant; it smacked of bravado; it jarred in this awesome hour. “No,” he repeated with quiet finality, “it is against the rules.” Sorge seemed neither disappointed nor resentful.25 Like Ozaki, he remained calm, dignified, a gentleman to the last. With sincerity he thanked Ichijima and the other prison officials for all they had done for him. Then with composure he walked into that bare, sunlit room that had already claimed Ozaki.
From death he feared nothing and expected nothing. Once again the functionaries left the anteroom and took their places in the death chamber.26 The attendants bound his arms and legs, then melted into the background. In that precise moment, Sorge spoke clearly and distinctly. His words tolled in the taut silence like funeral bells: “Sakigun [The Red Army]!” “Kokusai Kyosanto [The International Communist Party]!” “Soviet Kyosanto [The Soviet Communist Party]!”27 Man must worship as he must eat and drink and breathe. Let him deny there is a God, and he will invest with divinity some force within his understanding. So Sorge had set up his own trinity and called upon it in his last hour. Yet he spoke neither in German, the language of his boyhood, nor in the broken Russian of his adopted tongue; he spoke in Japanese, which always came haltingly to his lips.
Thus Sorge’s last words did not well up spontaneously; he had carefully selected them. He had to be sure that his audience understood, that they would report his words correctly so that all would know he had died in the faith. A second time Sorge intoned his litany. The words, the dedication with which Sorge uttered them, his whole attitude impressed Yuda to his very soul. “There was no show-off in his manner,” said Yuda in retrospect. “Sorge was loyal and faithful to his cause to the end. He repeated his words like a person saying a prayer.” For the third time, Sorge spoke his farewell salute to the world.* Then he snapped to attention.
Instinctively recognizing the sure moment, the executioners sprang the trap. It was exactly 10:20 A.M. Yuda’s eyes moved irresistibly to Sorge’s hands—much bigger than Ozaki’s, hands that quivered in the death struggle. Watching them, Yuda asked himself, “What are we accomplishing by executing these two men? Will this be a plus for us or a minus?” Ozaki’s body, submissive to fate, had released his spirit willingly. Sorge’s body had always kept his spirit earthbound; now it clung fiercely to life. Sorge took nineteen minutes to die". [3] (Page 601)
Sources:
Though I appreciate your service your best calling, it seems, is documenting and as historian, with real documents and research (unlike others.) And using footnotes and actual scanned documents, not conjecture and conspiracy ramblings.
ReplyDeleteThank You, I appreciate your comment.
ReplyDelete