Sarah Sundin's Blog, page 23

Today in World War II History—March 7, 1945

Ludendorff Railroad Bridge at Remagen, Germany, March 1945 (US Army Center of Military History)

80 Years Ago—Mar. 7, 1945: US First Army seizes the intact Ludendorff Bridge over the Rhine River at Remagen; 8,000 troops cross the first day.

The Ohio River floods Pittsburgh and Louisville, slowing war production.

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Today in World War II History—March 6, 1940 & 1945

Navy Ensign Jane Kendeigh, the first flight nurse to arrive on Iwo Jima (US Navy Bureau of Medicine and Surgery)

85 Years Ago—Mar. 6, 1940: Finnish diplomats arrive in Moscow for negotiations to end Winter War.

Demolished Hohenzollern Bridge at Cologne, Germany, March 1945 (US Army Center of Military History)

80 Years Ago—Mar. 6, 1945: US First Army takes Cologne (Köln), Germany; in retreat, Germans destroy the Hohenzollern Bridge.

Germans launch offensive to retake Hungarian oil fields—will have partial, temporary success.

Dutch resistance ambushes a truck at Woeste Hoeve, injuring Hanns Rauter, head of the Dutch SS.

US begins medical evacuation flights from Iwo Jima, which come under artillery fire; for the first time ever, a flight nurse (Ens. Jane Kendeigh, Navy Nurse Corps) flies into an active battlefield.

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Today in World War II History—March 5, 1940 & 1945

US Navy recruitment poster, 1944

85 Years Ago—Mar. 5, 1940: USSR declares Polish officers are enemies and sentences them to death; this will lead to the Katyn Massacre.

80 Years Ago—Mar. 5, 1945: German Army begins conscripting fifteen-year-old boys.

Throughout the Pacific, US submarines sink nine Japanese ships.

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Today in World War II History—March 4, 1940 & 1945

“Kearsarge Pinnacles,” Kings Canyon circa 1930s. (Photo by Ansel Adams, US National Archives: 79-AAH-7)

85 Years Ago—Mar. 4, 1940: Kings Canyon National Park is established in California.

B-29 Superfortress bomber ‘Dinah Might’ after making an emergency landing at Motoyama Airfield No. 1, Iwo Jima, 4 Mar 1945 (US Marine Corps photo: 112392)

80 Years Ago—Mar. 4, 1945: US B-29 Superfortress heavy bomber lands at Iwo Jima, the first of 2400 B-29s to use the airfields for emergency landings.

British Fourteenth Army takes Meiktila, Burma.

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Today in World War II History—March 3, 1940 & 1945

RMS Queen Elizabeth in New York City after World War II (public domain via State Library of Queensland: 147799)

85 Years Ago—Mar. 3, 1940: In the Soviet-Finnish war, the Soviets launch a final major offensive at Viipuri, Finland.

Maiden sail of ocean liner RMS Queen Elizabeth, from Glasgow—it was publicized that she was sailing to Southampton, leading the Luftwaffe to bomb Southampton—however, the Queen Elizabeth was bound for New York.

80 Years Ago—Mar. 3, 1945: US Sixth Army secures Manila after furious house-to-house fighting; 100,000 civilians have been killed by the Japanese.

US Ninth Army and Canadian troops link between the Maas and Rhine rivers.

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Today in World War II History—March 2, 1945

Map depicting the Allied advance to the Rhine River in West-Central Germany and Belgium, 8 Feb-10 Mar 1945 (US Military Academy)

80 Years Ago—Mar. 2, 1945: US Ninth Army crosses into Germany and reaches the Rhine River near Düsseldorf.

First US Navy R4D cargo planes land at Iwo Jima for medical air evacuation, carrying war correspondent Barbara Miller Finch of Reuters, serving as a nurse’s aide to bypass the rule banning female correspondents at the front—she is the first American woman to arrive at Iwo Jima.

The Bayeux Tapestry is returned from the Louvre to its prewar location of Hôtel du Doyen in Bayeux.

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Today in World War II History—March 1, 1940 & 1945

Manila Bay in February 1945 (US National Archives)

85 Years Ago—Mar. 1, 1940: France institutes food rationing: meat sold only three days per week, chocolate is rationed, and pastries are banned.

Native Son by Richard Wright is published in the US.

80 Years Ago—Mar. 1, 1945: Manila Bay opens as an Allied port.

First US fighter plane makes an emergency landing on an airstrip on Iwo Jima.

US Navy Task Force 58 begins pre-invasion air strikes against Okinawa and sinks 13 ships.

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Today in World War II History—February 28, 1940 & 1945 – and February 29, 1940

Blenheim light bomber of the RAF being towed away by horses after landing on the frozen Jukajärvi lake, near Juva village, Finland, 25 Feb 1940 (Finnish Army Picture, public domain via Wikipedia)

85 Years Ago—Feb. 28, 1940: First group of British volunteers arrive in Finland, under command of Lt. Kermit Roosevelt, son of former US president Theodore Roosevelt.

US poster, WWII

80 Years Ago—Feb. 28, 1945: US Eighth Army lands unopposed on Palawan in the Philippines and takes Puerto Princesa and its airfields.

In the US a midnight curfew is placed on nightclubs, sports arenas, theaters, and bars to conserve coal—restaurants and USO clubs are exempt if alcohol is not served.

Cyclotron at the Lawrence Radiation Laboratory, Berkeley, CA in 1939; the key figures in its development and use are shown, left to right: Dr D Cooksey, Dr D Corson, Dr Ernest Lawrence, the inventor of the cyclotron; Dr R Thornton, Dr J Backus, WS Sainsbury, Dr LW Alvarez, and Dr Edwin Mattison McMillan (Science Museum London)

*Leap Year Bonus* 85 Years Ago—Feb. 29, 1940: Nobel Prize in Physics is awarded to Ernest Lawrence of the University of California; the ceremony is held in Berkeley rather than Stockholm due to the war.

Academy Awards are held:

Best picture of 1939—Gone with the WindBest actor—Robert Donat in Goodbye, Mr. ChipsBest actress—Vivien Leigh in Gone with the WindHattie McDaniel becomes the first Black woman to win an Oscar (supporting actress in Gone with the Wind).

MGM theatrical release poster for Gone with the Wind, 1939, and MGM promotional photograph of Greer Garson and Robert Donat in Goodbye Mr. Chips, July 1939 (both images public domain via Wikipedia)

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Today in World War II History—February 27, 1940 & 1945

Finnish Army machine gun crew during the Winter War, 21 Feb 1940 (Finnish Wartime Photograph Archive: 3534)

85 Years Ago—Feb. 27, 1940: Soviets launch an offensive toward Viipuri, Finland.

Carbon-14 is discovered by Martin Kamen and Sam Ruben at the University of California’s Radiation Laboratory in Berkeley, CA.

US troops raise the flag on Corregidor in the Philippines, 2 March 1945 (US Army Center of Military History)

80 Years Ago—Feb. 27, 1945: Lebanon joins many other nations in last-minute declarations of war on Germany and Japan—all who join the Allies before March 1 will be invited to the upcoming United Nations conference.

US Sixth Army secures Corregidor in the Philippines.

Gen. Douglas MacArthur officially turns over the government of the Philippines to President Sergio Osmeña.

Danish freedom fighter Monica Wichfeld (mother-in-law of SOE agent Flemming Muus), the first Danish woman sentenced to death by the Germans, dies of pneumonia in a concentration camp.

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Today in World War II History—February 26, 1940 & 1945

US Sixth Army troops in Manila, 23 February 1945 (US Army Center of Military History)

85 Years Ago—Feb. 26, 1940: US War Department activates Air Defense Command under Brig. Gen. James Chaney.

80 Years Ago—Feb. 26, 1945: US Ninth Army reaches the Rhine south of Düsseldorf, Germany.

US Sixth Army begins assault on last three Japanese strongholds in Manila.

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