Sarah Sundin's Blog, page 237
December 25, 2017
Today in World War II History—Dec. 25, 1942
British poster, WWII (Imperial War Museum)
75 Years Ago—Dec. 25, 1942: In Tunisia, Germans retake Longstop Hill; Americans lose 500 men in the four-day battle.
Britain allows ringing of church bells for Christmas.
First American Red Cross service club opens in New Guinea, in a grass hut in Port Moresby.
December 24, 2017
Today in World War II History—Dec. 24, 1942
General Eisenhower, Admiral Darlan, Maj. Gen. Mark W. Clark, and Robert Murphy of US State Department at the negotiations in Algiers, 13 November 1942 (US Army Center of Military History)
75 Years Ago—Dec. 24, 1942: Soviets take one of the two airfields used in Luftwaffe airlift to German troops in besieged Stalingrad.
In Algiers, Algeria, Adm. François Darlan, Free French commander in North Africa, is assassinated by Fernand Bonnier de la Chapelle, a French royalist who opposed Darlan as a former German collaborationist.
December 23, 2017
Today in World War II History—Dec. 23, 1942
US War Bond poster, 1942
75 Years Ago—Dec. 23, 1942: US First War Loan Drive ends, raised $13 billion (quota was $9 billion).
December 22, 2017
Today in World War II History—Dec. 22, 1942
Recruitment poster for US Army Nurse Corps, WWII
75 Years Ago—Dec. 22, 1942: British & US troops launch assault on Longstop Hill, Tunisia.
US Seventh Air Force sends 24 B-24s to bomb Wake Island, the first air attack in the Central Pacific, a 4300-mile mission.
US Congress authorizes relative rank for Army and Navy Nurse Corps; pay same as for male officers without dependents.
December 21, 2017
Today in World War II History—Dec. 21, 1942
Stalingrad, Russia, 23 Dec 1942 (Russian International News Agency)
75 Years Ago—Dec. 21, 1942: German forces under Gen. Erich von Manstein come within 30 miles of Stalingrad, but Hitler refuses to allow Sixth Army to break out of the besieged city to meet them.
December 20, 2017
Today in World War II History—Dec. 20, 1942
Targets of US Eighth Air Force, August 1942-June 1943 (US Army Air Forces map)
75 Years Ago—Dec. 20, 1942: US Eighth Air Force sends 101 B-17 & B-24 bombers to hit Romilly-sur-Seine air depot outside Paris; 6 B-17s lost.
Off Tokyo, Japanese freighter Mutsuki Maru becomes the first ship sunk by US mines in home waters; the mines were laid by sub USS Trigger earlier that day.
December 19, 2017
Today in World War II History—Dec. 19, 1942
Gen. Alphonse Juin, commander-in-chief of French forces in North Africa
75 Years Ago—Dec. 19, 1942: Free French take Pichon, Tunisia from Germans.
December 18, 2017
Today in World War II History—Dec. 18, 1942
US Navy recruitment poster, 1944
75 Years Ago—Dec. 18, 1942: Submarine USS Albacore sinks Japanese light cruiser Tenryu off New Guinea.
US Army lands on Musita Island off Buna, New Guinea.
Movie premiere of western Dawn on the Great Divide, starring Buck Jones, who was killed in the Cocoanut Grove Fire in Boston on Nov. 28.
December 17, 2017
Today in World War II History—Dec. 17, 1942
Mount Austen overlooking Henderson Field on Guadalcanal (US Army Center of Military History)
75 Years Ago—Dec. 17, 1942: In Libya, British under Montgomery take El Agheila.
US, Britain, and ten Allied governments-in-exile issue a declaration condemning “German Policy of Extermination of the Jewish Race.”
US begins offensive on Guadalcanal toward Mount Austen, which dominates the island.
The Volga River freezes, allowing Soviets to supply Stalingrad.
Movie premiere of Random Harvest, starring Ronald Colman and Greer Garson.
December 16, 2017
Today in World War II History—Dec. 16, 1942
Poster for the US Army Corps of Engineers, WWII
75 Years Ago—Dec. 16, 1942: Soviets halt German drive to relieve surrounded troops at Stalingrad.
US Army engineers begin construction of Ledo Road from Ledo, India to Burma Road, in order to send supplies to China.
