Sarah Sundin's Blog, page 26
February 7, 2025
Today in World War II History—February 7, 1940 & 1945
British railway poster, WWII
85 Years Ago—Feb. 7, 1940: British railways are nationalized.
German General Staff recommends no research or development be pursued unless it promises military results within four months, effectively killing atomic bomb research.
Movie premiere of Disney’s Pinocchio in New York City.
Damage to the Schwammenauel Dam causes flooding of the Roer River, Feb. 1945 (US Army Center of Military History)
80 Years Ago—Feb. 7, 1945: Germans blow up floodgates in the Ruhr Valley, flooding the area west of Cologne, Germany.
Japanese take US Fourteenth Air Force base in Kanchow, China.
The post Today in World War II History—February 7, 1940 & 1945 first appeared on Sarah Sundin.
February 6, 2025
Today in World War II History—February 6, 1940 & 1945
British poster, WWII
85 Years Ago—Feb. 6, 1940: Britain debuts “Careless Talk Costs Lives” campaign.
80 Years Ago—Feb. 6, 1945: US First Army clears the Monschau Forest in Belgium.
French First Army secures the Vosges Forest in France.
French execute collaborationist author Robert Brasillach, editor of fascist paper Je suis partout.
The post Today in World War II History—February 6, 1940 & 1945 first appeared on Sarah Sundin.February 5, 2025
Today in World War II History—February 5, 1940 & 1945
British poster, WWII (Imperial War Museum)
85 Years Ago—Feb. 5, 1940: First sinking of a U-boat by a lone British destroyer: in convoy OA-84 off Land’s End, HMS Antelope sinks U-41.
Gen. Isaak Reijnders, commander in chief of the Dutch Army, resigns over lack of military preparation in the Netherlands.
Glenn Miller records hit song “Tuxedo Junction” and Jimmie Davis records hit song “You Are My Sunshine.”
OSS depiction of Operation Cornflake, 1945 (Source: CIA)
80 Years Ago—Feb. 5, 1945: US Seventh and French Armies link, splitting the Colmar pocket in France.
RAF Balloon Command is disbanded as the air raid threat lessens.
Operation Cornflakes begins: US Fifteenth Air Force P-38s strafe German mail trains and drop mailbags containing Allied propaganda drafted by OSS and addressed to German households; 320 mailbags with 96,000 pieces of mail will be dropped in 10 missions through April 1945.
The post Today in World War II History—February 5, 1940 & 1945 first appeared on Sarah Sundin.February 4, 2025
Midnight on the Scottish Shore Release Day Giveaway!
To celebrate the release of Midnight on the Scottish Shore, I’m giving away a prize pack of items related to the story!
A wool scarf in the Mackenzie tartan from Scotland Clue: WWII Spies & Espionage Edition board game from the National WWII MuseumPuffin reusable shopping toteThistle earrings from ScotlandPen from the Scapa Flow Museum
The giveaway is open February 4-9, 2025. US mailing addresses only, please. The winner will be announced here on my blog on February 11, 2025, and will be notified by email.
Come join me on Facebook Live Video on Tuesday, February 4, 2025, at 11 am PST/2 pm EST where I’ll describe the items and their significance to the story! The video will be available for viewing afterward as well.
Enter the giveaway in the Rafflecopter form below. To enter please subscribe to my email newsletter (current subscribers count!).
The post Midnight on the Scottish Shore Release Day Giveaway! first appeared on Sarah Sundin.Today in World War II History—February 4, 1940 & 1945
Churchill, Roosevelt, and Stalin at the Livadia Palace in Yalta, USSR (now Ukraine), Feb 1945. (US National Archives: USA C-543)
85 Years Ago—Feb. 4, 1940: Soviets execute Nikolai Yezhov, head of the NKVD during the Great Purge in 1937-38, who was responsible for over 600,000 deaths (his execution remained secret until 1948).
80 Years Ago—Feb. 4, 1945: Yalta Conference begins—Roosevelt, Churchill, and Stalin plan the division of postwar Europe.
Allies liberate Belgium.
First Allied truck convoy over the reopened Burma Road arrives in Kunming, China.
The post Today in World War II History—February 4, 1940 & 1945 first appeared on Sarah Sundin.February 3, 2025
Today in World War II History—February 3, 1940 & 1945
Internees at the University of Santo Tomas in the Philippines celebrate their liberation, 5 February 1945 (LIFE images, public domain)
85 Years Ago—Feb. 3, 1940: New song in Top Ten in the US: “In the Mood,” made famous by Glenn Miller and his Orchestra.
80 Years Ago—Feb. 3, 1945: 1,003 B-17s of the US Eighth Air Force bomb Berlin, destroying Nazi “People’s Court,” killing Roland Freisler, the brutal judge in the Nazi “People’s Court,” and destroying evidence against remaining conspirators in July 20 Hitler assassination plot, sparing many lives.
On Luzon in the Philippines, US Sixth Army enters Manila, and US airborne troops liberate 3,700 civilian internees at Santo Tomas Internment Camp.
The post Today in World War II History—February 3, 1940 & 1945 first appeared on Sarah Sundin.February 2, 2025
Today in World War II History—February 2, 1940 & 1945
German troops in retreat in the Upper Silesia region, Germany (now Poland), 2 Feb 1945. (German Federal Archive: Bild 183-H26408)
85 Years Ago—Feb. 2, 1940: Italy bans Jews from serving as engineers, professors, or journalists, and from serving Gentiles as doctors or lawyers.
Carl Goerdeler, 1925 (German Federal Archive: Bild 146-1993-069-06)
80 Years Ago—Feb. 2, 1945: Soviet 1st Byelorussian Front reaches the Oder River near Frankfurt-an-der-Oder.
Germans execute resistance leader Carl Goerdeler, who would have been chancellor in the new government if the July 20 coup had succeeded.
The post Today in World War II History—February 2, 1940 & 1945 first appeared on Sarah Sundin.February 1, 2025
Today in World War II History—February 1, 1940 & 1945
Lutheran church of Sortavala, Finland on fire after Soviet bombing, 2 Feb 1940 (public domain via Wikipedia)
85 Years Ago—Feb. 1, 1940: Soviets launch offensive on Mannerheim Line on Finland’s Karelian Isthmus.
80 Years Ago—Feb. 1, 1945: In Bulgaria, Soviets execute the three regents of 7-year-old Tsar Simeon II—Prince Kyril and former Prime Ministers Bogdan Filov and Dobri Bozhilov.
Second bore of the Lincoln Tunnel opens in New York City (first bore opened in 1937).
The post Today in World War II History—February 1, 1940 & 1945 first appeared on Sarah Sundin.January 31, 2025
Today in World War II History—January 31, 1940 & 1945
Troops of US 82nd Airborne Division marching behind M4 Sherman tank in a snowstorm toward German occupied town of Herresbach, Belgium, 28 Jan 1945 (US Army photo)
85 Years Ago—Jan. 31, 1940: US sends out the first monthly Social Security check, for $22.54 to retired Vermont legal secretary Ida May Fuller; had previously been lump sum payments.
80 Years Ago—Jan. 31, 1945: Germans in France and Belgium are pushed back to positions held before the Battle of the Bulge.
Pvt. Eddie Slovik is executed in France, the first US soldier executed for desertion since the Civil War and the only one in WWII.
US 11th Airborne Division makes an amphibious landing at Nasugbu Bay south of Manila on Luzon.
The post Today in World War II History—January 31, 1940 & 1945 first appeared on Sarah Sundin.January 30, 2025
Today in World War II History—January 30, 1940 & 1945
British poster, WWII (National Archives, UK)
85 Years Ago—Jan. 30, 1940: RAF Sunderland bombers sink U-55 in the first confirmed sinking of a German U-boat by Coastal Command and by an aircraft.
Britain begins national campaign to collect scrap iron, paper, and food; government stenographers must type on both sides of the paper and use single spacing.
Former Cabanatuan POWs celebrate after successful raid on prison camp, 30 January 1945 (US Army photo)
80 Years Ago—Jan. 30, 1945: Soviet submarine S-13 sinks German liner Wilhelm Gustloff, killing 6,000-9,000 German military personnel and refugees from East Prussia in the worst maritime disaster in history.
US 6th Ranger Battalion, US Alamo Scouts, and Filipino soldiers rescue 512 Allied POWs at Cabanatuan on Luzon in the Philippines in a daring raid.
Soviets cross the German border into Brandenburg province.
The post Today in World War II History—January 30, 1940 & 1945 first appeared on Sarah Sundin.
