Sarah Sundin's Blog, page 27

Today in World War II History—January 29, 1940 & 1945

British poster, World War II

85 Years Ago—Jan. 29, 1940: German Luftwaffe attacks British shipping in the English Channel, sinking four ships.

80 Years Ago—Jan. 29, 1945: US Eighth Army lands in Subic Bay on Luzon and takes the San Marcelino airfields.

At Lunga Beach on Guadalcanal, US Coast Guard attack cargo ship Serpens explodes while depth charges are being loaded; 196 crewmen and 57 Army stevedores are killed, the greatest loss of life on a Coast Guard ship in the war.

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Today in World War II History—January 28, 1940 & 1945

Aerial view of the first convoy to go from India to China over the re-opened Burma Road (US Army Center of Military History)

85 Years Ago—Jan. 28, 1940: King George VI of Britain announces court will not be held this year due to the war.

80 Years Ago—Jan. 28, 1945: Burma Road reopens as the first Allied truck convoy crosses into China; in the ceremony, Chiang Kai-shek renames it the Stilwell Road.

Soviets take Memel and complete the conquest of Lithuania.

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

Child survivors of Auschwitz, 27 Jan 1945; Still photograph from Soviet film of the liberation of Auschwitz, taken by the film unit of the First Ukrainian Front (public domain via United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, courtesy of Belarussian State Archive of Documentary Film and Photography)

85 Years Ago—Jan. 27, 1940: US freighter City of Flint returns to Baltimore; Capt. Joseph Gainard (Merchant Marine) receives the first Navy Cross of WWII. The neutral freighter had been captured by the Germans, creating an international incident: See October 9, 1939; October 23, 1939; November 3, 1939; and November 6, 1939.

80 Years Ago—Jan. 27, 1945: Soviets liberate Nazi concentration camps of Auschwitz and Birkenau; about 7,000 prisoners remain.

US Twentieth Bomber Command (B-29s) evacuates from Chengtu, China, to Kharagpur, India, as Japanese advance in China.

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

Jane Wyman and Ronald Reagan arriving at the movie premiere of Tales of Manhattan in Los Angeles, CA, 5 Aug 1942 (Los Angeles Times photographic archive, UCLA Library via Wikipedia: uclalat_1429_b3185_27266-2)

85 Years Ago—Jan. 26, 1940: US-Japan Trade Treaty of 1911 lapses—US refuses to negotiate while Japanese troops are in China.

Brooms in Britain are to be made with square handles to save timber.

Frank Sinatra performs for the first time with Tommy Dorsey’s band (had previously performed with Harry James).

Actor Ronald Reagan marries actress Jane Wyman in Glendale, CA.

Lt. Audie Murphy, 1945 (public domain via WW2 Database)

80 Years Ago—Jan. 26, 1945: Lt. Audie Murphy single-handedly repels a German tank attack near Colmar in France, for which he later receives the Medal of Honor.

Soviets reach the Prussian coast at Elbing, cutting East Prussia off from Germany.

Sandakan Death March begins: Japanese march 470 Indonesian civilians and Australian POWs 164 miles across North Borneo, only 6 will survive the war.

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Today in World War II History—January 25, 1940 & 1945

Prime Minister Mackenzie King (center) visiting No.110 (City of Toronto) Squadron RCAF, 30 Jan 1940; Lysander aircraft in background (Library and Archives Canada: PA-063634)

85 Years Ago—Jan. 25, 1940: Canadian Prime Minister Mackenzie King dissolves Parliament; new elections to be held.

US Coast Guard establishes Atlantic Weather Observation Service in cooperation with US Weather Service; cutters patrol and transmit weather observations.

US auxiliary ship Bear reaches deepest penetration by any ship yet into Antarctica.

80 Years Ago—Jan. 25, 1945: In Jersey in the besieged, German-occupied Channel Islands, the electricity supply comes to an end.

Movie premiere of The Thin Man Goes Home, starring William Powell, Myrna Loy, and Asta.

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Today in World War II History—January 24, 1940 & 1945

Twentieth-Century-Fox theatrical movie poster for the 1940 film The Grapes of Wrath (public domain via Wikipedia)

85 Years Ago—Jan. 24, 1940: In war with Japan, Chinese take Dongyangyuan Pass, Shanxi Province, China.

Movie premiere in US of The Grapes of Wrath, starring Henry Fonda.

Insignia of the US OSS (Office of Strategic Services) in WWII

80 Years Ago—Jan. 24, 1945: German troops begin evacuating from Slovakia as Soviets advance.

At Mauthausen concentration camp, Nazis execute 9 US OSS agents, 4 British SOE agents, and Associated Press reporter Joseph Morton, all arrested with Slovakian partisans on a mission to evacuate downed airmen; Morton will be the only Allied war correspondent executed by the Axis in WWII.

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Today in World War II History—January 23, 1940 & 1945

Count Helmuth von Moltke on trial in the Nazi People’s Court in Berlin, January 1945 (German Federal Archive, Bild 147-1277)

85 Years Ago—Jan. 23, 1940: Britain and France say they will not honor 200-mile Pan-American neutrality zone and will attack German ships in that zone.

Animals in the Berlin Zoo are placed on war rations—less meat, no bananas or peanuts.

80 Years Ago—Jan. 23, 1945: US First Army retakes St. Vith in Belgium from Germans.

Nazis execute German resistance leaders Count Helmuth von Moltke (leader of the Kreisau Circle resistance group) and Erwin Planck (son of physicist Max Planck).

In the shallow harbor of Nanguan Island, China, submarine USS Barb sinks Japanese freighter Taikyu Maru; Cdr. Eugene Fluckey will receive the Medal of Honor and Barb will receive the Presidential Unit Citation.

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Today in World War II History—January 22, 1940 & 1945

British poster, World War II

85 Years Ago—Jan. 22, 1940: Armed with data from Polish cryptographers, British Government Code & Cypher School at Bletchley Park makes its first wartime break of a German Enigma message.

British Ministry of Information begins censoring newsreels.

80 Years Ago—Jan. 22, 1945: Indian 20th Division takes Monywa in Burma, the last Japanese port on the Chindwin River.

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Today in World War II History—January 21, 1940 & 1945

Carrier USS Ticonderoga burning after being hit by two kamikazes off Luzon, 21 Jan 1945 (US Navy photo)

85 Years Ago—Jan. 21, 1940: British light cruiser HMS Liverpool stops Japanese liner Asamu Maru off Japan and captures 21 Germans—12 naval reservists are detained, 9 civilians are released.

Off Scotland, German U-boat U-22 sinks destroyer HMS Exmouth (all 189 killed).

80 Years Ago—Jan. 21, 1945: Halsey’s US Third Fleet (Task Force 38) is attacked by kamikazes off Luzon while returning to Ulithi Atoll and carrier USS Ticonderoga is damaged (143 killed), but Task Force 38 aircraft sink 15 Japanese ships and destroy 104 aircraft.

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Today in World War II History—January 20, 1940 & 1945

Inauguration of Franklin Delano Roosevelt at White House, 20 Jan 1945 (Library of Congress: fsa.8d37620)

85 Years Ago—Jan. 20, 1940: Britain and France agree to send troops and supplies to aid Finland, but they will not arrive in time.

London’s coldest day since 1881—temperature dips to -20˚ F; people ice-skate on the Serpentine in Hyde Park.

80 Years Ago—Jan. 20, 1945: Hungary signs surrender to the Allies in Moscow.

President Franklin D. Roosevelt is inaugurated for his fourth term.

New song in the US Top Ten: “Accentuate the Positive.”

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