Sarah Sundin's Blog, page 339
June 18, 2015
Today in World War II History—June 18, 1940 & 1945
75 Years Ago—June 18, 1940: Canada introduces military conscription, but overseas service is voluntary. In speech to Parliament, Churchill declares: “The Battle of France is over…the Battle of Britain is about to begin,” and “This was their finest hour.”
70 Years Ago—June 18, 1945: On Okinawa, Lt. Gen. Simon B. Buckner, commander of the US Tenth Army, is killed by shrapnel. In the Philippines, US Eighth Army secures Mindanao.
Lt. Gen. Simon B. Buckner, Commanding General, US Tenth Army (right, with camera) and Maj. Gen. Lemuel C. Shepperd, Jr., Commanding General, 6th Marine Division, Okinawa (with walking stick), June 1945 (US Army Center of Military History)
June 17, 2015
Book Beat – As Love Blooms by Lorna Seilstad
Tessa Gregory is a woman of many interests, but now she knows horticulture is the path for her. If only her family didn’t dismiss this as another flight of Tessa’s high-flying fancy. If only the director of Como Park hadn’t refused to hire her. If only she didn’t have such a knack for getting in trouble. When Reese King, one of the horticulturists at the park, takes an interest in Tessa’s designs – and in Tessa – and gives her an undercover chance to make her dream come true, Tessa jumps in wholeheartedly. Even if it means more trouble.
As Love Blooms completes Lorna Seilstad‘s delightful series on the Gregory Sisters. Anyone who enjoyed When Love Calls or While Love Stirs will be eager to read about the high-spirited, precocious youngest sister. But reading the earlier books in the series isn’t necessary to enjoy this novel. As always, Lorna Seilstad tells an engaging story with characters you really want to know in real life, topped with a swirl of humor. The historical research is just right, showing us Minneapolis’s high society in 1913 and the movement that brought so many great parks to America’s cities in that time period. Please don’t miss this book!
Today in World War II History—June 17, 1940 & 1945
HMT Lancastria
75 Years Ago—June 17, 1940: As German troops cross the Loire near Orleans, French Marshal Henri Pétain offers the surrender of France. Off St. Nazaire, France, Luftwaffe sinks liner RMS Lancastria carrying soldiers & refugees evacuating from France, the worst maritime loss in British history (2899/5310 killed).
70 Years Ago—June 17, 1945: US begins B-29 incendiary raids on medium-sized Japanese cities; missions carried out using radar-bombing.
June 16, 2015
Today in World War II History—June 16, 1940 & 1945
Yuza-Dake Hill, under attack by the 382d Infantry, 96th Division. Tanks are working on the caves and tunnel system at base ridge of ridge. (US Army Center of Military History)
75 Years Ago—June 16, 1940: French Premier Paul Reynaud resigns, replaced by Marshal Henri Pétain.
70 Years Ago—June 16, 1945: US Tenth Army takes Yuza-Dake Hill on Okinawa.
June 15, 2015
Lessons from the 1940s Woman – Be Involved!
The World War II era was a pivotal time for women, a hinge between the traditional home-based women’s role and the modern career-based role. Wartime posters show the fullness of a woman’s place in society and reveal the values that drove this generation to victory. Through these posters we’ll see lessons we can learn from women of that era.
When World War II began, women sprang to action as volunteers. This was an area in which women already excelled. For example, the Women’s Club in Antioch, California was founded in 1902. In the early years, they were responsible for raising funds and spearing drives to establish the town’s library, high school, street signs, house numbering, street paving, water delivery and sewage systems, and the planting of shade trees!
Nowadays, we glorify the wartime woman who went to work outside the home, but in reality, far more women served as volunteers, and their work was crucial to the war effort.
Church groups, women’s clubs, the PTA, the USO, and the Red Cross all performed important services for the country. Women raised funds, bought war bonds, planted Victory Gardens, gave blood, ran recreational centers, and even knitted socks for the troops.
The American Red Cross, for example, had 37 million members during the war, and raised $785 million. In addition, 20 million youth joined the Junior Red Cross. They shipped 13 million pints of blood to the military and shipped 300,000 tons of supplies overseas, both for the troops, and for civilian wartime relief.
Red Cross volunteers rolled bandages, ran blood drives, and made clothes for refugees and kit bags for soldiers. They served in hospitals as “Gray Ladies,” reading to the wounded, writing letters, and serving in the recreation rooms. They operated canteens to serve meals at train stations, docks, and military posts at home and abroad. They served as nurse’s aides and dietitian’s aides.
To the 1940s women, community mattered. She willingly gave up her time to volunteer for the sake of her country. And she accomplished amazing things.
In 2015 we live in a self-oriented culture rather than the civic-minded culture of the past. Despite talk about a return to volunteerism, most civic organizations and churches struggle to find people willing to commit time to serve, and most of the functions they once performed have shifted to government.These women inspire me, and I hope they inspire you too. What can you learn from them? How can you contribute?
Today in World War II History—June 15, 1940 & 1945
US B-29 bomber flying over Osaka, Japan, 1945. (US National Archives)
75 Years Ago—June 15, 1940: USSR occupies Lithuania. Bread and flour are rationed in Nazi-occupied Holland.
70 Years Ago—June 15, 1945: US B-29 incendiary raid on Osaka ends the major urban area campaign on the six biggest Japanese cities. Judy Garland marries Vincente Minnelli.
June 14, 2015
Today in World War II History—June 14, 1940 & 1945
French civilian weeping as German soldiers marched into Paris, France, 14 Jun 1940. (US National Archives)
75 Years Ago—June 14, 1940: German troops enter Paris and fly the swastika from the Eiffel Tower. Auschwitz concentration camp receives first prisoners—Polish political prisoners. Britain bans ringing of church bells—reserved for invasion alert.
70 Years Ago—June 14, 1945: British arrest Nazi foreign minister Joachim von Ribbentrop in Hamburg, Germany; he will be executed after the Nuremberg Trials. On Okinawa, US Tenth Army takes Yaeju-Dake peak, Marines take Kunishi Ridge.
US 96th Division on the top of Yaeju-Dake Hill, Okinawa, Japan, 18 Jun 1945. (US Army photo)
June 13, 2015
Today in World War II History—June 13, 1940 & 1945
Soldier of the Australian 2/43rd Battalion armed with an Owen Gun in a bomber dispersal bay at Labuan airstrip, Brunei, Borneo, 10 June 1945. (Australian War Memorial)
75 Years Ago—June 13, 1940: Germans take Le Havre, France, and enter Paris suburbs. First naval skirmish in Mediterranean in WWII: British sub Odin attacks Italian cruisers Fiume and Gorizia.
70 Years Ago—June 13, 1945: Australians take Brunei, Borneo. Japanese resistance ends in the Oroku sector of Okinawa; Japanese commander Adm. Minoru Ota commits suicide.
June 12, 2015
Today in World War II History—June 12, 1940 & 1945
Japanese resistance fighters captured, Okinawa, Japan, Jun 1945; prisoner to the far left is reading American propaganda literature. (US Army photo)
75 Years Ago—June 12, 1940: British Navy bombards Italian base of Tobruk, Libya. Japanese bomb Chongqing with 154 aircraft.
70 Years Ago—June 12, 1945: US Marines make push for final pocket of Japanese forces on the Oroku Peninsula on Okinawa; hundreds of Japanese Marines commit suicide.
June 11, 2015
Today in World War II History—June 11, 1940 & 1945
Italian Val Dora battalion of the 5th Alpini Regiment in action in the Colle della Pelouse during the Italian invasion of France in June 1940.
75 Years Ago—June 11, 1940: Italian troops invade France along Riviera and in Alps, but do not advance. Italian planes bomb Malta in the first of 3340 air raids over the next three years. Paris is declared an open city.
70 Years Ago—June 11, 1945: Czechoslovakia begins expulsion of 3 million ethnic Germans.
