Sarah Sundin's Blog, page 349
March 18, 2015
Today in World War II History—March 18, 1940 & 1945
![A rebuild of a British Bombe located at Bletchley Park museum - Volunteers at the Bombe Rebuild Project are building a Turing Bombe, based on original diagrams.[Photographer: Tom Yates. Creative Commons]](http://www.sarahsundin.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/Bombe-rebuild.jpg)
A rebuild of a British Bombe located at Bletchley Park museum – Volunteers at the Bombe Rebuild Project are building a Turing Bombe, based on original diagrams.[Photographer: Tom Yates. Creative Commons]
75 Years Ago—Mar. 18, 1940: Alan Turing’s Bombe electromechanical decipher machine becomes operational at Bletchley Park, England to decrypt German Enigma messages. Hitler and Mussolini meet at Brenner Pass, and Mussolini agrees to join the war against Britain and France.70 Years Ago—Mar. 18, 1945: US Fifth Fleet strikes Kyushu, Shikoku, & Honshu in Japan in preparation for Okinawa landings.
March 17, 2015
Today in World War II History—March 17, 1940 & 1945
Ludendorff Bridge shortly after the collapse, Remagen, Germany, circa 17 Mar 1945. (US National Archives)
75 Years Ago—Mar. 17, 1940: Fritz Todt named German Minister for Armaments and Munitions.
70 Years Ago—Mar. 17, 1945: Ludendorff Bridge at Remagen collapses under German Ar 234 jet attack, but five US divisions had already crossed—American engineers erect new pontoon bridge in ten hours.
March 16, 2015
Today in World War II History—March 16, 1940 & 1945
Flag raising at US Headquarters on Iwo Jima after Nimitz’s proclamation of victory, 14 Mar 1945. (US Naval History and Heritage Command)
75 Years Ago—Mar. 16, 1940: Luftwaffe bombs Scapa Flow, and the first British civilian is killed (James Isbister, age 27).
70 Years Ago—Mar. 16, 1945: US Marines secure Iwo Jima. In the campaign, 5400 US and 20,000 Japanese troops were killed—and only 216 POWs taken. Adm. Chester Nimitz says, “Among the men who fought on Iwo Jima, uncommon valor was a common virtue.” Air base opens on Iwo Jima for P-47 and P-51 fighter planes to escort B-29 bombers.
March 15, 2015
Today in World War II History—March 15, 1945
70 Years Ago—Mar. 15, 1945: Canadian I Corps enters service in northern Europe after transfer from Italy. Academy Awards: Best movie of 1944—Going My Way; best actor—Bing Crosby in Going My Way; best actress—Ingrid Bergman in Gaslight; best director—Leo McCarey for Going My Way. US War Production Board makes penicillin available for civilian use.
March 14, 2015
Today in World War II History—March 14, 1940 & 1945
“Marsmen” on Loi-Kang Ridge, Burma, 475th Infantry, 19 January 1945. (US Army Center of Military History)
75 Years Ago—Mar. 14, 1940: Movie premiere of Road to Singapore, starring Bing Crosby, Bob Hope, and Dorothy Lamour.
70 Years Ago—Mar. 14, 1945: First US infantry arrive in China, the Mars Task Force, ferried by the Air Transport Command.
March 13, 2015
Today in World War II History—March 13, 1940 & 1945
Incendiary bombing of Osaka, Japan. (US Army Air Force photo)
75 Years Ago—Mar. 13, 1940: Canada forms Inventions Board to process weapon suggestions from civilians.
70 Years Ago—Mar. 13, 1945: US B-29s launch fire raid on Osaka, killing 4000 and destroying 119 factories. 51st Field Hospital crosses Rhine, the first US hospital to do so. King Norodom Sihanouk declares independence for Cambodia.
March 12, 2015
Today in World War II History—March 12, 1940 & 1945
Het Achterhuis (“The Diary”), the 1st edition of Anne Frank’s diary published in 1947.
75 Years Ago—Mar. 12, 1940: Finland signs treaty with the USSR, ending the Soviet-Finnish Winter War and ceding border lands to the Soviets. In over three months of fighting, 25,000 Finnish soldiers were killed and 200,000 Soviets.
70 Years Ago—Mar. 12, 1945: Anne Frank dies in Bergen-Belsen concentration camp of typhus, age 15.
March 11, 2015
Today in World War II History—March 11, 1940 & 1945
British WWII poster (Imperial War Museum)
75 Years Ago—Mar. 11, 1940: Off Wilhelmshaven, British Blenheim bombers sink U-31, which will be refloated only to be sunk again, the only U-boat to be sunk twice in WWII. Britain begins meat rationing—each person to receive nine pence worth each week (about one pound); chicken, game, sausage & meat pies are not rationed.
70 Years Ago—Mar. 11, 1945: Seventy German POWs escape from a camp at Bridgend, Wales—all will be recaptured by March 17.
March 10, 2015
Today in World War II History—March 10, 1945
Amphibious landing area, Zamboanga Peninsula, March 1945. (US Army Center of Military History)
70 Years Ago—Mar. 10, 1945: British and Canadians clear the west bank of the Rhine in their sectors. German navy completes evacuation of Danzig and Gdynia. US Eighth Army lands at Zamboanga on Mindanao in the Philippines.
March 9, 2015
Today in World War II History—March 9, 1940 & 1945
Tokyo, Japan in ruins after aerial bombing, circa 10 Mar 1945
75 Years Ago—Mar. 9, 1940: French military intelligence takes possession of supply of heavy water in Telemark, Norway with permission of Norwegians. New song in Top Ten: “When You Wish upon a Star” from Walt Disney’s Pinocchio.
70 Years Ago—Mar. 9, 1945: US B-29s launch first major nighttime, low-altitude incendiary raid on Tokyo—97,000 are killed in the most destructive air attack of the entire war. On Iwo Jima, US Marines repulse a large banzai suicide attack and reach the far coast, dividing Japanese forces.
