Sarah Sundin's Blog, page 37

Today in World War II History—October 25, 1939 & 1944

Japanese special attack (kamikaze) A6M Zero fighter diving on escort carrier USS White Plains, 25 October 1944; the aircraft missed the flight deck and impacted the water just off the port quarter of the ship (US Naval History & Heritage Command: 80-G-288882)

85 Years Ago—Oct. 25, 1939: The Man Who Came to Dinner premieres on Broadway, runs for 739 performances.

First plane lands at new Munich-Riem Airport in Munich, Germany.

80 Years Ago—Oct. 25, 1944: In the Battle of Leyte Gulf, US loses 2 escort carriers, 2 destroyers, and 1 destroyer escort; Japanese lose 4 carriers, 2 battleships, 5 cruisers, and 5 destroyers.

First main kamikaze attacks occur in the Battle of Leyte Gulf.

On the ground at Leyte, Japanese take advantage of the naval diversion and attack US ground troops.

Singer and socialite Florence Foster Jenkins, famous for her lack of singing ability, performs at Carnegie Hall to a sold-out crowd.

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Today in World War II History—October 24, 1939 & 1944

Oil painting of Lieutenant Commander Richard O’Kane aboard USS Tang by artist Commander Albert Murray (US Naval History & Heritage Command NH 97859)

85 Years Ago—Oct. 24, 1939: Benny Goodman records hit song “Let’s Dance.”

Pilots of US Navy Torpedo Squadron 13 in their ready room aboard carrier Franklin just before the Battle of the Sibuyan Sea during the Battle of Leyte Gulf, 24 Oct 1944 (US National Archives: 80-G-290733)

80 Years Ago—Oct. 24, 1944: Fifty Black sailors are convicted of mutiny in the controversial Port Chicago case; after only 80 minutes deliberation, all 50 men are given 15-year sentences.  (Read more: “The Port Chicago Disaster—The Mutiny Trial”).

Off Formosa, sub USS Tang sinks a ship in a Japanese convoy, having sunk 5 ships with only 9 torpedoes, but Tang is then sunk by her own torpedo (74 killed, but 9 survive as POWs including captain Lt. Cdr. Richard O’Kane, who will receive the Medal of Honor).

In Battle of Leyte Gulf, Japanese aircraft attack US shipping at Leyte; US carrier aircraft shoot down 257 Japanese planes and sink Japanese battleship Musashi.

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Today in World War II History—October 23, 1939 & 1944

Japanese Battleship Fuso or Yamashiro under attack by aircraft from carrier USS Enterprise during the Battle of Leyte Gulf, 24 October 1944 (US Naval History & Heritage Command: 80-G-281763)

85 Years Ago—Oct. 23, 1939: US freighter City of Flint, captured by the Germans, arrives at Murmansk, Russia.

Author Zane Grey dies in Altadena, CA, age 67.

80 Years Ago—Oct. 23, 1944: Battle of Leyte Gulf begins as Japanese fleet lures the US Third Fleet away from the landing beaches at Leyte in the Philippines.

In the Battle of Leyte Gulf, US submarines Darter and Dace sink Japanese heavy cruisers Atago and Maya.

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Today in World War II History—October 22, 1939 & 1944

Lt. Gen. Alexander Patch, Jr., commander of the U.S. Seventh Army in southern France, and his son, Capt. Alexander “Mac” Patch III, shortly before the young officer’s death in October 1944 (US Military Academy)

85 Years Ago—Oct. 22, 1939: Soviets clamp down on occupied Poland, closing schools and churches, banning the Polish language and typewriters, and replacing Polish currency with Soviet rubles.

Gallup poll: 62% of American want to aid the Allies, but 95% want to stay out of the war.

80 Years Ago—Oct. 22, 1944: First use of napalm in the Southwest Pacific Theater—US fighters drop napalm on oil storage tanks on Ceram Island in the Netherlands East Indies.

Capt. Alexander Patch III, son of the commanding general of the US Seventh Army, is killed in action in France.

Final broadcast of BBC European Service French Service.

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Today in World War II History—October 21, 1939 & 1944

Cabinet Room in the Churchill War Rooms, London (Photo: Sarah Sundin, 6 Sept 2017)

85 Years Ago—Oct. 21, 1939: President Roosevelt establishes an advisory committee on the use of uranium, under Lyman Briggs.

First British cabinet meeting is held in the underground Cabinet War Rooms (now called the Churchill War Rooms).

US rifleman in Aachen, 1944 (US Army Center of Military History)

80 Years Ago—Oct. 21, 1944: US First Army takes Aachen, the first major German city to fall to the Allies.

Lt. Frances Slanger is killed by a German shell in her tent, the first American nurse killed in France in WWII.

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Today in World War II History—October 20, 1939 & 1944

First edition cover of By the Shores of Silver Lake by Laura Ingalls Wilder

85 Years Ago—Oct. 20, 1939: Laura Ingalls Wilder’s By the Shores of Silver Lake is published.

Pope Pius XII publishes his first encyclical, Summi pontificatus, decrying racism, dictators, and treaty violations.

Premiere of Marx Brothers movie At the Circus.

Gen. Douglas MacArthur wading ashore at Leyte, Philippine Islands, 20 October 1944 (US National Archives: 111-SC-407101)

80 Years Ago—Oct. 20, 1944: US Sixth Army lands on Leyte in the Philippines, led by Gen. Douglas MacArthur, who declares, “I have returned.”

Soviets and Yugoslavian partisans take Belgrade, Yugoslavia.

In the October Revolution, the presidents of both Guatemala and El Salvador are overthrown in military coups and sent into exile.

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Today in World War II History—October 19, 1944

Frances Wills (left) and Harriet Ida Pickens are sworn in by Lt. Rosamond D. Selle, New York City, Nov 1944. In December 1944, they became the Navy’s first African-American WAVES officers. (US National Archives: 80-G-47025)

80 Years Ago—Oct. 19, 1944: Japanese Vice-Admiral Onishi Takijino orders the formation of Special Attack Group of kamikazes to make suicide aerial attacks on Allied ships around the Philippines.

US Navy partially integrates Blacks into service areas and opens WAVES to Black women.

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Today in World War II History—October 18, 1939 & 1944

German poster for the Volkssturm, WWII

85 Years Ago—Oct. 18, 1939: Germany announces neutral ships in Allied convoys will be sunk without warning.

President Roosevelt declares US waters off-limits to submarines of warring nations.

80 Years Ago—Oct. 18, 1944: Hitler activates Volkssturm, a militia of all able-bodied males 13-60 years old.

Soviets enter Czechoslovakia through Carpathian passes but pause to let Germans crush Slovakian mountain uprising.

Lt. Gen. Joseph Stilwell is removed from command of the China-Burma-India Theater and recalled to the US.

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Today in World War II History—October 17, 1939 & 1944

Columbia Pictures poster for the 1939 film Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (public domain via Wikipedia)

85 Years Ago—Oct. 17, 1939: Movie premiere of Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, starring James Stewart and Jean Arthur, in Washington, DC.

In British Atlantic convoy HG-3, German U-boats make their first coordinated attack, with three U-boats sinking three ships.

North African troops of the French First Army in France, 1944 (US Army Center of Military History)

80 Years Ago—Oct. 17, 1944: French troops halt offensive through Vosges Mountains toward the Belfort Gap in France.

Germans enter Slovakia to put down the Slovak National Uprising.

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Today in World War II History—October 16, 1939 & 1944

Junkers Ju 88A over France, 1942 (German Federal Archives, Bild 101I-363-2258-11 / Rompel)

85 Years Ago—Oct. 16, 1939: First Luftwaffe attack of the war on Britain—German Ju 88s bomb British ships in the Firth of Forth and are engaged by RAF Spitfires.

Ships of the US Neutrality Patrol begin patrolling to 200 miles offshore from Newfoundland to Trinidad.

80 Years Ago—Oct. 16, 1944: In Germany, bread ration is cut to 7 ounces per week.

Off Greenland, US Coast Guard icebreakers Eastwind & Southwind capture German weather ship Externsteine, which was trapped in ice, the northernmost US combat to date.

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