Sarah Sundin's Blog, page 39

Today in World War II History—October 6, 1939 & 1944

Adolf Hitler giving a speech to the Reichstag, Kroll Opera House, Berlin, Germany, in which he calls for peace talks, 6 Oct 1939 (German Federal Archive: Bild 183-E11354)

85 Years Ago—Oct. 6, 1939: Hitler calls for peace talks with Britain and France.

Japanese abandon Changsha due to strong Chinese counterattack.

Glenn Miller, Benny Goodman, Paul Whiteman, and Fred Waring perform at Carnegie Hall.

Gen. Joseph Stilwell and Maj. Gen. Curtis LeMay at a US airfield in China, 11 October 1944 (US Library of Congress: LC-USZ62-132808)

80 Years Ago—Oct. 6, 1944: US First Army enters the Hürtgen Forest in Germany.

US Gen. Joseph Stilwell is recalled from his position as Chiang Kai-shek’s chief of staff, but he maintains command over troops in Burma.

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Today in World War II History—October 5, 1939 & 1944

Canadian Calgary Highlanders Sniping Platoon Sergeant Harold A. Marshall posing with his Lee-Enfield No. 4 Mk. I rifle, Kapellen, Belgium, 6 Oct 1944 (Library and Archives Canada: 3206370)

85 Years Ago—Oct. 5, 1939: USSR forces Latvia to allow Soviet troop bases.

US Navy Hawaiian Detachment opens at Pearl Harbor, Territory of Hawaii.

T.S. Eliot’s Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats is published.

80 Years Ago—Oct. 5, 1944: Canadian troops cross the Belgian-Dutch border north of Antwerp.

Germany begins conscription of sixteen-year-old boys.

Germans lose 36 Linsen explosive-packed boats in a raid off the Scheldt Estuary.

French women are granted the right to vote for the first time ever.

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Today in World War II History—October 4, 1944

Alfred Smith (Library of Congress: hec.21487)

80 Years Ago—Oct, 4, 1944: British paratroopers land at Patras, Greece, and on Crete and Aegean islands.

US Sixth Army secures Morotai in the Netherlands East Indies.

Alfred Smith, 1928 presidential candidate and four-term governor of New York, dies in New York City, age 70.

Publication of Gwethalyn Graham’s Earth and High Heaven, which will be the first Canadian novel to hit #1 on the New York Times bestseller list.

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Today in World War II History—October 3, 1939 & 1944

Adolf Hitler at a German military parade in Warsaw, Poland, 5 Oct 1939 (German Federal Archive: Bild 146-1974-132-33A/ Mensing)

85 Years Ago—Oct. 3, 1939: Germans order ruthless exploitation of occupied Poland.

Submarine USS Seawolf off the Mare Island Navy Yard, CA, 7 March 1943 (US Navy photo # NH 99549)

80 Years Ago—Oct. 3, 1944: Germans evacuate Athens, Greece.

In the Southwest Pacific off Morotai, Japanese submarine RO-41 sinks destroyer escort USS Shelton; in counterattack, destroyer escort USS Richard M. Rowell accidentally sinks submarine USS Seawolf.

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Today in World War II History—October 2, 1939 & 1944

Polish insurgent fighter surrendering from the sewers under Warsaw, 27 September 1944 (German Federal Archive. Photographer: August Ahrens, Bild 146-1994-054-30)

85 Years Ago—Oct. 2, 1939: Act of Panama is signed by US and other Western Hemisphere nations, declaring the Pan-American Security Zone, a 300-mile zone of neutrality off the coast of the Americas (at about 60˚ W).

Defendants in the Sleepy Lagoon murder trial are reunited with family and friends in the Los Angeles Hall of Justice following their acquittal, 2 Oct 1944 (public domain via Charles E. Young Research Library, UCLA, via Wikipedia)

80 Years Ago—Oct. 2, 1944: The Warsaw Uprising ends, as the Polish Home Army surrenders to the Germans; 200,000 Poles have been killed.

Wasps (US female pilots) are notified that the WASP program will be discontinued in December.

Convictions are overturned in the “Sleepy Lagoon” case for 17 Mexican-Americans wrongly convicted of murder.

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Today in World War II History—October 1, 1939 & 1944

Canadian armored cars in Putte, during the Anglo-Canadian drive in the Scheldt Estuary, 11 Oct 1944 (Imperial War Museum: 4700-05 HU 69103)

German Adm. Karl Dönitz, April 1943 (German Federal Archive: Bild 146-1976-127-06A)

85 Years Ago—Oct. 1, 1939: In Germany, Karl Dönitz is promoted to rear admiral and Commander of the Submarines.

Germans take Hela, the final Polish outpost on the Baltic Sea.

80 Years Ago—Oct. 1, 1944: Canadian forces open campaign to clear the Scheldt Estuary around the port of Antwerp, Belgium.

Library of Congress once again displays the Declaration of Independence and the US Constitution, retrieved from Fort Knox.

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Today in World War II History—September 30, 1939 & 1944

Gen. Wladyslaw Sikorski, 1942 (Library of Congress: fsa.8e00864)

85 Years Ago—Sept. 30, 1939: French troops withdraw from German Saar region.

Gen. Władysław Sikorski becomes prime minister of the Polish government-in-exile in Paris.

New song in Top Ten in US: “Moonlight Serenade.”

BBC premiere of “The Home Front” series on wartime life in Britain.

Soldier poses next to one of the German coastal guns captured by the Canadians at Cap Gris Nez, France, 1 October 1944 (Imperial War Museum B 10467)

80 Years Ago—Sept. 30, 1944: Allies capture last German cross-Channel guns; residents of heavily bombarded Dover, England, celebrate.

Canadians take Calais, France.

In the Pacific, US declares Peleliu secure, but resistance remains.

France enacts law to confiscate property from those convicted of indignité nationale (collaborators), who have already been assigned second-class citizenship (banned from voting, government positions & unions).

US Marines on Peleliu, September 1944 (US Marine Corps photo)

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Today in World War II History—September 29, 1939 & 1944

85 Years Ago—Sept. 29, 1939: Poland officially surrenders to Germany and the USSR as the “Soviet-German Boundary & Friendship Treaty” is signed.
80 Years Ago—Sept. 29, 1944: In France, Canadians allow armistice in Calais to let civilians evacuate.

85 Years Ago—Sept. 29, 1939: Poland officially surrenders to Germany and the USSR as the “Soviet-German Boundary & Friendship Treaty” is signed.

80 Years Ago—Sept. 29, 1944: In France, Canadians allow armistice in Calais to let civilians evacuate.

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Today in World War II History—September 28, 1939 & 1944

 

A German and a Soviet officer shaking hands at the end of the invasion of Poland, September 1939 (public domain via TASS press agency)

85 Years Ago—Sept. 28, 1939: Last Polish stronghold, the fortress of Modlin, falls after an 18-day siege.

Soviets and Germans divide control of Poland along the River Bug.

British singer Vera Lynn records popular wartime song “We’ll Meet Again.”

Vera Lynn sings to workers during a lunchtime concert at a munitions factory, somewhere in Britain, 1941 (Imperial War Museum: P 551)

80 Years Ago—Sept. 28, 1944: Greek government-in-exile and competing resistance groups agree to place forces under Allied command.

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Today in World War II History—September 27, 1939 & 1944

German troops marching through Warsaw, September 1939 (US National Archives: 200-SFF-52)

85 Years Ago—Sept. 27, 1939: Warsaw, Poland, surrenders to Germany.

Polish government-in-exile is established in Paris.

German Reich Security Main Office (Reichssicherheitshauptamt—RSHA) is established under Reinhard Heydrich, consolidating Gestapo state police, Kripo criminal police, and SD Nazi party police.

80 Years Ago—Sept. 27, 1944: In the US Eighth Air Force, the 445th Bomb Group experiences the highest single loss of any US group in the war (25 of 37 B-24 Liberators) on a mission to Kassel, Germany.

C-47 carrying flight nurse Reba Whittle (813rd MAES) crash-lands behind enemy lines in Germany; she becomes the only female US POW in the European Theater in WWII; she will treat patients in German POW camp hospitals and will be repatriated to the US in February 1945. (Read more about flight nursing—“Medical Air Evacuation in World War—The Flight Nurse.”)

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