Sarah Sundin's Blog, page 4

Today in World War II History—September 3, 1940 & 1945

The Ghent Altarpiece recovered from the Altaussee salt mine, July 1945 (US National Archives)

85 Years Ago—Sept. 3, 1940: Pieter Gerbrandy becomes Prime Minister of Dutch government-in-exile in London.

80 Years Ago—Sept. 3, 1945: Japanese forces in the Philippines, on Wake Island, and in the Bonin Islands surrender to the US.

Allies return the famous Van Eyck altarpiece to Ghent, Belgium.

The ETO World Series opens in the old Hitler Youth stadium in Nuremberg, with racially integrated American teams.

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Today in World War II History—September 2, 1940 & 1945

Royal Navy and US Navy sailors inspect depth charges aboard Wickes-class destroyers in 1940. In the background are USS Buchanan (DD-131), and USS Crowninshield (DD-134). On 9 September 1940 both were transferred to the Royal Navy (Library of Congress fsa.8e00843)

85 Years Ago—Sept. 2, 1940: “Destroyers for Bases”: Roosevelt and Churchill agree to trade 50 old US destroyers for 99-year leases on British bases in Bahamas, Antigua, Trinidad, Jamaica, British Guiana, and St. Lucia, as well as land in Bermuda and Newfoundland.

Great Smoky Mountains National Park is dedicated.

The Japanese delegation arriving aboard USS Missouri, Tokyo Bay, for the surrender ceremony, 2 September 1945 (US National Archives: USA C-2719)

80 Years Ago—Sept. 2, 1945: World War II officially ends when Japan formally surrenders to Gen. Douglas MacArthur on battleship USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay at 0903.  (To see photos of my tour of the USS Missouri at Pearl Harbor, please see “Remember Pearl Harbor—Tour, Day 3.”)

A US C-54 Skymaster transport plane makes a record 31 hr, 25 min flight from Tokyo to Washington, DC, with film from the surrender ceremony.

Ho Chi Minh declares Democratic Republic of Vietnam in Hanoi.

Gen. Douglas MacArthur signing the Japanese surrender documents aboard USS Missouri, 2 Sept 1945 (US National Archives: USA C-4627)

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Today in World War II History—September 1, 1940 & 1945

Chiune Sugihara (public domain via Wikipedia)

85 Years Ago—Sept. 1, 1940: Japanese Consul Chiune Sugihara is forced to leave Lithuania after writing exit visas for thousands of Jews—he continues to pass visas out the train window as he leaves.

Karl Dönitz, commander of Germany’s U-boat fleet, is promoted to vice admiral.

British “Make Do and Mend” poster, WWII (Imperial War Museum: PST 4773)

80 Years Ago—Sept. 1, 1945: US soldiers liberate two civilian internment camps in the Tokyo area.

US ends military rule in the Philippines and turns over civil administration to President Sergio Osmeña.

Britain reduces clothing ration to 3 coupons per month; clothing rationing remains until April 30, 1946.

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Today in World War II History—August 31, 1940 & 1945

RAF No.303 squadron pilots (Polish), 1940 (Imperial War Museum: CH 1535)

85 Years Ago—Aug. 31, 1940: RAF’s worst day in the Battle of Britain: most bases are out of action and Fighter Command suffers its highest losses (39 aircraft).

RAF No. 303 Squadron (Polish) flies its first patrol and achieves its first victories.

First issue of major Dutch resistance paper Vrij Nederland (Free Netherlands).

Lovettsville Air Disaster: a DC-3 crashes in Lovettsville, VA; 25 are killed, including isolationist Sen. Ernest Lundeen, the worst commercial air crash to date and the first crash investigated by the Civil Aeronautics Board.

Actors Laurence Olivier and Vivien Leigh are married on a ranch in California.

Patch of the US Twelfth Air Force, WWII

80 Years Ago—Aug. 31, 1945: German Field Marshals Walter von Brauchitsch and Erich von Manstein are arrested in Germany.

US Twelfth Air Force is inactivated in Italy.

US Office of War Information is disbanded.

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Today in World War II History—August 30, 1940 & 1945

Gen. Douglas MacArthur arriving at Atsugi Airfield near Tokyo, 30 Aug 1945, with Maj. General Joseph Swing, Lt. Gen. Richard Sutherland, and Gen. Robert Eichelberger (US National Archives: USA C-1732)

85 Years Ago—Aug. 30, 1940: Vichy France signs Matsuoka-Henry Pact allowing Japan to station troops in French Indochina and to use airfields, ports, and railroads (ratified 9/22/40).

British physicist J.J. Thomson, who discovered the electron, dies in Manchester, age 83.

US flag raising at Yokosuka Navy Base, Japan, 30 Aug 1945 (National Museum of the United States Navy: 80-G-490431)

80 Years Ago—Aug. 30, 1945: Yokosuka Naval Base outside Tokyo is officially turned over to the US.

Gen. Douglas MacArthur arrives in Japan and makes Yokosuka the Supreme Allied Command Headquarters.

British task force enters Hong Kong to establish law and order.

French commissioner convinces Laotian King Sisavang Vong to retract declaration of independence.

A Hudson Super Six coupe rolls off Detroit assembly line, the first postwar car.

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

Allied prisoners of war at Omori camp near Yokohama cheer as US Navy and other Allied personnel arrive to rescue them, 29 Aug 1945 (US National Archives: 80-G-490444)

85 Years Ago—Aug. 29, 1940: First mass jump by US paratroopers, at Fort Benning, GA.

British Tizard Mission shares radar technology with US Army & Navy.

80 Years Ago—Aug. 29, 1945: 24 Nazi leaders are indicted as war criminals.

First Allied POWs in Japan are liberated, from Camp Omori, by US Navy forces.

US ends military draft.

Movie premiere of musical State Fair in Des Moines, IA, starring Jeanne Crain, Dana Andrews, Dick Haymes, and Vivian Blaine.

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

Bofors 40-mm antiaircraft guns firing on board carrier USS Hornet, 16 Feb 1945 (US Navy photo: 80-G-413915)

85 Years Ago—Aug. 28, 1940: Luftwaffe makes first night bombing raid over Britain.

RAF bombs Berlin, killing ten, the first Germans killed by bombing in Berlin.

US Army Transport American Legion arrives in New York carrying Crown Princess Martha of Norway & her three children, many US nationals fleeing German-occupied Europe, and a Swedish Bofors 40-mm naval antiaircraft gun to be considered by the US Navy.

Lt. Cdr. Don Thorburn, Lt. Cdr. E.V. Wedell, interpreter S. Toda, Lt. Cdr. John MacInnes, Lt. W.V. Ballow, and Lt. Cdr. Cliff McDowell at Atsugi Airfield, Japan, 28 Aug 1945 (National Museum of the US Navy: 80-G-490418)

80 Years Ago—Aug. 28, 1945: First US troops arrive in Japan: 24 US C-47 cargo planes land unopposed at Atsugi Field outside Tokyo with 150 Allied troops to establish an air base.

Branch Rickey of Brooklyn Dodgers offers contract to Jackie Robinson if he’ll have the “guts enough not to fight back” to racial antagonism; Robinson agrees.

Front cover of Jackie Robinson comic book (issue #5), 1951, showing Jackie Robinson in Brooklyn Dodgers cap (Library of Congress: ppmsc.00133)

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

US and British warships in Sagami Bay, Japan, 27 Aug 1945; note Mount Fuji with setting sun in background; photo taken from battleship USS South Dakota (US National Archives: 80-G-490487)

85 Years Ago—Aug. 27, 1940: Free French troops under Philippe de Hauteclocque (who has adopted the name of Leclerc to protect his family in France), take Duala, French Cameroons, and French Cameroons switches allegiance from Vichy France to Free French.

President Roosevelt authorizes call into service of Army Reserve and National Guard for 12 months.

80 Years Ago—Aug. 27, 1945: In Japan, almost 400 vessels of the US Third Fleet anchor in Sagami Bay.

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

Pilots of No.1 Squadron RCAF with a Hawker Hurricane at Prestwick, Scotland, 30 October 1940 (Imperial War Museum: CH 1733)

85 Years Ago—Aug. 26, 1940: First Canadian fighter pilot in an RCAF squadron is killed in combat in the Battle of Britain.

Ireland (neutral) protests accidental German bombing of County Wexford.

80 Years Ago—Aug. 26, 1945: Soviets land on and take Matsuwa in the Kurile Islands; they will take 63,000 Japanese POWs in the Kuriles.

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

British wartime poster of a Vickers Wellington medium bomber (used in first RAF bombing of Berlin) to illustrate how scrap and salvage was used in production (Imperial War Museum: PST 14695)

85 Years Ago—Aug. 25, 1940: RAF begins night-time bombing of Berlin, in response to (accidental) Luftwaffe bombing of London the night before.

80 Years Ago—Aug. 25, 1945: In China, US Capt. John Birch is killed in a skirmish with communists, the “first casualty of Third World War.”

In French Indochina, the Viet Minh takes control of Saigon, and Emperor Bao Dai abdicates, ending the Nguyen Dynasty.

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