Period+6+WWII+Page

[|Letters to Home]

[|Jones Letters]

Tyler --> Group5 :Tyler Stone and Kayla Provencher Dates: January 1, 1944- June 30, 1944

January 4 – WWII: The Battle of Monte Cassino begins. January 5 – The Daily Mail becomes the first transoceanic newspaper. January 8 – WWII: Philippine Commonwealth troops enter the province of Ilocos Sur in Northern Luzon and attack Japanese forces. January 11, US President Franklin Delano Roosevelt proposes a Second Bill of Rights for social and economic security in his State of the Union address January 27 – WWII: The 2-year Siege of Leningrad is lifted. January 29 – WWII: The Battle of Cisterna takes place. January 30 – WWII: United States troops invade Majuro, Marshall Islands. January 31 – WWII: American forces land on Kwajalein Atoll and other islands in the Japanese-held Marshall Islands. February 1 – WWII: United States troops land in the Marshall Islands. February 2 – The first issue of Human Events is published. February 3 – WWII: United States troops capture the Marshall Islands. February 7 – WWII: In Anzio, Italian forces launch a counteroffensive. March 6 – WWII: Soviet Army planes attack Narva, Estonia, destroying almost the entire old town. March 9 – WWII: Soviet Army planes attack Tallinn, Estonia. March 10 – WWII: In Britain the Education Act lifts the ban on women teachers marrying. March 12 – WWII: The Political Committee of National Liberation is created in Greece.


 * April 5 – Rudolf Vrba and Alfred Wetzler escape from Auschwitz-Birkenhau.
 * April 25 – WWII: The United Negro College Fund is incorporated.
 * April 28 – WWII: 749 American troops are killed in Exercise Tiger at Start Bay, Devon, England.

May – No Exit: published by Jean-Paul Sartre. May 5 – WWII: Mohandas Gandhi is released in India. May 9 – WWII: In the Ukrainian city of Sevastopol, Soviet troops completely drive out German forces, who had been ordered by Hitler to “fight to the last man.”[1] May 12 – WWII: Soviet troops finalize the liberation of the Crimea. June 1 – WWII: The BBC transmits a coded message (the first line of the poem "Chanson d'automne" by Paul Verlaine) to underground resistance fighters in France, warning that the invasion of Europe is imminent. June 2 – WWII: The provisional French government is established. Italy, June 22, 1944 Dear Mom Dad & Kids,

How is everything going with you? I hope you are having some good weather for a change. It seems every time I hear from you it is raining. I have heard from most everyone except you in the last 2 days. But maybe I will get a letter from you today. Did you ever hear from Rex [brother]. Where is he? I hope he ain't in France, but I think that is where he will be because that is where they are doing the hardest fighting now. I got 5 letters from Hazel [wife] yesterday. So, you see I had a lot of reading to do. I hope this thing don't last too long. Maybe we can all come home. It has been over a year since I last saw the USA. We had it pretty rough this last year too. I don't think I have very many gray hairs, but I seen lots of guys get them over night. Well, Bye Bye.

Lotza Love, Tex July 1, 1944: President Roosevelt signs Public Law 78-405, called the Denaturalization Act of 1944, which creates a procedure whereby American citizens may lose their citizenship in time or war by renouncing it in writing. August 4 [|August 4] – [|The Holocaust]: A tip from a [|Dutch] informer leads the [|Gestapo] to a sealed-off area in an [|Amsterdam] warehouse, where they find [|Jewish] diarist [|Anne Frank] and her family. November 7 Franklin D. Roosevelt elected November 21, 1944: President Roosevelt says at a press conference that “a good deal of progress has been made in scattering [evacuees] through the country, and that is going on every day http://videos.howstuffworks.com/military-channel/7197-last-battles-on-the-winter-line-video.htm

Group 3: Brittney Wilkins, Nathan Howe

Dates: January 1, 1943- June 30, 1943

Website: http://www.euronet.nl/users/wilfried/ww2/1943.htm

3 January 1943, Day raid on St.Nazaire. Beginning of series of raids on Ruhr.

6 January, Opening of 4-day air attack on Japanese convoy off New Guinea.

10 January 1943, Russia requires surrender German 6th Army. Begin of the liquidation of German troops in Stalingrad of troops from Army group "Don front", General Rokossowky. Fighting during the battle of Stalingrad was bitter and exhausting.

German tanks to the Russian front German tanks to the Russian front


 * Russian Military Zone
 * Panzer battles!

10 January 1943, The 25th Infantry Division begins the largest and final offensive on Guadalcanal; the Americans outnumber the Japanese by more than 3 to 1. Desperate attempts to resupply the Japanese by surface ships are hampered by US PT boats.

11 January 1943, America produces in 1942; more then 48.000 planes, 56.000 tanks and the American Army count more then 7.000.000 men.


 * The Sherman Register

12 January 1943, A small U.S. Army force lands unopposed on Amchitka Island, the Aleutian Islands, Alaska.

14 January 1943, (till 24 January). Allied leaders hold a Conference in Casablanca, Marocco.

18 January, The German Tiger tank makes its first appearance in Tunisia.

19 January 1943, Russia liberate Leningrad.


 * Battle of Leningrad, by Dmitriy Yegorov

23 January 1943, Allies capture Tripoli.

27 January 1943, First attack against a German target by US bombers, 64 B-17 and B-24, on Wilhelmshaven, which had also been the target for the first British daylight raid in 1939. Day raid on Copenhagen, night raid on Duesseldorf.

30 January 1943, General Vittorio Ambrosio named as Benito Mussolini's Chief of Staff. 8th American Army B-17 (55) bombers make their first day-light raid on Germany, Wilhelmshafen, without air support!.


 * East Anglia: The Air War, East Anglia 1939-1945 WWII Aviation History.
 * World War II Warbirds!!!!
 * B-17 Combat Crewmen and Wingmen

1 February 1943, The Japanese begin to evacuate their troops from Guadalcanal, more then 5.000 Japanese are taken off the island.

2 February 1943, German force surrender at Stalingrad, Soviet Union.

Il-2 Shturmovik The Il-2 Shturmovik was a highly-effective ground-attack craft (Shturmovik means "armored attacker") close-support, anti-tank and "train busting" aircraft, was well armored and heavily armed with a 23mm cannon, an 82mm rocket, and a 7.62mm gun. Russian women also served flying and as gunners in the Il-2M3 Shturmovik tank busters, the "Flying Bathtub".


 * Stalingrad
 * World War II Resistance and Liberation, by Dave Forrest and Mischell Anderson.
 * Soviet Women Pilots in the Great Patriotic War

3 February 1943, German radio announces three days of mourning for the German troops who died at Stalingrad.

1-9 February 1943, Japanese forces evacuate Guadalcanal, the Solomon Islands. Again 2.000 Japanese men leave Guadalcanal on 9 February, a total of more than 12.000. The loss of the island is a major blow to Japanese morale, they have lost about 10.000 men, but their fighting resistance has cost many US troops and much US strategic effort which, if repeated on every other Pacific island of this size, would prolong the war.


 * The Battles of Guadalcanal
 * The Battle of Guadalcanal
 * US Marine Raiders
 * Martin B-26 Marauder - Chapter 18-I

28 February 1943, Norsk Hydro 'heavy water' plant raid. Norwegian soldiers, trained in the UK and dropped by the RAF, inflicts damage to the 'heavy water' plant at the Norsk Hydro power station near Ryukan. Atomic Bomb Research. Although German nuclear physicists had been early leaders in research, Nazi Gennany made no real progress towards the creation of an atomic bomb. It was a German scientist who had discovered atomic fission and Germans had first published the theory of the chain-reacting pile. When the Anglo-American atomic homb was being developed during WW II, it was feared that the Gemans were conducting parallel research. A 'heavy water' plant was attacked and destroyed in Norway by a Norwegian resistance group in the hope that this would delay German production. But it not until November 1944 that the Allies were sure that German research not progressed beyond a comparatively primitive stage, and that atomic physists had not been given any significant priority for their work. Once again, Hitler's production planning relied on conventional weaponry, while Himmler tried to divert the scientists to projects that he favoured ideologically. Furthermore, the early purging from the universities of suspected intellectuals and Jews had seriously weakened the research teams, many members of which had chosen to emigrate to the USA. Heavy water is used in certain types of nuclear reactors where it acts as a neutron moderator to slow down neutrons so that they can react with the uranium in the reactor.

2 March 1943, Royal Air Force bomber heavily attack Berlin, Germany. RAF- planes (Wellingtons) on mine-laying trips.


 * World War II Fighters; Index
 * The Air War

2 March 1943, (till 4 March). Japanese navy forces suffer heavy loses at the Battle of the Bismarck Sea off the coast of New Guinea. In the Pacific a Japanese troop convoy bound for New Guinea is attacked by aircraft of US Fifth Air Force. During the next three days all 8 transports and half of the 7.000 men aboard will be lost, as well as 4 destroyers and 25 aircraft and this sea-fight ruins the Japanese plans for New Guinea. General von Arnim Commander-in-chief in North-Africa instead of Rommel, he became ill.

13 March 1943, Failure attempt murder on Hitler. Von Tresckow places a bomb in Hitlers plane flying from Smolensk to his headquaters; bomb did not explode!

16 March 1943, The Convoy SC-122 of 58 ships from Nova Scotia and the Convoy HX-229 of 40 ships from New York are attacked by 37 U-boats in 3 groups. 21 ships are lost in return for 1 U-boat. The first 3 weeks of March signal a turning-point: from now on carrier support groups and long-range reconnaissance aircraft will take their toll of the U-boats. There will no longer be substantial gaps in Allied coverage of the Atlantic, no areas where U-boats can operate freely.

7 April 1943, Bolivia declares war on Germany, Italy and Japan.

10 April 1943, The Italian heavy cruiser Trieste is sunk at La Maddalena, Sardinia, by attacks from 84 B-24 Liberators bombers. Other Allied aircraft continue to disrupt all attempts to fly in adequate supplies to Axis forces in Tunisia.


 * B-24 Best Web

14 April 1943, Sauckel publish: at 31 march 1943 3.638.056 foreign workers working in the German industry, besides 1.622.829 prisoners of war engage.

17 April 1943, The aircraft factories at Bremen are bombed by 115 B-17 bombers of the US Eighth Army; most returned unscathed and German aviation suffers another blow.

18 April 1943, A convoy of aircraft leave Sicily to resupply the Axis forces in Tunesia. More than half of the aircrafts are shot down by Allied fighters and those who arrive are short of requirements. Hitler agrees to Mussolini's plea for Italian II Corps to returned from the Russian front. American P-38s from the 13th Air Force launched from Guadalcanal, flew to Bougainvillea and shot down Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto plane and killing him. Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto Admiral Yamamoto is killed when his aircraft is shot down by US P-38 Lightnings over Bougainville. On 13 April the Americans had intercepted a coded message giving details of flight. The US aircraft fly from Guadalcanal and engage Yamamoto's G4M bomber for no more than thirty seconds before sending it into the jungle below. The loss of their master strategist and national hero is a severe blow to the Japanese there is no official announcement of his death for month, and his state funeral is only the twelfth in Japan's long history.


 * Biography of Isoroku Yamamoto, by Jan Willem Westra.
 * Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto

19 April 1943, The second rising of the Jews in the Gettho of Warsaw. SS-General Stroop choke the revolte in blood; 56.065 Jews killed. Illness and starvation were rife in the ghetto.

Warsaw ghetto A view of the Warsaw ghetto, note the barbed wire which is to keep people in, not out.

26 April 1943, Stalin breaks-off relations between the Soviet Union and the Polish Government-in-exile.

28 April 1943, The Germans are fighting hard in Tunisia, with a counter-attack in responding to the loss of Djebel Bou Aoukaz.

30 April 1943, Battle for Hill 609: The Germans retake Djebel Bou Aoukaz but lose much material. US forces, fighting for control of Hill 609, gain footholds.

30 April 1943, Operation Mincemeat was a highly successful Allied deception plan against Axis Forces when planning the invasion of Sicily. The operation involved releasing a dead man in a life jacket off the coast of Spain. A briefcase attached to the body contained fake documents identifying the man as a Major William Martin and copies of fake Allied war plans which stated that the Allies were planning an invasion of Sardinia, rather than Sicily. Local fishermen pulled out the corpse and intelligence materials. The documents were sent to Axis commanders and who were fooled by them. This information quickly reached Hitler who, on 12 May, demanded that "measures regarding Sardinia and the Peloponnese take precedence over everything else". Operation Husky commenced on 9 July, with the Allies attacking the southern tip of Sicily. The island was taken by the Allies by 7 August. Mussolini had been stripped of his power on 25 July.

4 May 1943, East-bound Convoy ONS-5, protected by eighteen escorts, is threatened by 60 U-boats in four groups. During a battle which extended over 3 nights 13 merchantmen are lost and one is damaged, but the escorts sink 6 U-boats and badly damage 4 more. Another two collide are lost. This result is achieved without the normal level of air support.

5 May 1943, After another British attack on the Germans positions, Djebel Bou Aoukaz, in Tunisia, returns in Allied hands.

6 May 1943, Using their full advantage of air supremacy and artillery fire power, V Corps calls in a massive bombardment to decimate 15th Panzer Division formations and break through Axis defences to move towards Tunis. The Americans are advancing on Bizerte in the north and the French are closing on Pont du Fahs in the south-west.

7 May 1943, End of the war in North-Africa. Bizerta and Tunis capture by the Allied, all Germans dislogde or capture in North-Africa; 252.000 Germans and Italian prisoners of war. After the British victory at the battle of El Alamein in November 1942, General Rommel's army retreated across north Africa to a defensive position in Tunisia. The Allies brought in enormous new forces by landing on the coasts of Morocco and Algeria. Rommel's attempt at fresh offensives failed and General Montgomery broke through his positions in early April 1943. Forced to retreat again, Rommel's forces were deprived of food and supplies by the Allies. They surrendered on 13 May 1943.


 * Das Deutsche Afrikakorps 1941-1943
 * Achtung Panzer!, George Parada.
 * Comando Supremo: Italy at War 1940-1943, by Jim Heddlesten.
 * World War II Study - Case Study North Africa, by Paul John.
 * Sid's War
 * The Unsung Heroes of 624 (SD) Squadron RAF
 * 3 Squadron RAAF
 * U.S. 3rd Division WWII Reenacting

Italians Autobinda armored car As a armored car with an advanced design, the Autobinda was used primarly for reconnaissance.It was very fast, carried a 20mm gun as well as 2 machine guns, and despite its weak armor, it had a covered turret which provided some cover from HE shells.

11 May 1943, U.S Army invade at Attu, the Aleutian Islands.


 * Martin B-26 Marauder - Chapter 18-I

12 May 1943, Axis forces are completed defeat in North Africa. Field-Marshal Erwin Rommel flees to Germany.

German and Italian prisoners in Tunesia Thousands of German and Italian prisoners, including men from the crack German Afrika Korps, wait in the North African sunlight for transportation to permanent POW enclosures


 * World War II Memoirs-3rd Infantry Division, by Richard Heller.

12 May 1943, (till 25 May). "Trident Conference", Washington, D.C. Roosevelt and Churchill meet to discuss a cross-Channel invasion into France. British views differ from U.S. on timeframe and early commitment to invasion of France, and also on the strategic grounds for the invasion of Sicily. Differences threaten the agreement on Normandy because of Britain's insistence on its rights to exploit successes on Sicily and Italy, and also because it feels that the U.S. is more committed to the Pacific. Compromises are eventually reached on all issues. Target date for the invasion of Normandy (Operation Overlord) is set for 1 May 1944, and British General Sir Frederick Morgan is appointed as chief planner, given the title Chief of Staff to the Supreme Allied Commander (COSSACK).

17 May 1943, The R.A.F destroys the Dams in the Möhnesee and Edersee. The Dambusters raid (Operation Chastise) In a special operation, using a specially developed "bouncing bomb", in the night of 16-17 May 1943, the Bomber Command carried out an attack, by Royal Air Force No. 617 Squadron, on the reservoirs in the Sauerland, the hilly country to the south of the Valley of the Ruhr - the Dambuster sraid (Operation Chastise). The main targets were the dams of the Möhne, Sorpe and Eder as well as the Ennepe and Lister. In the course of this mission the important Möhne and Eder dams were destroyed. The gigantic flood in the Ruhr valley killed over 1.600 people in that night, mostly slave worker from Russia in the town of Neheim-Husten in the near the confluence of the Möhne into the Ruhr. By the destruction of the Eder dam about 70 persons were killed.


 * Dambusters

The destroyed dam of the Möhne, 17 May 1943, on the day after the attacks on the Eder river The destroyed dam of the Möhne, 17 May 1943, on the day after the attacks on the Eder river.

19 May 1943, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill addresses a joint session of the U.S. Congress.

21 May 1943, Joseph Stalin declares an end to the Communist International (Comintern).

21 May 1943, (till 13 June). Japan begin with the last stage of the expedition to Middle-China.

24 May 1943, Commander-in-chief of the U-boats decision to stop the attacks on convoys at the Atlantic, after heavy losses. Doenitz, Grossadmiral Karl (1891-1980) Doenitz specialised in submarine warfare from 1916 and in the 1936-39 period built up the German U-Boat fleet. He played a key role in the Battle of the Atlantic during the Second World War, devising the tactic of hunting allied vessels in packs. He replaced Admiral Raeder as Commander in Chief of the German Navy in 1943 and retained the position until 1945. Hitler's final testament appointed Doenitz as President of the German Reich. He was sentenced to ten years imprisonment at the Nuremberg Trials and released from Spandau in 1956.


 * Through U-boats caused losses of merchant service (all tonnage) jan. 1940- april 1945.

4 June 1943, The Island of Pantelleria, equidistant between Tunisia and Sicily, has been bombarded by air and sea and will continue to be so for some days.

10 June 1943, This day sees the first of the combined bombing offensives agreed at the Casablanca Conference whereby the US deploy their aircraft on daylight precision raids (Wilhelmshaven and Cuxhaven) while the British stay with their night deployments (Dusseldorf and Munster).

Losses of the British Commonwealth till now on; dead, wounded, capture and missing: England 514.993 Canada 10.422 South Africa 12.625 British-Indië Hongkong Singapore 101.979 British colony 30.829 About these are 315.948 killed

The American losses after 7 December 1941 publish: 14.594 Killed 20.490 Wounded 33.625 Missing 19.873 Capture

11 June 1943, Operation "Husk"; the Italian islands Pantellaria and Lampedusa capture by Allied troops.

12 June 1943, Dusseldorf suffers its heaviest air raid of the war. A Pathfinder force has led 693 bombers to their target where close to 2.000 tons of bombs have been dropped inside 45 minutes. German fighters have pursued the attackers home and shot down twenty-seven.

23 June 1943, British aerial reconnaissance has now secured photographs of Peenemunde research base showing rockets available for firing.

28 June 1943, Heinrich Himmler visits Peenemunde to witness the first take-off of the A-4 rocket. It crash lands nearby and destroys three aircraft, but a later firing is successful, this second rocket travelling 142 miles into the Baltic Sea.

This link will bring you to letters from the soldiers to their loved ones back home from March 1943- June 1944. http://www.missingaircrew.com/crew/unger/letters/

Group 7 : Emily Luce, Mariah Larsen

Dates : January 1, 1945 - June 30, 1945

Website: http://www.euronet.nl/users/wilfried/ww2/1945.htm

The letter : http://letter.ie/0017/0010.html

3 January 1945, - British troops land at the Gulf of Bengalen. 6 January 1945, - Task Force 38 send their aircraft against Japanese airfields. 16 January 1945, - End of the Ardennes offensive. Losses: 32.000 soldiers (24.000 Germans and 8.000 Allied), 2500 civilians; 1300 tanks, 1280 planes and 6.000 vehicles.6 February 1945, - Soviet settle down at the other side of the river Oder. 10 February 1945, - The passenger liner General von Steuben is sunk by the Soviet submarine S13, with onboard more than 6.000 passengers. Only 300 were saved. 23 February 1945, - A fire bomb test raid on Tokyo with 172 planes burns one square mile. 4 March 1945, - Finland declares war on Germany and Japan. 9 March 1945, - In a massive air raid on Tokyo by 334 US B-29 Super-fortresses 100.000 lose their lives, injuring 1,000,000 5 April 1945, - The Japanese Government collapses. 12 april 1945, - U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt dies 13 April 1945, - Soviet forces capture Vienna, Austria. 2 May 1945, - Soviet forces capture Berlin, Germany. 3 May 1945, - British forces recapture Rangoon, Burma. 30 June 1945, - Chinese forces invade Indo-China.

Photos:

Chad and Loren July 1, 1943 The U.S. government begins directly withholding income tax from wages. July 10, 1943 Over 160,000 Allied troops land in Sicily, beginning Operation Husky. July 24, 1943 The Allies begin bombing Hamburg. July 25, 1943 Benito Mussolini's fascist government is overthrown in Italy. The new Italian government begins peace talks. August 1, 1943 The Allies bomb the Ploesti oil fields in Romania. August 11, 1943 The Quebec Conference between the U.S. and Britain begins. [] August 15, 1943 U.S. troops retake Kiska island in the Aleutians. August 17, 1943 Operation Husky, the Allied invasion of Sicily, is successfully concluded when American troops take Messina. September 3, 1943 British troops land on mainland Italy, beginning the Allied campaign in Italy. American troops land six days later. The new Italian government formally surrenders. September 10, 1943 German troops occupy Rome. Mussolini soon declares himself the head of a new fascist Italian government in German-occupied northern Italy. October 13, 1943 Italy declares war on Germany. November 1, 1943 U.S. Marines land on Bougainville island in the Solomons. November 20, 1943 U.S. Army troops land on Makin island in the Gilberts. The next day, U.S. Marines land on Tarawa. Within four days, both islands were secured, but at the cost of thousands of casualties. November 8, 1943 The Teheran Conference between the U.S., Britain, and the USSR begins. Roosevelt, Churchill, and Stalin meet together for the first time. December 1, 1943 The Teheran Conference between the U.S., Britain, and the USSR is successfully concluded. Roosevelt, Churchill, and Stalin agree that the Western Allies would invade France in June 1944 and that when it began the USSR would launch a new offensive from the east. December 24, 1943 Dwight Eisenhower is named supreme commander of Allied Expeditionary Forces. Letters- http://www.cbn.com/special/WW2letters/index.aspx //Aug. 19th Somewhere in Sicily//

//Dear Ann Jean,// //Please excuse the very long delay in writing to you. This delay is in no way an indication of lapse of memory, for you have been on my mind from one night in Boston. Since I have put foot on this Island I have been so busy, only getting a few hours sleep in 24 hours that letter writing was really impossible.// //I landed on D-Day, which means the 1st day, July 10th about ten miles east of Gela. Tomorrow I will write you a long letter about my trip from North Africa.// //In my travels thru this mountainous Island I brought you a present which I will mail when I get back to the Co. I have been away from the Co. for the last few days.// //So much has happened and it is still forbidden to tell all that it makes letter writing very difficult.// //Ann I will close this short note as I am very tired for I have traveled 125 miles over these rough mountainous roads today.// //Wishing I were near you. Love, Mitch//

//October 23, 1943// //Dear Anne,// //Just received your letter of Sept. 16, which increased my morale greatly.// //Please excuse the writing as I am still in a horizontal position in bed. I was out of the hospital for five days but was forced to return when my malaria reoccurred. I am feeling fine now and am sure this present treatment will rid me of this – malaria.// //I would love to be with you and prove to you that you aren't suffering from any delusions. If my letters have failed to convey that I do miss you and are constantly thinking of you I am sorry. Most of my letters are always cut and dry.// //You will notice that my APO# has been changed to 464.// //(Next line deleted by censors)// //While in the hospital I received your package of Yardley's soap, which is quite a rarity over here. Thanks for the package. Send some snapshots of yourself in your next letter. I would love to see the movie roll we took in New York, my sister said it was good.// //Today the weather is perfect for a football game. Someday we will be able to see some good game together. Will close honey for now. With all my love, Mitch//

Maggie Nemethy and Cheyenne Francis

January

January 1 – WWII: The United States and Philippines troops fight the Battle of Bataan. January 2 – WWII: Manila is captured by Japanese forces. January 7 – WWII: The siege of the Bataan Peninsula begins. January 10 – WWII: The last German air-raid on Liverpool destroys the home of William Patrick Hitler, Adolf Hitler's nephew. After his house is destroyed, William Hitler goes to the USA and joins the navy to fight against his uncle. January 11 – WWII: o Japan declares war on the Netherlands and invades the Netherlands East Indies. o The Japanese capture Kuala Lumpur. January 16 – Actress Carole Lombard and her mother are among those killed in a plane crash near Las Vegas, Nevada, while returning from a tour to promote the sale of war bonds. January 19 – WWII: Japanese forces invade Burma. Establishment of United States VIII Bomber Command, later to become the Eighth Air Force in Savannah, Georgia. January 20 – WWII: Nazis at the Wannsee conference in Berlin decide that the "final solution to the Jewish problem" is relocation, and later extermination. January 21 – WWII: Erwin Rommel launches his new offensive in Cyrenaica. January 23 – WWII: The Battle of Rabaul begins. January 25 – WWII: Thailand declares war on the United States and United Kingdom. January 26 – WWII: The first American forces arrive in Europe, landing in Northern Ireland. January 31 – WWII: The last organized Allied forces leave Malaya, ending the 54-day campaign.

February

February 1 – WWII: The Command staff of the Eighth Air Force reaches England February 2 – WWII: President Franklin Delano Roosevelt signs an executive order directing the internment of Japanese Americans and the seizure of their property. February 3 – WWII: Rommel suspends his offensive in Cyrenaica. February 7–1946 September 1 – Maritime Commission fleet operations transferred to War Shipping Administration. February 8 o António Óscar Carmona is elected president of Portugal. o WWII: Top United States military leaders hold their first formal meeting to discuss American military strategy in the war. o Daylight saving time goes into effect in the United States. February 9 – Post of Chief of the Air Force Staff created. February 9 – The SS Normandie Ocean Liner catches fire while being converted into the troopship USS Lafayette for World War II. February 10 – In the early hours of the morning the SS Normandie capsizes at pier 88 in New York City. February 11 – Operation Cerberus A flotilla of Kriegsmarine ships dash from Brest through the English Channel to northern ports; the British fail to sink any one of them. February 15 – WWII: Singapore surrenders to Japanese forces. February 19 – WWII: o Japanese warplanes attack Darwin, Australia. o President Franklin D. Roosevelt signs executive order 9066 allowing the United States military to define areas as exclusionary zones. These zones affect the Japanese on the West Coast, and Germans and Italians primarily on the East Coast. February 20 – Lieutenant Edward O'Hare becomes America's first World War II flying ace. February 22 – WWII: President Franklin Delano Roosevelt orders General Douglas MacArthur out of the Philippines as American defense of the nation collapses. February 23 – The Japanese submarine I-17 fires 17 high-explosive shells toward an oil refinery near Santa Barbara, California, causing little damage. February 24 – Propaganda: The Voice of America begins broadcasting. February 25 – Princess Elizabeth registers for war service. February 25 – Battle of Los Angeles: Over 1,400 AA shells are fired at an unidentified, slow-moving object in the skies over Los Angeles. The appearance of the object triggers an immediate wartime blackout over most of Southern California, with thousands of air raid wardens being deployed throughout the city. In total there are 6 deaths. Despite the several hour barrage no planes are downed. February 26 o The worst coal dust explosion to date, in Honkeiko, China, claims 1,549 lives. o The 14th Academy Awards ceremony is held in Los Angeles; How Green Was My Valley wins Best Picture. February 27 – WWII – Battle of the Java Sea: An allied (ABDA) task force under Dutch command, trying to stem a Japanese invasion of the Dutch East Indies, is defeated by a Japanese task force in the Java Sea.

March

March – Construction begins on the Badger Army Ammunition Plant (the largest in the United States during WWII). March 9 – WWII: Executive order 9082 (February 28, 1942) reorganizes the United States Army into three major commands: Army Ground Forces, Army Air Forces, and Services of Supply, later redesignated Army Service Forces. March 18 – War Relocation Authority (WRA) March 28 – WWII: British Commandos raid St. Nazaire on the coast of Western France. The Japanese aircraft carrier, Hiryu under attack by US aircraft at the Battle of Midway.

April

April 3 – WWII: Japanese forces begin an all-out assault on the United States and Filipino troops on the Bataan Peninsula. April 5 – WWII: the Japanese Navy attacks Colombo in Ceylon (Sri Lanka). Royal Navy Cruisers HMS Cornwall and HMS Dorsetshire are sunk southwest of the island. April 9 o The Bataan Peninsula falls and the Bataan Death March began. o WWII: The Japanese Navy launches an air raid on Trincomalee in Ceylon (Sri Lanka); the Royal Navy aircraft carrier HMS Hermes and Royal Australian Navy destroyer HMAS Vampire are sunk off the country's East Coast. April 13 – The FCC's minimum programming time required of TV stations is cut from 15 hours to 4 hours a week during the war. April 15 – WWII: King George VI awards the George Cross to Malta, saying, "To honour her brave people I award the George Cross to the Island Fortress of Malta, to bear witness to a heroism and a devotion that will long be famous in history (from January 1 to July 24, there is only one 24-hour period during which no bombs fall on this tiny island)." April 18 – Tokyo, Japan is bombed by B-25 Mitchells commanded by then-Lieutenant Colonel James Doolittle. April 23 – William Temple (archbishop) enthroned Archbishop of Canterbury. April 27 – WWII: A national plebiscite is held in Canada on the issue of conscription. April 27– The Jewish Star of David is required wearing for all Jews in the Netherlands and Belgium. Other Jews in Nazi countries had been wearing it for longer. April 29 – WWII: An explosion at a chemical factory in Tessenderlo, Belgium leaves 200 dead and 1,000 injured.

May

May – The first undersea oil pipeline is tested in Operation Pluto. May 5 – WWII – Operation Ironclad: United Kingdom forces invade the French colony of Madagascar. May 6 – WWII: On Corregidor, the last American and Filipino forces in the Philippines surrender to the Japanese. May 8 – WWII: The Battle of the Coral Sea (first battle in naval history where 2 enemy fleets fight without seeing each other's fleets) ends in an Allied victory. May 8/May 9 – WWII: On the night of 8/9 May 1942, gunners of the Ceylon Garrison Artillery on Horsburgh Island in the Cocos Islands rebel. Their mutiny is crushed and 3 of them executed (the only British Commonwealth soldiers to be executed for mutiny during the Second World War). May 12 – WWII – Second Battle of Kharkov: In the eastern Ukraine, the Soviet Army initiates a major offensive. During the battle the Soviets capture the city of Kharkov from the German Army, only to be encircled and destroyed. May 14 – Aaron Copland's Lincoln Portrait is performed for the first time by the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra. May 15 – WWII: In the United States, a bill creating the Women's Auxiliary Army Corps (WAAC) is signed into law. May 20 – The first African-American seamen are taken into the United States Navy. May 21 – WWII: Mexico declares war against Nazi Germany after the sinking of the Mexican tanker Faja de Oro by the German U-boat, U-160, off Key West. May 26 – WWII – Battle of Bir Hakeim: The Free French and British troops slow the German advance in North Africa. May 27 – WWII – Operation Anthropoid: Czech paratroopers attempt to assassinate Reinhard Heydrich in Prague. May 31 – June 1 – WWII – Attack on Sydney Harbour: Japanese submarines infiltrate Sydney Harbour in an attempt to attack Allied warships.

June

June 1 – WWII: Mexico declares war on Germany, Italy and Japan. June 4 – WWII: Reinhard Heydrich succumbs to wounds sustained on May 27 from Czechoslovakian paratroopers acting in Operation Anthropoid. June 4–June 7 – WWII – The Battle of Midway: The Japanese naval advance in the Pacific is halted. June 7 – WWII: Japanese forces invade the Aleutian Islands (the first invasion of American soil in 128 years). June 8 – WWII: Attack on Sydney Harbour: The Australian cities of Sydney and Newcastle are shelled by Japanese submarines. The eastern suburbs of both cities are damaged and the east coast is blacked out. June 9 – WWII: Nazis burn the Czech village of Lidice in reprisal for the killing of Reinhard Heydrich. June 10 – WWII: The Gestapo massacres 173 male residents of Lidice, Czechoslovakia in retaliation for the killing of a Nazi official. June 12 – Holocaust: On her 13th birthday, Anne Frank makes the first entry in her new diary. June 13 – The United States opens its Office of War Information, a propaganda center. June 21 o WWII: Axis forces capture Tobruk. o Fort Stevens, Oregon is fired upon by a Japanese submarine. June 29 – The German Eleventh Army under Erich von Manstein takes Sevastopol, although fighting rages until July 9.

Kelly and Amina

July-December 1942

July 1 – July 27 – WWII: the First Battle of El Alamein. July 3 – Guadalcanal, occupied only by aborigines falls to the Japanese Naval construction force deployed to construct an air field on the island. July 4 – WWII in the European Theater of Operations: US Eighth Air Force flies its first inauspicious mission in Europe using borrowed British planes — Six aircraft went out – only three came back.[1]. July 6 – Holocaust: Anne Frank's family goes into hiding in an attic above her father's office in an Amsterdam warehouse. July 8 – Turkish prime minister Refik Saydam died while working in office. For one day he is succeeded by Ahmet Fikri Tüzer July 9 – Şükrü Saracoğlu forms the new government in Turkey. (13 th government) July 13 – WWII: German U-Boats sink 3 more merchant ships in the Gulf of St. Lawrence. July 14 – WWII: Germany introduces the Ostvolk Medal for Soviet personnel in Wehrmach July 16 - Holocaust: By order of the Vichy France government headed by Pierre Laval, French police officers round-up 13,000–20,000 Jews and imprison them in the Winter Velodrome. Georges Bégué and others escape from the Mauzac prison camp. July 18 – WWII: The Germans test fly the Messerschmitt Me-262 (using only its jets) for the first time. July 19 – WWII – Battle of the Atlantic: German Grand Admiral Karl Dönitz orders the last U-boats to withdraw from their United States Atlantic coast positions, in response to an effective American convoy system. July 21 – The Japanese establish a beachhead on the north coast of New Guinea in the Buna-Gona area; a small Australian force begins a rearguard action on the Kokoda Track Campaign. July 22 – Holocaust: The systematic deportation of Jews from the Warsaw Ghetto begins. July 29 – The Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR institutes the Order of Suvorov, the Order of Kutuzov, and reinstates the Order of Alexander Nevsky. July 30 – Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service (WAVES). July 31 – The Oxford Committee of Famine Relief (OXFAM) is founded.

August 1942

August 7 – WWII: Battle of Guadalcanal begins – The U.S. Navy and the U.S. Marine Corps begin the first American offensive of the war with an amphibious landing on the island of Guadalcanal in the Solomon Islands. August 8 - WWII: In Washington, DC, six Germans would-be saboteurs are executed (Two others were cooperative and received sentences of life imprisonment instead. One was spared because of his quite young age: execution was considered to be too harsh for such a young man. The imprisoned ones were freed a few years after the end of the war.) Quit India resolution is passed by the Bombay session of the All India Congress Committee (AICC), which led to the start of a historical civil disobedience movement across India. August 9 - Indian leader, Mohandas Gandhi is arrested in Bombay by British forces. Start, led by the goalkeeper Nikolai Trusevich, play football against the German Luftwaffe team Flakelf in Nazi-occupied Kiev. Against all odds, they win 5–3. Eight of them are later arrested and tortured, and at least four are killed. August 13 – 14 night – In London instruments detect a massive burst of cosmic rays.August 15 – WWII: The American tanker SS Ohio reaches Malta as part of the convoy of Operation Pedestal. August 1 - Polish-Jewish teacher Janusz Korczak follows a group of Jewish children into the Treblinka death camp. The U.S. Navy blimp L-8 (Flight 101) comes ashore near San Francisco, eventually coming down in Daly City (the crew is missing). August 19 – WWII – Dieppe Raid: Allied forces raid Dieppe, France. August 22 – WWII: Brazil declares war on Germany and Italy. August 25 – WWII: Japanese marines land at Milne Bay. August 30 – Luxembourg is formally annexed to the German Reich. August 31 – A general strike is launched in Luxembourg to protest against forced conscription. August 31 – September 5– WWII: Battle of Alam Halfa

September

September 3 – A German attempt to liquidate the Jewish ghetto in Lakhva leads to an uprising. September 5 – WWII – Battle of Milne Bay: Japanese forces suffer their first defeat on land. September 9 – WWII – A Japanese floatplane drops incendiary devices at Mount Emily, near Brookings, Oregon, in the first of two "Lookout Air Raids", the first bombing of the continental United States. September 10 – Women's Auxiliary Ferrying Squadron (WAFS) begins operation. September 12 – The RMS Laconia, carrying civilians, Allied soldiers and Italian POWs, is torpedoed off the coast of West Africa and sinks. September 15 – Women's Flying Training Detachment (WFTD) September 24 – Andrée Borrel and Lise de Baissac became the first female SOE agents to be parachuted into occupied France.

October

October 2 – The British cruiser Curaçao collides with the liner Queen Mary off the coast of Donegal and sinks; 338 drown. October 3 – The first A-4 rocket is successfully launched from Test Stand VII at Peenemünde, Germany. The rocket flies 147 kilometres wide and reaches a height of 84.5 kilometres, becoming the first man-made object to reach space. October 9 – The Statute of Westminster Adoption Act formalizes Australian autonomy. October 11 – WWII – Battle of Cape Esperance: On the northwest coast of Guadalcanal, United States Navy ships intercept and defeat a Japanese fleet on their way to reinforce troops on the island. October 14 – A German U-boat sinks the ferry SS Caribou, killing 137. October 16 – A hurricane and flood in Bombay kill 40,000. October 23 – Award-winning composer and Hollywood songwriter Ralph Rainger ("Thanks for the Memory") is among 12 people killed in the mid-air collision between an American Airlines DC-3 airliner and a U.S. Army bomber near Palm Springs, California. October 23 – November 4 – WWII – Second Battle of El Alamein: British troops go on the offensive against the Axis forces. October 26 – WWII – Battle of the Santa Cruz Islands: two Japanese aircraft carriers are heavily damaged and one U.S.N. carrier is sunk. October 28 – The Alaska Highway is completed. October 29 – Holocaust: In the United Kingdom, leading clergymen and political figures hold a public meeting to register outrage over Nazi Germany's persecution of Jews.

November

November 2 – A USAF squadron, including B-24 Liberators, intercepts many Luftwaffe patrols off the coast of Oran, Algeria. November 3 – WWII – Second Battle of El Alamein: German forces under Erwin Rommel are forced to retreat during the night. November 8 – WWII Operation Torch – United States and United Kingdom forces land in French North Africa. French Resistance Coup in Algiers: 400 French civil resistants neutralize the Vichyist XIXth Army Corps and the Vichyist generals (Juin, Darlan, etc.), so allowing the immediate success of Operation Torch in Algiers, and ultimately the whole of French North Africa. November 9 – WWII: U.S serviceman Edward Leonski is hanged at Melbourne's Pentridge Prison for the "Brown-Out" murders of 3 women in May. November 10 – WWII: In violation of a 1940 armistice, Germany invades Vichy France, following French Admiral François Darlan's agreement to an armistice with the Allies in North Africa. November 12 – WWII – Battle of Guadalcanal: A naval battle near Guadalcanal starts between Japanese and American forces. November 13 – WWII: Battle of Guadalcanal: Aviators from the USS Enterprise sink the Japanese battleship Hiei. British forces capture Tobruk. November 15 – WWII: The Naval Battle of Guadalcanal ends: Although the United States Navy suffers heavy losses, it retains control of Guadalcanal. A BOAC scheduled passenger flight, a DC-3 with registration G-AGBB, (formerly KLM PH-ALI, Ibis), enroute between Lisbon and Bristol, is attacked over the Bay of Biscay by German fighters. Although damaged, it escapes and lands in England. Other attacks follow on the same aircraft and scheduled route: April 19 and June 1, 1943 (fatal). British forces capture Derna. November 19 – WWII – Battle of Stalingrad: Soviet Union forces under General Georgy Zhukov launch the Operation Uranus counter-attacks at Stalingrad, turning the tide of the battle in the USSR's favor. November 20 – WWII –British forces capture Benghazi. November 21 – The completion of the Alaska Highway (also known as the Alcan Highway) is celebrated (however, the "highway" is not usable by general vehicles until 1943). November 22 – WWII – Battle of Stalingrad: The situation for the German attackers of Stalingrad seems desperate during the Soviet counter-attack Operation Uranus, and General Friedrich Paulus sends Adolf Hitler a telegram saying that the German Sixth Army is surrounded. November 23 – A German U-boat sinks the S.S. Ben Lomond off the coast of Brazil. One crewman, Chinese second steward Poon Lim, is separated from the others and spends 130 days adrift until he is rescued on April 3, 1943. November 26 – Operation Harling: A British SOE team, together with Greek Resistance fighters, blows up the Gorgopotamos viaduct in the first major sabotage act in occupied Europe. November 26 – The movie Casablanca premières at the Hollywood Theater in New York City. November 27 – WWII: At Toulon, the French navy scuttles its ships and submarines to keep them out of Nazi hands. November 28 - In Boston, Massachusetts, a fire in the Cocoanut Grove night club kills 491 people. The large-scale German "pacification" of the Zamojszczyzna region of Poland begins.

December

December 1 – Gasoline rationing begins in the United States. December 2 – Manhattan Project: Below the bleachers of Stagg Field at the University of Chicago, a team led by Enrico Fermi initiates the first self-sustaining nuclear chain reaction (a coded message, "The Italian navigator has landed in the new world" is then sent to U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt). December 4 – Holocaust: In Warsaw, 2 women, Zofia Kossak and Wanda Filipowicz, risk their lives by setting up the Council for the Assistance of the Jews. December 7 – WWII: British commandos conduct Operation Frankton, a raid on shipping in Bordeaux harbour. December 22 – USA – Aliquippa, PA – avalanche kills 26, including Vulcan Crucible Steel Co heir-apparent Samuel A. Stafford Sr., when two 100 ton boulders fall on a bus filled with wartime steel workers on their way home. December 24 – French Admiral Darlan, the former Vichy leader who had switched over to the Allies following the Torch landings, is assassinated in Algiers. December 27 – The Union of Pioneers of Yugoslavia is founded.

Amina Private Clayton M. Axtell Jr. (Letter 1/3) Deposit H.S. Class of 1933 Army Fort Niagara, N.Y. August 11, 1942 Dear Coach, Perhaps it should be considered a lack or courtesy to call you "coach" not that you have been promoted and though I have no doubt you will really fill the bill in the new job, I prefer to stick to the salutation of the past. Any salutation stemming from your new title would embody a stuffiness that I refuse to recognize. By the time this letter reaches you I hope you are completely recovered. Mother wrote me so I should have been able to get a letter to you while you were still in the hospital but unfortunately I was on a bivouac and did not receive it until about a week after it was written. This last week has been a full one for me. I have been working as a co-company clerk i.e. another fellow and I have been sharing the duties. In addition I have been guarding priseners while they work and standing main guard. The last consists of patroling the post by sentries. For the last 24 hours I have been on post #1. This post is the area around the guardhouse. I walked for 2 hours and rested 4 for 24 hours. I haven't been doing duty long enough to know whether I will be able to rise above a private or not. The work however certainly doesn't require one with 7 years of college training but someone has to do it & at present it is my lot. I hope you were able to salvage your summer school. If there is one thing concerning which I can speak from a depth of experience it is the effect of sickness on school work. At times I found the going plenty tough but I guess it didn't do me any harm and perhaps toe hardship did me good. If you have been able to sleep as well since your operation as I am going to tonight you will be better that even in another week.. "Doc"

Axis Conquers the Philippines

__Group 8- Bryce Carver and Trisha Turner__
 * July 1, 1945 - December 30, 1945**

July 1- U.S., British, French and the Soviets begin to occupy German states and move into Berlin.

July 4- General MacArthur announces the liberation of the Philippines. The U.S. Army’s Dodge Trucks help them to quicken their victory.

Dodge 1/2 Ton Production during World War II. Photo: Courtesy of WW2Xprt.

July 16- The first atomic missile is exploded in Los Alamos, New Mexico.

July 17- The Potsdam Conference of the “Big Three” starts, lasting until August 2nd.

July 21- The U.S. offers Japan an ultimatum -- surrender or face total destruction.

July 24- At Potsdam Conference President Truman notifies Stalin of the atomic bomb and his possible intentions. []

August 6- The first atomic bomb made of Uranium, Little Boy, is dropped on Hiroshima, Japan. Instantaneously, 66,000 are killed and 69,000 are wounded.



August 9- Second atomic bomb made of Plutonium, Fat Man, is dropped on Nagasaki, Japan and forms a cloud 60,000 feet over the city.



August 30- The Japanese surrender in Burma as General MacArthur sets up his headquarters in Yokohama, Japan. There are several ceremonies to celebrate the many units surrender.

September 2- Japanese Foreign Minister Mamoru Shigemitsu signs the instrument of surrender aboard the battleship U.S.S. Missouri, this signifies the end of WWII.

October 24- The United Nations is created with help from the “Big Three” (Roosevelt, Churchill and Stalin) as a improvement to the League of Nations.

November 20- The Nuremburg Trials begin involving 21 leading Nazi officials Nazi at Nuerenburg, Germany.

The following were tried in a joint-court by America, British, Frennch and Soviet military tribunals: Shown in the photo above - Front Row from Left to Right Back Row Left to Right
 * Hermann Göring, Rudolf Hess, Joachim von Ribbentrop, Wilhelm Keitel, Ernst Kaltenbrunner, Alfred Rosenberg, Hans Frank, Wilhelm Frick, Julius Streicher, Walther Funk, Hjalmar Schacht **
 * Karl Dönitz, Erich Raeder, Baldur von Schirach, Fritz Sauckel,** **Alfred Jodl, Franz von Papen, Arthur Seyss-Inquart, Albert Speer, Konstantin von Neurath, Hans Fritzsche**