1939 Germany officially incorporates western Poland into the Reich. 1940 Convoy HX-79 (49 ships), sailing from Halifax in Canada to Britain, is attacked by 5 U-boats between the 19th and 20th October in the North Atlantic. The British lost 12 ships for 75,063 gross tons, while not a single U-boat was lost. The destroyer Venetia sinks […]
World War II Today: October 19 Read More »
Born in Los Angeles, California, on August 8, 1921. Sometimes called “America’s Mermaid,” Esther Williams helped popularize synchronized swimming through a string of hugely popular films in the 1940s and 1950s.
Esther Williams – YANK Pin-up Girl Oct. 1945 Read More »
1939 The Russians prepare to hand over 30,000 Polish soldiers and refugees to the Nazis who respond with their own prisoner exchange. The first Jewish ghetto is established in Lublin. 1940 Britain reopens the Burma road, which had been closed for three months on the condition of progress being made towards peace between Japan and
World War II Today: October 18 Read More »
Words At War Episode 39 “The Weeping Wood“ Released March 10, 1944. Words At War, the series that brings you radio versions of the leading war book another adaptation of an important war book, “The Weeping Wood“ by Vicki Baum. Take a look at these other WWII Posts: Words at War: The New
Words At War Episode 39 “The Weeping Wood“ Read More »
1939 French troops are pushed back in the Saar region. President Roosevelt prepares to sign an executive order closing all U.S. ports to submarines from belligerent nations. 1941 Destroyer USS Kearny damaged by German torpedo off Iceland;11 Americans are killed. US House of Representatives allow merchantmen to be armed. Taganrog on the Sea of Azov
World War II Today: October 17 Read More »
Words At War “My Country: A Poem of America“ Released June 5, 1945. Words At War, the series that brings you radio versions of the leading war book another adaptation of an important war book, “My Country: A Poem of America”. The entire program is performed in verse. A moving, patriotic work…a sound portrait in
NBC Words At War Episode 99 “My Country: A Poem of America“ Read More »
WWII Color Kodachrome pictures from the Office of War Information (OWI). These photographs were taken between September 1940 and April 1943. September 1940. Jack Whinery, Pie Town, New Mexico, homesteader, with his wife and the youngest of his five children in their dirt-floor dugout home. Whinery homesteaded with no cash less than a year ago
WWII Color Photos: Kodachrome Photographs – OWI Read More »
1939 A German air attack damages the British cruisers HMS Southampton, HMS Edinburgh and the destroyer HMS Mohawk in the Firth of Forth, in Scotland. Heavy German attack on Western Front halted. German bombers attack Forth and Rosyth bridges. 1940 Benjamin O. Davis becomes the U.S. Army’s first African American Brigadier General. U-124 torpedoes and
World War II Today: October 16 Read More »
1940 Bomb holes roof of Balham tube station: 64 killed. Italian submarine Toti sinks British submarine Rainbow. 16 million Americans already registered for National Service. Heavy Luftwaffe raid on London, Birmingham, and Bristol starts 900 fires. Italy demobilizes 300,000 soldiers for the harvest, leaving only 100,000 for upcoming invasion of Greece. 1941 Odessa, a Russian
World War II Today: October 15 Read More »
1939 U47 (Kapitanleutnant Prien) sinks HMS Royal Oak at anchor in Scapa Flow, killing 883. U47 then escapes undetected and returns home to Germany. The press in Germany declare Prien a hero. Polish submarine Orzel arrives in Britain having escaped internment in Estonia. 1940 Luftwaffe bomb falls on Balham Tube station in London, killing 66.
World War II Today: October 14 Read More »
