TBM-1C Avengers preparing to take off from light carrier USS Monterey to attack Tinian, June 1944 (US National Archives)
75 Years Ago—June 17, 1943: Light carrier USS Monterey is commissioned, Camden, NJ; crew includes future president Lt. Gerald Ford.
Singer Perry Como signs with RCA Records.
Patch of the US Thirteenth Air Force, WWII
75 Years Ago—June 16, 1943: Pilots of the US Thirteenth Air Force, US Navy and Marine, and Royal New Zealand Air Force give Japanese their biggest aerial defeat over the Solomon Islands, shooting down 96 of 120 aircraft.
Actor Charlie Chaplin marries 18-year-old Oona O’Neill, daughter of playwright Eugene O’Neill.
Luftwaffe Arado Ar 234 Blitz bomber (public domain via WW2 Database)
75 Years Ago—June 15, 1943: First flight of German Arado Ar 234, the world’s first turbo jet bomber.
National Football League teams Philadelphia Eagles and Pittsburgh Steelers combine as the Phil-Pitt “Steagles” due to the manpower shortage, for one season only.
Cover of Ladies’ Home Journal for the “United We Stand” campaign, 4 July 1942
75 Years Ago—June 14, 1943: US Supreme Court rules students can’t be forced to say Pledge of Allegiance.
US B-17 bomber crash near Mackay, Australia kills 40 in Australia’s worst air disaster of war.
75 Years Ago—June 13, 1943: Japanese end campaign in central China after heavy losses.
Brig. Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest III (great-grandson of Confederate general) is killed in US Eighth Air Force raid on Kiel, Germany, the first US general killed in the war in Europe.
Map showing Pantelleria and the Pelagie Islands, including Lampedusa, in the Mediterranean (US Army Air Forces map)
75 Years Ago—June 12, 1943: The island of Lampedusa near Sicily surrenders and British occupy the island, opening safe shipping from Gibraltar to Alexandria, Egypt, plus new airbases.
Thank you for joining me for the cover reveal for The Sky Above Us, Book 2 in the Sunrise at Normandy series, coming from Revell February 5, 2019. I gave away 6 books – the winner’s choice of The Sea Before Us (paperback), The Sea Before Us audiobook, or The Sky Above Us when it releases in February 2019.
The book is now available for pre-order at Amazon, and will be available on other sites soon. Pre-orders for the e-book and audiobook will be available at a later date.
And the winners are…
Victoria La Pere
Terri Wangard
Debra Patton
Ginger (Faith Baptist)
Connie Saunders
Grace Schmidt
I’ll contact you by email, so watch your inbox!
Troops of Britain’s Duke of Wellington’s Regiment advancing on Pantelleria, 17 Jun 1943 (Imperial War Museum)
75 Years Ago—June 11, 1943: British land unopposed on the island of Pantelleria between Tunisia and Sicily; Italian forces formally surrender the island six hours later.
Chinese regain all territory in Hunan and Hubei Provinces, driving out the Japanese.
B-17 Flying Fortress bomber of the US 94th Bombardment Group bombing Focke-Wulf aircraft factory, Marienburg, Germany, 9 October 1943 (US National Archives)
75 Years Ago—June 10, 1943: US and Britain begin Combined Bomber Offensive (“Pointblank”) against Germany; priorities for bombing targets are submarine yards, aircraft factories, ball bearings, and oil.
President Roosevelt signs bill allowing taxes to be deducted from paychecks.
Laszlo Biro, a Hungarian-Jewish refugee living in Argentina, files US patent for the first commercial ballpoint pen.
US Navy pilot Lt. George H.W. Bush, WWII (US Navy photo)
75 Years Ago—June 9, 1943: US 11th Naval District declares Los Angeles off-limits to servicemen, ending the Zoot Suit Riots (attacks by servicemen on Mexican-Americans).
Future president George H.W. Bush commissioned as an ensign in the US Naval Reserves, age 18, the youngest US naval aviator in history.
