Gen. Sir Claude Auchinleck, WWII (Imperial War Museum)
75 Years Ago—June 25, 1942: Gen. Sir Claude Auchinleck replaces Lt. Gen. Neil Ritchie over British Eighth Army in Egypt.
Australian and US troops land at Milne Bay, New Guinea to build an airfield.
Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower, 31 Dec 1943
75 Years Ago—June 24, 1942: Maj. Gen. Dwight Eisenhower arrives in Britain to assume command of US European Theater of Operations (ETOUSA), including North Africa.
German troops under Field Marshal Erwin Rommel invade Egypt.
Allied POWs begin work on 294-mile extension of Burma-Thailand Railway under brutal conditions.
Focke-Wulf Fw 190A-3 at RAF Pembrey after German pilot Oberleutnant Armin Faber landed there by mistake, 23 Jun 1942 (Imperial War Museum)
75 Years Ago—June 23, 1942: RAF captures first German Focke-Wulf Fw 190 fighter plane, which lands by mistake in Wales.
President Roosevelt signs bill deferring married men from the draft “until reservoir of single men exhausted.”
In New York City, the FBI arrests two more of the German saboteurs who landed by U-boat.
75 Years Ago—June 22, 1942: Germans take Bardia, Libya.
BBC premiere of Dmitri Shostakovich’s Seventh Symphony, inspired by his experiences in the siege of Leningrad.
US Flag Code becomes public law, regarding the Pledge of Allegiance and treatment of the flag.
German generals Erwin Rommel and Fritz Bayerlein in Tobruk, Libya, late June 1942 (German Federal Archive: Bild 101I-785-0299-08A)
75 Years Ago—June 21, 1942: German forces under Rommel take Tobruk, Libya, after a long siege (33,000 POWs).
Erwin Rommel is promoted to Field Marshal.
Japanese sub I-25 shells Fort Stevens, OR at mouth of Columbia River, no damage, the first enemy attack on US continental military installation since War of 1812, the only one of WWII.
Crater resulting from Japanese shelling of Fort Stevens, OR, 21 June 1942 (US National Archives)
German saboteur George Dasch, who turned himself and his fellow saboteurs in to the FBI, 25 June 1942 (US Army photo)
75 Years Ago—June 20, 1942: Japanese sub I-26 shells Estevan Point Lighthouse and radio-direction-finding station on Vancouver Island, BC, no damage; first enemy shelling of Canada since the War of 1812.
Four Poles escape Auschwitz concentration camp disguised as SS guards in an SS car; this leads to tattooing of prisoners a month later.
In New York City, FBI captures three of the German saboteurs landed by U-boats a week earlier.
“Malaria Moe” malaria prevention cartoon published by the US Army in the South Pacific, WWII (National Museum of Health and Medicine)
75 Years Ago—June 19, 1942: US Vice Adm. Robert Ghormley assumes command of South Pacific Area and South Pacific Force in Auckland, New Zealand.
US pharmacies are urged to turn in quinine supplies over 10 oz. (used to prevent and treat malaria).
Lt. Katye Swope of the 802nd Medical Air Evacuation Transport Squadron checks patients being evacuated from Agrigento, Sicily to North Africa for further medical treatment, 25 July 1943. (US Air Force photo)
75 Years Ago—June 18, 1942: Maj. Gen. Carl Spaatz officially takes command of US Eighth Air Force in London.
In the Church of Saints Cyril and Methodius in Prague, Germans kill the Czech men who assassinated SS Gen. Reinhard Heydrich.
US Navy commissions its first black officer, medical student Barnard Robinson.
US Army Air Forces authorized to develop medical air evacuation system.
German Field Marshal Erwin Rommel observing the field near El Alamein, Egypt, 18 Jun 1942 (German Federal Archive: Bild 146-2002-010-05A)
75 Years Ago—June 17, 1942: In Libya, Germans take British fortress El Adem, the last obstacle before the Egyptian border, and secure the coastal road near Bardia, completely isolating Tobruk.
Four German saboteurs are landed by U-584 at Ponte Vedra Beach near Jacksonville, Florida.
Yank is first published, a weekly magazine for overseas servicemen produced by US Army enlisted men.
Jane Randolph on the cover of the debut issue of Yank, the Army Weekly, June 17, 1942 (US Army).
Lt. Cdr. Lyndon B. Johnson, 1942 (Public domain via LBJ Presidential Library)
75 Years Ago—June 16, 1942: British convoy WS-12Z arrives at Malta with only two of six ships, after heavy Luftwaffe attacks.
Future president Lt. Cdr. Lyndon Johnson is released from duty in the Navy after Roosevelt orders all members of Congress serving in the armed forces to return to legislative duties.
