Today in
World War II History

Cpl. Irwin Goldstein sets switches on one of the ENIAC’s function tables at the Moore School of Electrical Engineering, University of Pennsylvania, 1946 (US Army photo)

80 Years Ago—June 5, 1943: Aircraft from escort carrier USS Bogue sink German U-boat U-217 in the mid-Atlantic.

US Army signs contract with the University of Pennsylvania to develop the first all-electronic computer, ENIAC (Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer).

Racehorse Count Fleet wins the Belmont Stakes and the Triple Crown.

Auxiliary carrier USS Bogue (ACV-9) underway near Norfolk, VA, 20 June 1943 (US Navy photo: 80-G-71314)

US poster for United China Relief, WWII

80 Years Ago—June 4, 1943: Luftwaffe bombs Gorky, Russia, in first German strategic air raid against Soviet industrial centers.

Chinese troops launch assault against Japanese in the Hubei-Hunan region of China.

Soldier inspecting zoot suits at the Uline Arena, Washington, DC, 1942 (Library of Congress: LC-USF35-1326)

80 Years Ago—June 3, 1943: Zoot suit riots begin—US Navy sailors attack Mexican-Americans in Los Angeles, as servicemen resent flamboyant “unpatriotic” clothing of Latino youth; over the next several days over 150 people will be injured.

French Committee for National Liberation is formed in Algiers, Algeria, under joint leadership of rivals Gen. Charles de Gaulle and Gen. Henri Giraud.

Patent is filed by American engineer Hurley Smith for the first plastic pocket protector.

Jean-Paul Sartre’s first play, Les Mouches, premieres at Théâtre de la Cité in Paris.

Men of the US 99th Fighter Squadron (“Tuskegee Airmen”) and a P-40 fighter in North Africa, 1943 (US Air Force photo: 25502027)

80 Years Ago—June 2, 1943: Combat debut of US 99^th Fighter Squadron, the first Black unit in the Army Air Force (“Tuskegee Airmen”), in a Twelfth Air Force mission from Tunisia to the island of Pantelleria.

Publicity photo of Leslie Howard for Gone with the Wind, 1939 (public domain via Wikipedia)

80 Years Ago—June 1, 1943: German Ju 88s shoot down a DC-3 airliner flying from Portugal to England, killing 17, including British actor Leslie Howard (Gone With the Wind) and Wilfrid Israel, a German Jewish businessman who played a significant role rescuing Jews from the continent; Howard once told Israel, “You are the Scarlet Pimpernel. I’ve only played the part.”

Col. Florence Blanchfield becomes superintendent of the US Army Nurse Corps. (See my four-part series on the US Army Nurse Corps in World War II).

Frank Sinatra signs with Columbia Records as a solo artist.

Col. Florence Blanchfield, US Army Nurse Corps (US War Department photo)

Allied air raid on Pantelleria Island in the Mediterranean, May-June 1943 (US Army Center of Military History)

80 Years Ago—May 31, 1943: British ships begin naval bombardment of island of Pantelleria between Tunisia and Sicily, adding to the aerial bombardment started May 18.

Movie premiere of Cole Porter musical Du Barry Was a Lady, starring Red Skelton, Lucille Ball, Virginia O’Brien, and Gene Kelly.

“Archie” comics are first broadcast on the radio.

Map of US Army operations on Attu in the Aleutians, May 1943 (US Army Center of Military History)

80 Years Ago—May 30, 1943: US Army secures Attu in the Aleutians, 700 Americans and 2600 Japanese have been killed (only 29 Japanese surrender).

Dr. Josef Mengele, “the angel of death,” arrives at Auschwitz.

All-American Girls Baseball League begins its first 108-game season with four teams (Rockford, Kenosha, Racine, and South Bend).

Norman Rockwell’s “Rosie the Riveter” on the cover of the Saturday Evening Post, 29 May 1943 (Fair use via Wikipedia)

80 Years Ago—May 29, 1943: Japanese launch a banzai counterattack on Attu in the Aleutians, which is repelled by US forces.

Norman Rockwell’s “Rosie the Riveter” appears on the cover of The Saturday Evening Post (Read more: “A Tribute to Rosie the Riveter”).

Light carrier USS Cowpens, 1945 (US National Archives: 80-G-468977)

80 Years Ago—May 28, 1943: Light carrier USS Cowpens, nicknamed “The Mighty Moo,” is commissioned at Camden, NJ.

Lt. Louis Zamperini, bombardier, inspecting a hole in his B-24D Liberator, Superman, damaged over Nauru, 20 Apr 1943; photo taken at Funafuti in Gilbert Islands (US National Archives: 342-FH-3A42817-23780AC)

80 Years Ago—May 27, 1943: In Paris, Jean Moulin presides over the first meeting of the National Council of the Resistance.

US Seventh Air Force B-24 on a sea search between Hawaii and Palmyra ditches; pilot Russell Phillips and bombardier Lt. Louis Zamperini (Unbroken) will spend 45 days at sea before being captured by the Japanese.

Germans burn 516 pieces of “degenerate art” in the garden of Jeu de Paume in Paris.