Posts Categorized: Today WWII History

80 Years Ago—Feb. 16, 1941: Sulfanilamide is recommended as a treatment for trachoma.

80 Years Ago—Feb. 15, 1941: Norwegian Lutheran bishops denounce Nazi brutality. First Wrens (Women’s Royal Naval Service) report for duty at Bletchley Park in England. Duke Ellington records hit song “Take the ‘A’ Train.” Listen to the original recording or watch a video of the song from the 1942 movie “Reveille with Beverly” on the… Read more »

80 Years Ago—Feb. 14, 1941: Bulgaria signs nonaggression pact with Axis powers. Gen. Georgy Zhukov is named Soviet chief of general staff and deputy commissar of defense.

80 Years Ago—Feb. 13, 1941: Nazis close off Amsterdam’s Jewish quarter.

80 Years Ago—Feb. 12, 1941: German Lt. Gen. Erwin Rommel arrives in Tripoli, Libya; his Afrikakorps will join the Italian fight against the British in North Africa. Howard Florey gives penicillin to a human for the first time—mortally ill Albert Alexander in Oxford, who improves but then dies due to an insufficient supply. In convoy… Read more »

80 Years Ago—Feb. 10, 1941: RAF Short Stirling heavy bombers are first used in combat, in a raid on Nazi-occupied Rotterdam in the Netherlands. First British airborne mission: paratroops drop into Calabria, Italy, where they will destroy the Tragino Aqueduct.

80 Years Ago—Feb. 9, 1941: German U-boats and Fw 200 Condor bombers sink 5 of 16 ships in Allied Convoy HG-53 off the Azores (3 more will be lost in the coming days). British take El Agheila, Libya, but their advance halts.

80 Years Ago—Feb. 8, 1941: German Afrika Korps begins departing Naples for North Africa to assist the Italians in their failing campaign against the British. US military personnel secretly visit Bletchley Park in England, beginning signals-intelligence liaison relationship with Britain; they also bring “Magic” machine used for deciphering Japanese ciphers.

80 Years Ago—Feb. 7, 1941: In Libya, the British are victorious at Beda Fomm; 20,000 troops of the Italian Tenth Army surrender. US Naval Academy class of 1941 graduates four months early due to the national emergency; 41 members will be killed in action during WWII.