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Posts Categorized: Today WWII History

Today in World War II History—Apr. 22, 1943

POSTED: by Sarah Sundin

US Navy PBY Catalina on patrol, 1942-43 (US Navy photo)

75 Years Ago—Apr. 22, 1943: US Navy PBY Catalinas based in Iceland and Greenland drive off U-boats threatening Allied convoy HX-234.

Today in World War II History—Apr. 20, 1943

POSTED: by Sarah Sundin

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)

75 Years Ago—Apr. 20, 1943: Britain establishes Women’s Home Guard Auxiliaries, but women do not receive weapons training. British Eighth Army takes Enfidaville, Tunisia, and its airfield. B-24 bombers of the US Seventh Air Force based in Funafuti destroy a Japanese phosphate plant at Nauru; Lt. Louis Zamperini (Unbroken) serves as a bombardier on this… Read more »

Today in World War II History—Apr. 19, 1943

POSTED: by Sarah Sundin

Burning buildings in the Warsaw Ghetto, late Apr 1943 (public domain via WW2 Database)

75 Years Ago—Apr. 19, 1943: Jewish ghetto uprising begins in Warsaw; Germans initially retreat in face of armed resistance. Belgian resistance rescues 150 Jews from a train, but 220 others die in the attack.

Today in World War II History—Apr. 18, 1943

POSTED: by Sarah Sundin

Adm. Isoroku Yamamoto, shortly before he was shot down and killed, Apr 1943 (public domain via WW2 Database)

75 Years Ago—Apr. 18, 1943: “Palm Sunday Massacre”—US Ninth Air Force and RAF fighters shoot down 59 German transport planes bound for North Africa. Adm. Isoroku Yamamoto, commander of Japanese Combined Fleet, is killed when his plane is shot down by US Thirteenth Air Force P-38s over Bougainville.

Today in World War II History—Apr. 17, 1943

POSTED: by Sarah Sundin

Crew of US Coast Guard Cutter Spencer watch as their depth charge explodes near German U-boat U-175, 17 April 1943 (US National Archives)

75 Years Ago—Apr. 17, 1943: US Eighth Air Force: 107 B-17s bomb Focke-Wulf plant in Bremen, Germany; sixteen B-17s are lost, including ten in the 306th Bomb Group, the heaviest US loss so far. In convoy HX-233 off Ireland, US Coast Guard cutter Spencer sinks German U-boat U-175; Spencer’s crewmen become first US servicemen to… Read more »

Today in World War II History—Apr. 15, 1943

POSTED: by Sarah Sundin

Maj. Gen. Omar Bradley (right), commander US II Corps, and Lt. Gen. Kenneth Anderson, commander of the British First Army, April 1943 (US Army Center of Military History)

75 Years Ago—Apr. 15, 1943: Maj. Gen. Omar Bradley takes command of US II Corps; Patton is relieved to prepare for invasion of Sicily. US 17th Airborne Division activated at Camp Mackall, NC under Maj. Gen. William Miley.

Today in World War II History—Apr. 14, 1943

POSTED: by Sarah Sundin

Cocoanut Grove nightclub after the fire, Boston, MA, 30 November 1942 (US Army Signal Corps photo)

75 Years Ago—Apr. 14, 1943: Stalin’s son, Yakov Dzhugashvili, dies at Sachsenhausen as a prisoner of war of the Germans. Owner of the Cocoanut Grove, Barnett Welansky, is sentenced to 12-15 years for manslaughter for the deadly November 1942 fire in Boston (he is pardoned & released in 1946 due to terminal cancer).

Today in World War II History—Apr. 13, 1943

POSTED: by Sarah Sundin

WAVES personnel at the Jefferson Memorial, Washington, D.C., 1943-1945 (US National Archives)

75 Years Ago—Apr. 13, 1943: President Franklin Roosevelt dedicates the Jefferson Memorial on the 200th anniversary of Thomas Jefferson’s birth—the original statue is made of plaster and painted bronze due to wartime restrictions on metal. Roosevelt proclaims, “Today in the midst of a great war for freedom, we dedicate a shrine to freedom.”