75 Years Ago—June 16, 1944: In drive across the Cotentin Peninsula in Normandy, US First Army takes Ste. Colombe and St. Sauveur-le-Vicomte. US Navy Seabees finish the first pier of Mulberry A harbor at St. Laurent-sur-Mer off Omaha Beach and the first ship unloads; Mulberry B at Arromanches in the British sector opens two more… Read more »
75 Years Ago—June 15, 1944: US Marine 2nd and 4th Divisions land on Saipan in the Mariana Islands. US B-29 Superfortress bombers fly first mission to Japan, to Yawata steel works on Kyushu.
75 Years Ago—June 14, 1944: US and Chinese troops attack besieged Japanese forces in Myitkyina, Burma. Australia begins meat rationing (2 pounds per week).
75 Years Ago—June 13, 1944: Germans launch first V-1 buzz bomb at London; 7000 will be launched by Aug. 24, killing almost 5000. At Villers-Bocage in Normandy, one German Tiger tank destroys 25 British tanks.
75 Years Ago—June 12, 1944: Allies consolidate all five landing beaches in Normandy, a 50-mile front, as US forces from Omaha and Utah Beaches link near Carentan. US Fifth War Loan starts, launched with a broadcast from President Franklin Roosevelt in his final Fireside Chat. (Read more: “World War II War Bonds”) Big Bend National… Read more »
75 Years Ago—June 11, 1944: US Fast Carrier Attack Force (TF 58) begins bombing the Mariana Islands in preparation for invasion. Battleship USS Missouri is commissioned at Brooklyn, NY, the last battleship in the US Navy, currently a museum ship at Pearl Harbor. (See photos from my tour of the USS Missouri at Pearl Harbor)
75 Years Ago—June 10, 1944: German SS troops massacre 642 civilians in Oradour-sur-Glane, France; only 10 survive. First US nurses and female American Red Cross workers land in Normandy, with the 128th Evacuation Hospital. US flight nurses fly first medical air evacuation missions from France to England. (Read more about flight nurses: “Medical Air Evacuation… Read more »
75 Years Ago—June 9, 1944: Allies deliberately sink 53 old ships off Normandy to serve as breakwaters. RAF flies from French airfields for the first time since 1940. Soviets launch an offensive on the Karelian Isthmus to take land lost to Finland in 1941.
75 Years Ago—June 8, 1944: In Normandy, British and US forces link near Port-en-Bessin. The US 2nd Ranger Battalion at Pointe du Hoc is relieved by forces from Omaha Beach, having held the point since climbing the cliffs on D-day. RAF first uses the 12,000-lb “Tallboy” bomb, destroying a train tunnel in Saumur, France on… Read more »
75 Years Ago—June 7, 1944: In Normandy, Allies have secured all five beachheads. Emergency landing fields are constructed in Normandy at St. Laurent-sur-Mer and Asnelles. Off Normandy, Allies begin construction of artificial “Mulberry” harbors to allow more supplies to be delivered. Movie premiere of Days of Glory, starring Gregory Peck in his debut.
