Today in
World War II History

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.

Edsel Ford, 1921 (Library of Congress: cph.3b29704)

80 Years Ago—May 26, 1943: Edsel Ford, President of Ford Motor Company, dies, age 49; his father, Henry Ford, resumes the presidency.

First Allied convoy completes passage of the Mediterranean without loss, arriving in Alexandria, Egypt.

On Attu in the Aleutians, Private Joseph Pantillion Martinez earns the first Medal of Honor awarded to a Hispanic-American in WWII (posthumous).

Canada begins meat rationing.

Movie premiere of My Friend Flicka, starring Roddy McDowall.

Franklin Roosevelt and Winston Churchill at the White House during the Trident Conference, Washington DC, 24 May 1943 (Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum)

80 Years Ago—May 25, 1943: At the Trident Conference, Allied Combined Chiefs decide to plan for a 1 May 1944 invasion of Europe.

In Mobile, Alabama, white shipyard workers riot after 12 Black workers receive promotions—all 12 of these men are hospitalized due to injuries.

“The Kill” by Robert Benney: TBF Avenger drops depth bombs around a U-boat (Navy Art Collection, Naval History and Heritage Command: 88-159-AP)

80 Years Ago—May 24, 1943: The Battle of the Atlantic officially ends as German Adm. Karl Dönitz withdraws his U-boats from the North Atlantic toward the Azores after losing 40 U-boats in 3 weeks.

US cheese rationing is expanded to all but cream and cottage cheeses. (Read more: Make It Do—Meat and Cheese Rationing in World War II)

Attaching warheads to RP-3 3-inch Rocket Projectiles (Men attaching 60-lb warheads to 3-inch RP-3 Rocket Projectile bodies, WWII (Imperial War Museum)

80 Years Ago—May 23, 1943: Swordfish aircraft from British escort carrier HMS Archer sink German U-boat U-752 in the North Atlantic with rocket projectiles, the first U-boat sunk by those weapons.

German U-boat U-569 under attack by TBF Avenger flown by Lt. (jg) William Chamberlain from auxiliary carrier USS Bogue, 22 May 1943 (US Navy photo)

80 Years Ago—May 22, 1943: Auxiliary carrier USS Bogue’s TBF Avenger aircraft damage German U-boat U-569, which is scuttled by her crew, the first victory for an Allied escort carrier unassisted by surface ships.

Gen. Adolf Galland, commander of German Fighter Command, flies the Messerschmitt Me 262 jet fighter and presses for its development.

New song in Top Ten: “Let’s Get Lost.”

German WWII-era Messerschmitt Me 262 jet at Evergreen Aviation & Space Museum, McMinnville, OR (Photo: Sarah Sundin, March 2019)

Theatrical poster for the American release of the 1943 film The Ox-Bow Incident (public domain via Wikipedia)

80 Years Ago—May 21, 1943: British submarine HMS Sickle attacks shipping at Monaco; a torpedo flies up the beach to explode below the Monte Carlo Casino, occupied by German officers, blowing out windows.

Movie premiere of The Ox-Bow Incident, starring Henry Fonda and Dana Andrews.

Submarine HMS Sickle, Dec 1942 (Imperial War Museum: FL 19026)