Today in World War II History—April 18, 1940 & 1945
Saturday, April 18, 2020 by Sarah Sundin
Canadian Infantry of the Regiment de Maisonneuve, moving through Holten, the Netherlands, 9 Apr 1945 (US National Archives: 306-NT-1334B-11)
80 Years Ago—April 18, 1940: British troops land at Åndalsnes, Norway.
Gone with the Wind premieres in London’s blacked-out cinemas.
Ernie Pyle (center) talking to a Marine on Okinawa a few hours after its invasion, April 1945 (US Army Center of Military History)
75 Years Ago—Apr. 18, 1945: US First Army closes the Ruhr pocket in Germany and takes 325,000 prisoners.
Canadians reach the Zuider Zee, cutting off German 25th Army in the Netherlands.
US Third Army crosses the Czechoslovakian border.
American correspondent Ernie Pyle is killed by a Japanese sniper on the island of Ie Shima.
Up until he died two years ago, I had my office next to a former World War Two naval officer who had a photo of himself in his office with Ernie Pyle. He’d been an officer on the troop ship that took Pyle to Ie Shima.