Today in World War II History—August 28, 1940 & 1945
Bofors 40-mm antiaircraft guns firing on board carrier USS Hornet, 16 Feb 1945 (US Navy photo: 80-G-413915)
85 Years Ago—Aug. 28, 1940: Luftwaffe makes first night bombing raid over Britain.
RAF bombs Berlin, killing ten, the first Germans killed by bombing in Berlin.
US Army Transport American Legion arrives in New York carrying Crown Princess Martha of Norway & her three children, many US nationals fleeing German-occupied Europe, and a Swedish Bofors 40-mm naval antiaircraft gun to be considered by the US Navy.
Lt. Cdr. Don Thorburn, Lt. Cdr. E.V. Wedell, interpreter S. Toda, Lt. Cdr. John MacInnes, Lt. W.V. Ballow, and Lt. Cdr. Cliff McDowell at Atsugi Airfield, Japan, 28 Aug 1945 (National Museum of the US Navy: 80-G-490418)
80 Years Ago—Aug. 28, 1945: First US troops arrive in Japan: 24 US C-47 cargo planes land unopposed at Atsugi Field outside Tokyo with 150 Allied troops to establish an air base.
Branch Rickey of Brooklyn Dodgers offers contract to Jackie Robinson if he’ll have the “guts enough not to fight back” to racial antagonism; Robinson agrees.
Front cover of Jackie Robinson comic book (issue #5), 1951, showing Jackie Robinson in Brooklyn Dodgers cap (Library of Congress: ppmsc.00133)
