18 (Battle of Midway)

June 7, 2018 by GµårÐïåñ Leave a Comment

Smoke burns from the USS Yorktown after a Japanese bomber hit the aircraft carrier in the Battle of Midway near Midway Islands in June 1942 (© U.S. Navy/AP )

(1942) Major defeat in the Pacific for the Japanese navy

A ferocious three-day battle a thousand miles west of Hawaii ends in a rout of the Japanese navy by an underestimated American defense. Pearl Harbor is partly avenged on its six-month anniversary, and the Battle of Midway turns the tide towards Allied victory in the Pacific.

The Battle of Midway was a decisive naval battle in the Pacific Theater of World War II which occurred between 4 and 7 June 1942, only six months after Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor and one month after the Battle of the Coral Sea. The United States Navy under Admirals Chester Nimitz, Frank Jack Fletcher, and Raymond A. Spruance defeated an attacking fleet of the Imperial Japanese Navy under Admirals Isoroku Yamamoto, Chuichi Nagumo, and Nobutake Kondo near Midway Atoll, inflicting devastating damage on the Japanese fleet that proved irreparable. Military historian John Keegan called it “the most stunning and decisive blow in the history of naval warfare.”

Start date: Jun 04, 1942
End date: Jun 07, 1942

Movements during the battle, according to William Koenig in Epic Sea Battles
wiki/Battle_of_Midway

4.11.j18

(1942) Major defeat in the Pacific for the Japanese navy.
Also on this day,
1099 | Seige of Jerusalem
1938 | Yellow River flood
1986 | Bo knows baseball

Today in History ^05/12/18

May 12, 2018 by GµårÐïåñ

German submarine U-507, September 15, 1942 (Leopold Schuhmacher/Public Domain)

(1942) German sub sinks US ship at mouth of Mississippi

Gliding through the dark waters of the Gulf of Mexico, German submarine U-507 spots the SS Virginia just off the mouth of the Mississippi River, and torpedoes the 10,000-ton tanker, sinking her. Twenty-seven sailors perish in the audacious attack that will shock Americans.

German submarine U-507 was a Type IXC U-boat of Nazi Germany’s Kriegsmarine built for service in the Second World War and the Battle of the Atlantic. She was mainly notable for two patrols she conducted during the “Second Happy Time” in mid-1942, during the first of which she caused havoc in the Gulf of Mexico amongst unprotected American shipping, and then in the second she attacked ships along the coast of Brazil, in an inexplicable and shocking attack on a neutral nation’s shipping in its own waters which almost single-handedly provoked the Brazilian declaration of war on Germany.

Keel laid: Sep 11, 1940
Launched: Jul 15, 1941
Beam: 22′ 2″ (6.76 m)
Draught: 15′ 5″ (4.70 m)
Length: 252 feet (76.76 m)

U-156 (foreground) and U-507 (background) on 15 September 1942
wiki/German_submarine_U-507

4.9.a18

(1942) German sub sinks US ship at mouth of Mississippi.
Also on this day,
907 | Tang dynasty collapses
1328 | Antipope ascends
1949 | Berlin blockade ends

Today in History ^02/19/18

February 19, 2018 by GµårÐïåñ

The Kitamoto family prepares to be evacuated from Bainbridge Island, Wash., in 1942 (© AP)

(1942) FDR orders internment of Japanese Americans

Responding to paranoia after the Pearl Harbor attack, President Roosevelt signs an order that will lead to some 120,000 people of Japanese ancestry, including American citizens, to be forced into internment camps. The US will offer financial redress and official apologies in the 1980s and ’90s.

The internment of Japanese Americans in the United States during World War II was the forced relocation and incarceration in camps in the western interior of the country of between 110,000 and 120,000 people of Japanese ancestry, most of whom lived on the Pacific coast. 62 percent of the internees were United States citizens. These actions were ordered by President Franklin D. Roosevelt shortly after Imperial Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor.

Start date: Feb 19, 1942
End date: Mar 20, 1946

Map of World War II Japanese American internment camps

Map of forced internment camp locations — used for the internment of Japanese American citizens during World War II.
wiki/Internment_of_Japanese_Americans

4.8.d17

Today in History ^10/03/17

October 3, 2017 by GµårÐïåñ

Launching site for V2 rockets in Germany during WWII (© Roger Viollet/Getty Images)

(1942) Missile crosses a cosmic threshold

A new Nazi ‘Wunderwaffen,’ or ‘weapon of wonder,’ is fired in a test flight, and the missile’s top 52.5-mile altitude is so high it becomes the first manmade object to enter outer space. In less than two years Germany will begin launching thousands of V-2 rockets, mainly against Belgium and the UK.

The V-2, technical name Aggregat 4, was the world’s first long-range guided ballistic missile. The missile with a liquid-propellant rocket engine was developed during the Second World War in Germany as a “vengeance weapon”, assigned to attack Allied cities as retaliation for the Allied bombings against German cities. The V-2 rocket also became the first artificial object to travel into outer space by crossing the Kármán line with the vertical launch of MW 18014 on 20 June 1944.

Layout of a V-2 rocket

wiki/V-2_rocket

Young people light flares in front of Berlin's Reichstag early October 3, 1990, to celebrate German unification (© Diether Endlicher/AP)

(1990) A nation carved up by the Cold War is made whole

In what will later be celebrated as ‘Unity Day,’ a country torn in two after the Second World War is reunited as the once Soviet-controlled East Germany is dissolved and its territory and citizens merged with the Federal Republic of Germany, formerly known as West Germany.

The Day of German Unity is the national day of Germany, celebrated on 3 October as a public holiday. It commemorates the anniversary of German reunification in 1990, when the goal of a united Germany that originated in the middle of the 19th century, was fulfilled again. Therefore, the name addresses neither the re-union nor the union, but the unity of Germany. The Day of German Unity on 3 October has been the German national holiday since 1990, when the reunification was formally completed.

For documentary purposes the German Federal Archive often retained the original image captions, which may be erroneous, biased, obsolete or politically extreme. ADN-ZB-Grimm-3.10.90-Berlin: Vereinigung/Hunderttausende waren dabei, als vor dem Reichstag die schwarz-rot-goldene Bundesfahne gehißt wurde.

wiki/German_Unity_Day

4.4.j17

Today in History ^08/23/17

August 23, 2017 by GµårÐïåñ

A Soviet soldier waves a flag during the Battle of Stalingrad, circa 1942 (© Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

(1942) Battle that will turn the tide of WWII begins

Hitler’s Sixth Army is poised to enter Stalingrad as the Nazi Luftwaffe begins bombing the Soviet city. This opening salvo to what some call the bloodiest battle in history will lead to the destruction of the Sixth Army, and the loss of some 2 million lives before the five-month onslaught is over.

The Battle of Stalingrad was a major battle of World War II in which Nazi Germany and its allies fought the Soviet Union for control of the city of Stalingrad in Southern Russia.

Start date: Aug 23, 1942
End date: Feb 02, 1943

The German advance to Stalingrad between 24 July and 18 November

wiki/Battle_of_Stalingrad

4.4.j17