The Lodz Ghetto in occupied Poland is sealed off from the outside world with 230,000 Jews locked inside.

1941 British air raid casualty figures in April: 6,065 killed, 6,926 injured. Bristol, Coventry, Birmingham, Belfast, London and Portsmouth all badly hit. In retaliation the RAF attacks Emden, Kiel, Berlin, Bremen and Mannheim.

All of Greece is under German and Italian occupation. During the campaign, the Greeks lose 15,700 killed and 300,000 prisoners. The British lose 2,000 killed and 10,000 made prisoner, while the Germans only suffer about 2,000 killed and missing.

The Afrika Korps second attempt to capture Tobruk is again repulsed by the Australians.

1942 Hitler and Mussolini meet at Berchtesgaden to discuss future axis strategy in North Africa and the Mediterranean, the main objectives being the reduction of Malta and the seizure of the Suez Canal.

Hitler and Mussolini agree that the capture of Malta (Operation Herakles) should take place on the 10th July 1942.

The British 1st Burma Corps completes its withdrawal over the Irrawaddy at Mandalay in Burma.

The US aircraft carriers, Hornet and Enterprise set sail from Pearl Harbor for the Corel Sea under the command of Admiral William ‘Bull’ Halsey.

1943 The British submarine HMS Seraph drops ‘the man who never was,’ a dead man the British planted with false invasion plans, into the Mediterranean off the coast of Spain. The ‘man who never was’ pulled off one of the greatest deceptions in military history–after his death.

1945 The U.S. Third Army liberates 110,000 POW’s in the Moosburg area, Northeast of Munich. The U.S. Seventh Army clears Munich and the French takes Friedrichshafen and cross into Austria. The U.S. First Army meet the Russians at Ellenburg, South of Berlin. The British Second Army liberates 20,000 prisoners (two third POW’s and one third political prisoners) from Sandbostel camp in northern Germany.

Allied Norwegian forces capture Finnmark.

With the Red Army only a few hundred yards away, Hitler commits suicide with Eva Braun in the Reich Chancellery bunker at 1530hrs and their bodies immediately incinerated with gasoline by SS bodyguards

A Sergeant of the Russian Army plant the Red Flag on top of the Reichstag building at 2.30 pm. As the final Russian assault on Tiergarten begins, Goebbels and Bormann send General Krebs, Chief of the General Staff to the headquarters of Marshal Zhukov with a permit to make an armistice, but Zhukov refuses and demands an unconditional surrender. Troops of the 4th Ukrainian front capture Moravska Ostrava. Fighting continues in Breslau, as the German garrison refuses to surrender.

The U.S. Fifth Army in Northwest Italy, links up with French troops on the French/Italian border.

The Mexican Air Force’s 201 Squadron arrives at Manila. In operations from 4 June, 1945 to the end of the war, the 201 flies 96 combat missions, mostly in support of ground troops. The 201 will be the only Mexican unit to see overseas combat in the country’s history.

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1941 British intelligence ‘Ultra’, intercept numerous messages giving a positive indication that the Germans plan to attack Crete.

Another Brigade from the British 10th Indian Division lands at Basra, ignoring Iraqi’s protests. The Iraqi Army lays siege to The RAF base at Habbaniyh, although RAF planes fly numerous air strikes against them.

1942 The Belgian resistance destroys Tenderloo chemical works, killing more that 250. Executions by the Germans reported to be running at 25-30 a month in Belgium.

Japanese troops capture Lashio, thereby cutting the vital ‘Burma Road’ supply route into China.

The Japanese continue to land reinforcements on Mindanao Island as the step up attacks against the Filipino garrison. The shelling of Corregidor increases as the Japanese prepare to invade the Island.

1943 A series of minor attacks in near Novorossiysk drive the Germans back slowly.

U-boats begin a six-day attack on Convoy ONS5, during which 13 allied ships are finally sunk for the loss of six U-boats.

1944 Curtin, the Australian Prime Minister arrives in London.

The US Navy pounds the Japanese base at Truk, destroying 120 planes.

1945 The RAF begin Operation ‘Manna’, supply drops into Holland.

Convoy RA-66 sailing from the Kola Peninsula to Loch Ewe is attacked by at least 2 U-boats north of Kola. The British destroyer HMS Goodall, which was lend-leased by the US in 1943 is sunk by U-286 (Oblt.z.S. Willi Dietrich), for 1,150 tons, marking this as the last convoy to come under attack in the war.

The British Second Army crosses the Elbe near Hamburg, less than 100 miles west of the Russian forces in Mecklenburg. The U.S. Seventh Army reaches Munich. The French First Army captures Friedrichshafen on Lake Constance.

The 2nd Belorussian front advances fast in the Stralsund direction and seizes Anklam. In Berlin furious fighting takes place around the Reichstag, Chancellery and along Potsdamer Strasse. In Kottbus South of Berlin, German troops are still holding the Russians back.

The Germans armies in Italy sign surrender terms at The Royal Palace, Caserta, but German officers do not guarantee acceptance, the ceremony takes only 17 minutes. The British Eighth Army secures Venice and advances towards Trieste. The U.S. Fifth Army enters Milan and makes contact with the Eighth Army at Padua.

The bodies of Mussolini and Clara Petacci are brought to Milan and hung upside down from lamp-posts in the square where 15 Partisans were executed a year ago. The bodies are shot and spat upon.

U.S. 7th Army liberates Dachau Concentration Camp.

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Yank Pin Up Jean Trent March 30, 1945

Jean Trent information is very scarce. She was from Denver Colorado, but no information when and if she was actually born there. She was in 14 films from 1942 – 1946. All but one uncredited. The most popular films she was in were “Western Mail” (1942) “Saboteur” (1942), “Arabian Nights” (1942), “Salome Where She Danced” (1945).

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1941 The British evacuation of Greece is completed

A clampdown is made in Norway against degenerate literature, with large-scale book burnings being held.

1942 Coastal “dimouts” go into effect along a fifteen-mile strip on the Eastern Seaboard, in response to German U-boat activity of the U.S. Atlantic coast.

At what turns out to be its last meeting, the puppet Nazi Reichstag passes legislation proclaiming Hitler “Supreme Judge of the German People,” formalising the Fuhrer’s position as being above the reach of the law.

1943 British forces repulse a last, desperate Panzer counter blow in Tunisia.

1944 The South African and Rhodesian Prime Ministers arrive for the imperial Conference.

Chinese forces retreat in central China.

1945 German U-boats sink 8 Allied ships, 3 destroyers and 2 corvettes in the English channel.

The Canadian First Army captures Emden and Wilhelmshaven, while the U.S. Seventh Army takes Augsburg and reaches the Austrian border to the South. Hitler marries his mistress, Eva Braun, and dictates his political testament in which he justifies the political and military actions of his 12-year-rule, blaming the war on international Jewry and exhorting the German people even after defeat to adhere to the principles of National Socialism, especially its racial laws. Grossadmiral Dönitz is appointed as his successor.

The U.S. Fifth Army take Brescia, 30 miles East of Milan. The British Eighth Army reaches Venice.

Italian Partisans capture Mussolini, his mistress Clara Petacci and 12 of his cabinet members in a German convoy trying to reach Switzerland. All are shot in nearby village.

Russian forces are fighting in the Wilhelmstrasse and reach the Anhalt Station which is just half a mile of the Führerbunker.

1946 The Allies indict Tojo with 55 counts of war crimes.

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1941 German troops cross the Egyptian border and capture the Halfaya Pass, forcing the British to pull back to defensive a line running from Buq Buq on the coast to Sofafi, some 50km in to the desert. The British also begin construction of a major defensive line in front of Mersa Matruh.

German troops occupy Athens.

1942 The RAF use 107 aircraft in another raid against Rostok. Norwich is attacked by the Luftwaffe.

RAF Bomber Command again attack the Tirpitz at Trondheim, without success. Wing Commander Bennett who led the raid crashes in Norway, but manages to escape to Sweden.

1943 A report that Soviet troops have executed thousands of Polish officers near Smolensk causes a rift between the Polish government-in-exile and Moscow, jeopardizing their alliance.

1944 Both the Canadian and New Zealand Prime Ministers arrive in London for the Imperial Conference.

German planes spot an Allied convoy west of Start Point along the Channel Coast. The convoy is actually making a practice run (‘Operation Tiger’) for the planned invasion of Normandy on a stretch of coast very much like that found in the Normandy region of France. The 5th and 9th Schnellbootflottillers are directed to attack at night, which they do with the following boats: S100, S130, S138, S138, S140, S142, S143, S145, S150. They engage the convoy, consisting of 8 landing craft and protected by the lone English Corvette Azeala at Lyme Bay. The result is that LST 507 was set on fire and had to be given up, LST 531 was sunk and LST 289 received a torpedo hit which killed many soldiers. Total Allied losses were 197 seaman and 441 soldiers lost.

Merrill’s ‘Marauders’ begin a march on Myitkyina.

The U.S. Army complete their capture of Hollandia’s airfields and isolate 200,000 Japanese for the duration of war.

1945 Total V-weapon casualties in Britain are announced as 2,754 killed and 6,523 seriously injured.

The U.S. First Army captures Straubing and Kempten in Bavaria.

The Russians take Wittemberge on Elbe. Russian troops reach the Alexanderplatz in Berlin and Spandau is taken. The 2nd Belorussian front advances in Pomerania seizes Prenzlau and Angermunde, 70 miles northwest of Berlin. The German 9th Army tries to reach Berlin from the southeast and even counterattacks at Zossen. The German 20th Army does the same Southeast of Belzig. The German High command confesses that the last German forces in Pillau, East Prussia have surrendered.

The U.S. Fifth Army enters Genoa.

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WAR needs the wires this Christmas

War can’t wait — not even for Christmas. So please don’t make Long Distance calls to war-busy centers this Christmas unless they’re vital…..BELL TELEPHONE SYSTYM

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1941 The Italian fortress of Dessie, south of Amba Alagi is captured by South African forces.

1942 The RAF again attacks Rostok, this time with 128 aircraft. The Luftwaffe again raid Bath.

Cunningham is forced to order the withdrawal of the 10th Submarine Flotilla from Malta as a result of the intense bombing and because of the mines laid by aircraft and German E-boats.

1943 Axis losses in Africa for first 3½ months of 1943 are 66,000 killed, wounded and captured.

1944 In marked contrast to earlier USAAF efforts, Bomber Command makes a hugely successful attack on the German ball-bearing factories at Schweinfurt.

The Greek PM resigns and George Papandreou forms a new government.

The ‘Chindits’ occupy Indaw.

Japanese fighters attack their first B-29, one fighter is shot down.

Australians troops occupy Alexishafen in New Guinea.

The Army seizes a Montgomery Ward plant in Chicago and reopens it for war production after its board of directors refuses to negotiate with the CIO labor union. Chairman Sewell Avery refuses to leave his office, and still seated in his chair, is carried out to the parking lot, where he bows to workers and enters a waiting limousine.

1945 The first of some 75,000 ex-prisoners of war are flown back to the UK by aircraft of Bomber Command.

German troops at Bremen surrender to the British and Canadians. Allied troops now line the Swiss border from Basle to Lake Constance. The U.S. Third Army takes Regensburg on the Danube. Goering’s fall from grace announced in Germany, General Ritter von Greim is to replace him.

Marshal Henri Philippe Petain, the head of France’s Vichy government during World War II, was arrested.

Italian Partisans take Genoa and stage revolt in Milan. The U.S. Fifth Army captures Verona, 20 miles Northeast of Mantua.

The 2nd Belorussian front captures Stettin on the river Oder, while the 3rd Belorussian Front captures the Baltic port of Pillau, 20 miles West of Königsberg. General Wenck embarks on the last German offensive to relieve Berlin, but only manages to reach Ferch on the 27th April, before the offensive grinds to a halt. The remnants of 9th Army are cut off and surrounded in the Halbe pocket 30 miles southwest of Frankfurt am der Oder. The 2nd Ukrainian Front captures Brno, in Czechoslovakia.

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New evacuation scheme introduced in Britain as a Ministry of Health survey shows that only 8% of eligible children have been registered; 19% of parents refused to do so; 73% did not bother to reply.

1941 Roosevelt announces an indefinite extension of US Atlantic patrols.

German paratroops seize Corinth and cross the Corinth Canal to the Peloponnese. Hitler issues Directive No.28, ordering the preparation of plans to capture Crete. The basic plan is to involve 22,750 paratroops, 650 combat aircraft and is to be launched on the 18th May 1941, although this is put back to the 20th May 1941.

1942 The Luftwaffe attack Bath as the ‘Baedeker’ raids continue.

On his last patrol aboard U-404, Kapitänleutnant Otto von Bülow fires two FAT and two G7e torpedoes at British aircraft carrier HMS Biter. All detonate prematurely and HMS Biter escapes without damage. Von Bülow is later decorated by Hitler with Oak leaves to his Knights Cross for his Atlantic successes and German newspapers report the recent sinking of the American carrier USS Ranger as well. Later, USS Ranger commander Gordon Rowe, is photographed aboard his carrier smiling at a photograph of von Bülow and the German report of his vessel’s demise.

1944 With Allied control of the skies over Germany now virtually complete, Goebbels strongly objects to Hitler’s plan to fly to Berlin for one of his rare visits to attend Colonel General Hube’s funeral. Hitler insists on going anyway. It will be the last time the increasingly reclusive Fuhrer will show himself at a large public gathering in the Third Reich.

The British right hook South of Kohima begins.

1945 Beginning of the San Francisco Conference convened to discuss the founding of the United Nations.

German U-boats sink 5 allied supply ships in the English Channel.

The U.S. Third Army crosses the Danube, 70 miles Northeast of Munich.

The RAF attacks the ‘Eagle’s Nest’, Hitler’s chalet and the SS barracks at Berchtesgarten.

Troops of the U.S. Ninth Army and the Soviet 1st Ukrainian Front meet on the Elbe at Torgau, 100 miles Southwest of Berlin.

The U.S. Fifth Army enters Mantua, 60 miles Northwest of Bologna and continues its drive up coast, while the British Eighth Army crosses the Po river and captures Parma.

Russian units of the 1st Belorussian and 1st Ukrainian Fronts meet at Kietzen west of Berlin, meaning that eight Russian armies have now surrounded Berlin in a vice like grip. The suburbs Tegel and Reinickendorf fall into Russian hands. A relief attack by the III Panzer Korps from the area of Eberswalde 50 miles northeast of Berlin fails.

U.S. Marines seize islands off coast of Okinawa in Pacific.

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Ginger Rogers was born Virginia Katherine McMath in Independence, Missouri on July 16, 1911. Her mother, known as Lelee, went to Independence to have Ginger away from her husband. She had a baby earlier in their marriage and he allowed the doctor to use forceps and the baby died. She was kidnapped by her father several times until her mother took him to court. Ginger’s mother left her child in the care of her parents while she went in search of a job as a scriptwriter in Hollywood and later to New York City. Mrs. McMath found herself with an income good enough to where she could send for Ginger. Lelee became a Marine in 1918 and was in the publicity department and Ginger went back to her grandparents in Missiouri. During this time her mother met John Rogers. After leaving the Marines they married in May, 1920 in Liberty, Missouri. He was transferred to Dallas and Ginger (who treated him as a father) went too. Ginger won a Charleston contest in 1925 (age 14) and a 4 week contract on the Interstate circuit. She also appeared in vaudeville acts which she did until she was 17 with her mother by her side to guide her. Now she had discovered true acting. She married in March, 1929, and after several months realized she had made a mistake. She acquired an agent and she did several short films. She went to New York where she appeared in the Broadway production of “Top Speed” which debuted Christmas Day, 1929. Her first film was in 1929 in “A Night in a Dormitory” (1930). It was a bit part, but it was a start. Later that year, Ginger appeared, briefly in two more films, “A Day of a Man of Affairs” (1929) and “Campus Sweethearts” (1930). For awhile she did both movies and theatre. The following year she began to get better parts in films such as “Office Blues” (1930) and “The Tip-Off” (1931). But the movie that enamored her to the public was “Gold Diggers of 1933” (1933). She did not have top billing but her beauty and voice was enough to have the public want more. She suggested using a monocle and this also set her apart. One song she popularized in the film was the now famous, “We’re in the Money”. In 1934, she starred with Dick Powell in “Twenty Million Sweethearts” (1934). It was a well received film about the popularity of radio. Ginger’s real stardom occurred when she was teamed with Fred Astaire where they were one of the best cinematic couples ever to hit the silver screen. This is where she achieved real stardom. They were first paired in 1933’s “Flying Down to Rio” (1933) and later in 1935’s “Roberta” (1935) and “Top Hat” (1935). Ginger also appeared in some very good comedies such as “Bachelor Mother” (1939) and “5th Ave Girl” (1939) both in 1939. Also that year she appeared with Astaire in “The Story of Vernon and Irene Castle” (1939). The film made money but was not anywhere successful as they had hoped. After that studio executives at RKO wanted Ginger to strike out on her own. She made several dramatic pictures but it was 1940’s “Kitty Foyle: The Natural History of a Woman” (1940) that allowed her to shine. Playing a young lady from the wrong side of the tracks, she played the lead role well, so well in fact, that she won an Academy Award for her portrayal. Ginger followed that project with the delightful comedy, “Tom Dick and Harry” (1941) the following year. It’s a story where she has to choose which of three men she wants to marry. Through the rest of the 1940s and early 1950s she continued to make movies but not near the caliber before World War II. After “Oh, Men! Oh, Women!” (1957) in 1957, Ginger didn’t appear on the silver screen for seven years. By 1965, she had appeared for the last time in “Harlow” (1965/II). Afterward, she appeared on Broadway and other stage plays traveling in Europe, the U.S. and Canada. After 1984, she retired and wrote an autobiography in 1991 entitled, “Ginger, My Story” which is a very good book. On April 25, 1995, Ginger died of of congestive heart failure in Rancho Mirage, California. She was 83.

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French reinforcements arrive at Aandalesnes. British troops forced to withdraw north of Trondheim after sharp fighting. Norwegian troops attack the Germans south of Narvik, but are beaten back.

1941 German forces in Greece break through British positions at Thermopylae and land paratroops on Greek islands in the north-eastern Aegean. The British expeditionary force begins the evacuation of its troops to Egypt and Crete.

1942 The Luftwaffe raids Exeter in the first of Hitler’s retaliatory raids, which were soon to become known as the ‘Baedeker’ raids after the famous guidebook series of that name. A second raid employing 91 aircraft is made against Rostok.

1944 All overseas travel is banned in Britain.

The first B-29 arrives in China, over the Hump of the Himalayas.

The British force the road to Kohima open.

U.S. troops secure Hollandia and Aitape in New Guinea inflicting 9,000 Japanese casualties, while only suffering 450 dead themselves. Australians troops enter Madang in New Guinea.

1945 The British Second and Canadian First Armies enter Bremen.

The U.S. First Army liberates Dachau concentration camp.

The US Seventh Army crosses the Danube at Dillingen and captures Ulm.

The Eighth Army captures Ferrara, 30 miles to the Northeast of Bologna and crosses the Po after fierce fighting. The U.S. Fifth Army takes Spezia on the Gulf of Genoa and Modern.

The Japanese Burma Area Army C-in-C leaves Rangoon. The British Fourteenth Army takes Pyinmana in central Burma.

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