World War II History for April 7
Apr 07, 1939 Mussolini invades Albania. (More…)
Apr 07, 1941 Quarter of Pacific Fleet ordered to Atlantic : 3BB, 1CV, 4CL, 18DD, 3AO. (More…)
Apr 07, 1942 Japanese subs off western India sink 5 merchantmen this week. (More…)
Apr 07, 1942 Colorado only western state to agree to accept voluntary relocation of enemy aliens. (More…)
Apr 07, 1942 Relocation begins of Japanese from coastal defense zones. (More…)
Apr 07, 1943 Marine 1st Lt. James Swett, on his 1st combat mission, shot down 7 Japanese VAL’s over Guadalcanal-the 1st American to achieve this score in a single mission. (More…)
Apr 07, 1943 British and American armies linked up between Wadi Akarit and El Guettar in North Africa to form a solid line against the German army. (More…)
Apr 07, 1944 Kohima’s water supply is cut off by the Japanese. (More…)
Apr 07, 1944 Counterattacking German forces make some advances in the Crimea but suffer heavy casualties. (More…)
Apr 07, 1944 Two Jewish inmates escaped from Auschwitz-Birkenau Concentration Camp and made it safely to Slovakia. One of them, Rudolf Vrba, submitted a report to the Papal Nuncio in Slovakia, which was forwarded to the Vatican. (More…)
Apr 07, 1945 Soviet units cross the Danube River and smash into Vienna. Street fighting commenced. (More…)
Apr 07, 1945 Gottingen was taken by US troops. (More…)
Apr 07, 1945 Japanese air and naval units suffer a disastrous defeat in the battle of the East China Sea. Task Force 58 planes intercepted the Japanese Second Fleet heading for Okinawa. The 72,200-ton battleship Yamato was subjected to 3 hrs of bombing and torpedo attacks and finally capsized with only 269 survivors from the 3,292 man crew. It was the largest single loss involving a warship in history. Other casualties of the battle were the cruiser Yahagi, 4 destroyers and 54 aircraft. The US only lost 10 planes out of the 900 sortied. (More…)
Apr 07, 1945 British 14th Army forces isolated a large Japanese force between Mandalay and Meiktila. (More…)
Apr 07, 1945 Iwo Jima based aircraft make their first attacks on Japan. Fighters begin arriving on Okinawa. (More…)
Related Reading:
An Alabama boy steeped in American history and enamored of such heroes as George Washington and Daniel Boone, Eugene B. Sledge became part of the war’s famous 1st Marine Division–3d Battalion, 5th Marines. Even after intense training, he was shocked to be thrown into the battle of Peleliu, where “the world was a nightmare of flashes, explosions, and snapping bullets.” By the time Sledge hit the hell of Okinawa, he was a combat vet, still filled with fear but no longer with panic.
Based on notes Sledge secretly kept in a copy of the New Testament, With the Old Breed captures with utter simplicity and searing honesty the experience of a soldier in the fierce Pacific Theater. Here is what saved, threatened, and changed his life. Here, too, is the story of how he learned to hate and kill–and came to love–his fellow man.
