Today in WWII History
World War II History for February 19
Audio Clip: 02.18.1943 Soong Mei-Ling Appeals to Congress to Aid Chinese Nationalists
02.19.1932 – The Sino-Japanese dispute was referred to the Assembly by the League of Nations Council.
02.19.1937 – An attempt was made in Addis Ababa to assassinate the Italian viceroy of Ethiopia, General Rodolfo Graziani. Though he was only wounded, the Italians launched large scale reprisals vowing to keep the Ethiopians in line.
02.19.1938 – The British Cabinet rejects Foreign Secretary Eden’s proposal to have Italian troops withdraw from Spain. Their hope was misplaced, believing that Italy would check any further advances by Germany (they had already occupied Austria).
02.19.1938 – Nazis were permitted to join the ruling party of Austria, the Fatherland Front.
02.19.1939 – A trade agreement was signed between the Soviet Union and Poland in an attempt to strengthen Poland as a buffer against Germany.
02.19.1940 – Ambassador Hull extends the US moral embargo to the Soviet Union.
02.19.1941 – The 8th Australian Division lands in Singapore.
02.19.1942 – Executive Order 9066 is signed by President Roosevelt, authorizing the transfer of more than 100,000 Japanese-Americans living in coastal Pacific areas to concentration camps in various inland states (and including inland areas of California). The interned Japanese-Americans lose an estimated 400 million dollars in property, as their homes and possessions are taken from them.
02.19.1942 – Japanese air raids on Darwin, Australia. Considered the “Pearl Harbor of Australia”, they largest attacks ever mounted by a foreign power against Australia. The raids were the first of almost 100 air raids against Australia during 1942-43.
02.19.1942 – Battle of Badoeng Strait begins; ABDA force attacks retiring Japanese Bali occupation force with 1 Dutch DD sunk, 2 CL and 1 DD damaged.
02.19.1942 – Mandalay came under aerial attack for the first time. Defending forces are ordered back from the Bilin River.
02.19.1942 – Japanese troops landed on the Portuguese island of Timor in the East Indies. Tokyo says the action is taken in self-defense and that its forces would withdraw when the area was secure. The neutral Portuguese accept the occupation.
02.19.1942 – Canada’s Parliament vote to begin military conscription.
02.19.1942 – The Supreme Court of Vichy France begin trials in Riom to establish responsibility for the defeat in 1940.
02.19.1943 – Allied defenses in Tunisia are restructured in the face of a deteriorating position. The Axis forces begin frontal assaults on American positions in the Kasserine Pass.
02.19.1943 – German Army Group South opens a counteroffensive toward Kharkov and Belgorod.
02.19.1944 – US forces land on Engebi Island, Eniwetok Atoll in the Marshall Islands.
02.19.1945 – Units of the US 8th Div begin encircling German troops trapped within the Siegfried Line.
02.19.1945 – Himmler makes his first peace overtures to Swedish Count Folke Bernadotte of the Red Cross.
02.19.1945 US troops land on Samar and Capul Islands in the Philippines.
02.19.1945 (0905 hrs) – The first of 30,000 US Marines land on Iwo Jima. /via World War II Database