Category Archives: World War II

This week in the War, 1–7 February 1943: Jobs for generals

Posted on February 5, 2015 by secondbysecond

This week in the war, two American generals were named to their new commands. On 5 February 1943, Lieutenant-General Frank Maxwell Andrews was named as commander of all US forces in the European theatre. On 6 February 1943, Lieutenant-General Dwight … Continue reading →

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This week in the War, 25–31 January 1943: Surrender at Stalingrad

Posted on January 31, 2015 by secondbysecond

This week in  the war, on 31 January 1943—one day after he had been promoted to Field Marshal—Paulus surrendered at his headquarters in Stalingrad. He became to the highest ranking German officer ever to be captured. The Soviets were already in the centre … Continue reading →

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This week in the War, 18–24 January 1943: The relief of Leningrad

Posted on January 24, 2015 by secondbysecond

This week in the war, on 18 January 1943, Soviet forces finally broke through the German lines. Troops on the Leningrad Front were united with troops from the Volkov Front. After 497 days of encirclement, a narrow corridor barely five miles wide … Continue reading →

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This week in the War, 11–17 January 1943: The Casablanca Conference

Posted on January 14, 2015 by secondbysecond

This week in the war, 14 January 1943, a conference of world leaders opened in Casablanca—a venue familiar to the American and British publics through the recently released Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman movie, Casablanca. Churchill and Roosevelt attended, as did de … Continue reading →

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This week in the War, 4–10 January 1943: Sadako Sasaki and her paper cranes

Posted on January 6, 2015 by secondbysecond

Sadako Sasaki was born in Hiroshima this week in the war, on 7 January 1943. She was a little over 2 years old when the atomic bomb fell on her city. Her home was a little less than a mile … Continue reading →

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This week in the War, 28 Dec 1942–3 Jan 1943: New Year’s Day & the Diary of Helene Pitrou

Posted on December 30, 2014 by secondbysecond

“The New Year is starting well: People are talking about a possible landing by the Allies.” So begins the entry for New Year’s day in Dans Paris occupé: Journal d’Hélène Pitrou—the fictional diary of the fictional French schoolgirl, created by … Continue reading →

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This week in the War, 21–27 December 1942: Vichy’s Admiral Francois Darlan is assassinated in Algiers

Posted on December 25, 2014 by secondbysecond

Admiral François Darlan, the one-time right-hand man of Vichy head-of-state, Maréchal Philippe Pétain, was assassinated in Algiers this week in the war, on 24 December 1942. At the time of the Operation Torch landings in North Africa, Darlan had switched his allegiance from … Continue reading →

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This week in the War, 14–20 December 1942: Australians and Americans capture Buna in Papua New Guinea

Posted on December 14, 2014 by secondbysecond

The Kokoda Trail campaign had grown into weeks of desperate fighting until the tide finally began to turn: This week in the war, on 14 December 1942, American troops captured Buna village in south-eastern Papua New Guinea. Japanese destroyers and transports … Continue reading →

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This week in the War, 7–13 December: Stalingrad—the battle continues

Posted on December 10, 2014 by secondbysecond

This week in the war, the Red Army was maintaining the initiative across the Eastern Front and was making steady progress in the Stalingrad sector. Following the Soviet Operation Uranus, the German troops in and around Stalingrad—which included General Friedrich … Continue reading →

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This week in the War, 30 Nov–6 Dec 1942: Enrico Fermi triggers a chain reaction

Posted on December 4, 2014 by secondbysecond

This week in the war, on 2 December 1942, ex-patriot Italian scientist Enrico Fermi produced the world’s first nuclear chain reaction. He created it inside a so-called atomic pile (now called a nuclear reactor) that he and his team of … Continue reading →

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