Category Archives: World War II

This week in the War, 10–16 March 1941: Lend-Lease

Posted on March 15, 2013 by secondbysecond

This week in the war, 11 March 1941, President Roosevelt signed into law a statute that was diplomatically titled ‘An Act to Further Promote the Defense of the United States’; it was the famous Lend-Lease bill. Ideas and intentions that … Continue reading →

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In the news/Vignette: Let slip the dogs of war

Posted on March 13, 2013 by secondbysecond

Cry ‘Havoc’, and let slip the dogs of war—as Shakespeare’s Mark Anthony so famously said. Seventy-one years ago today, the United States Army did exactly that. On 13 March 1942, they began to train dogs for the War Dog Program, … Continue reading →

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This week in the War, 3–9 March 1941: Gunther Prien perishes aboard the U-47

Posted on March 3, 2013 by secondbysecond

U-boat ace Kapitanleutnant Gunther Prien perished with his entire crew this week in the war, 8 March 1941, when the U-47 was sunk by the destroyer, HMS Wolverine. Formidable, indomitable, redoubtable were the adjectives that Churchill used to describe Prien, … Continue reading →

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This week in the War, 24 Feb–2 March 1941: Diary of a Witness

Posted on February 28, 2013 by secondbysecond

Raymond-Raoul Lambert was one of the most prominent leaders of the Jewish community in France during the 1930s and the early years of the war. From 1941 to 1943, he headed the Union Générale des Israélites de France (UGIF), which … Continue reading →

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This week in the War, 17–23 February 1941: British monitor HMS Terror is fatally damaged off the coast of Libya

Posted on February 20, 2013 by secondbysecond

Monitors were the Royal Navy’s ugly ducklings. Slow, ungainly, and strange to behold. The calibre of their armament matched that of a battleship—i.e. 15 inch guns—but they possessed only two such guns, mounted in a single turret. A casual observer … Continue reading →

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This week in the War, 10–16 February 1941: Erwin Rommel arrives in North Africa

Posted on February 11, 2013 by secondbysecond

This week in the war, 11 February 1941, the British War Cabinet made its fateful decision to send an expeditionary force to Greece, where a German invasion was expected by March. Thus O’Connor lost the resources and the window of … Continue reading →

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This week in the War, 3–9 February 1941: Give us the tools, and we will finish the job.

Posted on February 8, 2013 by secondbysecond

This week in the war, on 9 February 1941, Churchill made a major radio broadcast to the British people. He spoke of Britain’s strength at sea, and in the air—where the RAF had “beat off and beat down the Nazi … Continue reading →

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In the news: Eva Braun’s home movies

Posted on February 7, 2013 by secondbysecond

Eva Braun’s birthday was a day or so ago, 6 February (1912) and, last week, an article about her and the movies she made appeared in the Guardian and Observer (Robert McCrum and Taylor Downing, 27 January 2013). Eva and … Continue reading →

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This week in the War, 27 Jan–2 Feb 1941: Occupied Paris

Posted on February 1, 2013 by secondbysecond

Hélène Pitrou was a child, growing up in Paris during the dark years, the years of German occupation. [Check the book by historian Julian Jackson, France–The Dark Years 1940-1944]. Hélène kept a diary, un journal, as one says in French. … Continue reading →

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This week in the War, 20–26 January 1941: Tobruk

Posted on January 25, 2013 by secondbysecond

Forces under British general Richard O’Connor—and the Australian 6th Division, in particular—were racing westward along the coast of Libya. This week in the war, on 22 January 1941, they captured Tobruk—one of the most heavily fortified towns in Italy’s colonial … Continue reading →

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