Category Archives: World War II

In the news: 15 May, Nylon Stockings Day!

Posted on May 14, 2012 by secondbysecond

15 May is Nylon Stockings Day! Seventy-two years ago, the famous DuPont product went on sale for the first time ever in US stores. Look at WWII pinup Betty Grable putting her nylons through their paces in this 1940s photo. … Continue reading →

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In the news: Kittyhawk’s Sahara crash site found after 70 years

Posted on May 11, 2012 by secondbysecond

Seventy years after Rommel’s Afrika Korps and Monty’s Eighth Army were battling for control of North Africa, an RAF fighter plane belonging to Britain’s Desert Air Force was found in the Sahara Desert. According to the British newspaper The Telegraph … Continue reading →

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This week in the War, 6–12 May 1940: “Wake up! The Germans are coming…!”

Posted on May 10, 2012 by secondbysecond

On the morning of 10 May 1940, American journalist Claire Boothe Luce was asleep in her room on the top floor of the US embassy in Brussels when a maid shook her by the shoulder, urging her to wake up … Continue reading →

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This week in the War, 29 April–5 May 1940: Let the games NOT begin

Posted on May 2, 2012 by secondbysecond

This week in the war, on 1 May 1940, the Olympic Games that were originally scheduled to be held that fall in Tokyo were officially cancelled by the International Olympic Committee. They would not resume until 1948. In stalag XIII-A, … Continue reading →

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This week in the War, 22–28 April 1940: Clare Boothe Luce

Posted on April 25, 2012 by secondbysecond

This week in the war, on 25 April 1940, American journalist and author, Clare Boothe Luce, left France for England. She had been in Europe since February and had already visited Italy and had toured the Maginot Line in France. She … Continue reading →

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In the news: Romanino’s Christ

Posted on April 22, 2012 by secondbysecond

The Italian Renaissance masterpiece, Christ Carrying a Cross Dragged by a Rogue, painted by Girolamo Romanino, was seized by US officials while on tour in Tallahassee and, as reported in the British newspaper The Telegraph (19 April 2012), returned to the … Continue reading →

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This week in the War, 15 April–21 April 1940: Hitler’s birthday

Posted on April 20, 2012 by secondbysecond

Saturday 20 April 1940 was Adolf Hitler’s fifty-first birthday. In a typically ebullient radio broadcast, Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels said, “The German people have found in the Fuehrer the incarnation of their strength and the most brilliant exponent of their … Continue reading →

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In the news: Resistance hero Raymond Aubrac dies at age 97

Posted on April 14, 2012 by secondbysecond

Resistance leader Raymond Aubrac died recently (10 April 2012) at the age of 97 in a French military hospital in Paris. Aubrac was predeceased by his equally famous wife, Lucie, who died in 2007 at the age of 94. Lucie was … Continue reading →

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This week in the War, 8–14 April 1940: Denmark & Norway

Posted on April 11, 2012 by secondbysecond

This week in the war, in the early hours of Tuesday 9 April 1940, Danish civilians were awoken by the sound of German bombers flying low over the rooftops. The Phoney War was over and the Hitler’s invasions of Denmark … Continue reading →

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In the news: Eggstraordinary rock

Posted on April 10, 2012 by secondbysecond

  British newspaper The Mail on Sunday reported this week that on 7 April 2012 a toddler on an Easter-egg-hunt found a live grenade, similar to the one pictured above. The event took place at Holford, Somerset. Stuart Moffat and … Continue reading →

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