Shawn Janes, Author at World War 2 Collection

This Week in WWII – 4th Week of July

1935
First flight of the B-17.
1940
Hitler tours Paris. Nazi attacks on Dover lead to the near destruction of the entire Defiant Squadron. Assassination attempt on Hitler: Count Fritz-Dietlof von def Schulenberg planned to shoot Hitler from a reviewing stand at a parade honoring Hitler.
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This Week in WWII – 2nd Week of July

By Shawn Janes |

1940
Churchill tells Beaverbrook that, “we have no continental army that can defeat the German military machine.” The Battle of Britain begins as Luftwaffe begins attacking shipping in the English Channel.
1942
Barbarossa: Nazis move toward Stalingrad USSR. Germans move toward Stalingrad.
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This Week in WWII – 3rd Week of June

By Shawn Janes |

1940
About 2,500 British troops perish when five Luftwaffe bombers attack the Lancastria, a Cunard luxury liner being used to transport troops. Hitler and Mussolini meet in Munich. Winston Churchill’s “Finest Hour” speech.
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This Week in WWII – 1st Week of June

By Shawn Janes |

1940
Evacuation of allied troops from Dunkirk ends. Nazi planes strike airfields, industrial sites, and buildings in Paris. This successful German effort to damage France’s economy, reduce its military, and create terror…
1941
The provisional French government is established.
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This Week in WWII – 4th Week of May

By Shawn Janes |

1935
First flight of the Messerschmitt Bf 109.
1940
Evacuation of allied troops from Dunkirk begins. The 27th is the worst day at Dunkirk. Churchill reprimands King Leopold of Belgium for seeking a separate peace with Germany. Conflict between Halifax and Churchill over Italy and the overall conduct of the war effort.
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The Inspiring Battle of Midway

By Shawn Janes |

“There are powers far beyond us, plans far beyond what we could have ever thought of, visions far more vast than what we can ever see on our own with our own eyes, there are horizons long gone beyond our own horizons. This is courage- to throw away what is our own that is limited…

U.S. Aircraft Carrier History

By Shawn Janes |

The first ever heavier-than-air, fixed-wing aircraft came into existence in the year 1903 and was run for its first experimental take off in 1910. This took place on the deck of USS Birmingham, a United States Navy Vessel. The first-ever naval experimental landing took place in the succeeding year.

This Week in WWII – 2nd Week of May

By Shawn Janes |

1944
Germany launches the first V-1 rocket on Britain. U.S. defeats the Japanese in an air battle known as the Battle of the Philippine Sea.
1945
The Red Army releases Commonwealth and US POWs at Stalag III-A, Luckenwalde.
1946
75 Nazis go to trial for the Malmedy Massacre, which occurred on 12-17-1944.
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Live To Tell The Tale

By Shawn Janes |

Among the survivors of the Tuskegee Airmen group who fought during World War II was Lt. Col. Alexander Jefferson. The Tuskegee Airmen was a popular term for the group of African American pilots who formed the 332nd Fighter Group and the 477th Bombardment Group of the United States Army Air Corps.

Tango Mike Mike

By Shawn Janes |

It’s normal to aspire to become a hero. Heroes are individuals well regarded by society because of their distinguished characteristics. These are the men and women who have done something that has positively changed a negative situation and were often able to save one or more lives in the process.