Poster Image – We Can Do It.
This is a classic and very popular poster showing the strength of the women work force on the homefront during World War II.
See more Women at War Posters in the new World War II History Image Gallery >> Women at War Posters album.
Today in WW II History
World War II History for December 11
1937 - The Fascist Council in Rome, withdrew Italy from the League of Nations.
1941 - Germany and Italy declared war on the United States. The U.S in turn declared war on the two countries.
Today in WW II History
World War II History for August 18
1940 - Canada and the U.S. established a joint defense plan against the possible enemy attacks during World War II.
1941 - Hitler suspends euthanasia program
On this day in 1941, Adolf Hitler orders that the systematic murder of the mentally ill and handicapped be brought to an end because of protests within Germany.
In 1939, Dr. Viktor Brack, head of Hitler’s Euthanasia Department, oversaw the creation of the T.4 program, which began as the systematic killing of children deemed “mentally defective.” Children were transported from all over Germany to a Special Psychiatric Youth Department and killed. Later, certain criteria were established for non-Jewish children. They had to be “certified” mentally ill, schizophrenic, or incapable of working for one reason or another. Jewish children already in mental hospitals, whatever the reason or whatever the prognosis, were automatically to be subject to the program. The victims were either injected with lethal substances or were led to “showers” where the children sat as gas flooded the room through water pipes. The program was then expanded to adults.
It wasn’t long before protests began mounting within Germany, especially by doctors and clergy. Some had the courage to write Hitler directly and describe the T.4 program as “barbaric”; others circulated their opinions more discreetly. Heinrich Himmler, head of the SS and the man who would direct the systematic extermination of European Jewry, had only one regret: that the SS had not been put in charge of the whole affair. “We know how to deal with it correctly, without causing useless uproar among the people.”
Finally, in 1941, Bishop Count Clemens von Galen denounced the euthanasia program from his pulpit. Hitler did not need such publicity. He ordered the program suspended, at least in Germany. But 50,000 people had already fallen victim to it. It would be revived in occupied Poland.
Photo – World War II – Color
US Navy Hellcat fighter on aircraft carrier deck.
View more photos at our World War II History Photo Gallery
Today in WWII History
World War II History for June 6
1942 - Japanese forces retreated in the World War II Battle of Midway. The battle had begun on June 4.
1944 - The D-Day invasion of Europe took place on the beaches of Normandy, France. 400,000 Allied American, British and Canadian troops were involved.
The Battle of Normandy during WWII was fought between the German forces occupying Western Europe and invading Allied forces. It remains the largest amphibious landing in history, with more than 156,000 troops crossing the English Channel during the initial invasion. The battle continued for more than 2 months and concluded with the liberation of Paris. Of the invasion’s 5 coastal landing points, Omaha Beach proved to be the most disastrous for Allied troops.
DDay Invasion – Sword Beach Map
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World War II History for April 25
1945 – U.S. and Soviet forces met at Torgau, Germany on Elbe River.
On this day in 1945, eight Russian armies completely encircle Berlin, linking up with the U.S. First Army patrol, first on the western bank of the Elbe, then later at Torgau. Germany is, for all intents and purposes, Allied territory.
The Allies sounded the death knell of their common enemy by celebrating. In Moscow, news of the link-up between the two armies resulted in a 324-gun salute; in New York, crowds burst into song and dance in the middle of Times Square. Among the Soviet commanders who participated in this historic meeting of the two armies was the renowned Russian Marshal Georgi K. Zhukov, who warned a skeptical Stalin as early as June 1941 that Germany posed a serious threat to the Soviet Union.
Zhukov would become invaluable in battling German forces within Russia (Stalingrad and Moscow) and
without. It was also Zhukov who would demand and receive unconditional surrender of Berlin from German General Krebs less than a week after encircling the German capital. At the end of the war, Zhukov was awarded a military medal of honor from Great Britain.
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