1941
An advanced column of armoured cars from the 7th Armoured Division intercept the Italian retreat about 70 miles south of Benghazi.

1943
Mussolini sacks his son-in-law, Count Ciano from Foreign Ministry and takes control himself.

1944
U.S. troops reach the outskirts of Cassino, but are repulsed.

The ‘Chindits’ begin moving towards Indaw, 100 miles behind the Japanese lines in Burma.

1945
Red Army troops approach Elbing and Marienburg in East Prussia.

RAF balloon command to be disbanded as the air raid threat lessens. 278 V1′s have been claimed by balloons.

MacArthur orders a containment in the northern Philippines, as the main effort is directed to the capture of Manila. The Australians land on the Japanese stronghold of New Britain, East of New Guinea.

Today in World War II: February 5 is a post on World War II Dog Tags

Gene Eliza Tierney was born in Brooklyn, New York, on November 19, 1920, to well-to-do parents. Her father was a very successful insurance broker and her mother was a former teacher. Her childhood was lavish indeed. She also lived, at times, with her equally successful grandparents in Connecticut and New York. She was educated in the finest schools on the East Coast and at a finishing school in Switzerland. After two years in Europe, Gene returned to the US where she completed her education.

By 1938 she was performing on Broadway in “What a Life!” and understudied for “The Primerose Path” (1938) at the same time. Her wealthy father set up a corporation that was only to promote her theatrical pursuits. Her first role consisted of carrying a bucket of water across the stage, prompting one critic to announce that “Miss Tierney is, without a doubt, the most beautiful water carrier I have ever seen!” Her subsequent roles “Mrs O`Brian Entertains” (1939) and “RingTwo” (1939) were meatier and received praise from the tough New York critics. Critic Richard Watts wrote “I see no reason why Miss Tierney should not have a long and interesting theatrical career, that is if the cinema does not kidnap her away”.

Gene was  spotted by the legendary Darryl F. Zanuck during a stage performance of the hit show “The Male Animal” (1940), Gene was signed to a contract with 20th Century-Fox. Her first role as Barbara Hall in “Hudson`s Bay” (1941) would be the send-off vehicle for her career. Later that year she appeared in “The Return of Frank James” (1940). The next year would prove to be a very busy one for Gene, as she appeared in “The Shanghai Gesture” (1941), “Sundown” (1941), “Tobacco Road” (1941) and “Belle Starr” (1941). She tried her hand at screwball comedy in “Rings on Her Fingers” (1942), which was a great success. Her performances in each of these productions were masterful. In 1945 she was nominated for a Best Actress Oscar for her portrayal of Ellen Brent in “Leave Her to Heaven” (1945). Though she didn’t win, it solidified her position in Hollywood society. She followed up with another great performance as Isabel Bradley in the hit “The Razor`s Edge” (1946). In 1944 she played what is probably her best-known role (and, most critics agree, her most outstanding performance) in Otto Preminger`s “Laura” (1944), in which she played murder victim named Laura Hunt. In 1947 Gene played Lucy Muir in the acclaimed “The Ghost and Mrs. Muir” (1947). By this time Gene was the hottest player around, and the 1950s saw no letup as she appeared in a number of good films, among them “Night and the City” (1950), “The Mating Season” (1951), “Close to My Heart” (1951), “Plymouth Adventure” (1952), “Personal Affair” (1953) and “The Left Hand of God” (1955). The latter was to be her last performance for seven years.

The pressures of a failed marriage to Oleg Cassini, the birth of a daughter who was mentally retarded in 1943, and several unhappy love affairs resulted in Gene being hospitalized for depression. When she returned to the the screen in “Advise & Consent” (1962), her acting was as good as ever but there was no longer a big demand for her services. Her last feature film was “The Pleasure Seekers” (1964), and her final appearance in the film industry was in a TV miniseries, “Scruples” (1980). Gene died of emphysema in Houston, Texas, on November 6, 1991, just two weeks shy of her 71st birthday.

TRIVIA:

Measurements: 35B-25-36

Height: 5′ 7″ (1.70 m)

Nickname: The Get Girl

Howard Hughes provided the funds for her retarded daughter’s medical care.

Had her share of love affairs during her Hollywood reign, including a notorious one with John F. Kennedy, whom she met while filming Dragonwyck (1946). Kennedy broke it up because of his political aspirations. She also had dalliances with Tyrone Power during production of The Razor’s Edge (1946) and with Prince Aly Khan in the early 1950s.

Received extensive shock treatment in the 1950s while battling her mental instability.

Tierney was in the throes of suicidal depression and was admitted to the Menninger Clinic in Topeka, Kansas, on Christmas Day in 1957, after police talked her down from a building ledge. She was released from Menningers the following year.

When Gene saw herself on screen for the first time, she was horrified by her voice (“I sounded like an angry Minnie Mouse”). She began smoking to lower her voice, but it came at a great price – she died of emphysema.

Yank Pin UP Gene Tierney: May 25, 1945 is a post on World War II Dog Tags

RAF reconnaissance planes report that the Italians are beginning to evacuate Benghazi in a withdrawal towards El Agheila. The 7th Armoured Division is given immediate instructions to advance from Mechili across the desert in order to cut off the Italians escape route.

1942
The Afrika Korps recaptures Derna. Hahas Pasha forms a new Egyptian Cabinet, becomes the Military Governor and dissolves Parliament the next day.

The British refuse to surrender at Singapore, heavy bombardment by the Japanese continues for 4 days.

1943
Red Army troops achieve a landing near the Black Sea port of Novorossiysk.

1944
The Germans start their offensive to relieve the Korsun pocket.

Chinese advances in Hukawng Valley, continue while the Japanese offensive on Arakan front gains strength in order to push the British back into India.

US forces take Kwajalein Island in Marshall’s, losing 486 killed and 1,495 wounded, but inflicting 8,386 casualties on the Japanese.

1945
A summit conference between Stalin, Churchill and Roosevelt opens at Yalta in Crimea, to discuss plans for the treatment of postwar Germany, its division into zones of occupation, reparations and the future Polish western border.

The U.S. First Army takes the first of seven Ruhr dams. Belgium is now reported as completely free of German troops.

World War II History: February 4 is a post on World War II Dog Tags

Hitler reviews the plans for Operation ‘Barbarossa’, as German intelligence estimates that 155 Red Army divisions are deployed in western Russia against just 116 German and Axis divisions. The starting date is again confirmed as the 15th May 1941.

The British ‘Northern Force’ bumps into the Italian defenses at Keren, but fail to crack them open. General Platt decides he must build up his forces for a major assault.

1942
German forces of Army Group Centre launch a counterattack at Vyazma, cutting off and encircling several Red Army divisions.

Japanese air raids on Port Moresby.

President Quezon of the Philippines proposes to President Roosevelt that his country should be granted total independence from the USA so that it could declare itself neutral, but Roosevelt dismisses this idea. General MacArthur warns Roosevelt that the Bataan garrison has suffered over 50 per cent casualties and it was ‘near done’. MacArthur was given permission by Roosevelt to surrender Filipino, but not US troops who were to fight until the end.

Irish Prime Minister Eamon de Valera predicts the war will continue for at least 4 more years.

1944
An attempt to breakout of the Anzio Beachhead ends after an advance of just three miles in three days. The German begin their first counterattacks against Anzio.

The Japanese open their counter-offensive against the British in Arakan, Burma.

The United States shells the Japanese homeland for the first time at Kurile Islands.

The United States captures the Marshall Islands.

1945
The Russians capture Landsberg, 80 miles Northeast of Berlin.

The US 8th Air Force, with 937 bombers and 613 fighters, carries out the heaviest attack to date against Berlin which levels large areas of the city and kills more than 25,000 civilians.

World War II History Today: February 3 is a post on World War II Dog Tags

1940
Big Russian offensive continues on the Karelia front.

1941
5th Indian Division captures Barentu, forcing the Italians to withdraw towards the mountain fortress at Keren.

In East Africa, aircraft from HMS Formidable attack the harbor installations at Mogadishu.

1942
Japanese invade Java in the Dutch East Indies.

The commander of the British XIII Corps, Godwin-Austen, resigns as a result of Lieutenant General Ritchie bypassing him and dealing direct with his divisional commanders.

A supply convoy bound for Malta sets sail from Alexandria. It consisted of 3 fast freighters, 2 cruisers, 8 destroyers and an anti-aircraft ship. However, the Luftwaffe still managed to sink all three merchantmen before they reached Malta.

Congress appropriates $26.5 billion for the U.S. Navy, bringing total U.S. war costs since June of 1940 to more than $115 billion.

The Japanese launched their 1st air raid on Port Moresby in New Guinea.

1943
The remnants of 6th Army under General Strecker in the northern pocket cease fighting and surrender to the Red Army. In all, over 96,000 survivors of the once 300,000-strong Army are captured, of which, only about 5,000 will live to return to Germany after the war. At Moscow, the victory over the Germans is celebrated with a salute of several hundred guns.

1944
The Germans stop an Allied attack at Anzio, Italy.

The 1st Ukrainian Front captures Luzk and Rovno. Stalin agrees to USAAF using Russian bases.

U.S. Marines complete the capture of Roi and Namur in the Marshall Islands.

1945
Ecuador declares war on Germany.

The 1st Belorussian Front reaches the Oder to the South of Frankfurt.

French troops occupy Colmar.

World War II History Today: February 2 is a post on World War II Dog Tags

The battleship Alabama (BB-60) is laid down at the Norfolk, Virginia.

In Japan, expenditure on the military accounts for half of the national budget for 1940.

1941
The Admiral Hipper slips out of Brest for another sortie into the Atlantic.

Agordat in Eritrea falls to the 5th Indian Division after 2 days of fighting.

The US Navy is reorganized in to the Atlantic, Pacific and Asiatic fleets and ordered to gradually bring ship
crews up to war establishment.

1942
The Red Army begins an offensive toward Vyazma. Zhukov is promoted to command the West Theatre, which includes the Kalinin, West and Bryansk Fronts.

Quisling forms a puppet government in Norway.

All U-boats adopt a new Enigma cipher known as ‘Triton’. The new cipher replaces the previous cipher, ‘Hydra’ and has an additional rotor in the Enigma machine. This meant that the British were unable to read U-boat coded communications traffic until much later in the year, seriously affecting there ability re-route their convoys around U-boat wolf packs.

First U.S. aircraft carrier offensive of the war as YORKTOWN and ENTERPRISE conduct air raids on Japanese bases in the Gilbert and Marshall Islands.

USS Enterprise is damaged in attacks on Japanese-held airfields in the Marshall and Gilbert Islands.

1943
German troops evacuate Demyansk.

Twenty Japanese destroyers begin the evacuation of 13,000 troops from Guadalcanal.

1944
The Polish underground executes Major Fritz Kurschera, the chief of the Gestapo in Poland.

1945
The U.S. First Army takes Remscheid, 20 miles to the East of Düsseldorf. The U.S. Seventh Army reaches Moder and Siegfried Line.

Troops of the 1st Belorussian Front surround the fortress town of Küstrin. Since the 20th January, the Kriegsmarine has evacuated 140,000 civilian refugees and 18,000 wounded soldiers by sea from East Prussia.

U.S. troops land unopposed to the Southwest of Manila.

Today in World War II History: February 1 is a post on World War II Dog Tags

1941
The new recruits of the ‘Nordland’ Regiment give their oath to SS Reichsführer Himmler in Oslo.

The Italian garrison at Metemma in northern Abyssinia, having been under increasing pressure for the past 3 weeks, begins to withdraw towards Gondar, allowing the 9th Indian Brigade to occupy the town.

The Japanese intervene in the conflict between Vichy France and Thailand, imposing an armistice on the French, which they are powerless to refuse.

1942
SS Einsatzgruppe A reports a tally of 229,052 Jews killed.

British and Commonwealth forces complete their evacuation of Malaya and withdraw to Singapore Island across the causeway with the Japanese only 8 miles away. Singapore now has the equivalent of four divisions to defend it, but morale is low and there are serious shortages of weapons. An additional Indian Brigade is landed at Rangoon and sent to join the 17th Indian Division.

1943
RAF Bomber Command makes first operational use of H2S radar.

Vichy France creates the Milice (Militia), under the command of Joseph Darnand, an extreme right-wing World War 1 veteran, to combat the Resistance. The Milice effectively becomes an arm of the German Occupation and reaches a strength of more than 20,000 by mid-1944.

The exhausted troops of 6th Army’s southern pocket, having expended their last ammunition, surrender to the Red Army. The Russians capture Field Marshal Paulus and 16 generals.

Eighth Army takes Zuara, near the Tunisian frontier.

1944
The U.S. 34th Division crosses the Rapido.

US forces attack the Marshall Islands, landing on Kwajalein, Roi and Namur. Land fighting begins in the Dutch New Guinea.

1945
Private Eddie Slovik became the only U.S. soldier since the Civil War to be executed for desertion.

Pvt Eddie Slovik

Two of Zhukov’s armies establish a bridgehead on the Oder, to the North of Küstrin and less than 40 miles from Berlin.

U.S. planes sink the Japanese floating dock at Singapore.

World War II Today: January 31 is a post on World War II Dog Tags

1939
Hitler threatens Jews during Reichstag speech.

1941
Australian troops capture Derna as the Italians begin to withdraw towards Benghazi. The 1st South African Division launches a feint attack against Mega in southern Abyssinia, in order to prevent the Italians from sending troops to reinforce their hard pressed forces in Somaliland.

Hitler, speaking at the Berlin Sports Palace, reaffirms his prewar prophecy concerning the Jews; once again telling an audience that “the result of this war will be the complete annihilation of the Jews.”

The 4th Indian Division continues to withdraw along the coast road towards Derna.

The Japanese capture Moulmein and its airfield in Burma as the British forces evacuate and withdraw across the river Salween.

The British withdraw to Singapore Island with the Japanese only 8 miles away.

Japanese forces capture the important naval base of Amboina between Celebes and New Guinea.

US Army awards contract to Northrop to develop a night fighter. Resulting in the Northrop P-61C Black Widow

1943
With the German Sixth Army in its death throes at Stalingrad, Hitler does the seemingly unthinkable and allows the 10th anniversary of the Nazi seizure of power to pass without speaking to the nation. It is the first unmistakable evidence of Hitler’s retreat from public appearances as the tide of the war turns.

Ernst Kaltenbrunner succeeds Heydrich as head of RSHA.

1944
The Russians attack towards Nikopol on the southern Dnieper.

A U.S. Ranger battalion is wiped out at Anzio.

British attacks on the ‘Golden Fortress’ in the Arakan, Burma cease.

1945
In the Baltic Sea, 7000 refugees drown when the Soviet submarine S-13 sinks the German liner Wilhelm Gustloff. The incident the largest single naval disaster in history.

On the twelfth anniversary of his coming to power, Hitler, calls for fanatical resistance by soldiers and civilians and predicts that “…in this struggle for survival it will not be inner Asia that will conquer, but the people that has defended Europe for centuries against the onslaughts from the East, the German nation…”

World War II Today: January 30 is a post on World War II Dog Tags

The Soviet Union reopens negotiations with Finland through Sweden and indicates that it may withdraw its support for Otto Kuusinen’s puppet government should the Finns come to terms. The Finnish 9th Division launches an attack with the aim of destroying the Russian 54th Division in Kuhmo.

1941
Greek Premier, General. Metaxis dies aged 70. M. A. Korizis takes over.

In Washington, the US and British military leaders begin secret staff talks regarding co-ordination of a common war policy against Germany.

1942
RAF Bomber Command mounts an attack to sink the Tirpitz, while she is at anchor in Trondheim. The raid is unsuccessful as the Tirpitz survives unscathed

German forces capture Benghazi, along with a large quantity of supplies.

1943
Dr. Ernst Kaltenbrunner is appointed the successor to Heydrich.

The Nazi party’s 10th Anniversary celebrations are disrupted by the RAF’s first low-level daylight Mosquito air attack on Berlin.

Nazis order all Gypsies arrested and sent to extermination camps.

Admiral Dönitz takes over from Admiral Raeder as C-in-C of the German Navy.

Advance units of the Eighth Army cross the Tunisian frontier from Libya.

Japanese aircraft attack Wau airfield.

1944
The Luftwaffe bombs London, while 800 USAAF bombers drop 1,800 tons of bombs on Frankfurt am Main and Ludwigshafen. The RAF hit Berlin for the 14th time.

1945
The allied thrust into Rhineland continues with the capture of Oberhausen, 10 miles Northeast of Duisberg. Quisling meets Hitler in Berlin for the last time.

Today in World War II: January 29 is a post on World War II Dog Tags

The ever-lovely, poised and vivacious blonde Anne Jeffreys was born Anne Carmichael on January 26, 1923 in 1923 in Goldsboro, North Carolina. Firmly managed by her mother, she trained in voice at a fairly early age and received her first break in the entertainment field after signing with the John Robert Powers agency in New York as a junior model. In the interim, she prepared herself for an operatic career and made her debut in a production of “La Boheme” in 1940. The following year, however, Anne won a role in the musical review “Fun for the Money” that was to be staged in Hollywood. This, in turn, led to her first movie role in the tuneful Rodgers & Hart adaptation of “I Married an Angel” (1942) starring her singing idols Nelson Eddy and Jeanette MacDonald in their last cinematic pairing.

Put under contract respectively by Republic then RKO studios, Anne was utilized as a plucky heroine in a flux of 40s “B” westerns and crimers opposite such stalwarts as Robert Mitchum and Randolph Scott. Also among her roles was the part of Tess Trueheart in the “Dick Tracy” series with Morgan Conway as the steel-jawed hero, and a co-star role opposite Frank Sinatra in the war-era musical “Step Lively” (1944). None of these, however, were able to propel her into the “A” ranks and her film career quickly dissipated by the end of the 40s. In the meantime, Anne continued to prod her vocal skills with symphonic and stage appearances including “Tosca” at the Brooklyn Opera House, Kurt Weill’s “Street Scene” and the Broadway musical “My Romance”.

Divorced in 1949, Anne met handsome actor Robert Sterling during an extended run (887 performances) of “Kiss Me Kate” on Broadway. She and Sterling married in 1951 and had three sons. In an attempt to revive their flagging careers, the singing couple toured nighteries and hotels in the early 1950s with a highly successful club act. This led to them being cast as sly, engagingly cavalier spirits in the classic “Topper” (1953) sitcom. Anne played Marion Kirby (“the ghostess with the mostest”) alongside Sterling’s dapper husband George. Successfully, undertaking the ectoplasmic roles originated on film by Constance Bennett and Cary Grant, the two were an absolute hit as the party-hearty ghosts who reclaim their home to the dismay of current owner Leo G. Carroll.

Anne and Robert weren’t able to recreate that same kind of magic when they subsequently co-starred in the short-lived series “Love That Jill” (1958). In the 1960s Anne semi-retired to raise her family, but occasionally took on musical leads (“Camelot”, “The King and I”) both on Broadway and in regional productions. She later returned full time to TV and became known for her chic, gregarious, sometimes double-dealing matrons on soap operas (“Bright Promise” (1969) and “General Hospital” (1972)). She was nominated for a Golden Globe award for her supporting work in “The Delphi Bureau” (1972) adventure series, and appeared occasionally as the mother of David Hasselhoff on “Baywatch” (1989).

Unlike her husband, who retired decades ago (he died in 2006), Anne remains a tireless performer past age 80. Still quite a beauty, she has been recognized over the years for her civic and humanitarian efforts.

World War II Pin Up Anne Jeffreys is a post on World War II Dog Tags