Day 1045 of the war

I have been very slack with my postings of 1942, so I will try and make up for it today.

This cover is actually from 11 July 1938 – but how cute is Shirley Temple?! Defiantly doing her bit for the war effort.

Did you know that you can read a summary of Anne Frank’s diary online?  Today’s is as follows:

• Nobody but Anne loves the sound of the Westertoren clock, which signals every quarter of an hour. To Anne, it feels like a faithful friend.
• Anne thinks they have the most comfortable hiding place in all of Holland.
• However, she is always terrified that the neighbours might hear them and discover them. Margot has a cold but isn’t even allowed to cough.
• Anne describes the silence of the hiding place as oppressive, especially at night. She can’t wait until the van Daans arrive so that the place isn’t so lonely.

Read more of her diary here.

In the city of (Thes)Salonika, Greece, this day in 1942 became known as “Black Saturday.  9,000 Jewish males from the ages of 18-45 were forcibly assembled at Liberty Square in the centre of the city . About 2,000 were sent to do forced labour for the German army.  We can guess what happened to the rest.

 Source – public humiliation of Jewish men

 

Meanwhile at El Alamein, Egypt, the Australian 26th Brigade pushed  forward taking 1000 Italian troops and overrunning the German Signals  Company 621,  who had been providing Rommel with         intelligence from Allied radio communications.

The Italians also fared badly in the Mediterranean , when South African Naval Forces armed whalers HMSAS Protea and HMSAS Southern Maid plus a land-based Fleet Air Arm Walrus flying boat combined to sink the Italian submarine Ondina with depth charges.

In Alaska, Four B-24s taking off for weather, bombing and photo missions to Kiska were attacked by seaplane fighters.  There were no losses, and a cruiser was bombed with unobserved results.

In the North Atlantic U-203 sank the Panamanian tanker SS Stanvac Palembang (5 dead, 45 survivors in 3 lifeboats picked up by US submarine chaser USS PC-8 next day and landed at Port of Spain), while West of the Portuguese island of Madeira, U-136 is detected and sunk by French and British ships (all 45 hands lost).

In the Baltic Sea, just off the East coast of Sweden, Soviet submarine S-7 sank the Swedish coastal freighter SS Luleå carrying iron ore to Germany.

On  lighter note, the Australian Women’s Weekly published an instalment of Agatha Christie's Poirot mysteries – The Many Headed Monster.  You can read it here.  During the 1930s, Hercule Poirot was always talking about "retiring". Of course, any such period of "retirement" didn't last long and wherever he was, murder seemed to follow – who needed retirement  anyway?!  So he decided to exit in grand style by taking just twelve more cases, each one the modern equivalent of the original 12 labours of Hercules. The Many Headed Monster is also known as "The Lernean Hydra" – very Greecian. A great read if you have time.

Deb xx