1936 — , August 11

• Germany: Day 11 of 16 of the Berlin Olympics.
• Spain: Day 26 of 985 of the Spanish Civil War. The Spanish Nationalist gunboat EDUARDO DATO is sunk at Algeciras by the Republican battleship JAMIE I.

1937 — , August 11

• Spain: Day 391 of 985 of the Spanish Civil War.
• CBI - China: Day 36 of 2,987 of the 2nd Sino-Japanese War.
  • Day 11 of 12 of the Battle of Chahar.

1938 — , August 11

• Spain: Day 756 of 985 of the Spanish Civil War.
• CBI - China: Day 401 of 2,987 of the 2nd Sino-Japanese War.
  • Day 62 of 139 of the Battle of Wuhan.
• CBI - Russia: Day 14 of 14 of the Battle of Lake Khasan, a border dispute between the Soviet Union and Japan. The battle ends in a draw.

1939 — , August 11

• CBI - China: Day 766 of 2,987 of the 2nd Sino-Japanese War.
  • Day 59 of 68 of the Battle of Tianjin.
• CBI - Mongolia: Day 93 of 129 of the Battle of Khalkhin Gol, a border dispute between the Soviet Union and Japan.

1940 — , August 11

• Atlantic: German sub U-38 sinks the British ship LLANFAIR 125 miles west of Ireland.
• ETO - UK: Day 33 of 114 of the Battle of Britain. The Luftwaffe heats up with a massive attack in the Channel and on coastal cities and towns.
• East Africa: Day 63 of 537 of Italy's East African campaign in the lands south of Egypt. Italian troops attack three of the six defended hills overlooking the Hargeisa-Berbera road, capturing one of them. Rather than sending more tanks to Somaliland, Churchill decides to send his available tanks to defend the Suez Canal.
• CBI - China: Day 1,132 of 2,987 of the 2nd Sino-Japanese War.
  • Day 271 of 381 of the Battle of South Guangxi.

1941 — , August 11

• Russian Front - Finland: Day 44 of 142 of Operation SILVER FOX, a joint German-Finnish campaign to capture the Russian port of Murmansk in the Arctic.
• Russian Front - Finland: Day 42 of 140 of Operation ARCTIC FOX, a joint German-Finnish campaign against Soviet Northern Front defenses at Salla, Finland.
• Russian Front - Finland: Day 51 of 164 of the Battle of Hanko.
• Russian Front: Day 51 of 167 of Germany's Operation BARBAROSSA, the invasion of the USSR.
• Russian Front - North: Army Group North continues their slow advance toward Leningrad.
• Russian Front - Center: Day 19 of 38 of the Battle of Gomel, Belarus. Heavy fighting continues at Gomel.
• Russian Front - Center: Army Group Centre continues heading toward Moscow.
• Russian Front - South: German Army Group South resumes its offensive to the east, heading toward Stalingrad.
• Russian Front - South: Day 4 of 70 of the Siege of Odessa, Ukraine.
• MTO - Libya: Day 124 of 256 of the Siege of Tobruk.
• East Africa: Day 428 of 537 of Italy's East African campaign in the lands south of Egypt.
• CBI - China: Day 1,497 of 2,987 of the 2nd Sino-Japanese War.

1942 — , August 11

• USA: US Patent 2,292,387 is granted to Hollywood actress and pin-up star Hedy Lamarr and her co-inventor composer George Antheil for their "Secret Communication System" of frequency-hopping to guide torpedoes via radio control, making it harder to detect or jam, an early technique for spread spectrum communications and the precursor to modern WiFi technology.
  Spotlight...

  

  Hedy Lamarr

  "Any girl can be glamorous," Hedy Lamarr once said. "All she has to do is stand still and look stupid."

  Beneath her photogenic exterior she hid a brilliant, inventive mind. At the height of her Hollywood career in 1942, the system for torpedo guidance that she patented was at least two decades ahead of its time. This early version of frequency hopping used a piano roll to change between 88 frequencies and was intended to make radio-guided torpedoes harder for enemies to detect or jam.

  The problem with radio signals was that they could be jammed. But by making the signal hop around more or less randomly from radio frequency to radio frequency, the person at the other end trying to jam the signal wouldn't know where it was. If they tried to jam one particular frequency, it might hit that frequency on one of its hops, but it would only be there for a fraction of a second.

  Hedy dutifully offered to sign the patent over to the US Navy, but it was brushed off, shelved and never adopted, mostly because of a reluctance to give credibility to technology coming from a beautiful, famous woman. She was told that she could better help the war effort by using her celebrity status to sell War Bonds, which she did, selling kisses for $50,000 a smack and once raising $7,000,000 at a single event.

  Some of her other inventions (that she considered a hobby) included the bouillon cube, a tissue box dispenser, a new traffic light, an anti-aircraft shell with a proximity fuse and a fizzing cube that could turn a glass of water into soda.

  Related dates...

  • 10 Jun 42: Hedy Lamarr, George Antheil apply for patent
  • 11 Aug 42: Patent granted to Hedy Lamarr and George Antheil.

  Related WWII Store items...

  • Spread Spectrum:
    Hedy Lamarr and the mobile phone
• Russian Front - North: Day 338 of 872 of the Siege of Leningrad. The Spanish volunteers fighting for Germany are redeployed on the Volkhov River near Leningrad.
• Russian Front - North: Day 99 of 658 of the Siege of the Kholm Pocket.
• Russian Front - Center: Day 13 of 64 of the 1st Battle of Rzhev-Sychevka, Russia. German troops near Rzhev continue their attempts to break their encirclement.
• Russian Front - South: Day 45 of 150 of Germany's CASE BLUE.
• Russian Front - South: Day 20 of 20 of Germany's Operation EDELWEISS. German Army Group South is ordered to stop and go to Stalingrad.
• MTO: German sub U-73 sinks the British carrier HMS EAGLE south of Cape Salinas on the Spanish island of Majorca in the Mediterranean Sea.
• East Africa: Day 99 of 186 of the Battle of Madagascar.
• CBI - China: Day 1,862 of 2,987 of the 2nd Sino-Japanese War.
  • Day 89 of 124 of Japan's Zhejiang-Jiangxi Campaign, launched to punish anyone suspected of aiding the Doolittle raiders in China. Roughly 250,000 Chinese will be killed.
  • US P-40s hit the airfields at Yoyang and Nanchang from which the enemy has been operating from to attack Hengyang.
• PTO - Alaska: Day 66 of 435 of the Battle of Kiska, Aleutian Islands.
• PTO - Malaya: Day 174 of 357 of the Battle of Timor Island.
• PTO - New Guinea: Day 22 of 119 of the Battle of the Kokoda Track. US 5th and 13th Air Forces provide air support.
• PTO - Solomon Islands: Day 5 of 187 of the Battle of Guadalcanal. US 5th Army Air Force provides air support. US Marines, using captured Japanese construction equipment, continue building the unfinished airfield that will later be named Henderson Field.

1943 — , August 11

• Canada: The Quebec Conference begins as President Roosevelt and Prime Minister Churchill discuss the entire spectrum of world operations and decide on the future action of Anglo-US armed forces.
• Germany: The Nazis start transporting Jews from the Theresienstadt Concentration Camp to the Auschwitz Concentration Camp.
• Russian Front - North: Day 703 of 872 of the Siege of Leningrad.
• Russian Front - North: Day 464 of 658 of the Siege of the Kholm Pocket.
• Russian Front - Center: Day 38 of 50 of the Battle of Kursk, Russia. Following the crushing defeat at Kursk, the German troops at Kharkov are now in danger of becoming encircled.
• Russian Front - Center: Day 31 of 38 of the Battle of Orel, Russia.
• Russian Front - Center: Day 5 of 57 of the 2nd Battle of Smolensk, Russia.
• Russian Front - Center: Day 5 of 14 of the Battle of Spas-Demensk, Russia.
• Russian Front - South: Day 20 of 23 of the Battle of Belgorod, Russia. Soviet troops continue attacking in the Belgorod-Bogodukhov area.
• Russian Front - South: Day 30 of 48 of the USSR's Lvov-Sandomierz Offensive. The outflanked Germans continue retreating.
• MTO - Italy: Day 34 of 40 of the Battle of Sicily. RAF and US Air Forces provide air support. The Germans begin evacuating Sicily at night using 134 small craft covered by 500 AA guns.
• CBI - China: Day 2,227 of 2,987 of the 2nd Sino-Japanese War.
• PTO - Alaska: Day 431 of 435 of the Battle of Kiska, Aleutian Islands. US 11th Air Force bombs various targets on Kiska Island and the Japanese islands of Paramushiru and Shimushu.
• PTO - New Guinea: Day 112 of 148 of the 2nd Battle of Lae-Salamaua. US 5th and 13th Air Forces provide air support.
• PTO - Solomon Islands: Day 53 of 67 of the Battle of New Georgia. US 5th and 13th Air Forces provide air support.

1944 — , August 11

• ETO - UK: Day 60 of 86 of the V-1 "Buzz Bomb" offensive on Britain.
• ETO - France: Day 18 of 29 of the Breakout Battle of Normandy. Allied Air Forces provide air support. US troops capture Nantes and Angers and drive south across the Loire River. Operation TOTALIZE is called off as Canadian and Polish troops are stopped by well constructed enemy bunkers halfway between Caen and Falais.
• ETO - France: Day 11 of 284 of the Battle of Brittany.
• Russian Front - Finland: Day 17 of 19 of the Battle of Ilomantsi, North Karelia.
• Russian Front - North: Day 18 of 19 of the Battle of Tannenberg Line, Estonia. The Germans continue holding the Sinimaed Hills west of Narva.
• Russian Front - North: Day 2 of 28 of the Battle of Tartu in southeastern Estonia.
• Russian Front - Center: Day 15 of 32 of the Battle of Kaunas, Lithuania.
• Russian Front - Center: Day 6 of 9 of the Battle of Osovets, Poland. The Germans assault the old town area of Warsaw from three sides.
• MTO - Italy: Allied troops continue pressing the German line holding the Po Valley. Allied Air Forces provide air support.
• MTO - France: US Air Forces bomb targets in southern France.
• CBI - Burma: Day 160 of 166 of the UK's Operation THURSDAY. US 10th Air Force provides air support. In northern Burma, the Chindits fight their way into Taungni and cut the railroad.
• CBI - Burma: Day 133 of 302 of the Chinese Salween Offensive. US 14th Air Force provides air support.
• CBI - China: Day 2,593 of 2,987 of the 2nd Sino-Japanese War.
  • Day 117 of 259 of Japan's Operation ICHI-GO.
• PTO: The USS TANG sinks the ROKO MARU and damages another freighter.
• PTO - Caroline Islands: US planes hits targets on Ponape Island.
• PTO - Dutch New Guinea: Day 41 of 61 of the Battle of Noemfoor. Although the island has been declared secured, bitter fighting from Japanese continues.
• PTO - New Guinea: Day 77 of 83 of the Battle of Biak. There are still 3,000 Japanese soldiers on the island who won't give up.
• PTO - New Guinea: Day 241 of 597 of the Battle of New Britain. US 13th Air Force provides air support.
• PTO - New Guinea: Day 112 of 481 of the Battle of Western New Guinea. 5th Air Force provides air support.
• PTO - New Guinea: Day 59 of 80 of the Battle of Lone Tree Hill.
• PTO - New Guinea: Day 33 of 47 of the Battle of Driniumor River.
• PTO - Solomon Islands: Day 285 of 295 of the Battle of the Bougainville Islands. US 13th Air Force provides air support.

1945 — , August 11

• USA: Secretary of State James Byrnes rejects the Japanese surrender terms offered yesterday, citing the US will refuse all Japanese preconditions.
• CBI - China: Day 2,958 of 2,987 of the 2nd Sino-Japanese War.
  • Day 3 of 25 of the Soviet Invasion of Manchuria.
  • US 14th Air Force attacks troops, trains and river boats around Chenhsien, Tehsien and Hengyang.
• PTO - Borneo: Day 63 of 67 of the Battle of North Borneo. US 5th and 13th Air Forces provide air support.
• PTO - New Guinea: Day 593 of 597 of the Battle of New Britain. US 10th Air Force provides air support.
• PTO - New Guinea: Day 477 of 481 of the Battle of Western New Guinea. US 10th Air Force provides air support.
• PTO - Philippines: Day 295 of 299 of the 2nd Battle of the Philippines, aka the Liberation of the Philippines or the Philippines Campaign.
• PTO - Philippines: Day 240 of 244 of the Battle of Luzon. The battle is said to over but hold-outs will continue fighting until the end of the war.
• PTO - Philippines: Day 155 of 159 of the Battle of Mindanao Island. The battle is said to over but hold-outs will continue fighting until the end of the war.