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Indexes...
Indexes of WWII Battles...
Index of WWII People...
- Noteworthy People by Name
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A
- James Roy Andersen (US Brigadier General)
- 26 Feb 45: B-24 carrying 2 US Generals disappears en route to Hawaii, is never found
- The Andrews Sisters (iconic singing stars)
- 02 Jan 41: Andrews Sisters record the iconic hit song "Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy"
- Frank M Andrews (US Lieutenant General)
- 03 May 43: America's top commander in Europe is killed in an airplane crash
- Charles W Arnett (US B-24 pilot, POW)
- 19 May 44: 1st of three deadly missions for the Hard Luck 492nd Bomb Group
B
- Douglas Bader (legless RAF Ace fighter pilot, POW)
- 19 Aug 41: Germans grant safe passage to RAF for delivery of a prosthetic leg
- Eivind Berggrav (Norwegian anti-Nazi Lutheran Bishop)
- 09 Apr 42: Norwegian Bishop arrested by Nazis for refusing to alter religious practices
- Lavrenti Beria (Soviet head of NKVD, depraved sadist, eventual victim of Stalinism)
- 18 Dec 39: Beria orders 240,000 Polish POWs sent to USSR as forced laborers
- George Beurling (Canadian fighter Ace)
- 01 May 42: Canadian fighter Ace gets first of 31 kills
- Richard "Dick" Bong (top US fighter Ace)
- 06 Aug 45: US fighter Ace Dick Bong is killed in a jet fighter test flight
- Dietrich Bonhoeffer (German anti-Nazi Pastor)
- 05 Apr 43: Lutheran Pastor Dietrich Bonhoeffer is arrested, charged with subversion
- Gregory "Pappy" Boyington (US Marine fighter ace, POW)
- 03 Jan 44: Major Boyington shot down in PTO by Japanese Zero, taken POW
- Eva Braun (aspiring actress, Hitler's mistress and very short-lived wife)
- 01 Nov 45: Reports say that Hitler and Eva Braun committed suicide after marrying
- Wernher von Braun (history's greatest rocket scientist, inventor of the V-2 rocket)
- 02 May 45: Von Braun and a group of German rocket scientists surrender to US troops
- Simon Bolivar Buckner Jr (US Lt General, posthumously promoted 4-star General)
- 18 Jun 45: Highest ranking US General is killed by Japanese artillery fire in Okinawa
- George H W Bush (Lieutenant, fighter pilot, future President)
- 02 Sep 44: Lt Bush shot down in attack on Chichi Jima, rescued by lifeguard submarine
C
- Winston Churchill (history's greatest statesman, bar none)
- 10 May 40: Winston Churchill is asked by the King to take over as Prime Minister
- Albert P Clark (the Great Escape's "Big S")
- 26 Jul 42: US Lt Col Clark is shot down while flying an RAF fighter over France
D
- Charles de Gaulle (French General, resistant, leader of Free France)
- 26 Aug 44: De Gaulle leads parade through Paris to celebrate its liberation
- John L DeWitt (US General, issuer of Public Proclamation No 1)
- 02 Mar 42: Proclamation allows exclusion of people of enemy ancestry from west coast
- Walt Disney (artist, animator, cartoonist, filmmaker)
- 01 Jan 43: Walt Disney releases the animated musical short "Der Fuehrer's Face"
- James H Doolittle (MIT grad, top-notch pilot, flight instructor, aeronautical engineer)
- 18 Apr 42: Morale-boosting "Doolittle Raid" on Japan
E
- Dwight D "Ike" Eisenhower (General, Supreme Allied Commander, future president)
- 18 Jun 45: Ike receives a hero's welcome in Washington DC
- Milton S Eisenhower (WRA director, Ike's younger brother)
- 07 Apr 42: WRA meets with 10 Western states, seeking alternatives to internment
F
- Ian Fleming (British Naval Intelligence Lt Commander, future James Bond creator)
- 29 Sep 39: Ian Fleming's "Trout Memo" is circulated by British Naval Intelligence
- Francisco Franco (Spanish dictator, El Generalissimo)
- 06 Feb 41: Hitler makes one last appeal to Spain's Franco to enter the war on his side
- Anne Frank (diary author, most renowned Jewish victim of the holocaust)
- 12 Mar 45: Anne Frank dies at the age of 15 in the Bergen-Belsen Concentration Camp
G
- Francis "Gabby" Gabreski (RAF liaison officer, top US fighter Ace)
- 05 Jul 44: Gabreski becomes America's leading Ace with 28 confirmed kills
- Clark Gable (movie star, filmmaker, B-17 gunner)
- 27 Jan 43: Begins training with 351st BG as head of a motion picture unit
- Clemens August Graf von Galen (anti-Nazi, German Catholic, Bishop of Munster)
- 16 Aug 41: Sermons by Bishop von Galen force suspension of Nazi euthanasia project
- Mohandas (Mahatma) Gandhi (lawyer, ethicist, leader of nonviolent resistance)
- 30 Dec 41: Gandhi resigns India's Congress Party in protest
(spotlight includes thoughts regarding how to deal with Hitler)
- Charles de Gaulle (French General, resistant, leader of Free France)
- 26 Aug 44: De Gaulle leads parade through Paris to celebrate its liberation
- Theodor Geisel (Dr Seuss, editorial cartoonist, author, philosopher)
- 29 Feb 36: FDR signs the Neutrality Act of 1936
- Robert H Goddard (the father of modern rocketry)
- 16 Mar 26: Goddard launches the first successful liquid-fueled rocket
H
- Millard Fillmore Harmon Jr (Lt General)
- 26 Feb 45: B-24 carrying 2 US Generals disappears en route to Hawaii, is never found
- William "Lord Haw Haw" Joyce (Brooklyn-born Nazi radio propagandist)
- 28 May 45: Lord Haw Haw is captured by British troops, will be hanged for treason
- Heinz Heydrich (good Nazi, brother of one of the worst)
- 19 Nov 44: Heinz Heydrich commits suicide, fearing imminent capture by Gestapo
- Reinhard Heydrich (Nazi SS General, main architect of Holocaust)
- 27 May 42: Reinhard Heydrich mortally wounded in assassination attempt in Prague
- Hirohito (Japanese Emperor, non-prosecuted war criminal)
- 10 Aug 45: Japan announces they are willing to surrender if the Emperor remains
- Adolf Hitler (failed artist, best-selling author, uncontested most evil man in history)
- 02 Jan 39: Time magazine names Adolf Hitler "Man of the Year" for 1938
- William Patrick Hitler (British-born nephew of Adolf Hitler, US Navy corpsman)
- 06 Mar 44: Adolf Hitler's "loathsome nephew" is sworn into the US Navy
- Herbert Hoover (former President, Great Depression scapegoat)
- 01 May 41: HH warns US is not prepared for war, yet "cannot be defeated"
- J Edgar Hoover (FBI Director, Father of Modern Law Enforcement)
- 07 Dec 41: FBI begins roundup of German, Italian, and Japanese aliens in the US
- Helmuth Hubener (17-year old, anti-Nazi, German Mormon boy)
- 27 Oct 42: Hubener is executed by guillotine for circulating over 60 anti-Nazi leaflets
I
- Daniel Ken "Dan" Inouye (Nisei war hero, future US Senator)
- 21 Apr 45: Nisei Daniel Inouye is grievously wounded in battle, losing his right arm
J
- Spike Jones (satirical slapstick musician and bandleader, the "Weird Al" of his day)
- 28 Jul 42: Spike Jones records iconic slapstick song "Der Fuehrer's Face"
- William "Lord Haw Haw" Joyce (Brooklyn-born Nazi radio propagandist)
- 28 May 45: Lord Haw Haw is captured by British troops, will be hanged for treason
K
- Chiang Kai-Shek (leader of the anti-communist Republic of China)
- 22 Nov 43: First Cairo Conference between Churchill, Roosevelt and Chiang Kai-Shek
- John F Kennedy (Lieutenant, PT Boat commander, future President)
- 02 Aug 43: PT-109 is rammed and cut in half by a Japanese destroyer
- Albert Kesselring (Field Marshal, German air and field commander, war criminal)
- 21 Nov 43: Kesselring is appointed commander-in-chief of all German forces in Italy
- Marianne Elise Kurchner (German war widow, factory worker, executed joke teller)
- 26 Jun 43: Berlin woman is put to death by guillotine for telling a Hitler joke
L
- Charles Lindbergh (aviation legend, anti-war activist, 50-mission civilian fighter pilot)
- 17 Sep 39: Lindbergh makes his first anti-intervention radio speech
- Carole Lombard (war bond selling actress, wife of Clark Gable)
- 16 Jan 42: Lombard is killed in a plane crash outside Las Vegas
- William "Lord Haw Haw" Joyce (Brooklyn-born Nazi radio propagandist)
- 28 May 45: Lord Haw Haw is captured by British troops, will be hanged for treason
- Joe Louis (boxing champion, national hero, motivational field hospital visitor)
- 22 Jun 38: Joe Louis defeats German boxing idol Max Schmeling in Yankee Stadium
M
- Douglas MacArthur (General, commander of US Army Forces in the Far East)
- 20 Oct 44: MacArthur wades ashore in the Philippines to begin its liberation
- Lesley J McNair (General, highest-ranking US soldier to be KIA in the ETO)
- 25 Jul 44: Gen Lesley J McNair killed by errant Allied bombing
- William Martin (fake Major, alias given to corpse of vagrant Glyndwr Michael)
- 02 May 43: Corpse planted as Allied deception is buried in Spain with honors
- Jasper Maskelyne (stage magician, "Magic Gang" leader)
- 23 Oct 42: Jasper Maskelyne and his "Magic Gang" brilliantly deceive the Afrika Korps
- Glyndwr Michael (semi-literate, alcoholic, homeless vagrant, war hero)
- 02 May 43: Corpse planted as Allied deception is buried in Spain with honors
- Glenn Miller (iconic musician, composer, Major, 50-piece Army Air Force Band leader)
- 15 Dec 44: Glenn Miller reported MIA after flight from England to Paris fails to arrive
- Benito Mussolini (Il Duce, Fascist, Italian dictator, Hitler's pal)
- 27 Apr 45: Mussolini is executed and hung upside down on public display
N
- Martin Niemoeller (German anti-Nazi Pastor, author of "First they came for...")
- 01 Jul 37: German Lutheran Pastor and outspoken public foe of Nazis is arrested
O
- Hugh O'Flaherty (Catholic Monsignor, concealer of Jews and escaped POWs)
- 30 Oct 63: The Vatican Pimpernel who saved thousands of POWs and Jews passes away
- Edward "Butch" O'Hare (America's first fighter Ace, Chicago airport namesake)
- 20 Feb 42: Butch O'Hare becomes America's first fighter Ace of WWII
- James H O'Neill (Colonel, Chaplain US 3rd Army, Bronze Star recipient)
- 09 Dec 44: Patton's Weather Prayer circulated to the Third Army
- Jesse Owens (Olympic superstar)
- 09 Aug 36: Jesse Owens wins four gold medals at the Berlin Olympics
P
- George S Patton (controversial, feared, soldier-slapping US General)
- 04 Apr 41: Promoted to Major General (shows full promotions table)
- Philippe Pétain (Vichy France puppet PM, Nazi collaborator, sentenced traitor)
- 23 Jul 45: Former French national hero is put on trial for treason
- Karl Plagge (good German, Nazi Party member, Wehrmacht Major, protector of Jews)
- 16 Sep 43: Forms slave labor camp to move 1,000 Jews to relative safety
- Christoph Probst (White Rose resistant)
- 18 Feb 42: Gestapo arrests leaders of the White Rose resistance group
- Ernie Pyle (famed war correspondent, journalist and Pulitzer Prize winner)
- 18 Apr 45: Ernie Pyle is killed by Japanese machine gun fire during the Battle of Okinawa
Q
- Vidkun Quisling (Nazi collaborator, Norwegian traitor)
- 24 Oct 45: Norway executes Quisling, the man whose name has come to mean traitor
R
- Hanna Reitsch (world's first woman test pilot, honorary Captain, Iron Cross recipient)
- 28 Feb 44: Hanna Reitsch suggests to Hitler that he form squadrons of suicide bombers
- Jackie Robinson ("Black Panther" 761st Tank Battalion, baseball legend)
- 06 Jul 42: Jackie Robinson refuses to sit in the back of an Army bus
- Erwin Rommel (German national hero, Field Marshal, Desert Fox, "defeatist")
- 14 Oct 44: Rommel forced to commit suicide after loosely implicated in Hitler bomb plot
- Eleanor Roosevelt (First Lady, columnist, UN delegate and so much more)
- 19 Dec 45: Eleanor Roosevelt is appointed one of first US delegates to the UN
- Franklin Delano Roosevelt (America's longest serving President)
- 04 Mar 33: FDR inaugurated to his first of four terms as President
- Theodore Roosevelt III (Bg General, eldest son of TR, oldest man in D-Day invasion)
- 28 Sep 44: Bg Gen Theodore Roosevelt Jr posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor
- Maurice Rose (Major General, highest-ranking US Jewish officer ever killed in battle)
- 30 Mar 45: Maj Gen Maurice Rose is killed in action in Germany
S
- Irena Sendler (Polish Catholic social worker, smuggler of Jewish children)
- 20 Oct 43: Gestapo arrest woman who smuggled 2,500 Jewish children to safety
- Oskar Schindler (Nazi Party member, slave labor profiteer, protector of Jews)
- 09 Oct 74: Oskar Schinder, lifesaver of 1,200 Jews, passes away in West Germany
- Max Schmeling (German boxing idol defeated by future friend Joe Louis)
- 22 Jun 38: Max Schmeling TKO'd by Joe Louis in the first round in Yankee Stadium
- Hans Scholl (White Rose resistant)
- 18 Feb 42: Gestapo arrests leaders of the White Rose resistance group
- Sophie Scholl (White Rose resistant)
- 22 Feb 42: White Rose resistance members are executed for distributing anti-war leaflets
- Dr Seuss (Theodor Geisel, editorial cartoonist)
- 29 Feb 36: FDR signs the Neutrality Act of 1936
- Eddie Slovik (US Army Private)
- 31 Jan 45: The only soldier since the Civil War is executed by firing squad for desertion
- Maynard "Snuffy" Smith (obnoxious B-17 gunner, hero, Medal of Honor recipient)
- 01 May 43: B-17 gunner Sgt "Snuffy" Smith earns the Medal of Honor for heroism
- Joseph Stalin (Uncle Joe, the enemy of our enemy, Hitler's counterpart in evil)
- 21 Aug 39: Hitler and Stalin agree to a non-aggression pact
- Claus von Stauffenberg (Count, German Lt Col, failed Hitler assassin)
- 21 Jul 44: Stauffenberg executed in Berlin after failed Valkyrie bomb plot
- James "Jimmy" Stewart (actor, bomber pilot)
- 19 Jan 42: Stewart receives his wings and a commission in the USAAF
- Chiune Sugihara (defiant Japanese Ambassador, issuer of visas to Jews)
- 04 Sep 40: Sugihara continues to defy his government and write visas to desperate Jews
T
- Clarence L Tinker (US Major General, highest ranking Native-American officer)
- 07 Jul 42: General Tinker is lost during Midway B-24 bombing mission
- Hideki Tojo (Axis villain, Japanese Premier, Minister of War)
- 23 Dec 48: Tojo is executed by hanging for war crimes
- Dr Fritz Todt (chief autobahn designer, Reich minister for armaments & munitions)
- 08 Feb 42: Todt is killed in a JU-52 plane crash
- Alan Turing (mathematical genius, codebreaker, father of the modern computer)
- 14 Mar 40: First "Bombe" decipher machine becomes operational at Bletchley Park
- John "Jack" Turnbull (Olympian, lacrosse champion, trophy namesake)
- 18 Oct 44: Olympian Jack Turnbull is mortally wounded in a mid-air B-24 collision
U
V
- Wernher von Braun (history's greatest rocket scientist, inventor of the V-2 rocket)
- 02 May 45: Von Braun and a group of German rocket scientists surrender to US troops
- Clemens August Graf von Galen (anti-Nazi, German Catholic, Bishop of Munster)
- 16 Aug 41: Sermons by Bishop von Galen force suspension of Nazi euthanasia project
- Claus von Stauffenberg (Count, German Lt Col, failed Hitler assassin)
- 21 Jul 44: Stauffenberg executed in Berlin after failed Valkyrie bomb plot
W
- Richard "Dick" Winters (of Band of Brothers fame)
- 08 Mar 45: Dick Winters promoted to the rank of major
X
Y
- Isoroku Yamamoto (Japanese Navy Admiral, mastermind of Pearl Harbor attack)
- 13 Apr 43: Roosevelt orders the Navy to "get Yamamoto" in Operation VENGENCE
Z
- Louis "Louie" Zamperini (Olympian, navigator, crash survivor, unbroken POW)
- 27 May 43: B-24 GREEN HORNET goes down in the Pacific with a crew of 10
- Georgy Zhukov (Deputy Supreme Commander, Marshal of the Soviet Union)
- 12 Jul 45: British honor Zhukov in a ceremony at the Brandenburg Gate
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