The Polish Second Army Corps, veterans of the Soviet Gulag and arriving from Iran, arrives in Palestine. Here, nearly 3,000 of the 4,000 Polish Jews desert to join the Israeli militias. Among them is Menachem Begin, the future Israeli Prime Minister from 1977 to 1983.
Hamburg. The fire sparked by the bombing of the city causes at least 40,000 deaths and outrages the German population, but it’s the manner in which these deaths occur that is most shocking. Stories of raging infernos, hurricane-force winds, and blizzards of sparks that set
British bombers dropped 1,900 tons of white phosphorus incendiary bombs on Hamburg, the culmination of Churchill’s “moral bombing” strategy, aimed at weakening Germany’s historical and industrial prosperity by targeting the areas with the highest worker density and terrorizing the Germans. On July 27, thanks to
Two six-engine Messerschmitt 323 “Gigant” aircraft belonging to the 3rd Staffel took off from Venafiorita airport near Olbia, bound for Pistoia. Twenty minutes later, British fighters intercepted the two transports flying in formation. They were attacked simultaneously. The first, hit in the tail, managed to
Victor Emmanuel III had Mussolini arrested and handed over the government to Marshal Badoglio. During his 45 days in office, he conducted the armistice negotiations with the Angolan Americans in a confusing manner.
Moscow. The Second Polish Army Corps is recognized by the Allied military commands. It was formed when Stalin was persuaded by Polish General Sikorski, head of the Polish government-in-exile, to free all Polish prisoners in the Gulags to contribute to the Allied war effort. After
Bletchley Park resumed heavy interception of Soviet traffic in the summer of 1942, already anticipating the coming Cold War. Interception had ceased in December 1941.
The Los Alamos Laboratories are established in Los Alamos, New Mexico. Oppenheimer, who had already gathered a group of physicists in the summer of 1942 to study nuclear weapons, is at its head. The site is on a desert plateau. Neither their families nor the
During a lunch discussion with colleagues at Los Alamos, Italian physicist Enrico Fermi summarized what would become known as Fermi’s Paradox: if so many extraterrestrial civilizations exist, where are they? A simple and essential question, perfectly in keeping with the character: if there are so
Allied landing in Sicily; in two years, in Italy, there will be 45,806 American deaths and 17,500 among English, Canadian, Australian, New Zealander, South African, Indian, Brazilian, Polish, the wounded will be 350,000
German offensive towards Kursk (second battle in history after Verdun where 2 million soldiers participated and 1.5 million died; the confirmed deaths were more than 100,000 Germans and more than 250,000 Soviets and 650,000 Soviet wounded); largest tank battle in history: 3,000 panzers and 4,000
General Sykorsky, Prime Minister of the Polish government in exile, dies in the crash of the British plane that was carrying him from Gibraltar to London.
Battle of Sutjeska, Yugoslavia. 120,000 German and Italian soldiers track down and surround 20,000 partisans in the mountains above the Drina River. Axis planes begin bombing, injuring Tito himself. After ten days of siege, the weather worsens, and Tito takes advantage of the situation to
Robert Oppenheimer visits his old flame, Jean Tatlock. The event is monitored by the FBI, given Oppenheimer’s position as head of the Manhattan Project and Jean’s political activism as a member of the Communist Party.
Construction of the ENIAC (Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer) computer begins for the U.S. War Department. Mauchly is the consultant and visionary, and Eckert is the chief engineer. It uses a decimal (i.e., non-binary) system, conditional branching, and subroutines. It will not be operational until
Italian war bulletin no. 1083 orders the cessation of fighting in Africa. The African campaign cost the Axis forces 1 million men killed, wounded, and taken prisoner, 8,000 aircraft, 6,200 guns, 2,500 tanks, 70,000 vehicles, and 2.5 million tons of merchant shipping sunk by the
Tunisia. Battle of Enfidaville. The British occupy Tunis. A few hours later, the Americans enter Bizerte.
Tunisia. Battle of Enfidaville. The Americans advance. But the Italian-German forces still refuse to give up, and retreat narrowly. They are completely depleted of supplies, which are promptly and punctually sunk by the British, thanks to Ultra interceptions.
Tunisia. Battle of Enfidaville. The last African battle of the conflict. The powerful Hermann Göring Armored Division with Tiger tanks and the Italians initially withstand the onslaught. They surrender on April 27.
Poland. The Warsaw Jewish Ghetto Uprising. This was the first armed urban action against the German occupiers during World War II. After witnessing the deportation or murder of over 300,000 Jews from the ghetto, the approximately 60,000 Jews who remained, mostly young people, were mostly
9:35 a.m.: Eighteen American P-38s shoot down two Japanese planes, killing Yamamoto in one of them. The Americans had intercepted the information about the Japanese high command’s presence. A heated argument then broke out with the British, who believed the Americans had thus risked revealing
German radio broadcasts the news of the discovery of the Katyn massacre. Mass graves filled with tens of thousands of bodies of men and women killed with a single gunshot to the head, their hands tied behind their backs, including thousands of officers. As early
Around 90,000 Poles were killed by Ukrainian partisans, 50,000 of them in Volhynia and another 40,000 in other areas such as Galicia.
Northwestern Ukraine. The entire village of Oleksieta, an ethnic Polish village, is set ablaze by pro-Nazi collaborators. In Wysocko Wyzne, 13 children are locked in a Catholic church, which is then set on fire. In Wola Ostrowiecka, the entire community is surrounded, the men taken
The US War Department approves the construction of the ENIAC (Electronic Numerical Integrator And Computer) computer.
The Battle of Kursk begins; Field Marshal Eric Von Manstein and Soviet General Nokolaj Vatutin are pitted against each other.
Bletchley Park. The Fifth Man in Cambridge is John Cairncross. He works for the KGB at Hut 3, where Tunny, the German teleprinter code, is broken. Cairncross passes details of the Nazis’ intentions in Kursk to the Soviets.
The Red Army advances into Belarus, Warsaw razed to the ground by the Luftwaffe
With a microphone installed in the house of Steve Nelson, Oppenheimer’s collaborator and Communist Party informer, they listen to a conversation with another member of the party in which the atomic bomb project is discussed.
Tunisia. The Allies attack the remnants of the Italian-German troops, deprived of Rommel. They are a mixed force of New Zealand, Americans, and French. The resistance of the infantrymen of the Trieste and Giovani Fascisti repel the attack.
Henning von Tresckow, along with his aide Fabian Schlabrendorff, placed a bomb on Hitler’s plane. The bomb was British-made and chemically detonated, placed inside a package of liquor bottles. He then asked Lieutenant Colonel Heinz Brandt, who was accompanying Hitler, to deliver it to his
Wehrmacht General Henning von Tresckow had his first opportunity to take action against the Führer’s life when Hitler, after countless delays, was finally scheduled to visit the Eastern Front near Smolensk. Along with other conspirators, Tresckow practiced pistol shooting to kill both Adolf Hitler and
Stalingrad. After 1991, thanks to Soviet witnesses who gave interviews, it was learned that several hundred Germans had taken refuge in the sewers, where they continued to fight until March 10th, when they were all dynamited. Forty days after the official end of hostilities in
Tunisia. Operation “Capri”: Rommel’s last stand in Africa. But this time Ultra works as it should, and Montgomery is ready to welcome it. In the battle, Rommel loses 50 of his remaining 145 tanks.
Von Neumann and Morgenstern introduce the characteristic form (sets) of Game Theory
Tunisia. Rommel’s Operation “Spring Breeze” against the inexperienced American lines, which are caught by surprise. The new Tiger tanks work miracles. Just a few tanks destroy 32 Shermans, losing only two. Eisenhower himself nearly falls prisoner. By evening, over 4,000 Yankees, disheartened by their first
Hilbert dies after a fall on the streets of Göttingen. For the German city, already scarred by Nazi purges, this event marks the end of its role as a mathematical mecca. German mathematics will never be what it once was.
The American Signal Intelligence Agency (SIS) creates a department to study Soviet codes. Its British partner is kept in the dark. However, the British will also create such a department at the end of 1944. Both evidently understand that the USSR will soon be the
American intelligence agencies have the first signs that several university members of the Manhattan Project are passing information to the Soviets.
Anglo-American SOE (Special Operation Executives) special forces blow up Nazi heavy water depots (believed to be essential for producing a nuclear device) in Norway.
Libya. End of organized Italian resistance. The last Italian soldier retreats to Tunisia. The war in the desert ends.
Stalingrad is flown over by a last Henkel 111. It glimpses some figures moving among the ruins and drops its load of loaves. No other Nazi aircraft will ever fly over Stalingrad again.
General von Paulus, 25 other generals, and the last surviving Germans in Stalingrad (93,000 soldiers) surrendered; in the entire campaign, the Germans lost 1.5 million soldiers—about a third of all soldiers engaged in the Soviet Union. For the Stalingrad pocket alone, the numbers are: the
Stalingrad. The Northern Pocket of the Sixth Army, under Strecker’s command, also surrenders. At this point, the fighting officially ends in Stalingrad. In reality, after 1991, thanks to some Soviet witnesses who gave interviews, it was learned that several hundred Germans had taken refuge in
Stalingrad. A dozen groups of Germans manage to escape through the Red Army’s clutches. Most are captured in the countryside. However, one priest, Father Hering, a medical assistant, manages to escape Stalingrad with a hundred or so compatriots, reaching a German garrison, where he is
Stalingrad. 7:45 a.m. Paulus writes: “Russians at the gate. We are destroying…” They are the raiders of Colonel Burmakov’s 38th Motorized Brigade. Fighting ceases throughout the southern part of the city: the Red Army has Red Square, Red October, and the Central Station under its
The Battle of Nikolaevka (Бой под Николаевкой): a fierce clash between Axis occupation forces and Soviet troops. The Soviets launched a very significant attack that led to a chaotic retreat to the southern part of the Eastern Front, and constituted the crucial and decisive phase
Stalingrad. The Sixth Army is split in two: the southern section (20 km) with Paulus is now separated from the northern section with Strecker in the tractor factory with the remnants of the XI Army Corps. Since the beginning of Operation Ring, the Germans have
Stalingrad. Paulus reports that the swastika flag has been raised on the tallest house in the center of Stalingrad. Food supplies are running out. Ammunition is running low.
After several weeks of siege, the British Eighth Army takes Tripoli.
Stalingrad. Afternoon. The Germans lose control of Gumrak airfield, where they receive supplies of food and supplies. Gumrak will be evacuated the next day.
Stalingrad. Morning. The Germans have 30 rounds left for each gun.
Stalingrad. Although Gumrak airfield was completely passable, only two Heinkel 111s landed with supplies for the German Sixth Army.
Stalingrad. The Germans retreat toward the (former) town center. The disintegration of some Wehrmacht units begins.
Only 6 weeks after Fermi’s successful experiment in Chicago, the Soviets learned of the fact
After 16 months of construction, the Pentagon building in Washington DC is completed.
Stalingrad. The first three days of Soviet assaults on the German Sixth Army do not go well: 25,000 Red Army casualties and half of their armored vehicles are lost. The Soviets are also shocked to discover that the most determined fighters they face are their
Stalingrad. 6:05 a.m. Rokossovsky sends riflemen and T-34 tanks of the 21st Army into an assault against the “nose” of Marinovka, the westernmost tip of Paulus’s Sixth Army pocket.
Stalingrad. Operation Ring is ready, aimed at eliminating Paulus’s Sixth Army. On paper, the odds favor the Russians, but not by much: 3 to 2 in air power, 3 to 1 in air force, and 6 to 5 in infantry. But this doesn’t take into
Mauthausen, Austria. The system of Austrian subcamps and underground factory production was completed, ranging from synthetic gasoline plants to high-speed aircraft to more conventional weapons. These camps were often given code names: “Cement” (Ebensee), “Rock Crystal” (St. Georgen near Gusen), “Quartz” (Melk), etc. Thousands of
The one-day-old T2 tanker SS Schenectady, just returned to port after a sea trial, suddenly split in two from top to bottom due to a crack in the steel that was not stopped by any “crack stopper.”
Arlington Hall, Virginia. Signal Intelligence. The enormous American investments in automatic decryption machines are bearing fruit. IBM is perhaps the main beneficiary of the investments. The 100 four-rotor bombs in Washington handle the majority of the U-Boats’ intelligence traffic.
Caucasus. Hitler orders the Armies of Group A to withdraw from the Caucasus. Covering this retreat was the real reason he forbade Paulus’s Sixth Army from surrendering: he needed to keep as many Soviet armies as possible occupied. But even now the Führer won’t allow
Stalingrad. The Germans advance with Hoth, 200 tanks and two armored divisions, the 6th and 23rd, to break through the pocket of Paulus’s Sixth Army. In 24 hours, they cover 50 kilometers, cross the Aksay River, and arrive within 60 kilometers of the objective. From
Stalingrad. The Soviets launch Operation Little Saturn: against 19 Italian battalions, they deploy 80 Soviet infantry battalions, 12 motorized battalions, 450 tanks, and air support.
Bletchley Park. Newman suggests using electronic counters, leveraging their high computing speed. Newman is immediately commissioned to draw up the specifications for such a machine. Tommy Flowers will build it. It’s the Colossus. The first electronic computer.