Java Campaign

C. Peter Chen — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 09:00:00

Battle of Makassar Strait
4 Feb 1942

On 3 Feb 1942, the American-British-Dutch-Australian (ABDA) Command gathered a sizable task force to stop a Japanese invasion force sailing down the Makassar Strait. On the morning of 4 Feb, Japanese reconnaissance aircraft discovered this ...

Rzhev-Vyazma Offensive and the Demyansk Pocket

C. Peter Chen — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 09:00:00

As the German troops fell back from the Moscow region, Soviet troops launched the Rzhev-Vyazma Strategic Offensive Operation in an attempt to sever the link between troops of the German 16th Army and elements of the German Xth Army Corps in the Demyansk area south of Leningrad, Russia and the Sta...

Ki-15

C. Peter Chen — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 09:00:00

The Ki-15 aircraft were originally designed to meet a 1935 Army Air Force requirement. The prototype first took flight in May 1936, and was quickly accepted as the Japanese Army Type 97 Command Reconnaissance Plane Model 1. Production for the first order of 437 aircraft began in May 1937. They...

US Navy Report of Japanese Raid on Pearl Harbor, Enclosure E, USS San Francisco

C. Peter Chen — Sun, 07 Mar 2010 09:00:00

CA38/A16/(0206)

U.S.S. San Francisco

Pearl Harbor
December 10, 1941

<...

No. 24: Memorandum from His Majesty's Government Replying to the German Memorandum

C. Peter Chen — Sat, 06 Mar 2010 09:00:06

Memorandum from His Majesty's Government of June 23, 1939, replying to the German memorandum denouncing the Anglo-German Naval Agreement. General Considerations. IN their memorandum of the 27th April last the German Government state that, in making their offer in...

China

C. Peter Chen — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 09:00:00

Mainland China

China had been in political turmoil since the 1911 revolution, but by 1928, the Nationalist Party, or Kuomintang, had largely consolidated the power from the capital of Nanjing, although a significant part of China was still ruled by local warlords with frie...

Ta 154 Moskito

C. Peter Chen — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 09:00:00

The Ta 154 Moskito night fighters were designed by Kurt Tank of Focke-Wulf, whose project started out to be a light bomber capable of conducting fast attacks against ground targets. The project team gave the design the nickname of Moskito, similar to a British design that was meant to serve in s...

The Black-Out Book

C. Peter Chen — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 09:00:00

Full Title: The Black-Out Book: 500 Family Games and Puzzles for Wartime Entertainment

Loyal readers of WW2DB know that I like to read something different every so many books. But this one would represent a brand new departure than some of the titles I had taken on previous...

Balkan Pact

C. Peter Chen — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 09:00:00

On 9 Feb 1934, four nations on the Balkan Peninsula Greece, Turkey, Romania, and Yugoslavia signed the Balkan Pact in an attempt to maintain the status quo in the region. The four nations agreed to suspend all disputed territorial claims against each other and each of their own neighboring count...

The Pacific War (Coming March 14, Sunday)

C. Peter Chen — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 16:43:29

Browsing through Comcast's On Demand feature last night, I found many previews related to HBO's The Pacific War, which is set to run on Sundays through March and April, 2010. Of note is the 8 minute airfield crossing, from Eugene Sledge's book With the Old Breed, which is, to the say the l...

Hitler's Rockets: The Story of the V-2s

C. Peter Chen — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 09:00:00

Civilians in Britain, particularly in the greater London area, had suffered from attacks from the air since the Blitz early in the war, and had been toughened to deal with such destruction, even when they came in the form of flying bombs. But when the rockets came, approaching nearly at the spee...

US Navy Report of Japanese Raid on Pearl Harbor, Enclosure E, USS Selfridge

C. Peter Chen — Sun, 28 Feb 2010 09:00:00

From:

Commanding Officer.

DL357/A16-3(5)
Serial #055

NY3

U.S.S. Selfridge January 15, 1942

From:

Commanding Officer.

To:

Commander in Chief, United States F...

No. 23: Message from Viscount Halifax to Sir N. Henderson

C. Peter Chen — Sat, 27 Feb 2010 09:00:01

Foreign Office, June 16, 1939.

Sir, THE German Ambassador called at the Foreign Office this morning to sign a technical agreement of no great importance between the two Governments, and I had a few moments' conversation with him afterwards. In part this followed the familiar l...

Fuju Han

C. Peter Chen — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 09:00:00

Han Fuju was born into a peasant family in Pahsien, Hebei Province, China. He worked as a clerk in the county government, but, a habitual gambler, he accumulated so much gambling debt that he had to run away. To make a living, he enlisted in warlord Feng Yu-hsiang's army. By the 1920s, during ...

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