LONDON BLITZ BEGINS

JFK+50:  Volume 5, No. 1706

GERMANS UNLEASHED BLITZ ON LONDON 75 YEARS AGO

London, England (JFK+50) Seventy-five years ago today, September 7, 1940, German bombers unleashed a "blitz" on the city of London.  Three hundred Nazi aircraft dropped 337 tons of bombs on the city causing more than 400 civilian deaths.  A state of emergency was declared as fifty-seven consecutive nights of bombing began.

According to Eyewitness to History, the German bombing campaign marked a turning point in Adolf Hitler's attempt to subdue the British as his plan to invade the island gave way to the idea to force surrender from the air.

Correspondent Ernie Pyle described the scene in London on the first night of bombing...

"The streets...were semi-illuminated from the glow (of fires started by exploding bombs) and the sky was red and angry...a cloud of smoke all in pink..."

Brits withstood the barrage by seeking shelter in underground shelters.  The campaign finally ended on May 11, 1941 when Hitler shifted his bombers to the Russian front.

SOURCE

"The London Blitz, 1940," Eyewitness to History, www.eyewitnesstohistory.com/

Heinkel Over Wapping

London's East End

September 7, 1940

SECURITY COUNCIL DEFEATS SOVIET CONDEMNATION OF US BOMBING OF NK

New York City (JFK+50) Sixty-five years ago today, September 7, 1950, the United Nations Security Council defeated by a vote of 9 to 1 a resolution proposed by representatives of the Soviet Union to condemn the bombing of North Korea by the United States.

The vote followed by 2 months the UN's approval for the use of force to stop communist aggression against South Korea.  The Soviets referred to the bombing by the United States as "Hitlerian and inhuman".


SPELLMAN ANNOUNCED $2.5 MILLION DONATION BY JOSEPH P. KENNEDY,SR.

New York City (JFK+50) Francis Cardinal Spellman announced 65 years ago today, September 7, 1950,  that Joseph P. Kennedy, Sr., former US ambassador to Great Britain, had donated $2.5 million for the building of a home for neglected children in the Bronx at 1170 Stillwell Avenue.

The donation was made in the name of Joseph P. Kennedy, Jr. who was killed in World War II.

Cardinal Spellman

Archbishop of New York

MIDNIGHT RIDE OF PAUL REVERE

LISTEN MY CHILDREN AND YOU SHALL HEAR

Boston, Massachusetts (JFK+50) So began the famous poem by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow which, although not necessarily exactly historically accurate, details the horseback ride of Paul Revere out of Boston to warn the countryside of the march of His Majesty's troops 240 years ago tonight, April 18, 1775.

Troops under General Thomas Gage began their march to the towns of Lexington and Concord with the objective of confiscating powder and shot collected and stored by what the Crown deemed to be "rebels."  Also, the Redcoats or "Lobsterbacks" as the American patriots sometimes called them, wanted to capture Samuel Adams and John Hancock, two of the "rebel" leaders.

Paul Revere and William Dawes, who served as circuit riders for the Sons of Liberty, were signaled from two lanterns hung in the tower of the Old North Church that the British troops were moving out of the city by the Charles River.

Revere, Dawes and others rode out ahead of the British to warn the rural citizenry "to be up and to arms".

Although Paul Revere was captured by a British patrol in the early morning hours of April 19th, his warning had successfully alerted the Lexington and Concord militias and the rest is history.

Paul Revere Statue

Boston, Massachusetts

Photo by Jennifer White (2014)

Listen, my children, and you shall hear

Of the midnight ride of Paul Revere,

On the eighteenth of April, in Seventy-Five;

Hardly a man is now alive

Who remembers that famous day and year

From "Paul Revere's Ride" 

by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

ERNIE PYLE DIES IN PACIFIC WAR

South Pacific (JFK+50) Seventy years ago today, April 18, 1945, Ernie Pyle, the most popular war correspondent of the Second World War was killed by Japanese machine gun fire on the island of Shima, off the coast of Okinawa.

Pyle, who was to cover the North African campaign and the invasions of Sicily and Italy, arrived in Normandy on June 7, 1944 following the D-Day invasion.

Pyle, famous for his coverage of the experiences of the enlisted men, won the Pulitzer Prize for distinguished correspondence in 1944.

President Truman said that Pyle "told the story of the American fighting man as the American fighting men want it told."

Ernie Pyle's remains were interred in the National Memorial Cemetery in Hawaii.

Ernie Pyle at Anzio (1944)

2nd from right (front)