The 10th of June as a date in WWII history.
1939: The war had not yet begun, but seemed inevitable to many people, especially Winston Churchill in Britain. In Germany a new law provided for the participation of Rudolf Hess (Hitler's deputy) in the administration of Austria.
1940: Italy declares war on France and Britain, Canada declares war on Italy, Norway surrenders to the Germans.
1941: At about this time the Einsatzgruppen begin their program of mass killings in the eastern territories.
1942: The Czech town of Lidice was destroyed and 252 persons of its adult population killed, in retaliation for the assassination of Reinhard Heydrich by two patriots. This incident, two years before the one at Oradour, shows the extent of Nazi ruthlessness and determination to exact revenge for an attack on their leadership.
1943: "Point-blank" came into being as the code name for the combined British and American bombing strategy for the assault on German industrial and military targets, especially those belonging to the Luftwaffe.
1944: a) The attack took place on Oradour-sur-Glane, see: http://www.oradour.info (the Home Page of this website) for full details.
1944: b) The attack took place on Marsoulas in the Haute-Garonne, Department 31, by members of the Deutschland Regiment of the 2nd Waffen-SS Panzer Division Das Reich. A total of 27 civilians were killed in response to the resistance firing on the SS from the village.
1944: c) The attack took place upon Distromo in Greece, by men of the 2nd company of the 7th regiment of the 4th SS-Panzer Grenadier Division SS-Polizei, when a total of 218 men, women and children were killed in reprisal for partisan activity.
1945: The landings against the Japanese forces at Labuan and Brunei took place as planned. The war in Europe was over (on 8th May) and Germany had just been partitioned between Britain, France, The Soviet Union and the United States of America (the war in the Pacific was to end on 2nd September with Japan's formal surrender on the deck of the battleship USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay).
© Michael Williams minor revision September 2007