Today in World War II History

65 Years Ago—February 28, 1945: US secures Corregidor in the Philippines. In the US a midnight curfew is placed on nightclubs, sports arenas, theaters, and bars to conserve coal—restaurants exempt.

*Leap Year Bonus* 70 Years Ago—February 29, 1940: Nobel Prize in Physics awarded to Ernest Lawrence; ceremony held in Berkeley rather than Stockholm. Academy Awards: Best picture of 1939—Gone with the Wind; best actor—Robert Donat in Goodbye, Mr. Chips; best actress—Vivien Leigh in Gone with the Wind.

Today in World War II History

65 Years Ago—February 27, 1945: Syria and Lebanon join many other nations in last-minute declarations of war on Germany and Japan—all who join Allies before March 1 will be invited to the upcoming United Nations conference.

Lessons from the 1940s Woman - Work Is Fulfilling

World War II was a turning point for women. Before the war, few married women had jobs - in fact, most men considered a working wife a shameful sign that he couldn't provide for his family. Unmarried women found few careers open to them, namely in nursing, teaching, and as secretaries.

The war changed that. In 1940, 132 million people lived in the US. and during the war 11 million men and women served in the armed forces. Even if the economy had continued at pre-war levels, this would have represented a significant drop in the workforce. But US production skyrocketed to supply planes, ships, guns, ammunition, uniforms, and food for the Allies. Women needed to work for the sake of their country.

More nurses were required, and 67,000 women joined the Army Nurse Corps and the Navy Nurse Corps. Nurses also expanded their traditional roles. Five hundred women served as flight nurses when the Army Air Force pioneered medical air evacuation. Each evacuation flight was staffed by a nurse (an officer) and a male surgical technician (a technical sergeant). She outranked him. She gave him orders. And without a physician on board, she made the decisions in flight. These were revolutionary roles for women.

Women were also recruited into the military. Two hundred thousand American women served as WAVEs (Navy), WAACs (Army), Spars (Coast Guard), or in the Marines. By placing women in noncombat positions, more men were available for combat duty. "Free a man to fight" was the slogan.

Also, 19 million women in the United States followed Rosie the Riveter's example and took jobs, a third of them in factory work. By 1943, women formed one-third of the civilian workforce. While they faced opposition on the job site and in society, they proved themselves able workers. In fact, some jobs benefitted from women's smaller fingers and attention to fine detail.

While the 1940s woman went to work for the sake of her country, she found unexpected personal benefits. She learned she could do things she never thought she could do. She earned her own money and discovered the freedom that gave her. She found satisfaction in her work.

This is a lesson today's woman has learned well. All of us who have a career outside the home - full-time, part-time, or for a season of life - owe a lot to the nurses, WAVEs, and Rosies of World War II.

Today in World War II History

70 Years Ago—February 26, 1940: US War Department activates Air Defense Command under Brig. Gen. James Chaney. Movie premiere of Walt Disney’s Pinocchio.

65 Years Ago—February 26, 1945: US Ninth Army reaches Rhine south of Düsseldorf.

Today in World War II History

65 Years Ago—February 25, 1945: US carrier aircraft and B-29 bombers strike Tokyo in devastating raid.

My Second Book Cover!

It's official! Here's the cover for the second book in the Wings of Glory series, which will be available September 2010. A Memory Between Us is now featured on Revell's website at http://www.revellbooks.com/

Major Jack Novak has never failed to meet a challenge--until he meets army nurse Lieutenant Ruth Doherty. When Jack lands in the army hospital after a plane crash, he makes winning Ruth's heart a top priority mission. But he has his work cut out for him. Not only is Ruth focused on her work in order to support her orphaned siblings back home, she carries a shameful secret that keeps her from giving her heart to any man. Can Jack break down her defenses? Or are they destined to go their separate ways?

A Memory Between Us is the second book in the Wings of Glory series, which follows the three Novak brothers, B-17 bomber pilots with the US Eighth Air Force stationed in England during World War II.

This has been an exciting week for me, with A Distant Melody now in stores, and now the cover for A Memory Between Us. I thank all of you - family, friends, and new e-buddies, for your support, encouragment, and prayers. There needs to be an asterisk after my name on the cover to include all of you, because I couldn't do it without you!

Today in World War II History

65 Years Ago—February 24, 1945: Last Japanese forces driven from Manila after furious house-to-house fighting; 100,000 Filipino civilians have been killed by the Japanese.

Today in World War II History

65 Years Ago—February 23, 1945: US captures Mt. Suribachi on Iwo Jima and flag is raised; immortalized by photographer Joe Rosenthal.

Lessons from the 1940s Woman - Be Involved!

When World War II began, women sprang to action as volunteers. This was an area in which women already excelled. For example, my hometown's Women's Club was founded in 1902. In the early years, they were responsible for raising funds and spearing drives to estabish the town's library, high school, street signs, house numbering, street paving, water delivery and sewage systems, and the planting of shade trees!

Nowadays, we glorify the wartime woman who went to work outside the home, but in reality, far more women served as volunteers, and their work was crucial to the war effort.

Church groups, women's clubs, the PTA, the USO, and the Red Cross all performed important services for the country. Women raised funds, bought war bonds, planted Victory Garnens, gave blood, ran recreational centers, and even knitted socks for the troops.

The American Red Cross, for example, had 37 million members during the war, and raised $785 million. In addition, 20 million youth joined the Junior Red Cross. They shipped 13 million pints of blood to the military and shipped 300,000 tons of supplies overseas, both for the troops, and for civilian wartime relief.

Red Cross volunteers rolled bandages, ran blood drives, and made clothes for refugees and kit bags for soldiers. They served in hospitals as "Gray Ladies," reading to the wounded, writing letters, and serving in the recreation rooms. They operated canteens to serve meals at train stations, docks, and military posts at home and abroad. They served as nurse's aides and dietitian's aides.

To the 1940s women, community mattered. She willingly gave up her time to volunteer for the sake of her country. And she accomplished amazing things.

In 2010 we live in a self-oriented culture rather than the civic-minded culture of the past. Despite political talk about a return to volunteerism, most civic organizations and churches struggle to find people willing to commit time to serve, and most of the functions they once performed have shifted to government.

These women inspire me, and I hope they inspire you too. What can you learn from them? How can you contribute?

Today in World War II History

70 Years Ago—February 22, 1940: IRA bomb explodes in London, killing seven, the last major bombing in a year-old campaign. Six-year-old Dalai Lama enthroned in Tibet.

65 Years Ago—February 22, 1945: 6000 US and British aircraft launch Operation Clarion to destroy German communications and isolate industrial Ruhr Valley. Academy Awards: Best movie of 1944—Going My Way; best actor—Bing Crosby in Going My Way; best actress—Ingrid Bergman in Gaslight.

Today in World War II History

65 Years Ago—February 21, 1945: Off Iwo Jima, Japanese kamikazes sink US escort carrier Bismarck Sea and damage carriers Saratoga and Lunga Point.

Today in World War II History

65 Years Ago—February 20, 1945: US secures Bataan Peninsula on Luzon in the Philippines.

Lessons from the 1940s Woman

Rosie the Riveter is the icon of World War II women - strong but feminine. She's got biceps, but she curls her hair and does her nails. She can do a man's work, and don't you dare tell her she can't. She is woman; hear her riveting gun.

Today I'm starting a series of posts on lessons we can learn from the women of the 1940s.

The World War II time period was a pivotal time for women, a hinge between the traditional home-based women's role and the modern career-based role. Wartime posters show the fullness of a woman's place in society and reveal the values that drove this generation to victory.

Through these posters we'll see lessons we can learn from women of that era: be involved, be productive, be thrifty, be supportive, love your family and home, and have faith.

What do you admire about women from the 1940s?

Today in World War II History

65 Years Ago—February 19, 1945: US Marines invade Iwo Jima and establish beachhead despite heavy casualties.

Today in World War II History

70 Years Ago—February 18, 1940: Chinese forces drive Japanese out of Nanning, China.

Today in World War II History

70 Years Ago—February 17, 1940: Movie Of Mice and Men premieres, starring Burgess Meredith.

65 Years Ago—February 17, 1945: For the second day in a row, Navy carriers of US Fifth Fleet hit Tokyo.

Today in World War II History

70 Years Ago—February 16, 1940: British board German ship Altmark in a Norwegian fjord, freeing 299 British naval prisoners of war.

65 Years Ago—February 16, 1945: US paratroopers land on the island fortress of Corregidor in the Philippines.

Today in World War II History

65 Years Ago—February 15, 1945: Soviets surround Breslau in eastern Germany after most of civilian population was forcibly evacuated, many to die in severe winter weather.

Today in World War II History

65 Years Ago—February 14, 1945: Starting late the night of the 13th, 800 RAF bombers bomb Dresden, starting a firestorm that kills at least 37,000. The bombing is continued by the US Eighth Air Force the morning of the 14th.

Today in World War II History

70 Years Ago—February 13, 1940: Soviets break through Finnish defenses on the Karelian Isthmus.

65 Years Ago—February 13, 1945: Soviets take Budapest, Hungary, opening the Danube Valley for the drive to Vienna; 110,000 POWs taken.

Today in World War II History

70 Years Ago—February 12, 1940: British minesweeper HMS Gleaner sinks German U-boat U-33, capturing Enigmas code machine rotors. Movie premiere of The Grapes of Wrath, starring Henry Fonda.

65 Years Ago—February 12, 1945: B-29 Superfortresses of the US 21st Bomber Command begin pre-invasion bombing of Iwo Jima.

Today in World War II History

70 Years Ago—February 11, 1940: Soviet Union and Germany sign a treaty to exchange Soviet raw materials for German manufactured goods.

65 Years Ago—February 11, 1945: On way home from Yalta, Roosevelt meets with kings Farouk of Egypt, Haile Selassie of Ethiopia, and Ibn Saud of Saudi Arabia, but is unable to convince them to allow Jewish settlement in Palestine.

Today in World War II History

65 Years Ago—February 10, 1945: US Fifth Fleet makes first naval air strike on Japan.

Today in World War II History

70 Years Ago—February 9, 1940: Eire (now Ireland) makes law to detain IRA men without trial.
65 Years Ago—February 9, 1945: US Seventh & French Armies drive Germans over Rhine south of Strasbourg, France.

Today in World War II History

65 Years Ago—February 8, 1945: Canadian First Army opens drive for Rhine from Nijmegen in the Netherlands.

Today in World War II History

65 Years Ago—February 7, 1945: Germans blow up floodgates in Ruhr Valley, flooding area west of Cologne, Germany.

Today in World War II History

65 Years Ago—February 6, 1945: US First Army clears Monschau Forest in Belgium.

Today in World War II History

65 Years Ago—February 5, 1945: US Seventh and French Armies link, closing the Colmar pocket in France.

Greatness Glitters

To some extent, we all want to do great things, and as Christians, we want to do great things for God. The further we travel, the more we spend, the deeper the sacrifice, the more people saved—the better. We look up to people who do those big things for God.

Then we look at what we do. It seems so small. So trivial. And no one notices.

Naaman had that attitude. In 2 Kings 5, Elisha told him to wash in the Jordan River seven times to be cured of his leprosy. Take a bath? That’s all? It wasn’t big enough, and Naaman reacted in anger. But his servants said, “’If the prophet had told you to do some great thing, would you not have done it? How much more, then, when he tells you, “Wash and be cleansed”!’” (2 Kings 5:13). Then Naaman did the little thing God asked, he was healed, and God was glorified in a big way.

We may not see the result of our service, but God does. If you’re serving the Lord, doing what He asks you to do—big or small—never allow yourself or others to minimize it. The smallest light can have a mighty impact.

Today in World War II History

65 Years Ago—February 4, 1945: Yalta Conference begins—Roosevelt, Churchill, and Stalin plan division of postwar Europe.

Today in World War II History

70 Years Ago—February 3, 1940: New song enters Top Ten: “In the Mood,” made famous by Glenn Miller and His Orchestra.

65 Years Ago—February 3, 1945: 1003 B-17s of the US Eighth Air Force bomb Berlin, destroying brutal Nazi “People’s Court” and evidence against remaining conspirators in July 20 Hitler assassination plot, sparing their lives. In the Philippines, US airborne troops liberate POWs at Santo Tomas.

Today in World War II History

65 Years Ago—February 2, 1945: Lincoln Tunnel opens in New York City.

Today in World War II History

70 Years Ago—February 1, 1940: Soviets launch offensive on Mannerheim Line on Finland’s Karelian Isthmus.

65 Years Ago—February 1, 1945: Chance Vought Corsair fighters launch first operations from US Navy carriers.