Donster

Greyhound Ad - February 1942 1940: Two IRA bombs explode in London; 12 people injured. 1940: The German destroyer Z3 ‘Max Schultz’, hits a mine and sinks whilst trying to evade an air attack in the North Sea. *Hazel Brooks 1941: 430 Jewish hostages are deported from Amsterdam after a Dutch Nazi is killed by Jews. 1941: The Afrika Korps, newly arrived in Libya, launch their first probing attacks against the unpleasantly surprised British Army at El Agheila. Hazel Brooks 1942: Air Marshal A. T. (Bomber) Harris is appointed C-in-C of Bomber Command. 1942: British forces in retreat less than 100 miles from Rangoon, the capital of Burma. 1942: President Franklin Roosevelt orders Gen. Douglas MacArthur to leave the Philippines. Hazel Brooks 1943: Churchill is said to be ‘on the mend’ after a severe fever. 1943: Army Group Centre begins a counterattack in the area between the Dnieper and Donets. 1943: Allied commando raid on Myebon, South of Akyab in the Arakan, western Burma. Hazel Brooks 1944: Malinovsky completes the capture of the mining area around Krivoi Rog. 1944: Heavy Japanese losses as the U.S. Navy bombards the Marianas in the Pacific. Hazel Brooks 1945: Allied Air Forces launch Operation Clarion, a concerted effort to wipe out all forms of transport available to the Germans in 24 hours. Nearly 9,000 aircraft, operating from bases in England, France, Holland, Belgium and Italy attack over 250,00 square miles of territory, targeting railways, bridges, ports and roads. 1945: After a heavy four-day battle, the U.S.Fifth Army takes the Upper Reno Valley in northern Italy between Bologna and Florence. Hazel Brooks *Born on September 8, 1924 in Cape Town, South Africa, she grew up in the U.S. and by 1943, at age 18, had been signed by M.G.M. Billed under her real name, Hazel Brooks, she made a series of pictures at the studio during the 1940s, culminating with a lead role in 1947 Body and Soul with John Garfield. She had captured almost as much attention three years earlier in 1944 when, at age 19, she married the long-time head of her studio's fabled art department, Cedric Gibbons, then 51. Although the age difference inspired a certain amount of winking in the gossip columns at the time, the marriage proved a strong one and lasted until Gibbons' death in 1960. Brooks subsequently married Dr. Rex Ross, a surgeon and founder of the Non-invasive Vascular Clinic at Hollywood Hospital. Dr. Ross predeceased her in 1999. According to long-time friend Maria Cooper Janis, Gary Cooper's daughter, Ross in the years after her retirement from films became a skilled still photographer. She also worked actively for a number of children's charities. Following early bit parts in a half-dozen MGM vehicles, Brooks played the cynical nightclub singer who distracts John Garfield from boxing and from Lilli Palmer in Body and Soul. She had subsequent roles in Arch of Triumph and Sleep, My Love in 1948, as well as The Basketball Fix (1951) and The I Don't Care Girl (1953). As Hazel Brooks Ross, she dies on September 18, 2002 at age 78 after a long illness of natural causes at her Bel Air, California, home.

Yep! A great day had by all! Never forget!

Morning. 27F with Partly cloudy skies. Snow storm to begin sometime early this evening through Monday morning. They have lowered the orginal forecast of 6-10 inches to 3-6 inches and taken out the freezing rain. Storm is supposed to stay more to the south, hence the lower snow amounts. The real bad news is the flood risk continues to rise for the Cedar River.

Pullman Railcar Ad - February 1943 1942: Convoy ON-166 (60 ships) sailing from Britain to North America, is attacked in the North Atlantic by 19 U-boats from wolfpacks Ritter and Knappen between the 21st and 26th February. 14 allied ships are lost for 87,901 tons. 4 U-boats U-225, U-606, U-529, U623 were sunk during the battle. 1943: The 25th Anniversary of the creation of the Red Army is celebrated in all allied countries. *Louise Allbritton 1944: U.S. Marines complete the capture of Eniwetok Atoll, suffering 339 dead. 1944: Hideki Tojo becomes chief of staff of the Japanese army. Louise Allbritton 1945: The US 8th Air Force launches another heavy attack (over 1,000 bombers) against Nürnberg. 1945: The British 2nd Division establishes another Irrawaddy bridgehead, while the British 36th Division breaks through at Myitson, in northern Burma. Meanwhile further British forces cross the Irrawaddy in central Burma. 1945: The 1st Ukrainian Front captures Guben. Louise Allbritton *Louise Allbritton was the only child of L.L. and Caroline Greer Allbritton and was born on July 3, 1920 in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. Soon after her birth, the family moved to Wichita Falls, Texas, where her father owned and operated the local traction system. Louise's mother Caroline died when Louise was a very young child and her father was left to cope with Louise's determination to become an actress. He sent her to the University of Oklahoma where she studied journalism but after two years, quit and moved to California where she joined the Pasadena Playhouse. While apprenticing there, she tried unsuccessfully to get film work but was told she was too tall. She remained at the Pasadena Playhouse where she performed lead roles in several productions but without film work she began to think she would move back to Texas and life on the 100,000 acre ranch with her father. As so often happens (particularly in the movies), a scout from Columbia Pictures happened to catch her matriculating on stage and offered her a role in an upcoming Fay Wray-Paul Kelly film called Not a Ladies Man. Which stunk. Shortly after that film's release, Louise was in another Columbia stinker -- Parachute Nurse (1942). Louise claimed she played the parachute. Soon after, Louise signed a seven year contract with Universal, a company not well-renowned for promoting their actors. Universal was known, however, for firing actors (and they in turn found stardom at other studios) and their horror pictures. Louise only made 23 films (actually 24 but the last has never been released). During this time, she met a real life war correspondent through her good friend Carole Landis -- Charles Collingwood -- who became Louise's husband. Louise Allbritton died from spinal cancer on February 16, 1979 in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. Trivia While filming Son of Dracula, she and her costar Robert Paige were constantly playing jokes on their cast mates. One day, costar Pat Moriarty and Robert Paige were filming a scene where they flip open her Albritton's character's coffin. They were astonished upon opening the lid to find Albrittono inside, completely naked.

Haig, 85, had been admitted to Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore RIP

54F??? Time to break out the shorts, flip-flops and suntan oil! Lucky bastages! Let's see what we have here in beautiful Cedar Rapids, Iowa weatherwise. Cloudy skies with a temp of 28F, 3 inches of fresh snow that fell late yesterday afternoon throughout the night. High of 32F today, with an official Winter Storm Watch from The National Weather Service in effect from Sunday morning through Monday afternoon. Freezing rain, sleet changing over to snow with 6-10 inches possible. High winds of 25-35mph will follow in behind this storm causing extreme blowing and drifting of snow. Yippee frickin' ki yay.

Chesterfield Ad - February 1944 1938: Hitler demands self-determination for Germans in Austria and Czechoslovakia. 1940: General von Falkenhorst is appointed to command the German invasion of Norway. *Alexis Smith 1941: The United States sends war planes to the Pacific. 1941: The Australian Prime Minister, R.G. Menzies arrives in Britain for talks with Churchill. 1942: Lt. Edward O'Hare downs five out of nine Japanese bombers that are attacking the carrier Lexington. 1942: Japanese forces land on the Portuguese Island of Timor. Japanese troops having suffered heavy casualties over the past few weeks from battle and disease, begin to slacken their pressure in Bataan. President Quezon of the Philippines leaves for Australia in a US submarine. Alexis Smith 1943: Fierce fighting in continues in central Tunisia after the German breakout through the Kasserine Pass, but further offensive operations by the Afrika Korps are halted in order for them to withdraw to the Mareth line. 1944: ‘Big Week’ rolls on with the largest ever daylight raid of war by the USAAF on Germany as 970 bombers carry out attacks against Hamburg, Leipzig and Braunschweig. The RAF pound Stuttgart with 2,000-tons of bombs. Alexis Smith 1944: A ferry boat, carrying the remaining 'Heavy Water' production from Telemark in Norway, back to Germany for safety is sabotaged and sunk on Lake Tinnsjo. 1944: The Admiralty announces an 11-day battle with U-boats in Straits of Gibraltar, during which three ships are sunk and several damaged. Alexis Smith 1944: U.S. carrier-based and land-based planes destroy the Japanese base at Rabaul. 1945: The RAF launch the first of 36 consecutive night raids on Berlin. 1945: Red Army attacks against the lines of Army Group Courland fail in the face of stubborn German resistance. Alexis Smith *Born Gladys Smith on June 8, 1921 in Penticton, British Columbia, Canada, Smith was raised in Los Angeles. She was signed to a contract by Warner Bros. after being discovered by a talent scout while attending college. Her earliest film roles were uncredited bit parts and it took several years for her career to gain momentum. Her first credited part was in the feature film Dive Bomber (1941), playing the female lead opposite Errol Flynn. Her appearance in The Constant Nymph (1943) was well received and led to bigger parts. During the 1940s she appeared opposite some of the most popular male stars of the day, including Errol Flynn in Gentleman Jim (1942) and San Antonio (1945) (in which she sang a special version of the popular ballad "Some Sunday Morning"), Humphrey Bogart in The Two Mrs. Carrolls (1947), Cary Grant in a sanitized, fictional version of Cole and Linda Porter's life in Night and Day (1946), and Bing Crosby in Here Comes the Groom (1951). Some of Smith's other films include Rhapsody In Blue (1945), Of Human Bondage (1946) and The Young Philadelphians (1959). She appeared on the cover of the May 3, 1971 issue of Time with the announcement that she would be starring in Hal Prince's Broadway production of Stephen Sondheim's Follies. In 1972 she won the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Musical for her performance. She followed this with the 1973 all-star revival of The Women, the short-lived 1975 comedy Summer Brave and the ill-fated 1978 musical Platinum, which drew decent notices only for her performance and quickly closed. Smith had a recurring role on the TV series Dallas as Clayton Farlow's sister Jessica Montford in 1984 and again in 1990. She was nominated for an Emmy Award for her guest appearance on the television sitcom Cheers in 1990. Alexis Smith died on June 9, 1993 in Los Angeles, California from brain cancer the day after her 72nd birthday. She had no children and was survived by her husband actor Craig Stevens.

Ice Sculptures? Ice Sculptures? Why I oughta stick an ice pick in between your eyes! I've had enough of winter and I'm not gonna take it anymore! Anyway Whizzer, you're just hot for that old Chinese woman... It looks like she can't hold her pee either!!!

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Well done Jim.

LOL @ Video! Oh and Doug, you'd better lock up the tea!

Oh, sorry. I forgot you're one of them Johnny Rebs. No sense of true direction (Jefferson Davis).

Up? We're over here, not up there.

John Babcock's death at 109 marks 'end of an era' Peaceful rest Mr. Babcock. You earned it.

Morning. 8F with -4F windchill. Light snow starting this afternoon. Less than an inch accumulation. High temp of 27F.

LOL! Then the more you think about it...Itchie may not be as dumb as we think he is. I think I will invade Victoria's Secret! The babes in the bunker need some new snacks...er I mean undergarments.

Hi Ogie! Welcome home! The Dude hid the key to the liquor cabinet again. Whizkid gets a little flighty after downing a couple snifters of Cognac. And you know how The Dude is protective of his liquor supply, especially his Cognac. Must be that percentage of French-Canadian in him. The bad news...Itchie and Dark Helmet still show up once in awhile.

1940: Destroyer HMS Daring torpedoed, 157 are killed. 1940: Finnish forces defeat and disperse the Soviet 18th Division northeast of Lake Ladoga. AiResearch Ad - February 1942 1942: General Gamelin, Leon Blum and Paul Reynaud are put on trial at Riom by the Vichy government, charged with being responsible for the French defeat of 1940. The trial is never concluded. Blum defends himself so brilliantly that the trial is suspended. He remains a prisoner until 1945. 1942: Under increasing threat of being outflanked by the advancing Japanese, the 17th Indian Division is finally given permission to withdraw across the river Sittang. *Constance Bennett 1942: Largest Japanese air raid since Pearl Harbor occurs against Darwin, Australia as the Japanese attack twice in one day. 1942: The Battle of Badung Strait results in a Japanese victory, as an American-British-Dutch-Australian Command (ABDA) naval squadron attempts to prevent the Japanese landing on Bali. The Allies lose 1 Dutch destroyer sunk and 2 Dutch cruisers and a US destroyer damaged. Constance Bennett 1942: Japanese invade Bali. 1942: Executive Order 9066 is signed by President Roosevelt, authorizing the transfer of more than 100,000 German, Italian and Japanese-Americans living in coastal Pacific areas to concentration camps in various inland states (and including inland areas of California). Those interned lose an estimated 400 million dollars in property, as their homes and possessions are taken from them. Constance Bennett 1943: A two-day U-boat attack on Convoy ONl16 in the North Atlantic ends with 15 allied ships sunk. 1943: The first Chindit action against Japanese occurs. WWII Post Card 1944: The U.S. Eighth Air Force and Royal Air Force begin "Big Week," a series of heavy bomber attacks against German aircraft production facilities. 1944: The RAF saturates Leipzig, dropping 2,300 tons of bombs, but lose 78 of 823 bombers. Constance Bennett 1944: A Japanese convoy is smashed by allied aircraft in the Bismarck Archipelago. (READ NY TIMES ARTICLE) 1945: After a heavy bombardment, 30,000 US Marines land on Iwo Jima, but suffer 2,420 casualties on the first day. 1945: German forces re-establish communications between Königsberg and the port of Pillau, thus again enabling tens of thousands of German refugees to be evacuated to the west by ships of the Kriegsmarine. 'Operation Sonnenwende' is finally ended in the face of ever strengthening Red Army resistance. The operation was a complete military failure, although did show that the German Army could still organize and mount limited counter-attacks. Constance Bennett *Independent, outspoken Constance Bennett, born on 22 October 1904, in New York City, was the first of the Bennett sisters to enter films, appeared in New York-produced silents before a chance meeting with Samuel Goldwyn led to her Hollywood debut in Cytherea (1924). In 1921 Bennett eloped with Chester Hirst Moorehead of Chicago, the son of a surgeon. The marriage was annulled in 1923. She abandoned a burgeoning career in silents for marriage to millionaire socialite Philip Morgan Plant in 1925; after they divorced, she achieved stardom in talkies from 1929. The hit Common Clay (1930) launched her in a series of loose lady and unwed mother roles, but she really excelled in such sophisticated comedies as The Affairs of Cellini (1934), Ladies in Love (1936), Topper (1937) and Merrily We Live (1938). Her classy blonde looks, husky voice and unerring fashion sense gave her a distinctive style. In the 1940s she made fewer films, working in radio and theatre; shrewd in business, she invested wisely and started businesses marketing women's wear and cosmetics. Loving conflict, she feuded with the press and enjoyed lawsuits. In 1941, Bennett married the actor Gilbert Roland, by whom she had two daughters, Lorinda and Christina (a.k.a. Gyl). They were divorced in 1946. In June 1946, Bennett married US Air Force Colonel (later Brigadier General) John Theron Coulter (1912-1995). This last marriage, to U.S. Air Force colonel Coulter, was happy and gave her a key role coordinating shows flown to Europe for occupying troops (1946-48) and the Berlin Airlift (1948-49), winning her military honors. Still young-looking, she died suddenly of a cerebral hemorrhage at age 60 on July 24, 1965 at Fort Dix, New Jersey, shortly after completing the last of her 57 films. In recognition of her military contributions, and as the wife of Theron John Coulter, she was buried in Arlington National Cemetery. Coulter died in 1995 and was buried with her.

The latest headlines... New Medal of Honor Screenshots Napoleon: Total War Review Silent Hunter 5: Battle of the Atlantic Preview Napoleon: Total War Trailer Keeps It Fresh Splinter Cell: Conviction Trailer: Sam Seeks Revenge Supreme Commander 2 Bomb Bouncer and Kraken Trailers iEntertainment Network's WarBirds' Dogfights Flies into Retailers Today Reign: Conflict of Nations Website Goes Live - Intro Video Released Achtung Panzer: Kharkov 1943 Pre-Order Starts as Demo Hits the Web Review: ASUS BC-08B1ST Blu-ray Combo Drive Review: Zalman CNPS10X Quiet Heatsink Review: Sapphire Radeon HD 5850 TOXIC Graphics Card Review: AMD's Catalyst 10.2 & 10.3 Drivers Just Announced Hardware for 18 February 2010 Today we take a look at the theory of "Alternative History" and ask "What if Martians from Outer Space really had landed on October 30, 1938?" What would today's big news story be?... "This latest issue of the 'Front Page News' at COMBATSIM.COM is brought to you by our latest sponsor...Maury's Martian Strip Club and Human Eatery!"

1941: Parts of the Australian 8th Division arrive in Singapore. 1943: Nazis arrest White Rose resistance leaders in Munich. Vicks Ad - December 1943 1943: In the wake of the Stalingrad disaster, Dr. Goebbels, speaking before an enthusiastic audience of soldiers and civilians in Berlin, announces the implementation of "total war" which, for the first time, mandates the employment of German women in the war effort. 1943: German General Erwin Rommel takes three towns in Tunisia, North Africa. SunSweet Prune Juice Ad - February 1942 1944: Mosquitoes, escorted by Typhoon fighter-bombers, launch a daylight low-level attack on the prison at Amiens, France, in order release French patriots; 258 prisoners escaped (including many criminals), but 102 inmates were killed. 1944: The Germans conduct their heaviest night raid on London since 1941 as the Luftwaffe intensifies the ‘Little Blitz’. *Joan Vohs 1944: Renewed allied attacks at Cassino are broken off. The Germans make further gains at Anzio but are repulsed by allied artillery and warships. 1944: The Cruiser Penelope is sunk by U-410 off Naples and earns the distinction of being the last British cruiser to be lost in the war. Joan Vohs 1944: The Red Army recaptures Staraya Russa, as Army Group North falls back to the line Narva-Pleskau-Oposhka. 1945: British Empire casualties to November 1944 are announced as 282,162 killed, 80,580 missing, 386,374 wounded and 294,438 captured. Joan Vohs 1945: The Red Army encircles Graudenz on the Vistula. Troops of the 11th SS Army are brought to a stand still by stiffening Soviet resistance to 'Operation Sonnenwende'. 1945: A Russian torpedo hits the ex-’Strength through Joy’ Nazi cruise liner leaving Danzig for Denmark with 5,000 refugees and 3,800 U-boat personnel on board. Only 1,000 are reported as saved. Joan Vohs *Typecast often as a dumb blond, Joan Vohs struggled her entire career to break out of that mold. She did manage partial success, but ultimately dropped out of acting altogether in order to become a full-time mom. She was born Elinor Joan Vohs on the 30th of July 1927 in Queens, New York, was a Rockette at age 16 and a Connover model before any acting for movies or television. Her first several roles were as models, usually of the "dumb blond" ilk. In 1952, she married a businessman, John Stephens, with whom she had two children, William and Laurie. During the mid-1950s Vohs signed a contract with Paramount Studios, where her career fared much better. She was cast as the suspected French spy Fortune Mallory in the western Fort Ti (1953) starring George Montgomery, and played Ruth, the wife of the real-life football star Elroy Hirsch, in Crazylegs (also 1953). The following year she had a starring role in Billy Wilder's Sabrina (1954), playing Gretchen Van Horn opposite Humphrey Bogart and Audrey Hepburn. In 1955, she rejected an offer from the producer Hal B. Wallis to play Sonia opposite the top box- office duo Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis in the comedy Artists and Models ­ a role that finally fell to Eva Gabor. "The studio saw me as being difficult, I saw it as common sense," Vohs remembered: "I had had enough of playing fluffy women and wanted something with grit. Unfortunately the studio mogul Adolph Zukor saw things differently and after a fight over better roles I was released from contract." Undaunted, she moved into television, where she found a wider variety of roles, appearing in Frontier, Maverick, Perry Mason and Hawaiian Eye, as well as travelling to Europe, where she starred in a series of dramatised Hans Christian Andersen fairy tales. Away from a studio, she also began to freelance, playing the lead, Susan Lang, opposite Scott Brady in Terror at Midnight (1956), and again in the cult "B" picture Lure of the Swamp (1957). These were to be her final two films. After a successful run of guest appearances on the T.V. sitcom "Family Affair," Vohs retired from acting and devoted herself to raising her own family. Joan died on the 4th of June 2001, in Tarzana, California of heart failure.

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