This Day in WWII 18 March 1940 - 1945

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Western Electric Ad - February 1942

1940: Russia assures Sweden of its safety after Finland's surrender.

1940: Mussolini and Hitler meet in the Brenner Pass in northern Italy, Mussolini agreeing to Italy's entry into the war "at an opportune moment".

*Virginia Dale

1942: Lord Mountbatten is appointed Chief of Combined Operations.

1942: The third military draft begins in the United States.

Virginia Dale

1942: Gen. MacArthur appointed commander of the Southwest Pacific Theater by President Roosevelt.

1942: US forces occupy the New Hebrides in order to help protect Australia's west coast from direct Japanese invasion.

1942: War Relocation Authority established in the U.S. which eventually will round up 120,000 Japanese-Americans and transport them to barb-wired relocation centers. Despite the internment, over 17,000 Japanese-Americans sign up and fight for the U.S. in World War II in Europe, including the 442nd Regimental Combat Team, the most decorated unit in U.S. history.

Virginia Dale

1943: Adolf Hitler calls off the offensive in the Caucasus.

1943: American forces take Gafsa in Tunisia.

1943: Chindit forces cross the Irrawaddy in Burma.

Carole Landis & Virginia Dale

1944: British drop 3000 tons of bombs during an air raid on Hamburg, Germany.

1944: A New Zealand tank attack on Monte Cassino is repulsed, with the loss of all 17 tanks.

1944: The Russians reach the Romanian border.

Virginia Dale

1945: The US Third Army captures Boppard on the Rhine.

1945: Kolberg falls to the Polish 1st Army, of the 2nd Belorussian Front, although the Germans manage to evacuate 80,000 refugees and wounded first.

Virginia Dale

*Virginia Dale (born Virginia Paxton) on July 1, 1917 in Charlotte, North Carolina. Discovered by Daryl F. Zanuck, blonde, blue-eyed actress Virginia Dale appeared in films from the late '30s through the early '50s. She is perhaps best remembered for playing Fred Astaire's dance partner in "Holiday Inn" (1942). Before coming to Hollywood, Dale danced on stage in New York as part of the Paxton Sisters. She switched to television in the early years of TV, appearing on shows such as "Wyatt Earp" and "Playhouse 90". She left the movie business for almost three decades before returning to the silver screen for a few films in the 1980s. She died from complications of emphysema in Burbank, California on October 3, 1994.