This Day in WWII 8 April 1939 - 1945

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United States Rubber Company Ad - April 1944

1939: Italy invades Albania.

1940: British submarines torpedo three German ships. Destroyer Glowworm is sunk after reporting German fleet movements and ramming cruiser Hipper. British naval vessels lay mines in Norwegian waters in preparation for landings by British and French forces at Namsos, Narvik and Andalsnes. The Polish submarine ‘Orzel’ sinks the German transport ship ‘Rio de Janeiro’ at 11:50. The Norwegians rescue several German soldiers who claim they are on their way to help the Norwegians against the British.

Vaseline Hair Tonic Ad - April 1944

1941: After a temporary lull, the Luftwaffe launches a heavy attack against Coventry.

1941: The German raider Penguin is sunk by HMS Cornwall off the Seychelles Islands in the Indian Ocean.

1941: The British 'Northern Force' captures Massawa, the last Italian stronghold in Eritrea. This removes any remaining threat to British convoys sailing through the Red Sea.

*Virginia Patton

1942: A US delegation led by special presidential advisor Harry L. Hopkins and joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman General George C. Marshall arrive in Britain to discuss US and British strategy on the Second Front. The proposal they brought from Roosevelt, was for major landings on the French coast in the summer of 1943, with Antwerp as the initial objective, and for a similar but smaller operation in 1942 to take advantage of a sudden German disintegration or to stave off an imminent Russian collapse.

1942: The Soviets open a rail link to the besieged city of Leningrad.

1942: The badly damaged cruiser HMS Penelope, limps in to Gibraltar.

Virginia Patton

1944: The Russians reach the Slovakian border. The also continue their advance into Romania. The final Russian offensive to destroy the German 17th Army in Crimea begins.

1945: A British SAS Brigade paratroops into eastern Holland, to clear the way for Canadians troops who are moving North. The British Second Army reaches Hildesheim, while the US Seventh Army captures Pforzheim near the upper Rhine.

1945: The 2nd Ukrainian front continues its advance into northern Czechoslovakia and establishes a bridgehead across the rivers Morava and Donau (East and Northeast of Vienna). Heavy fighting in the centre of Vienna. The Red Air Force drops 1,500 tons of bombs on Königsberg.

*Born and raised in Portland, Oregon on January 01, 1925, Virginia graduated from Jefferson High in 1942. Her high school goal was to "make it in Hollywood". She gave up acting in the late 1940s a after appearing in 15 films to concentrate on raising a family with her husband, Cruse W. Moss in Ann Arbor, Michigan. She considered "It's a Wonderful Life" (1946) as a once in a lifetime movie role. She occasionally sees other surviving cast members at various functions. Other film appearances were in the films "Old Acquaintance" (1943) and "Canyon Passage" (1946).

She is president of The Patton Corp, an investment and real estate holdings company in Ann Arbor, Michigan. She is involved in community work in including serving on the Cleary University board of trustees, the Washtenaw County Community Mental Health Service board of director and as a docent at the University of Michigan Museum of Art.

Currently lives in Ann Arbor. She has lived in Michigan since the late 1940s when she quit acting and moved with her husband, Cruse W. Moss.