This Day in WWII 4 May 1942 - 1945

[Donster]

Autocar Ad - May 1944

1942: The United States begins food rationing.

1942: Akyab on the Burmese coast is abandoned by the British.

*Gale Storm

1942: The Japanese Port Moresby invasion force leaves Rabaul, in New Britain.

1942: With its naval support stripped away, the Japanese invasion fleet at Tulagi is attacked by aircraft from the American carrier Yorktown. 1 destroyer is disabled, while 3 minesweepers and 4 landing barges are sunk for the loss of just 3 US aircraft. Admiral Fletcher, now doubled back to meet up with the Lexington in the Coral Sea.

Gale Storm

1943: Italian Torpedo Boat Perseo is sunk off the coast of Tunisia by British destroyers

1943: Hitler decides to postpone Operation 'Citadel' in order that more Tiger and Panther tanks can be deployed in the offensive. This is against the advice of a number of leading Generals who fear that the Russian defenses will become too strong if the offensive is delayed any further.

Gale Storm

1944: The RAF carries out a night raid against Budapest.

1944: The British counter-attacks at Kohima, are repulsed by the Japanese.

Gale Storm

1945: The last day of air operations in north-west Europe; 2nd TAF aircraft claim to have shot down 141 enemy aircraft during anti-shipping operations in the Baltic.

1945: Grand Admiral Dönitz, now the newly designated leader of the Reich, orders all U-boats to cease offensive operations and return to their bases (to go into effect fully at 0800 on 5th May): "You have fought like lions!"

1945: Admiral von Friedeburg arrives at Montgomery’s HQ on Lüneburg Heath with German plenipotentiaries. At 8.15pm SHAEF announce that ‘Field Marshal Montgomery has reported to the supreme allied command that all enemy forces in Holland, Northwest Germany and Denmark, have surrendered. The U.S. Ninth Army breaks up the German Ninth and Twelfth Armies. The U.S. Seventh Army takes Innsbruck, Salzburg and Berchtesgarten, which is still smoking after an RAF raid. Field-Marshal von Kleist gives himself up to the U.S. Third Army near Straubing.

Gale Storm

1945: The U.S. Fifth Army reaches the Brenner Pass.

1945: SEAC announces that Rangoon was taken so quickly that the Japanese had no time to destroy the installations there.

1945: Kamikaze flyers sink 17 U.S. ships in 24 hours off Okinawa.

Gale Storm

*Born with the drab, unlikely name of Josephine Owaissa Cottle on April 5, 1922, this pleasantly appealing, Texas-born, auburn-haired beauty was only seventeen months old when her father William passed away. The family moved from Bloomington (her home town) to McDade (between Austin and Houston) where her mother Minnie made ends meet as a seamstress and milliner. The youngest of five children, the family eventually settled in Houston where Gale took dance and ice skating lessons, developed a strong interest in acting and performed in high school dramatics. Encouraged by her teachers, Gale by chance entered and was chosen the winner of local radio talent contest called Jesse L. Lasky's "Gateway to Hollywood" in 1939. This took her and her mother to Hollywood where she captured the national contest title.

Handed the more exciting stage moniker of "Gale Storm," she was soon put under contract to RKO Pictures. Although she was dropped by the studio after only six months, she had established herself enough to find work elsewhere, including Monogram and Universal. Appearing in a number of "B" musicals, mysteries and westerns, her wholesome, open-faced prettiness made her a natural for filming. The programmers, however, that she co-starred in were hardly the talk of the town. Making her inauspicious debut with "Tom Brown's School Days" (1940), her 40s movies bore such dubious titles as "Let's Go Collegiate" (1941), "Freckles Comes Home" (1942), "Revenge of the Zombies" (1943), "Sunbonnet Sue" (1945), "Swing Parade of 1946" (1946), and "Curtain Call at Cactus Creek" (1950), indicates the hardships of finding suitable worthy of her talent. Arguably, her better movies include the family Christmas tale "It Happened on Fifth Avenue" (1947) which co-starred Don DeFore; the overlooked western comedy "The Dude Goes West" (1948) opposite Eddie Albert; and the film noir piece "The Underworld Story" (1950) with Dan Duryea.

After years of toiling in films, Gale finally turned things around at age 30 by transplanting herself to the small screen. Her very first TV series vehicle "My Little Margie" (1952), which was only suppose to be a summer replacement series for "I Love Lucy," became one of the most watchable sitcoms in the early 50s while showing up in syndicated reruns for decades. Co-starring the popular film star Charles Farrell as her amiable dad, Gale's warmth and ingratiating style suited TV to a tee, making her one of the most popular light comediennes of the time. She segued directly into her second hit series as a cruise ship director in "The Gale Storm Show" (1956), which was better known as "Oh! Susannah" after it went into syndication. Co-starring woebegone Zasu Pitts as the ship's manicurist and her Ethel Mertz counterpart, this show lasted a season longer than her first.

In the midst of all this, the (gasp) thirty-something star dared to launch her own Las Vegas nightclub and pop recording careers. Always looking much younger than she was, she produced a number of Billboard chart makers including "I Hear You Knocking" (her first hit), "Memories Are Made of This," "Ivory Tower" and her own cover of "Why Do Fools Fall in Love." Her most successful song of the decade was "Dark Moon," which peaked at #4.

Gale's film career took a sharp decline following the demise of her second series in 1960. Most of her focus was placed modestly on the summer stock or dinner theater circuit, doing a revolving door of tailor-made comedies and musicals such as "Cactus Flower," "Forty Carats," "The Unsinkable Molly Brown" and "South Pacific." She finally appeared again on TV in a "Love Boat" segment in 1979 after nearly a two-decade absence. It was later revealed in Gale's candid autobiography "I Ain't Down Yet" (1981) and on the talk show circuit that the disappearance was triggered by a particularly vicious battle with alcohol. Years later Gale became an outspoken and committed lecturer in helping to remove the stigma attached to such a disease, particularly as it applied to women.

Fully recovered, she has been widowed twice -- by actor Lee Bonnell in 1986 and Paul Masterson in 1996.

Storm continued to make personal appearances and autographed photos at fan conventions, along with Charles Farrell from the My Little Margie series. She also attended events such as the Memphis Film Festival, the Friends of Old-Time Radio and the Mid-Atlantic Nostalgia Convention.

Storm lived alone in Monarch Beach, California, near two of her sons and their families, until failing health forced her into a convalescent home, near San Francisco in Danville, California. She died there on June 27, 2009 (aged 87) from natural causes.

[Old Guy]

Now here's a lady I DO remember. I'm not sure if I ever watched her shows on TV. Back then we only had one television station. Two, by the time I was in high school.

I know, I know. Ancient history. Back when dinosaurs roamed the Earth.

No cable TV, no video games, no cell phones. We read books, played cards, spent a lot of time out doors, and wrote letters. Imagine.

OG

[No105_Archie]

I remember her very well. I loved My Little Margie

[Whizkid]

Now here's a lady I DO remember. I'm not sure if I ever watched her shows on TV. Back then we only had one television station. Two, by the time I was in high school.

I know, I know. Ancient history. Back when dinosaurs roamed the Earth.

No cable TV, no video games, no cell phones. We read books, played cards, spent a lot of time out doors, and wrote letters. Imagine.

OG

Oh, stop it with the nostalgia, OG! You'll make me weep! You could afford books? WOW! We had to make do with used Papyrus, and some of it had been well used, if you get my meaning! We hadn't got into writing letters, either. Our family used to use the "Rent-a-Scribe" outfit, when we could afford it. Good times, good times!