Seeking perspective.
It is July 4, 1942.
More than 3.9 million Americans are deployed across the globe in the new world war.
With their primary breadwinner gone, families left behind are suffering financial hardship.
And so much happened on that day:
US heavy bombers are attacking the German supply port at Tobruk, in Libya, to aid the British in the defense of their Egyptian stronghold at El Alamein.
It is an uphill battle.
German reinforcements for the desert fight are pouring into German-held ports along the African Mediterranean coast.
And with a wealth of supplies, German Field Marshall Erwin Rommel’s Afrika Corps is expected to continue the assault on El Alamein for several more weeks.
The fate of Africa hangs in the balance.
The Soviets announced the fall of the Black Sea port city of Sevastopol, on the Crimean penninsula, after an eight-month German siege.
In its final days, the German Luftwaffe conducted an intense bombardment of the city, leaving only eleven buildings standing, while sinking or blocking Soviet ships from evacuating its troops.
Hundreds of thousands are lost on both sides.
The British RAF sent hundreds of bombers to strike Bremen, a German industrial port and the site of one of Germany’s largest submarine construction yards.
The British raid, the fourth in a week, was conducted under a new British policy.
The destruction of residential districts and killing of civilians would no longer be considered collateral damage.
Citing lessons learned from the Blitz, the British claimed these were legitimate targets whose destruction would weaken enemy morale.
The Flying Tigers, a group of 100 American pilots who volunteered to fight the Japanese in China, destroyed eight Japanese bombers in their last mission under Chinese colors.
With the US having declared war against Japan, these men will become a part of the US Army Air Forces.
In Europe, American aircraft conducted their first strike on German targets in a joint raid with the British over the Netherlands.
A German U-boat sank an American merchant ship as she was unloading at a Costa Rican harbor, inflicting heavy casualties.
It was the closest U-boat attack to the Panama Canal so far, and reinforced the belief that Germany was intent on capturing the Canal.
The USS Shaw, which was severely damaged in the Pearl Harbor attack seven months before, returned to service after the completion of extensive repairs.
The Mars, a large, four-engine cargo plane built for the US Navy, took its first official flight over the Chesapeake Bay.
The plane is large enough to carry 150 fully loaded troops or to fly to Europe and back without refueling.
It will be used to ferry supplies to Hawaii and the South Pacific.
The US Navy reported that 11,000 men of the Navy, Marines and Coast Guard had been killed, wounded or were missing since the war began seven months ago.
The Navy also said that 99 US soldiers, sailors and marines were prisoners of the Japanese.
On July 4, 1942, no reliable figures were available on the scale of the Nazi persecution of Jews.
Estimates of the number executed range from 100,000 to 1.5 million, with the data coming from refugees and other sources considered ‘hearsay.’
It will later be learned that the systematic killing of Jews at Auschwitz began on this day.
More than one million would be killed there during the war.
Gasoline rationing will go into effect on July 22 and people are encouraged to form car-sharing groups.
In addition to conserving gas, the rationing scheme was expected to conserve the rubber used to manufacture tires.
But, on the bright side, higher than expected sugar imports from offshore producers will enable the government to offer a two-pound ‘sugar bonus’ to the sugar ration quota on July 10.
Many local jurisdictions, especially along the East Coast, prohibited fireworks displays for the holiday, and citizens across the country were discouraged from using them in their private celebrations.
The Army relaxed its induction standards to permit men with impaired vision or hearing, or curved spines, to serve in limited military roles, freeing able-bodied men for combat.
And Irving Berlin’s 300-man all-soldier cast performed This is the Army at a Broadway theatre.
Proceeds went to the Army Emergency Relief Fund, which provided grants and loans to military families in need.
So, some perspective.
On July 4, 1942, threats to democracy held the world in a death grip.
The hits kept coming.
No one knew what lay ahead.
All bets were off.
I honestly don’t know how people got through it.
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I’ll see you tomorrow.
— Brenda
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