The September happenings in World War II during each Year from 1940 to 1945

I thought it would be interesting to start a new feature on my blog - The September happenings in World War II during each Year from 1940 to 1945.  I am listing the happenings for each of these Septembers from my book, "Gibbon's Secrets" by RG Bud Phelps, where you will find at the end of each "Year Group" a Chapter called Reg's Scrapbook.  Fortunately Dad was a collector, and one of the things he collected was all of the 'Newspaper Stories' from the following:  The Gibbon Reporter, The Grand Island Daily Independent, and the Omaha World Herald.   

Of course the best place to read about this is all of the Chapters of Reg's Scrapbook in "Gibbon's Secrets" by RG Bud Phelps.  "Gibbon's Secrets" has, since publication, been available  as a paperback book through all of the major book outlets as well as local book stores and national wholesale book distributors.  Three of the major outlets of "Gibbon's Secrets" is; Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and AuthorHouse.  This year I have made "Gibbon's Secrets" available as a digital book therefore you can add it to your digital library for your Kindle, Nook, or as a download from AuthorHouse for your IPad.

September 1940


September 7th - The "Blitzkrieg" of London, attacks from the air, marks the first air blitz of the cityh.  More than 900 aircraft attack London.

September 16 - President Franklin D. Roosevelt signs the Selective Service bill and this begins America's first peace time draft.

September 20th - The Allied convoy HX-72 is attacked by a U-boat Wolf-pack and 12 of the 41 ships were sunk.

September 1941

September 4th - German torpedo attacks on "USS Greer" opens the shooting war in the Atlantic.

September 1942

September 1st - Construction of the Cornhusker Ordnance Plant west of Grand Island Nebraska, is completed.

September 5th - Construction was approved for the Kearney Army Air Base east of Kearney Nebraska.

September 10th - British troops occupy Madagascar.

September 13th - The "Battle of Edson's Ridge", Henderson Airfield, Guadalcanal, finds the defense is successful and the Japanese forces are turned back.

September 22nd - A contract was awarded to Kiewit-Condon Company; which included grading and paving taxiways, runways and aprons of the Kearney Army Air Base.

September 29th - A Japanese aircraft, deployed from a submarine off the coast of Oregon, flies over inland forests to drop incendiary bombs.

September 1943


September 3rd, Allied forces invade southern Italy.

September 6th - American and Australian troops land on Las (Northwest Guinea).  They also land on Mono Island in the Solomon Islands.

September 8th - Italy surrenders to Allied forces and the Italian Army is disarmed.

September 9th - The American 5th Army land at the Gulf of Salerno.

September 10th - German forces seize Rome Italy.

September 12th - Ninety Nazi German paratroopers, led by Lieutenant Colonel Otto Shorzeny, liberates Benito Mussolini from the Grand Sasso Hotel.

September 13th - A fight between German and Italian troops at Korpoe results in the killing of 7,000 Italians.

September 1944


September 3rd - British forces, under Lieutenant General Sir Miles C. Dempsey, captures Brussels - Belgium.

September 4th - An armistice is declared between Finland and the Soviet Union.  Finish orders:  Germany must leave Finland by 16 September.

September 5th - The Soviet Union declares war on Bulgaria.

September 8th - The Germans launched the first V-2 rocket and hits London.  The V-2 was launched from Wassenaar, a suburb of The Hague, still in German hands.

September 10th - President Roosevelt and Prime Minister Churchill meet in Quebec - Canada.

September 10th - American troops capture Luxembourg.

September 11th - Units of the American Army crosses German border north of Trier.

September 11th - Patrols of the 2nd British Army cross Dutch border north of Leopoldsburg.

September 17th - "Operation Market Garden":  Allied paratroops land inside the Netherlands, the biggest airborne operation every attempted.

September 20th - British Guards Armoured Division and U.S. 82nd Airborne Division have taken Nimwegen by a fast attack which captures the important bridge over the Waal; before the Germans could destroy it.

September 1945


September 2nd -  Japanese Foreign Minister Mamoru Shigemitsu signs the instrument of surrender aboard the battleship "USS Missouri", in Tokyo Bay - Japan.

The check up on all of the happenings in Reg's Scrap books - pick up a paperback copy or an electronic copy of "Gibbon's Secrets" by RG Bud Phelps.  You will see World War II through the eyes of a boy growing up in the small town in the middle of Nebraska, called Gibbon.