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This Week in World War II: 75 Years Ago

Ezio Pinza, a well-known celebrity during the 1940’s, was imprisoned because of alleged sympathies with the Nazis. He went on, after the war, to resume his career and starred in South Pacific on Broadway.

By: Phil Kohn. Dedicated to the memory of his father, GM3 Walter Kohn, U.S. Navy Armed Guard, USNR, and all men and women who have answered the country’s call in time of need. Phil can be contacted at ww2remembered@yahoo.com.

Spurred by the torpedoing of two of its ships by German U-boats — one off Florida and the other in the Gulf of Mexico — Mexico declares war on Germany, Italy and Japan on May 22, 1942. Near Townsville, Queensland, in northeastern Australia, around 600 African-American members of the 96th Battalion, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, riot in their camp. Fed up with continual racial abuse from some of their white officers, the soldiers mutiny, machine-gunning the officers’ tents. Australian troops are called out to keep the rioters contained within the camp. In the resulting eight-hour rampage, one person is killed and dozens are severely injured. In the U.S., the War Production Board announces that new tires and safety razors will not be available to the average citizen for at least two years. In Boston, Red Sox star outfielder Ted Williams enlists in the U.S. Navy’s aviation program.

On May 23, tanks of Gen. Ewald von Kleist and Gen. Friedrich von Paulus meet up at Balakleya, southeast of Kharkiv, Ukraine. They have encircled most of the Soviet 6th and 57th Armies and have caused over 200,000 casualties.

U.S. Army Gen. Joseph “Vinegar Joe” Stilwell and his party arrive in New Delhi, India, from Manipur on May 24, after their long retreat from Burma. In London, two gatherings — one organized by the Communist Party, the other by the Daily Express newspaper — adopt resolutions calling for a second front to be opened in Europe. In Russia, the Germans begin a six-day sweep along the Bryansk-Vyazma railway line southwest of Moscow. Thousands of anti-Nazi partisans will be captured and killed.

The Japanese submarine tender Asahi is torpedoed and sunk in the South China Sea on May 25 by the submarine USS Salmon.

In Libya, Lt. Gen. Erwin Rommel on May 26 launches a major combined German-Italian offensive to take the Allies’ Gazala Line, which runs from Gazala, near the coast, some 50 miles south to Bir Hakeim. Rommel’s goal is to move around the line, then head north and capture Tobruk. In London, the foreign secretaries of the Soviet Union and the United Kingdom conclude a treaty whereby each party agrees that no peace will be arranged with the Axis unless approved by the other.

Rommel’s troops on May 27 have reached to just south of Bir Hakeim and are poised to turn north. They are held up, however, by a vicious defense by the 1st Free French Brigade. In Prague, Czechoslovakia, Reinhard Heydrich, Reich Protector of Bohemia and Moravia and one of the main architects of the “Final Solution to the Jewish Question,” is ambushed and severely wounded in a hand-grenade attack by two Czech Army sergeants. The two attackers escape, although one subsequently kills himself rather than be captured; the other is killed in a gun battle with troops hunting for him. The aircraft carrier USS Yorktown, damaged in the Battle of the Coral Sea, limps into Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, for hurried repairs. In Tokyo, Prime Minister Hideki Tojo, addressing the Japanese Diet, reviews the status of the war and encourages India to strive for independence by rising against the British.

On May 28 in New York, Italian opera singer Ezio Pinza is released from confinement at Ellis Island. He had been detained there for three months after being arrested on suspicion of being an enemy alien and supporting the Axis. In Occupied Belgium, the wearing of a yellow badge becomes compulsory for Jews.

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